It'll Be Different This Time (Black Bird Fanfic)

Chapter 2

Beep-beep, beep-beep, beep-beep, beep-be-. Misao groaned and rolled over, blindly smacking her alarm clock. She glared at the glowing green numbers: 5:50 a.m.. Grumbling quietly she swung her feet out of bed and slid them into her worn slippers. It was almost 6:20 when she slipped out of the house and onto the the silent streets. She tensed at the sight of her neighbor's tall wooden fence; the events of the night before made her hesitate, only the soft beat of Zed's wings above gave her the courage to continue down the street. Once she turned the corner at the end of the block she took off running down the street, ignoring the hundreds of eyes from the swarm of creatures that had already gathered overnight. Some of the yokai resembled the monsters on antique paintings and scrolls but most were creatures she had never seen before in any human medium. However, as grotesque as the creatures were she knew that they weren't the scariest of monsters to look out for, no, the most terrifying ones were the ones that gave off the illusion of humanity, the ones you didn't see until it was too late.

Misao glanced down at her sneakers as she ran, frowning; they needed to be replaced before she left. Her mind wandered, considering how to convince her mom to buy her new shoes and the small houses gradually became further and further apart until they stopped altogether, replaced with square terraced rice fields down the hill to her right, and thick forest reaching up the steep mountainside to the left of the road.

After the second mile marker she turned onto a narrow dirt road that wound up through the trees. Only five minutes into her trek up the mountain the last of the dark creatures that had been stalking her from the suburbs screamed as they hit the invisible barrier behind her and disintegrated. Her back straightened and she smiled at the sound, with it she was more free than she had been in almost a week, when she had last traveled up this road.

It took over an hour of trekking up steep stone steps and the winding mountain trail before the Shinden temple came into sight. She smiled at the view of its pale walls; the sprawling temple was very simple in design but its simplicity and the kind priests that inhabited it made it warm and almost homey. The colorless walls also served another purpose; the simplicity provided a huge contrast to the bright colors and intricate carvings of the stunning shrine that the temple was built around. When she was younger and her father was traveling Japan, collecting stories and folklore for the university he worked at, she had seen many shrines and temples but none of them seemed to surpass the beauty of this one, yet it was almost forgotten by all but its inhabitants.

When she walked in the grounds were deserted, with all of the buddhist priests gone to morning prayer, but she still heard sweeping from around the backside of the shrine. She slipped her shoes off and held them in her hand as she cut across the courtyard towards the back of the shrine, her bare feet almost silent on the gravel. She peeked around the corner with a smirk on her face.

Before her was a broad sweatshirt clad back resting above low cut jeans. Her childhood friend was wearing a purple beanie over his bleached blond hair today, with his big black headphones resting over his ears.

Perfect.

She took a few large strides back, leaving her sneakers and bag on the ground, before breaking into a run and launching herself into the air, he didn't look back until it was too late, a short yell escaping his mouth before every ounce of air in his lungs was knocked out and he lay winded, 120 glorious pounds of awesomeness sitting on his chest.

"Victory! Misao 23- Raikoh 14!" Misao yelled, throwing her hands above her head in a victory salute.

"I'm not that far behind," Raikoh grumbled, crossing his arms, "And that wasn't fair, I had headphones on."

"Nothing's fair in war, a Kitsune doesn't care about fairness when it's stabbing you in the heart." She mocked in a gruff voice. Raikoh opened his mouth to retort back when he was interrupted.