• Chapter 2 Beaten’ not stirred.

    “Senaka no kage ga mo bikiru,” I started to sing to myself. I walked out of the school just after the final bell rang. As I walked down the steps to the street below people started to stare at me. I guess news travels fast around here. I could hear them talkin. Sayin I was some kinda freak of nature. To tell the truth, they were right. I’m not human. But that’s a story for another day.


    “Yuroto-kun!” I heard Mizara-sensei yell from behind me. I turned to face her. She looked like she was running for a while. She was panting and had sweat on her face.

    “You used your powers on Jonuku?” she asked. I nodded silently. She caught her breath then sighed.

    “Well a girl was in danger and you had no choice right? So I will forgive you this time. By the way, are you sure you don’t want to stay at my place?” she asked. She had known me since I was a kid. She knew about my powers and that I wasn’t human. She is kinda like a sister to me.


    “I’m OK. The alley is just fine for me,” I said. I began to walk away when she put her hand on my shoulder.

    “Are you sure?” she asked in a soft voice. I looked at the ground. My head felt heavy.

    “Yeah,” I said. I started to walk away again. I walked till I was at the entrance to an ally-way. I turned into it and walked all the way to the back wall. This is my home. I sat down against the corner of two walls and started to drift to sleep. My dream was a pleasant one. I stood on the top of a hill overlooking my home. The sun was shining down and was high in the sky. I smiled to myself and began to walk down the hill. I took my eyes off it for a minute and the house caught fire. I stood there, paralyzed with sorrow and shear horror. This could not be happening. As the flames consumed my house it started to change shape and turned into the head of a dragon. My eyes grew wide in horror as it shot a fearsome glare at me. It turned and faced me.

    “You cannot do it, Youkai!” it bellowed. I woke up in a cold sweat as it was about to eat me. I attempted to pant, but something was in my mouth. I looked down. My legs and arms were tied and my mouth was gagged. I tried to get free, but it wasn’t working. Dammit. I’m not trained enough to use my Phoenix powers without calling them.

    “Well well well, look who’s up,” I heard the perpetrator say. It was Jonuku. He had a black eye from the punch I gave him earlier. He was standing over me. His crew was with him. Kinako and Manana. Manana was walking away from my blind side.

    “They aren’t there,” he said to Jonuku. At hearing this Jonuku walked over to where I was sitting. He grabbed me by my hair and pulled my head up. I glared at him hard. He hated the look in my eyes.

    “Do it,” he said. Out of nowhere a foot hit me on the right side of my face. A steel-toed boot. I think he broke my jaw. A fist came from my left. I’m guessing this was to make sure that my jaw was destroyed. Jonuku walked over carrying something in his hand. He pulled the collar of my shirt so that he could drop whatever it was down my shirt. They were fire crackers. They all exploded and burned my stomach and chest badly. I could feel my eyes start to deem. I was so off guard that I didn’t even see Kinako swing at my ribs. CRACK!!!! My eyes opened wide as I heard my ribs crack. He hit me with a bokken. He came around and slashed at my head and scored. My head is now bleeding. My head was unbelievably heavy. I felt someone grab me by the hair on the back of my head. The next thing I felt was a knife slice through it. I dropped to the ground near death. My eyes began to close glazed over. Before the shut I saw what looked like a figure hover over me. It pulled out a cell phone and began to punch some numbers. I slowly fell asleep before I could i.d the person.


    “Ughhhhh, what?” I wondered waking up. I was on a futon in a lighted room. I looked around to see what the hell was going on. I attempted to get up. I felt a sharp pain shot through my stomach and side. I winced over in pain and flopped back on the futon. I looked down. My stomach was wrapped in medical tape. I felt my forehead. It was also wrapped up. My left eye was the only one able to see at the moment. Where the hell am I?


    “So you’re awake now?” I heard someone say from the side of me. It was a girl’s voice. She was on my right side. I couldn’t see who it was.

    “You scared me for a while, Yuroto-kun. I thought you were going to die. The doctors said that you had 5 injured ribs, burn marks on your stomach, and a huge gash on your head above your right eye. You’re lucky I came when I did,” the voice said.

    “Why are you doing this for me? Whoever you are you’re wasting your time. I don’t know who you are so why help?” I questioned.

    “Well…….You did help me,” she said. I recognized that voice. It sounded like…..

    “Mizono-san?” I asked.

    “Bingo!” she said. She walked over to my left side and I saw that it was her. What the hell? Why would she do this?

    “I know what you’re thinking Yuroto-kun. That I don’t owe you anything. The reason that I helped you was because you were the only one to help me. I saw you as a brave warrior. And it made me feel a warm sense of calm. Like you would protect me,” she said. She was blushing. I looked up at her. My face felt hot. I guess I was blushing too. She looked down at me.

    “Besides, you’re the one who saved me. I wanted to pay you back,” she said smiling. She must have turned on the cute charm because she was just so beautiful. I caught myself staring at her. My face flushed and I couldn’t hide it. She giggled and got real close to my face.

    “You know, with your hair out of your eyes your really cute,” she said in a very seductive voice. My face exploded into flames (figuratively). I shot off the futon and pinned myself against a wall. All my wounds reopened and started to bleed. The bandages now dyed a light pink to a dark red. I panted and gasped for air. My own body heat was suffocating me. I couldn’t breathe. I fell to the ground and lay there for a good couple minutes. Mizono-san walked over and sprayed water on me. After getting a dose of butt biting cold water thrown on me I shot back up. I looked around to see what she did with the bucket she used. I need more of it to control myself, but there wasn’t one.

    “Where is the bucket?” I asked her looking around. I tried to walk, but my legs buckled under me and I fell to the ground again. Again she threw cold water on me. I looked up and saw her have no bucket, glass, cup, or anything to hold the water.

    “How are you doing that?” I asked a little annoyed. She waved her hand and more water poured on me.

    “We have some things in common, Yuroto-kun,” she said smiling.

    “You can’t be…”I wondered. She walked a ways away from me and stood in the middle of the room. She raised her hands till they were at shoulder level. They started to glow light blue. She stuck her arms out and proceeded to write the kanji of water in mid-air. Once complete she spoke.

    “Fenikkusu Kaihen,” she said in a strong voice. Once she said it water began to pour out of the kanji she drew. It began to circle her in a small spiral that covered her entire body with water. The shimmering veil wrapped around her till all I could see was her outline through the water. I was stunned to see the level of mastery she had over her form. The water started to shed from her body. Her clothing was different. A short white tee shirt with navy blue sleeves replaced her school shirt. A pair of navy blue bell bottom jeans replaced the skirt she wore. On her arms were gauntlets that resembled mine. Hers were blue. She wore black combat boots with a blue streak run from the tip of the tongue to the souls of her feet. Her hair went from a nice light brown to a very deep dark blue. The kind of blue you only see at night. Her eyes were closed during her transformation, but when she opened them I quickly fell for her all over again. They were the most beautiful navy I had ever seen in my life. On her hips she wore a belt that hanged of her right side. On each side of the belt was a dagger with the shape of wings for the handles and guard. I could tell she was done but I couldn’t look away from her.

    “You can pick your jaw up now,” she said with a smile. I blushed as I closed my mouth. I looked away. Embarrassed as I was this was really good. She was someone I had been looking for a long time. Someone like me. I was so deep in thought that I didn’t notice her walk up next to me. I was so out of it that I hadn’t realized she was about 3 cm away from my face. And that is pretty damn close. I finally noticed and jump a good 3 meters off the ground. She laughed and pointed at me and my dismay.

    “So what do you think?” she said sticking out her hip and placing her hand on it. I was stupefied. She was so hot it’s not even an issue. I just nodded like an idiot and kept my mouth shut. She laughed again.

    “So tell me Yuroto-kun what is your story? My mother passed these to me before she died. She said that I would meet a young man with the cunning of a fox and who would soar like a hawk. And he would wield the power of flames. Are you that young man?” she questioned. She hit it dead on the head. I nodded again and remained silent.

    “The problem is that I don’t know why she gave these to me,” she said looking at the gauntlets. I finally spoke.

    “I do,” I said in a very serious voice.

    End of chapter 2