And the Sky Rained Demons for Cats

The year? She couldn't say, all that Mao knew was that it was no longer the old century that she'd come to hate for its warring state. Two World Wars were now of another century and so few amongst the living could actually recount what transpired during the time. Even the death of prominent figures was still questionable but assumed in this day and age. What seemed to be the darkest of ages of humanity loomed in the past, but Mao knew better, as she'd had to deal with a couple groups of ne'er do wells and thus had to leave lovely Italy lest the police believe there to be a series of murders taking place. Instead she'd come across the land, even stepping foot into her country of origin and filled with her cursings, across the English Channel into England its self.

Why couldn't she have stayed in beautiful France? She despised the memories it held, and for it deciding her guilty of crimes she committed by being born. If it saw a day to be plastered with nukes she would laugh while sipping champagne in another part of the world. But England was another story, a place she could admire both the weather and the scenery her eyes could gorge themselves on. At this time it was pouring heavily and people were scrambling to find shops and pubs to hide out in, taxis to finish their journey, and any convenient excuse to escape the exaggerated waterfall. Some brave souls merely extracted certain devices and with a 'pop' could walk without too much water latching onto them, Mao amongst the crew. Comparatively most were using black umbrellas, the few who had lovely ones escaping through the other avenues, and so Mao was alone in her exotic light blue pond with lily pads and koi painted into the fabric.

Somewhat translucent, it gave away the hazy image of her dark purple hat underneath, the hat's rim flaring out and curving down at the sides a little, a gray ribbon tied around the hump. Most of her long tresses were pulled up with a clip that ironically was carved like that of a koi fish, some of the blond length still falling down to her mid back and curling in. The rest lay hidden in the hat or falling down in an artfully messy manner on the sides. The hat and hairstyle helped to hide one very suspicious fact: Mao's feline ears and lack of human ones. Around her neck was a simple ribbon that matched the hat, and she wore dark lavender tights under her dress that most would consider a coat, with its light lavender cotton lining and black, thin black leather exterior that matched her mid-shin high boots. For now she was as the Manx: tailless.

Days ago she would have been seen in the company of a middle aged man who would be assumed to be her father. Mao was stuck on that precipice between looking like a teenager and a fresh, young twenty year old. Not to say she would change this, however, as it worked well enough for her, just had to modify the date on her ID every so often so she could still legally drink without people becoming suspicious or knowing her true age. But the man in question had been killed during one of those gang attacks, attempting to protect her when it was wholly unnecessary. Yes, Mao had always had a problem with her attendants forgetting what she was capable of, so in the throes of their desires for her and falling prey to forgetting her lack of normality. At least he'd done his job, though she would've liked for him to live longer as most of them did. Soon a new one would have to be found that she could trust not to divulge her oddities or try using them against her to gain her obedience. Those died the swiftest.

'I would figure there'd be more into this cat-girl business, given today's cartoons...err...anime scene,' she thought as she walked about, but finding the right folks in those groups was hard given their wantonness to post about finding a real live 'Neko' girl. What she wanted above all else was to find someone like her! They would be the most idealistic given understanding her circumstances as a non-normal entity. Those who knew and understood to date had instead attempted to kill her, and so forevermore to the present her attendants were all humans that could be controlled instead.

Her feet had taken her down yet another block, tall Gothic-esque buildings to her left and a lush, green park to her right. Mao was forced to stop as the traffic light deemed the screaming metal death traps' turn to rush along, leaving her to stare at the dive in the sidewalk into a large puddle. She sighed, knowing that no matter what she'd be forced to walk around it or risk Heavens know what splashing onto her. The thought alone made her skin crawl and she couldn't help the slight shiver despite her clothing keeping her at a nice temperature. For the most part she was alone, people walking into the distance to her left or behind her, all moving away based on instinct or necessity while she was forced to wait alone for the walking man.

[ooc: sorry about the length, got carried away o.0]

Yuri sighed to himself as he made his way down the rain veiled streets, why did the rain always seem to follow him? The brown haired and crimson eyed male walked slowly, with his eyes cast to the ground, he was not is a hurry to get anywhere, Yuri was nothing more than a drifter now, still running from his past; still holey blaming himself for the fall of the small village in France. Domremy had long been forgotten by humans, only noted down in history books, which seemed to pain him more than anything, a constant reminder of his disastrous attempt as a guardian.

He felt the rain run down his back, sending a shiver down his spine. His black leather jacket and pants did offer some protection from the elements, but there would always be that water that ran down his neck to coat his body, as there will always be the splash of water that seemed to get under the cuff of his legs. His hair was nothing more than a wet, windswept mass of tangles, and he, oddly, smelt like wet dog; but maybe that was not too surprising considering the company he kept. He growled to himself as his rain drenched hair fall into his face, splashing some water into his eye, with the prolusion now days it was not something one could ignore, the tainted water making his eye sting, he paused for a moment, rubbing his eye to relive some of the discomfort. At this point he would of preferred hail or snow over rain.

As he started to walk on again, he could not help but think of Domremy again. It was always sunny there, and when it did raid he was always welcome to stay in the church, even if some did see him as a demon, and to top it all off ‘she’ would always be there, to comfort him and give him food, even if the latter was not needed by his kind, she was the only one to see him as an angel. However his inner thoughts had left him unaware of his surroundings, he walked into the back of someone, a woman wearing lavender and black, instinctively he put one hand around to her front, so she would not stumble into the road.

“Are you ok?” he asked, yet not really sounding too concerned.

Yuri was mostly unfazed by the umbrella in the face, the highly flexible cloth just being momentarily uncomfortable than anything, he was however surprised by her burst of speed to get behind him, so that he would get splashed by the passing car. He withheld a sigh and turned to face the women he had ran into, just as she lifted her blue umbrella above his head, a small voice apologising. "Don't worry about it, I was the one that was not looking where I was going."

he felt a distinct pang in his chest as the faint hint of an accent, and the slip of tongue, seeped into his ears, she was French, just like his first love. Looking at her as she started to dry him off, he could not help but think how much this young lady looked like her, maybe they where related in some way? It was when she started to dry around his neck that he became aware of the physcal contact. Yuri quickly grabbed her wrist, maybe holding it a bit tighter than was needed, he pulled her hand away from him, his face showing that he was not liking being touched.


"Don't worry about drying me off, ill just be getting wet again soon enough." He turned his away from her, glaceing at the signle, still red, so it looked like he could not yet smoothy walk away from this.

Yuri did not blink, or flitch, when new rain drops started to fall once again. Their consent falling rhythm seemed almost comforting to him at some point, he stood there as the young lady walked away, watching the sway of her hips as she moved, the perverted side of his coming out for a moment. But he thought he could feel something off about her, or maybe he was just tiered, sure he had munched on a few souls before coming here, but he had not slept for a few days now and that was starting to become a factor, but one thing he did feel clearly was the spark from another spiritual creature, not a hollow, it felt less savage than that, he had a feeling it was one of them that ran around in black wielding katana’s like it was still olden times.

He felt it move away from him, which seemed odd; maybe it had seen one of them white masked beasts and was going after it, but wait! Was it following the lady he just walked into? It seemed like it. Yuri however, instead of running to her aid at the first hint of danger, like to so many books, just slipped his hands into his pockets and started to walk away, he never liked to get involved in the affairs of others, be them mortal or other, he had his problems, they had theirs, and there was no need to complicate things by getting involved. However he could not shake that nagging voice in his head, and no, it was not the ‘little angel of his shoulder’ telling him to go help the maiden, no; it was the demon in him, itching for a kill.

‘Gehen Sie töten!’ it growled in Yuri’s mind ‘gehen Sie töten Shinigami!’

Yuri had no love for the blacked robed ones; after all, they just saw him and his kind as a blight to be wiped out. Not that he had the joy to meet any other Bounto yet, he looked at the back of his gloved hand, clenching and relaxing his fist, feeling defeated by his other side he turned back to follow the women and the other entirety.

Yuri came around the corner in time to see the body hit the floor. His face however did not change, see a corpse his the floor, bloody and torn, was somewhat of a normality to him, in his left hand he clenched a light blue umbrella, one to almost tripped over on his way here. He noted her cat ears and her golden eyes, so he was right when he thought there was something odd about her, but he was not going to jump to conclusions and ask if she was one of his kind, heck if his luck was something to go by she would be something different that would like to kill him as well, he walked towards her, stepping into the shinigami’s pooling blood like it was nothing more than one of the rain puddles, stepping over the body he came to stand in front of her; his face giving away nothing.

“I believe this is yours” he said, holding the umbrella out to her. Yuri had separated from his doll a few yards ago, experience telling him that the Shinigami seemed to travel in groups of two or more, and knowing that Gift could take care of anything without Yuri supervising.

“And those... men normally travel in groups of two.” Almost on cue a large dark mass came tumbling down into the alleyway, the dead man’s partner was wrapped up in a strange beast, the head resembled that of a wolf’s skull, but still had its ears and some gray fur, its chest and torso was comparable with a human male, its arms and hands however where akin to a birds legs and feet, the rest of its body was a snake’s, its skin, save for a line of gray fur that ran down its back, was a scaled blue.

The beast’s body was wrapped around the Shinigami torso and legs, his clawed hands where dug deep into his forearms, and its jaws clamped down around his neck, like he was trying to strangle him, but in reality was pumping large amounts of venom into the shinigami’s blood. Yuri just glanced over his shoulder, giving out a slight sigh, almost as to say ‘not again’ before turning back to face the cat-women.

Gift’s pure white eyes shifted to look at the back, liquid, wolf, to him it strike him that he was made of ink then black blood. He let go of the shinigami’s neck, revealing his split bottom jaw and long snake-like fangs hidden in his mouth, he made a strange sound between a hiss and a growl and he pulled the shinigami’s dying corpse tight against his own frame, the blood he did not really care about, all the doll knew is that it’s master needed the soul. Yuri looked at the cat-eared female as she worded what he deep down wanted to ask her, “It depends, I’m not totally sure what I am, all I know is that we... if we are the same, are called Bounto and they,” he nodded towards the two wolf-like beasts, “are our partners, we call them dolls, but I don’t know why, all I know about myself the blue beast there told me.” He pulled off his gloves, showing the large black tattoos on the back of his hands, it was clear to see that they where unnatural, they gave off a soft blue glow, one that would of been unnoticed on a normal day, but the overcast sky blocked out enough sunlight for it to be visible.

“Gift, let him have the blood.” He said whilst stuffing his gloves into his pocks. The beast gave a snort but complied, using its fangs to rip open the man’s neck, and then constricting him, causing the blood to flood out of the wound like an anime horror move, Gift then uncoiled himself from the corpse, sliding away to stand next to Yuri, looking over Mao intensely. Yuri made his way to stand over the newly ‘dead’ Shinigami, picking his up by the scruff of his shirt and wiping away some of the blood from his neck with his free hand, before he snarled and sunk two long fangs in to the death gods neck, drinking out his spiritual power like a vampire would blood in the books, after a few moments the man’s corpse turned to dust, leaving Yuri holding nothing but blood covered rags.

He cleaned the blood of his hands, yet some remained in the hard to get places, like under and around the finger nails. “Do you have to eat souls like that? If so I would say we are the same.”

Yuri had not really thought much about her cat ears, after all he thought is was some kind of side manifestation on her powers, like his claws. “Well there may be others that have animal parts,” he said, stating fact, but as Yuri was talking to Mao, his doll had quickly slipped behind him and was standing upright on his tail, making it look Yuri had wolf ears and a long snake tail. But that did not last long as the marks on the back of his hands glowed a light blue, causing to doll to disperse into what seemed like mist and flow into the tattoos, after a moment the unearthly glow died down, and Yuri slipped his gloves back on. “and sure, I don't care much for the 'normal' humans anyway, so lets go.” the way he sounded it almost seemed like he did not care ether way, but he would not lie to himself that he too was intrastate in talking to one of his own kind.

With dolls recalled (or at least hidden) the two made their way to where Mao was staying, the most expensive hotel in this part of town. Its high class was easy to see, the old Gothic building had been done up to made it even more extravagant then it already was, so posh that Yuri did not feel welcomed in here, not when everyone was a lord or lady sporting the finest furs or other high class clothing, and he was a drifter, sporting the 'drowned rat' look, damn even the bus boy was giving his dirty looks! He just followed Mao, eyes on her, not looking at any others around him, and trying not to leer back at them.

When they got to the evaluator, he notices how he happened to be looking at her ass. He blinked and snapped himself out of it, telling himself he was only looking for a tail, but in reality he knew it was his perverted side coming out, but he could not blame himself, after all it had been about 80 years since he had last been with a woman, as they entered the lift, with a few others, his mind started to plot things. But fortunately for Mao, the speedy lift interrupted him, and soon they where already at her door, a smart ass comment flowed into his mind about how they should be kissing or at least holding hands and giggling as she opened said door and ushered him through, and truth be told, he was glad to be out of the way from the eyes of humans.

Mao's room was.. well.. huge!! he had seen apartments smaller than this, even the ceiling was high, allowing for two tall, Gothic arch windows to stand on the far wall, complete with flowing curtains, and standing there in the mix, but not seeming out of place, was a large Queen sized bed.

Yuri felt a bit out of place here, how could he exactly 'make himself at home'? He was a drifter now, and ended up feeling quite lost as to what to do when in a house or room like this, like he had lost that knowledge, so he just picked a seat at random and sat down, looking around the room as he slowly started to dry off just from the heat, it seemed to make his skin tingle having just come in from the cold. He ran his gloved hand through his hair, trying to strain it out, he was not the kind to look neat and tidy, but he felt like he had to do it, considering where he was he wanted to 'smarten himself up' if that was even possible.

He still smelt like wet dog.

Yuri's ruby eyes snapped to Mao as she came back in, now with a lovely tail. But he had to guard himself against that question, he shifted in his seat as he tried to think of a way to answer her but not tell all, he was not going to let someone in just to end up both of them hurt, like last time. “Well I always knew something was off, the other kids in my village would avoid me, the elders said I was a demon and that I would end up killing them all, so they ended up attacking me,” he could not help but smirk, there was some irony in it, “I never wanted to harm anyone, but when they attacked me my doll appeared and slaughtered every last one of them, its funny really, if they left me alone they would of lived.” he left out the part that his doll came because his mother was murdered, but in essence the story was still the same.

“After that I just wondered around, trying to find out what I was, helped along a bit by Gift der Rache, but still he can only tell me so much.” he sunk back into his seat for a moment, eyes fixed on Mao, like he was intensity studding every part of her, “What about you... ermm?” it than dawned on him that they never exchanged names.

Yuri wondered over to the liquor cabinet as he lesioned to Mao tell him her story. Sure the alcohol would not effect him like it would humans, but he found it did help, and it was help he needed if he was going to be questioned like this, he was still taken in every word she sad even when he was poring his 'poison of chose' into a small glass, it seemed they had something more in common, their time in France, “My name is Yuri, Yuri Hyuga, but some know me as the Demon of Domremy as I.. settled there for a brief moment, well to us it would be, about a year,” he chuckled to himself for a moment, “and you would be where I am hospitality wise, Domremy was the last place I really had any kind of companion other than my doll, and that was back in world war one.”

he sighed to himself before he downed the drink in one gulp, he had really been alone for a long time. He put the glass down and turned to face Mao once more, and slowly started to walk towards her, “You are the first Bounto I have met as well, or should I say knowingly met, for all we know we could of walked by some and never knew it,” by now he was standing right in front of her, he then leaned forwards, placing a hand on one of the arm rests, “guess you could say it was fate that we ran into each other.” he said with an almost perverted smirk on his lips.

[plz forgive the slackness]

Yuri did not pull away as she pressed her hand to his skin, it was like her being a bounto gave her a free pass through his defences. The way she stared into his eyes did not unstelled him like eye contact nominally would, he took hold of her wrist, but it was a far cry from how he held it the first time they meet, he was a lot more gentle and did not pull her hand away, he held it still for a moment as he nuzzled his face into her palm. Brushing his lips against the skin. He knew why the physical contact, she was wanting to reassure her self that he was real, and truth be told, he needed that reassurance himself, after withholding contact to others for so long he had wondered he had become numb, part of him was glad that this was not the case.

He then moved her hand from his jawline to his chest, placing her open palm over where he heart was, allowing her to fell its, somewhat rapped, beat. Yet now, he felt kind of silly and a scene of unsureatey was sedately growing, his social skills where somewhat rusty, as where his romantic skills, not that this was really a time for his inner pervert to come out. After a few, fleeting moments, he let go of her hand and signed to himself, backing away from the cat-eared woman so that once more they had their own privet spaces. “I'm sorry,” he said, looking somewhat downtrodden, “its been so long since I spent any time with anyone... anyone living that is,” he looked away from her, slipping his hands into his pockets, trying to suppress the feeling that made him feel like a scared little boy, “I have forced myself to be alone for so long and... I hate it.” the last part was barely aduabel to normal ears.

Yuri 'tough guy' show was starting to falter, maybe she had reached him just in time, maybe the endless years of drifting was getting to him.

He was not really surprised that she heard him, part of him was hoping that she would. He stopped for a moment, thinking hard on her offer, yes he was deathly tired of being my himself, but was he really ready to let another in to his life? He thought on it long and hard, she was the same 'race' as himself, and from what he could gather had been through the same as what he had, if not more so, she had taken down that Shinigami so that was proof that she could look after herself, but there was something holding him back, “Everyone who has been connected to me has died, or rather, been murdered to get to me,” he scratched the back of his neck, “I'm sure you have faced your fare shear of trails over the years and can take care of yourself, but..” he sighed to himself, he wanted her company, yet he was once more afraid of getting himself hurt, but as he looked back at her the erg to say yes was almost overwellming.

In his mind he tried to convince himself that they should travel together, at least for the time being, and if he still strongly felt he was putting her in danger, they could go their separate ways. “Ok, I guess we could stay together, at least for the time,” he laughed, trying to lighten the mood somewhat, “that is till you get sick of my perverted ways.” he laughed, better let her know what she was getting in for.

Yuri seemed to relax a bit, after hearing Mao talk he had to learn not to apply the past to her, after all all the women he had been with till now where only human. The offer of a hot shower and warm food had been the most appealing thing he had heard all night, the last time he had a real shower was about one month ago, since then it was using the rain or any rivers he could, the food however, he did not really mind, not after eating the Shinigami not too long ago, yet he could not help but think of them on a date. “I will take you up on all your offers there,” he said with a small smile, whilst heading towards the bathroom, “I won't be long, then we can talk some more.”

closing the door behind him Yuri gave a soft sigh, not too sure what he was getting himself into, but was willing to ride it for now. The bathroom was almost as big as the main room, quite lovely, but he was not interested in admiring the décor, no, he just wanted to feel the hot water on his chilled skin, sliding the glass door open he leaned in and turned on the hot tap, the pipes making no noise as the water came rushing out, he let it run as he slowly undressed himself, his jacket first, soon followed by his boots and pants. A hiss escaped his lips as the hot droplets hit his skin, not that they where too hot for him, it was not going to even mark his skin, but as he saw the rising steam he knew that this water was hot enough to scold a normal human, but it was just what he needed.

Taking some of the hotel freebies he begin to scrub his skin, the blood coming off his skin like pant. It was not only on his hands, but on his hands and even some on his torso and back, places where it would not be washed away by the rain, and instead was let to mingle with sweat into a fowl paste that clung to him like an obsessed lover, to the point he swear he saw a brown wash come off from his skin. This, he knew, would not do, seeing as he had a feeling that his new friend liked to keep clean, but than again if she always stayed in places like this.

[sorry for the shortness]

Yuri turned off the water with a pleasant sigh, it really did felt good to get the stagnate rain and sweat of his skin. He ran his hand through his hair, as it had a talent of falling into his eyes when wet, pulling the shower screen aside he noted that his cloths where gone, meaning that Mao must had come in at some point, a purvey smile spread across his lips, he wondered if she enjoyed the show? But looking back over the shower she would not be able to see anything, thanks to the decorations on the glass, but that still would not stop him ribbing her about it now, he quickly dyed himself off before throwing on one of the large, white, bathrobes, he felt like a moron wearing the thing but it would have to do, tightening on the belt he went for his 'date' with the other bounto.

Entering the main room he saw that Mao was leaning up against the window, quietly he approached her, leaning up against the glass, like she was, placing his hands next to hers. “you know if you wanted to see me naked you could of just asked,” he said with a smirk, and also getting ready to doge a smack to the face if she should see fit to do so.