Kurei was in a state of confusion and shock, but mostly confusion as he stared down at the body of the human girl right before him.
"Master, is the human alright?" Shiro asked, who was beside Kurei the entire time.
"I could say barely. She's a mortal. She was struck by yōkai magic, specifically Yuki-Onna's ice spells, of course the mortal body is barely able to withstand them. She was lucky I interfered before the magic, as well as the barrier, completely drained her life force away", Kurei explained calmly. "Shirotani, gather the fox soul lamp. I need to dispel the magic."
"Right away, Master", Shirotani bowed, before scurrying off to get the artifact.
"Such a nuisance. You had to wander back to the shrine, only to be nearly killed by a irritating old hag", Kurei grunted, touching Haruka's forehead, the heat burning through his fingers.
Shirotani didn't take long to retrieve the fox soul lamp.
Shaped as fox tail, in the colour of Kurei's eyes, the lamp was simply just a lamp that could only be lit up by kitsunebi. It had the ability to absorb yōkai magic when required to, producing life force as well.
Kurei summoned a ball of kitsunebi, lighting up the lamp, a causing warm, golden-coloured aura to fill the area.
Kurei sat back, taking sips of more rice wine, taking glances at the sleeping mortal from time to time, ensuring that Yuki-Onna's magic was being dispelled from Haruka's body.
"Why do you look so worried, Master?" Shirotani asked, pouring his master another serving of sake.
"I'm not."
---
The smell of Sakura incense tickled Haruka's nose, bidding her eyes to slowly open. She felt the soft bedding below her crinkle as she shifted her body slightly.
That felt like a good sleep..
However, it was at that moment where she realised she wasn't in her house. It was somewhere else totally foreign to her.
Or as so she thought.
Wait this place is...
"You're up", a child-like voice filled the room. Haruka sat up, facing the direction of the voice. Her eyes met a pair of golden-brown ones.
Golden hair was tousled surrounding a pair of white ears. He was dressed in a white seemingly child-sized kimono, with gold embroidery sewn on at the toe of his kimono, as well as the end of his sleeves. There was golden decal embedded onto his forehead where his golden hair parted, which looked like a fox's tail.
It was then Haruka noticed a cat's tail swishing behind the child.
But it didn't seem like an ordinary cat's tail... it was spilt into two ends!
"Are you gonna kill me?" Haruka panicked, grasping the sheets, the nearest thing in her line of defence.
The strange cat-human being simply smiled, almost politely and shook his head. "No. I'm under the care of Master Kurei. He has sent me here to ensure that you have woken from your slumber."
"I see. Thank you for checking up on me", Haruka replied, surprising the cat yōkai.
"What's your name?"
"I'm Shirotani, at your service"
"Such a pretty name", Haruka commented.
"Much appreciation to you, Mizuno-san"
The pair stared at each other for short while before Haruka snapped back into her actual thoughts.
"Wait how long was I asleep? What happened? How did I end up here? Where's my cellphone?"
All sorts of questions were just filling up her mind that she ended up blurting half of them out. She didn't know what was going on. Her parents were probably worried sick for her!
"You fell asleep for the three hours", Shirotani replied. "Your belongings are stored at the corner of the room, untouched. You dropped them at the entrance of the shrine."
"What about my parents?" Haruka asked one more time.
"Spin a lie for them, after all, it is your only choice."
Haruka sighed, then flopping back onto the sheets.
"Where's Kurei?"
"You really ask many questions"
She pouted in response.
"Kurei is currently-"
Before Shirotani could continue his sentence, a rather large figure loomed over and into the room. Haruka froze in place.
"Shirotani, you may continue your daily duties."
Shirotani simply bowed as he sent his greetings to his master before getting up and leaving the room.
Kurei kneeled down beside the futon.
Haruka stared at him, soaking in his beauty even as she was lying down.
"By the looks of it, you look like you've recovered most of your energy", he pointed out, pouring a cup of chrysanthemum tea into a small tea cup, offering it to her.
Haruka immediately sat up automatically, taking the cup gingerly from his slender fingers. "Thank you", she managed.
Haruka sneaked glances at the fox demon, wandering if he might do anything to her, due to the fact that she still ended up in the shrine, right in front of him. Not to mention, Kurei saved her!
"You were attacked by Yuki-Onna, a snow yōkai. Since you were struck by her ice spells, it ended up weakening your body. I've restored your strength", Kurei explained, holding an emotionless expression.
"Thank you... again", guilt eating Haruka up. Kurei kept intervening and always ended up saving her. It was starting to make her feel very in debt to the fox demon, especially taking into the account that he could have just simply lured her during their first meeting and simply kill her for whatever reason.
"Are you mad?" She asked.
Kurei quirked an eyebrow at that question.
"For what?"
"Visiting the shrine when you told me not to."
Kurei settled the cup onto the wooden tray. He felt a blood vessel pop at the question. Yes, of course he was upset at this ignorant mortal who suddenly appeared in the shrine again, and ended up being killed. So foolish. So, so, foolish. He had to intervene and chase the old hag away, if not he wouldn't have his wine in peace.
At least that was what he was telling himself. In reality, he didn't even know why he entered the barrier, knowing fully well that even if he fought Yuki-Onna, he would obviously win by a landslide, without a captive at stake.
He could have just let her kill Haruka off, and get on with his day, as if nothing happened. This fact was especially damning, taking into account that he had lived for nearly a thousand lives. He himself had seen yōkai tearing humans apart throughout his years as one, and as well as done it a few times as well, pretty much with little to no remorse lingering.
That is until he-
"Kurei-san?" His chain of thoughts broke.
His eyes darted right at the human girl sitting before him.
"I guess you're really mad, huh?" She bit her lip, her fists tightening around the sheets.
Kurei simply sighed. This human girl was hard to decipher. One moment she was blabbing that she didn't mean to go to the shrine even after being nearly killed by a yōkai, and then when she woke up again asking him if he was angry that she went to the shrine.
What was with this woman?
"I didn't mean to-"
"I know, Mizuno-san. I heard you the first time. I'm not that angry." He cut her off.
"Well nonetheless, I troubled you to save me from the demon as well! You've been helping me a lot, even though we've just met not too long ago, and yet you already helped me quite a couple of times..."
"What are you trying to imply? That you want to repay back the favour?"
Her eyes immediately lit up and she slapped the sheets, making Kurei jump for that spilt second.
"Yes, exactly!"
"And exactly... how are you going to achieve that?"
"I'll think of something.. or if you do have something you want to request of me, that would be much easier."
Kurei's furrowed his eyebrows.
Just what did he get himself into?