Haruka turned into a state of shock as the man in front of her closed in on her, as if about to kiss her. However, she noticed that he was just simply staring at her, his eyes didn't close, and that was when she realised that he was evidently not going for a kiss, not that she would allow it either.
Halfway through her thoughts, her thoughts suddenly became hazy, as if something was trying to intrude, wiping out her thoughts out. She wanted to blink, to cut the gaze away but her body simply stood there, paralysed, however not in fear.
She felt herself getting absorbed into the demon's eyes.
Unconsciously, her fingers drifted to the demon's porcelain skin, brushing her fingertips onto his smooth face.
Her smell started to enclose around the fox demon, distracting him from enforcing hypnosis on the human girl.
The connection ended up breaking, especially when she brushed her fingers against his skin, the scent brimming through whatever sense he had.
Kurei shoved her away, breaking himself from the hypnosis spell.
Haruka found herself staggering backwards, catching her breath. She grabbed the brown bag that slipped from her arms and clutched it tightly.
She looked up at the fox demon before her, who was in the midst of regaining his composure.
The fox demon caught her gaze.
Kurei was sure that she would cry and run away, or be in utter shock, however, the words that left her lips were,
"I'm sorry! Are you alright?"
'What is this mortal sorry for?'
Kurei didn't utter a word. He flipped open his fan, hiding his face from nose down, letting his eyes only be seen.
"I'm fine. Thank you", he replied. "You shouldn't come here anymore"
"Why?"
Kurei's eyes narrowed, out of sheer annoyance now.
Does she know what she's even talking about?
"You saw what I did, didn't you mortal? That was a hypnosis spell."
The girl's eyebrows simply furrowed. She looked more confused than frustrated or angry.
Haruka stared at the demon intently. For some reason, she didn't feel scared, even when the demon revealed to her that he was trying to put her under a hypnosis spell.
Before she could reply him, azure fire started to surround the area, radiating from the demon.
His pupils turned into black slits, just like how a fox's pupil would and his iris glowed a bright, shining gold that could kill anyone with just a stare from that pair of eyes.
Nine silver tails sprouted out from behind the yōkai, flailing about rather vigorously, with the fox fire licking the surroundings.
An azure fox fire sat obediently on his palm, as if ready to burn the poor mortal girl alive.
"I am a yōkai, and I can simply burn you alive right this instant, mortal", he threatened. "Aren't you scared?"
Sure, of course Haruka was. This was her first time meeting a yōkai, a powerful one to say the least.
But she was here simply to return the scarf to him, that was all it was. She knew she did not do anything wrong.
Even though he attempted to cast a hypnosis spell on her, if he had the chance when he first spotted her looking at his full yōkai form, he could have simply just burned her with the fox fire right there, or just cut her throat and end her life quickly.
"I'm not", she steeled. "I am just here to return you your scarf.
If you wanted to kill me, you could have done so when I caught you in this form, while I was on the ground, instead of catching me in your arms and simply putting a hypnosis spell on me."
The fire around her slowly extinguished. The surroundings around her barely looked like anything was badly burned, looking at how monstrous the flames looked when the demon first summoned them.
Even the flame sitting on his palm disappeared, his fan replacing it.
Kurei seemed to calm down at least. He turned away almost immediately.
This was the second time he met someone who didn't fear a yōkai.
His eyes became unreadable yet again, cold and distant.
"Your scarf", she persisted, walking towards him. She took out the fluffy article out of the brown bag.
The sound of her voice was starting to irritate Kurei. Such annoying persistence. It was simply just a scarf.
Just as he was about to turn around and snap at her, the mortal wrapped the fluffy scarf around him, catching him by surprise.
He ended up turning speechless. Whatever he wanted to lash out was flushed out of his thoughts.
"I won't utter a word about this encounter, neither will I come here ever again. Thank you for the scarf again, mister", Haruka assured.
The fox demon simply lowered his gaze, as if ashamed.
"Well whether you intend to take advantage of me like that", she continued. "Seeing the way you are, I don't think you're a bad person, even if you're a yōkai."
At that moment, Kurei thought he saw Haruko for a split second.
Without much rational thought, he pulled the girl into his arms, grasping her rather tightly.
"Haruko...!"