The beginning.

And here is where we start

"Come on Kietsu" Anei grinned as she hefted the tortoise, "time to explore the big 'ol world!"

"Oh don't even look at me like that" She frowned, "Just because you don't want to, you were the one who insisted on coming"

Cresting the hill she had been climbing and seeing what lay behond she whooped. "A village! See I told you I smelt humans! And you said to turn west after crossing that bridge."

Prancing down the hill Anei was brought to a stop by Kietsu clamping down on her arm with his jaw.

"Ouch!" She said as she flailed the tortiose out her arms, "What?!"

After a long stare down, Anei huffed.

"Fine! I get it, i'll fix it."

Settling down on her knees she started untying the riceworkers hat she'd found on the side of the road from her bag and securing it to her head.

"See? Better, no ears."

stare

"I'll just tuck my tail in! Gods Kietsu!" Anei cried, picking her bag back up and grabbing the tortoise.

"It's not like you're my mother" She muttered, tail twitching in annoyance.

---

An hour later Anei was jogging out of the village with a very upset grandmother frowning after her.

"Sheesh, just because I wouldn't marry her grandson" Anei hissed to Kietsu, "Crazy old woman"

"Still at least we know not to go North, bear territory. Bears and Cats do not mix" She shuddered.

"South it is!" she said jogging into the forest that bordered the villagers rice crop.

A woman dressed only in a cloak walked the path to a nearby village. Her face was hidden from sight by a large hood.
The woman had no companion with her, instead she had a smooth staff that she lent on. She did not seem to fear the road that she stepped. She found it comforting, the road but a second nature to her experienced feet.

The woman had a purpose. Within the nearby village was a small drinking hole. There she would find a man of similar dress. This man had something of use to her and the gold coins that chinked in her pocket would make sure that it would be hers.

Until then, the woman still had half a days walk ahead of her and nothing would slow her down.

"I don't like this plan of yours." Mori said, frustrating calm as he looked down at her from where he stood, back to a tree with a hand casually resting on the daito-katana at his side, back angled just enough that he wasn't leaning directly against the great sword strapped to his back. Satori scowled up at him from her cross-legged position on the floor, pushing the hood of her cloak back off her head and sweeping her silver hair free from under the material, black and silver feline ears twitching in irritation.

"And I'm sure you've got a better idea? Well, don't let me stop you speaking up." She asked with a frown before turning her attention back to sharpening the blade in her hands - it was scored and chipped, but it would all come out if she just honed the edge enough, the blade itself was thick enough for that to work for a while, at least, before it would need replacing. It wasn't like they could just stroll into some village and get a new one; and really, she was after a replacement that had a few more... Demonic properties, seeing as her actual sword was well out of reach now.
"I didn't say that."
"You were thinking it."

As it was, they were already getting too close to a human village, but the whole plan - the one that Mori was inwardly seething over (which was typical; he saw it as running away, she saw it as survival) - was simply to get distance between them and those tracking them, to vanish, and damn well stay vanished until things cooled over a little. She wasn't really in any fit condition to fight and he had no choice other than to obey her. Unless she broke their bond, which she was not planning on doing any time soon - no matter how much he resented her for it.

Huffing in irritation at Mori's silence - stony silence to anyone who didn't know him, but downright sulky silence to her - she was about to start baiting a reaction out of him but before she had even opened her mouth he had drawn his katana and spun around. She lightly got to her feet, blade at the ready and then blinked, staring in plain confusion when a young demon stepped directly into the small clearing, a rice-worker's hat jammed on her head and a tortoise in her hands. Through the bond Satori pretty much felt Mori's internal snort, and then he lowered his blade, shoving it back into its scabbard. The girl had the scent of a panther demon, and even if it was a little off, that pretty much labelled them as on peaceful terms. They were too far away for her to be from the tribe they were fleeing, and she didn't exactly scream of a threat.

"Salutacions, pantera dimoni" Satori said smoothly in the panther dialect, flashing a grin and shoving her knife back into her belt in a clear signal of good-will.

They'd been travelling though the woods for a little over half an hour before Kietsu had insisted they leave the main road- much to Anei's annoyance, but the tortoise, for once, seemed to have an idea of where they were heading.
Like usual though, her small friend wasn't being very forthcoming with his information other than giving Anei the impression he had sensed something. Something she herself had always been terrible at and relied heavily on her companion for. It was a good relationship, Kietsu could sense most danger that came their way and Anei had working opposable thumbs.

It was only after they had stepped into a clearing though and Kietsu's head bobbed up to stare past the girls shoulder that Anei had realised she'd stumbled upon some other demons. What with there being to of them and only metres away her senses finally were able to pick them up. Though on her part, not entirely her fault as what she could sense were heavy concealment charms surrounding the two. Living beings Anei practically couldn't sense at all, but with a bit of concentration charms and enchantments were easy. They had a different... Taste to them, and the Kitsune had trained her well in sensing them.

"Salutacions, pantera dimoni" The female said after a moment of apparently considering Anei.

"Uhh, not sure I really..." Anei stuttered, before shaking off her confusion and grinning at the duo, "Hello, hi! I'm Anei and I'm not entirely sure what you said but I'm pretty certain it was a greeting of some sort so... Hello and- OW! Kietsu what was that for!?"

Lifting the tortoise to eye level, Anei frowned at the creature for a minute before huffing in aggravation.
"Telling them my name isn't going to hurt you idiot, it's not like I gave them a title or said anything important! You're such a spaz!"

She proved her annoyance with the tortoise by bopping him on the head and placing him at her feet, so he wouldn't be able to bite her anymore.

"Anyway, I'm Anei, nice to meet you-?" She trailed off, obviously waiting for the others to forfeit their names.

Both Satori and Mori were staring at the tortoise in abject confusion, glancing up after a moment when the younger demon spoke again - to them, instead of the tortoise. "My name is Satori. This is Mori." She said, indicating the male with a tilt of her head and folding her arms lightly over her chest - the girl was definitely not a threat; not with the tortoise based conversations... But still, she had never run into a panther who didn't know their own racial language, no matter the circumstances. The panthers tended to be pretty reclusive within their own clans, and that meant that every child would be taught that first, before common.

It was even a little unusual for a panther to be without a tribe at all, and what if they themselves had been a threat? She didn't really look like she was- well, up to defending herself. Though, looks could be deceiving. "Where are you headed?" She asked, lowering herself gracefully back to the floor and crossing her legs, gesturing for Anei to join her. "There is a human village nearby; you know this, right?" She added after a moment, sharing a quick glance with Mori, who remained silent and returning to watching. It was embarrassing to be caught off-guard like that, but then again, Satori had been starting to grate on his nerves.

Deciding that although yes, the pair did have weapons, they weren't currently pointed at her and therefore were very unlikely to skewer her anytime soon, Anei plopped herself on the ground a metre or two away from the woman. Besides, for the most part, humanoid demons tended to be pretty civil.

"Oh the village? Yeah I just came from there, hence the hat" Anei giggled, finally untying it and placing it next to her.

"But I'm heading North" Anei shrugged, "Not sure why, but if you're not sure exactly what you are looking for you don't really need good reasoning behind you're choice of directions."

Sniffing the air for a moment, Anei shuffled forward until she was probably broaching Satori's personal space.

"I think I was meant to find you though, hence North!"

"You were meant to find me?" Satori asked, leaning back a little and eyeing Anei warily as the demon all but dismissed any kind of personal space boundaries in existence. Mori, to his credit, didn't bat an eyelid; if anything, he looked amused. He noticed her quick glare and his mouth twitched up at the corner in what was undeniably a smirk. Bastard. "And uh, might I ask exactly why you think that is?" She continued, an eyebrow rising steadily higher on her face as she regarded the very up close panther. "Because I'm not sure that we've met before."

Sure, something about the demon's scent was striking her as familiar, but hell, with the tribe as secluded as they were, it was probably just the fact that she hadn't seen another panther for so long - bar Mori, of course. But then again, the girl didn't even know their own tongue, and that, that was truly bizarre. "Where are you from?" She asked suddenly, before Anei could answer any of her former questions. "What tribe? i wasn't even aware that there was one this far east."

Cocking her head slightly in her confusion Anei shook her head

"Tribe? I'm not from a tribe, I grew up in the Sougen clan, but they're Kitsune, that's why I had to leave. I had to find my family or at least some of my own kind, and then I found you and that's perfect because you're like me!"

Turning Anei grinned at the tortoise, "Kietsu sensed you guys, that's why I'm here!"

"You're not from a-- you grew up with the kitsune?!" Satori asked - ignoring the strange way the girl kept speaking to the tortoise - completely focused on Anei now, sheer disbelief crossing her every feature. "And they-" She stopped, lifted a hand in front of her. "Okay, just- Let's go back a bit. You grew up with the Kitsune? So you've never been part of a Kurohyou clan? That would explain you not knowing the dialect... But- How did you come to be with them?"

Mori was watching now too, hand still on the hilt of his sword as part of his guard stance but eyes on the young demon and the small creature that she had been carrying around with her. It wasn't even a demon, and she was talking as if it was capable of understanding her. That was pretty outrageous to begin with, but then the Kitsune? Panthers and the Kitsune, as a general rule, avoided each other. He just had no concept of how that could have happened... But... If she was about the age that she looked, that he thought she was... And they weren't that far from the old battlegrounds...

"I don't know" Anei shrugged, "Granny just said she found me when I was a Kit they took me in and raised me. The clan I came from is pretty secluded even for Kitsune, so they don't talk much to other demons, so that's why I didn't really know where to head when Gran said it was time to move on"

Plucking at a few of the bracelets and bangles on her wrist Anei spent a short moment in thought.

"The only thing I do remember..." She started, then shook her head grinning ruefully. "Kietsu is the first thing I can remember. He the one that brought Gran to me."

"Te'n recordes de com aquest nen desaparegut, anys enrere?" Mori asked suddenly, gaze locked carefully on the younger of the two even as he spoke to Satori. She tilted her head at the man, frowning lightly and shaking her head.
"Què nen?"
"Filla de Kaga. De Zetsubou germana."
"No creus que ella és..."
"No estic segur, però sembla ser l'edat adequada."

Satori nodded slowly and looked at Anei again, really looking at her. "S'assembla a Kaga." She said finally, and then shook her head. "Sorry to do that to you, but... Mori thinks he knows which clan you're from." She said, regarding Anei again but with less scrutiny. "And, as it happens, we don't exactly have a destination. If you wanted, we could take you to the clan, and offer protection on the road on the way." She said, tapping her fingers over the hilt of her own blade. "And if we're wrong, well, you'll have a panther tribe to settle with."

The tavern was full when the cloaked woman entered. Men crowded around the women who were serving drinks around the room.
Smoke floated from under the half sheet that his the back room from sight, alerting the patrons that game was happening and not to disturb.
In the corner if the front room, a man stood. He used three cards to rip people of their money. He called it magic, the woman called it bullshit.

But none of those men or bar-wenches was why the cloaked figure had entered the over crowded inn. The reason lay within the pocket of a man good at shifting into the shadows. Said man currently sat in the corner at a table all to himself. No one but the woman seemed to notice his press sense.
She made her way over, never once letting her cloak fall nor releasing her grip on the staff.



The man looked up from his glaring at the table. Why was it do dirty, and how many legs had been placed under here? He hated public places, though he had to admit the crow could be lovely. All those fine, sculpted asses walking around without a care in the world. Yes, this was a perfect place to be after a hard days work.
The man was soon jolted out of his thoughts by someone sitting opposite him at the table. He turned and gave the woman a grin.
"And what's all of this about?" He chuckled. "Hiding from someone, afraid someone might now you and god forbid," the man gasped playfully. "Actually try to force you into engaging in some kind of conversation."
He couldn't see her eyes, but The Man knew that she would either be rolling her eyes at this point, or sneering at him. None of which was pleasant to be on the receiving end.
"Did you get it?" She asked him, her voice nearly being drowned out by the noise of the tavern.
The Man scoffed. "Did I get it...." He mocked offence before reaching into his pocket. He procured a necklace from within his coat pocket. The trinket held other worldly beauty, even the placing of the gems appeared to be celestial. "Of course I got it."
The cloaked figure reached out for the trinket but The Mam quickly pulled it away. "Money first."
The woman appeared to growl before she threw the coin bag that had been sitting at her side. The Man grabbed it.
"Now, Yuki." The woman growled. The Man, Yuki, chuckled before handing her the price of jewellery. "Careful, the guys quite a handful."
The woman scoffed as she tucked the trinket away into her shirt. " I'm sure I can handle him."
Yuki shrugged before beginning to count the coins as the woman began to leave the tavern.

The Tennin lifted an eyebrow in an elegant arch as he glanced over to the woman now exiting the tavern - who now had his necklace - and sighed, folding his arms over his chest, silken sleeves rustling with the movement. He was blonde and pale and clothed in a light blue silk Yukata, the material bizarrely lightweight and unlike anything any seamstress could have made. Despite the circumstances, there was still a small, nonplussed smile on his face and he was leaning back against the wall of the building looking for all the world like he had been simply waiting for someone without a care, and not tamping down the sheer amount of rage that had him wistfully imagining setting fire to the theif.

He couldn't do anything along those lines though, nothing at all. The necklace was an artefact used specifically for him to channel his power, and while someone else held possession of it, the action would have to be granted permission. It tethered him and the holder together; mental blocks and rules could be set just through thought, and if he did anything, or even tried to do something that was not approved, the energy that would have been used would simply backlash on him. And that really wasn't something he was going for. It worked in more than one way, though, which was exactly the reason he imagined the thief was so pleased to get his hands on it, and all why he believed the woman's coin purse to be a whole lot lighter now. Through the necklace, the holder could use him to channel power - his own power, their own power, anything - and that, that meant that things could be done, barriers held and dangerous, destructive magic wielded without offering any threat to the one holding the necklace. Instead of using their energy, it would use his. Invaluble, really, and very useful for intricate spells.

He carefully regarded the woman, vague smile still perfectly in place. He would get it back,' somehow, and then he'd be gone faster than she could blink. "I take it you're not going to be handing that over?" He asked pleasantly, hands vanishing inside his sleeves.

The woman turned her covered head in his direction. "I take it you won't come quietly." A smirk could've heard in her voice. Her grip tightened on her staff.

"Oh, don't worry. If I could attack you, I would already have done so." He said with a bright smile, shrugging a shoulder lightly and stepping away from the wall of the tavern. "So, on that note, no promises for my future conduct; only... Right now? You're the one with the necklace. So what is it?" He asked, walking over a little closer and narrowing his mismatched eyes at her as he wandered around in a circle. "Make someone angry? out to steal some warlord's land? Castle? Money? Prized artifact? Oh, or are you going to sell my things for a better price, make a profit somewhere?" He asked, looking irritated for a second before he took a preemptive step back. "And uh, actually, don't hit me with that stick. I'm very valuable, you know. That would be such bad form." He said, like he was explaining something to a small child, grin flashing over his features again. Well, nobody ever said he had to be polite.

The woman's hand moved quickly. She spun the stick in her hand three times before the point landed against the mans throat. "I don't need to hit you to prove any point I have." She said.
She let her staff move back to her side. A hand rose from out if the robe to remove the hood. A young woman stood under it. Her face was pretty, but what really stood out was the markings. Plastered on skin too tanned to be from Japan lay blue markings. Flowers, swirls and animals could all be seen. In the darkened light, the markings almost seemed to glow. "I am Ayama."

He didn't even blink when she spun the staff around at him, didn't flinch, didn't move a single muscle; only quirked a smile that practically screamed that he wasn't really that impressed, or even concerned by her clearly honed melee skills. It was only when she lowered the hood that he showed any sign of an expression other than a smile - this time, it very nearly faltered. So, not just some ordinary demon, elemental or otherwise that he could expect to take some stupid chance. She seemed... Different. And different was definitely not going to speed up the return of his necklace. And those markings were something he had not seen before.

"Taro." He said finally, still watching her with a casual take on caution; which, he decided, was fair. Seeing as he was stuck with her now for an indeterminable period of time. He was going to teach that thief a thing or two when he had the chance; it was ridiculous that he had landed in this situation at all. "I'd say that it was a pleasure to meet you... But I'd be lying, and that's a bad way to start first impressions."

"I prefer honestly over flattery." Ayama told him as she put the hood back up. She glanced back to the tavern. "I also suggest we move."

"So I'm guessing I'm not going to be living the life of fine dining and reputable inns?" He asked, voice edged with sarcasm as he started after her, pulling up a hood of his own, the blue material falling to just above his eyes. "I don't know how I'll last, to be honest. I'm feeling less than valued."

"And you're looking less than common." Ayama stopped and frowned. "You need new clothes."

Behind them, an uproar began in the tavern. Loud screams from the females, enraged yells from the men and plenty if glasses and tables being broken. A serious of, "Cheater!... Liar!... Thieves!!!!" Could be heard over the other bustle of the fight.
If given one guess, Ayama would say that the boy with the cards had been found out. What she didn't expect was two of that boy to rush out of the tavern, frantic. She also didn't expect the amused and panicked boys to make a beeline towards both her and her new acquaintance.

Taro was all set to make an over-dramatic show of soppy appreciation for her offer of new clothing when the yelling broke out from the tavern, and he turned on his heel, watching with a faint smile as the two started bolting towards them. "So, friends of yours?" He raised an eyebrow. "Actually, nevermind. As much as it pains me to say it, you were right. We should probably move."

Ayama frowned at Taro. "This way." She told him before running in between two small houses nearby.
The twins were close on their heels.

Taro grimaced, tugged his hood down a little further over his eyes - like that would make some difference with how conspicuous his appearence was - and ran lightly after Ayama. This wasn't even close to this actual week plan, not in the slightest.

Ayama pulled Taro into a small area while she waited for the angry mob of tavern patrons passed them.
"That was close." An over head voice spoke. It was followed by another.
"Tell me about it. Lucky we listened to that dark haired guy."

Ayama looked up to see the identical boys hanging over head. They grinned at her and her companion before dropping down. "Thanks for the get away!" They chimed in sync. They both began to walk away as they counted the yen that they had scored from their scheme.