Modern Ancient Thief

It was about an hour before they finally reached a desolate spot of land surrounded by plants, sand, rocks and water. A rather large rock pool was set near enough in the centre of the hill strewn land. It was quite a beautiful pool, green and blue merged together yet still despite the colour the water was clear. Sakura couldn’t help but marvel at the beauty. Demon world was always said to be the most foul and disgusting place this side of the netherworld, but he didn’t honestly agree.

They descended only a few metres away from the pool, near a large clump of foliage. This wasn’t where they were staying was it? Out in the open where anyone could find them? Wasn’t there any shelter? Sakura began to look around, had the Youko changed his mind? Was he going to kill him and leave his young body for other demons to consume?

Youko began walking further away from the pool; Sakura was beginning to feel like a sack of potatoes over this demons shoulder and began wriggling. A sharp growl stopped him moving further as Youko started manoeuvring his way over the rocky hillside closest to the pool. He’d learnt about half an hour ago that questioning the demon didn’t give him any answers, so despite the hammering in his chest he kept quiet, praying to any god he could remember existed that this wasn’t his final resting place. “The den.” Was the Youko’s only reply to everything within the past hour as they reached a foliage covered cave, invisible to the naked eye, you had to be close to see this place!

Youko set the young prince down outside the den and led him inside, one clawed hand curled around the human boy’s wrist so that he couldn’t escape. Sakura winced as he was pulled along. This dark looking cave was what he’d given up palace life for? Oh well…perhaps he’d learn to like it. Upon entering past the first cave however he gasped, as they seemed to appear in a medieval-like room, it barely even looked like a cave! He was even more shocked by how many demons were actually in there. Just as he was about to step back a gnarled hand grabbed his shoulder, pulling him away from the safety of his captor, Youko.

“Fresh meat.” A voice crooned as suddenly the din stopped. Everyone’s eyes turned to the newcomers. Sakura caught his breath, eyes widening in fear as the demons came closer, all trying to get a good look at the human. He began trembling, desperately trying to seek out Youko’s face amongst the sea of demons but he seemed to have disappeared.

Suddenly an arm curled around his shoulders, making him jump. “Come on guys break up.” A loud resonating voice called to the demons, making them disperse very quickly. Sakura looked up in astonishment. A rather handsome demon owned both the arm and the voice. He had dark blue waist length hair, brilliant green eyes and white apparel that seemed to be the uniform as Youko also donned similar attire and he, Youko, appeared to be the leader.

On his other side a young looking demon had also appeared out of nowhere. This demon had two horns above his face with short black hair. He smiled down at the human boy, Sakura shuddered, his gaze was intense and something about this demon was off. Sakura didn’t really want to spend much time around him. “Youko?” He asked the demon who had originally spoken.

“In his room pint-size.” The demon said cheerfully, he had an atmosphere around him that made the human smile, despite his current situation. It was like Yin and Yang with him being the black line split down the middle, on one side the happy, fun loving demon, on the other, a cool and dark creature whose aura was less than positive.

“His room?” Sakura asked softly, looking around as if he’d see something that would clue him in to where Youko’s room would be. All he saw was more and more demons inside the large cave. He looked back up at the demon and bit his lip before asking, “Can you take me to him?”

“Mika you know well that Youko will not allow another in his room unless he gave express permission.” The demon that Sakura most wished to be away from snarled out, as if in outrage that such a filthy creature would request something such as that.

The demon named Mika glanced up, glaring harshly at the other, his eyes showing true hatred and cruelty, making Sakura tremble in fear. “Yomi be quiet.” He hissed, “He is new here and possibly to our world.” His facial features softened as he looked down at the human between them, though Sakura still flinched in apprehension. “You’ll see him at dinnertime.” He smiled at the child gently. “In Demon World, no one may enter another’s sleeping chambers with the owners consent.” He kept his arm around the child and led him away from Yomi. “Don’t worry about him, he’s always wanted to be invited into Youko’s room.”

Later that evening Sakura had still not detached himself from Mika, choosing to stay with him and away from the eyes and hands of the other demons. The way he understood it, demons were evil and he was good, yet here was a good demon, good to him anyway. Youko on the other hand, was neither good nor evil. What actually surprised him was that he didn’t feel resentment towards the Youko for taking him away, he actually felt…grateful.

They were sat around a large fire in the centre of the large cavern. Looking around him, Sakura guessed that there had to be at least a hundred demons of both genders, some wore whore clothing clearly labelling them as so…but even still, none looked unhappy to be here. They were actually eating and drinking, chatting happily to the other demons. It seemed that though they were whores, they were still equals. He turned to Mika to ask him about this but stopped as Mika placed a finger to his lips, signalling Sakura to be silent.

Following the direction of Mika’s eyes, Sakura gasped as Youko Kurama stood in front of fur adorning the wall. He’d thought that to be a wall decoration but now saw that it actually hid a tunnel that led away from the room. The part that shocked him was that whereas before, Youko was calm and, almost pleasant to be around, his anger was obvious and it was directed to Sakura’s left.

As the demons realised Youko was once again among them the noise died down, some looked scared at the new expression on Youko’s face while others abandoned their food and simply backed away. “Kokuya.” A calm voice, contradicting the very feel and appearance of Youko spoke as he came towards the fire. At this point, those who hadn’t moved tried to scamper away, letting the demon pass easily. Mika placed a hand on Sakura’s arm and tugged gently, forcing him to get up and move away to the wall, leaving a lone demon to face the onslaught of Youko’s anger.

“Y…Youko?” The snake demon was visibly trembling. Everyone knew how cold, harsh and cruel Youko Kurama really was and this terrified even the oldest demon, even the sadistic. The snake demon was young in demon standards, perhaps 400 years old by now.

Youko advanced on his prey, eyes studying the demon, calculating his next move. “Who is it?” The fox asked, circling the snake whose eyes widened as soon as the question left his mouth. He began to stammer incoherently as his fear took root. “Who is your master? Who orders you?” Youko demanded, stopping in front of him and leaning down, grabbing the demon by the throat.

The snake shook his head wildly, clutching at the hands trying to pry them off or loosen enough to give him the all important air. “Yo…Yo…”He coughed and spluttered violently before Youko decided to let him go.

“Yo…?” Youko asked, this time his voice soft and gentle as if talking to a child. “Go on. You have my attention.”

“You do.” The voice was so faint that Sakura would never have heard it if there was even a mouse squeak, oddly enough though every other demon was pressed against the wall, holding their breath. No one dared to move for fear of their leader’s anger being turned to them, not a twitch of the jaw nor a flutter of the eyes.

“Wrong answer.” Youko’s voice had turned cold and husky as a large plant exploded from the ground and enveloped the snake demon whole, the only sounds now was the screeching of the plant and the screaming of the snake as he was slowly eaten alive. Youko barely flinched even as blood dripped onto his shoulder from the plants’ hungry mouth.

Youko watched as the demon was slowly devoured in front of his eyes, watching with grim satisfaction. As the last crunch sounded throughout the silent room Youko began to address his followers. “I apologise for this rather abrupt display.” He returned the plant to it’s seed formation and picked it up, placing it amongst his silver tresses. “Please friends, continue your feast.” With that he turned tail and slid back behind the furs, presumably to his room.

It took the rest of the rooms occupants a good fifteen minutes to return back to their usual happy banter, but the same question laced everybody’s mind, what had the snake done to exact the Youko’s wrath? As for Sakura, he was visibly pale and sick and so Mika led him out to the entrance of the lair, overlooking the lake so as to calm the terrified human.

..::END CHAPTER::..

Thank you to my reviewer Tellnoone_Noonetells. I'm glad you decided to give this a try, even if it isn't quite the normal tale. I have to admit, I don't usually read stories with OC's but I played this one out with a friend and hey it had a lot of Kurama angst in it so I wrote it out fully! You can but try things out right?