Gray's Elegy
(A/N): this is my first posting here on you may call it 'mary sue' or 'au' but really that's your business not mine. I'm not planning any non-cannon pairings right now, just want to explore this little storyline. Also it starts out with my oc unable to speak Japanese, so I've distinguished between it and her demon language by putting the latter in italics, and leaving the former alone.
"Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark, unfathom'd caves of ocean bare:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."
A scream rent the desert air as the girl thrashed in pain and tried to pull away. They released the clamp on her ear and stepped back, satisfied smirks lingering on their faces. She let out a howl of rage as she felt her ear, the blood still pouring down from the large metal tag that was hanging like an oversized earring. She lunged at them and the pair separated, allowing her to fall in the dust between them.
"An excellent specimen," hissed the taller slaver, whose forked tongue snaked out as he spoke.
"Indeed, she is will attract a good price, and with those youki-devouring cuffs on, she can't harm us," the owl demon hooted in contentment.
The girl pushed herself up and her eyes gleamed black in the light, but neither slaver noticed. The snake demon grabbed her by the hair and tossed her back to the wall of the tent before walking out. The owl demon hovered, patting his large stomach in a pleased manner as he contemplated their latest catch. A set of keys jingled at his waist and her eyes flicked to them.
"Dream on," he cooed, tapping the keys. "You could never get these from me."
In a flash she had leapt across the room and tackled him down, pressing the chain linking her manacles across his throat as he thrashed. She snatched the keys and jumped up. Ducking under the back wall of the tent, she took off running across the rocky desert. She had no idea where she was running to, or what she was going to do, but she fled anyway. Whatever she was heading towards, even death, was better than what she had been facing. She caught the glimmer of a mirage, or a heat wave near a large rock and headed towards it, only realizing once she was closer that it wasn't an illusion. There was definitely something swirling and glimmering there.
Kurama couldn't help but suspect that he was overreacting as he faked a slight cold and quickly made his way out of school, but the sudden blast of mid-range youki was more than uncommon. It didn't take long to get to the area the strange aura had come from, but there was no sign of anything unusual, no scent of blood, no screaming humans running from a monster, not even a hint of youki left. But then he took another sniff and caught something very unusual. "A demon," he muttered, immediately becoming more wary. He knew there was something powerful among the trees, and that he was downwind of it. He moved forward carefully, pushing aside branches gently and looking around quickly. In the clearing ahead his demon was standing, her black hair flowing over her shoulders to the rough tan tunic she was wearing.
She glanced back and saw him, fear clearly written on her face. A pair of manacles fell from her hand as she dashed away. Kurama hesitated a second, he was still shocked, this must be his quarry, but she looked absolutely terrified. But he didn't hesitate long, and in a few seconds he was catching up with her. The demon ahead of him seemed to be having some trouble navigating through the trees. Once they made it into another clearing he had the trees she was heading towards close together, blocking her path. She spun immediately and Kurama felt the flood of her power as she charged up whatever attack it was she meant to use. He threw himself to the side and ducked down, not knowing what to expect.
"I already have an owner, and he would be very displeased that anyone was messing with me!" she screamed in her demonic dialect. "So just go away and I won't hurt you."
Kurama looked up from the tree he was hiding behind to call back: "Nobody owns anyone else."
There was silence for a moment, and then he felt the pressure of her gathering energy begin to let up. "Say that again," she said quietly. He got up from behind the tree and walked around to face her. Her hands were still raised above her head, and she still looked ready to attack, but her energy had disappeared again.
"I said: Nobody owns anybody else. Nobody owns you." She cocked her head to the side.
"You do not wish to harm me then. I do not recognize this place, or the clan I smell. And these plants are very strange, so large. You smell of two clans and I don't understand it," her arms dropped to her sides as she stepped towards him. "What are your intentions?" Her black eyes seemed to bore into him as she stared.
"I came to see what your intentions are and if you needed help. You see, you're in the human world."
"What are humans?"
There was a miniature explosion to Kurama's right as Hiei arrived on the scene. He drew his sword before the dust around him had settled and fixed his attention on the female demon. She threw her hands up again and began summoning her energy. Kurama rushed between them and faced his friend. "Hiei don't! Put the sword down, she won't hurt us!"
"Damnit fox! She's going to kill you if you don't move! Let me finish her now."
"No! Hiei, she's lost and confused. Just let me explain what's going on and you'll—" he was cut off as an elbow nudged him in the back. "Huh?" He turned to see the demoness inches from his face.
"Do you know the little one or is he an enemy? Will he attack again? I could remove him if he is a threat."
"It's okay, he thought you were attacking me."
She made a dismissive noise and leaned sideways. "Can you tell me what humans are now? Are they the strange new clan I smell? The small one is not of the same clans as you, he does not smell of this place."
Hiei's face was slightly incredulous as he listened to the demon. "You can't seriously believe that she doesn't know what humans are, can you? Kurama don't be stupid."
Kurama turned back around to face his friend. "I don't think she intended to come here. It seems that she was trying to escape from a place she was being held captive and—" here he was cut off again by the demoness as she pulled at his shirt and tried to look up his sleeve.
"You also wear the strange fabrics? How very odd, it is not cold enough that one must be covered. I understand that some clans wear skins to keep from becoming cold, but there are other reasons. This," she plucked at the knee length tunic,"symbolizes my capture, the pattern represents the particular slavers. Were your, clothes, given to you by your…clans, since you are not slaves?"
Both males sweatdropped and glanced at each other. They would have rather fought a demon intent on killing them then respond to this odd speech. "Here in Japan, in the human world, that's where we are now," Kurama said as he tried to detach the girl's hands from his arms, "People wear clothes all the time. They don't go anywhere without them."
The demoness made a disgusted face and looked around. "Then I will leave as soon as possible. This place is too strange for me, the frightening plants, the wet air, the clothes, it is all quite horrible. But first I must divest myself of the signs of my capture."
She made a move to take off the tunic and both boys yelled "NO!"
"Idiot! You can't walk around naked, even if you are trying to leave! You'll draw attention to yourself." Hiei turned his attention to Kurama. "What are we going to do with her? I don't suppose we can kill her when she's not fighting us."
"Of course we can't kill her Hiei. I suggest we discus this matter further in private. My mother will not be home for several hours so my house can serve for now."
"Meet you there," Hiei said before disappearing into the trees. Kurama was left to convince the demoness to follow him home, but it was less difficult than he expected because she had so many questions to ask him about the human world and was happy to follow as long as he kept talking. Getting her into the house though, proved troublesome. She did not want to enter the structure and kept asking him how he could be sure that it would not fall and crush them at any moment. Promises of food and more answers finally persuaded her inside.
"What's your name by the way?" Kurama asked as he shut the door with a relieved sigh.
"Hana."
"It's nice to meet you Hana, my name is Kurama, and it seems that Hiei is already in the kitchen."
"The small male? He is very angry. What is a kitchen? Is it where your food is?"
"Uh, yes, it is where we keep and prepare food."
"Good, I have not been fed today. Do you have bush grasses or the new leaves of acacia?"
"Well, we have tofu… I'm sure I can find something you'll like," he said as he steered her into the kitchen where Hiei was smirking. She declined to sit in the chairs, but instead squatted on the floor while staring around at the cabinets in amazement. "Are you a vegetarian, Hana?" Startled from her staring she cocked her head to the side.
"What is that, a veg… vegi- uh…"
"Vegetarian means you don't eat meat."
She gasped and clapped her hands over her mouth. "How could you think that I could eat another living creature! I am not a predator, I do not hunt."
"Are you the hunted then?" Hiei asked.
"Sometimes," she waved a hand dismissively. "But not often, the fast survive, and I am one of the fastest. But now I need food. You have said you do not have bush grasses, what do you eat then?"
Kurama held up some leeks and carrots and shrugged. "How do you like your food cooked?"
"Cooked!" She jumped up and snatched the vegetables away. "How could you consider putting these to fire! You will destroy all that is good about your food." She sniffed the leeks cautiously. "I see you are one of the burrowing kind, a warthog then?"
"No actually, a fox demon."
"Oh," she squatted back down on the floor and began picking at the leeks. "Not my predator, but still dangerous to the young."
The boys glanced at each other as the girl went back to gnawing on her leeks.
"Miss Hana, how did you come to be in that park?" Kurama asked.
"Park? The place with the strange trees where you found me? I do not precisely know that. I was running when I saw a mirage that was not a mirage by a bolder. I touched it then found myself here. Is that the correct answer?"
"It was what I was asking, yes."
"What clan do you come from?" Hiei asked sharply. "What is your home like?"
Her head jerked around and she looked at him carefully, staying perfectly still. "You are both predators, I will not tell you my clan," she said as she looked between the pair of them. "But I come from wide grasslands, on one side there is the land of trees, on the other the land of sand and rock. Strange creatures come from both sides, but the slavers come out of the sand. Growing up from it in the night," she gestured as she shifted her squatting form around. "They have the shapes of normal creatures, but because they are made of sand they have no souls."
"That's a ridiculous children's story to explain cruelty," Hiei sneered. "At first you looked old enough to know better."
She jerked to her feet and reached down the front of her tunic while both boys watched her carefully. She ripped out several strings of beads and shook them at Hiei. He stared back at her, his arms crossed, making no motion to acknowledge this strange display. "Do not call me young! I have reached breeding age, a new strand for each year," she shook a fistful of the ropes at him and he quirked his eyebrow up at her. "How many offspring have you sired?"
"What? That has nothing to do with you believing ridiculous stories!"
She snickered and sank to her haunches to resume eating. "He has sired nothing," she sneered. She looked Hiei over critically as she munched on the carrot and he glared right back. "Perhaps he is still too young, though it is always possible he is damaged."
"Hana," Kurama said quickly, putting out a hand to stop Hiei from attacking her. "Not everyone begins producing children as soon as they are able. Do you have offspring?"
"No, no one was fast enough to catch me. I am the one endangered by pregnancy so I must ensure the child is worth it, the sire must be faster than me. My brother however has four offspring and my mother's belly grows fuller each week."
"Since you're so fast how did you get captured by slavers?"
She cast a nasty glare in Hiei's direction. "I can outrun anything that moves on its feet, but not that which flies," she mimed a blowgun having no word for it then showed them the red puncture on her neck. "Luckily I think I was the only one captured, and my clan will have moved far from the desert to avoid more attacks."
"So you would not be able to find them if we were able to send you back?"
"I should think not. The grasses are vast and many clans roam there, it takes months to cross, years to find someone who is lost."
"I've never heard of such a place," Hiei muttered, leaning back against the counter. "Sure there are grasslands scattered around, but nothing that big, bordered by a desert and a forest where they haven't heard of humans."
"What Are humans?" the demoness asked again. She stretched up from her crouching position and climbed nimbly onto the counter to look at the contents of the cabinets.
"Hana please get down!" Hiei snorted as Kurama jumped forward and the girl began pulling cans and boxes down. "Don't climb on the counters," Kurama ordered, lifting her down by the waist and setting her on the floor. "If you want something you should ask first."
"I want to know what humans are."
"Humans, well right now the three of us look very much like humans, but unlike us demons they have something called spirit energy. They tend to be weaker than demons as well as more emotionally unstable." She nodded solemnly and popped open a box of cereal.
"This smells strange," she said as she began shoveling the food into her mouth.
"What are we going to do with her?" Hiei asked, switching back to Japanese, even though the girl was not paying them any attention at the moment.
"I really have no idea," Kurama replied as Hana began investigating the contents of the refrigerator.
"We could always throw her back through the nearest portal to the demon world."
"Hiei! That would be cruel and unwarranted behavior."
"It would also rid us of an inconvenient little problem."
Kurama couldn't say that he wasn't momentarily tempted by the idea, but it definitely was not something he could seriously consider. "Hiei, that's not an option."
"We could always hand her over to Spirit World. They'd dump her in demon world for us." He saw his friend's determined disapproval and frowned. His eyes flicked to the girl's back as she ate something else green and examined the stove. "Kurama, I will not take responsibility for some stupid deer that happened to cross our paths. If you're going to keep her don't expect my help."
"If necessary I will attempt to help Hana on my own," Kurama responded in a tone cold enough to match Hiei's. The lights suddenly went out.
"Ohhhh, what magic is this? Stars inside, controlled by these strange," the lights came on again, then went off, "…things." On. Off. On, off, on, speeding up until there was a definite strobe effect going on.
"They're called lights," Kurama said as he stepped to the light switch and removed the girl's hand. "They allow us to see when it is dark without using fire. Most buildings have them, controlled by these light switches." He pointed at the switch and she nodded, obviously itching to try it again.
"Just wait until she sees the TV," Hiei smirked as he exited through the window.