Author's introduction: What's this? A fanfic from Kent Magami? Yes!
The lurker returns to life. This fic has been running through my head for
weeks now, and I had to get it written or go nuts. I hope you enjoy it. ^_^
Oh -- for those of you who are wondering about the status of my Project:
S-boy fanfic, rest assured that I'll get back to it, and this fic actually
ties into it (as will all my fics).
Legal/Disclaimer stuff: Devil Hunter Yohko is the property of Toho Co.,
Ltd./Madhouse and sold in the US by A.D. Vision. No attempt is being made
to impinge on their copyrights, etc etc, blah-blah-blah.
Enough of this--read the story!
*******
"Yohko! Yohko, wake up, already!" The voice was accompanied by a hand on
her shoulder, trying to shake some conciousness into her weary body.
Yohko turned over and pulled the covers over her head. "'kay, 'zusa," she
mumbled. "jus' gimme anudder minute, 'kay?" Her voice trailed off as she re-
entered dreamland.
The next thing Yohko knew, she was sitting bolt upright, sputtering and
shivering, her nightshirt plastered to her body thanks to a bucketfull of ice-
cold water. The soaked girl shot a glare at the culprit, who was doing a poor
job of looking innocent while still holding the now-empty pail.
"Awake yet?" the green-haired girl asked.
"A-zu-saaaaaa!"
Madoka Mano stopped short outside of Yohko's room, moving her tea cup out of
the way, as the door abruptly opened, disgorging an airborne Azusa Kanzaki.
"Aiyeeee!" The young Devil-Hunter-in-Training tucked into a roll across the
carpet before finally ending her flight against the wall across from Yohko's
door. Several cracks radiated out from the point of impact as Azusa shook her
head, attempting to clear away the stars that danced before her eyes.
Madoka sipped at her tea. "Well?" she finally asked.
Azusa got to her feet. "She's awake, Grandmother."
Madoka nodded in satisfaction. "Good. It wouldn't do for her to be late
for her first day of college."
*******
Magami Studios proudly presents:
A Devil Hunter Yohko Fanfiction
Tainted Love
*******
"Aw, man!" Yohko whined, dropping her head into her hands. "Why did they
have to schedule a math class so early in morning? Who can think at seven AM?"
Chigako snorted as she leafed through her textbook. "Perhaps you should try
hitting the sack earlier," she suggested.
Yohko let out a sharp breath of air, displacing a lock of hair from in front
of her eyes. "You know very well why I never get enough sleep." Her face set-
tled into a glower. "Damn devils never give me a break."
Chigako looked into her friend's face, seeing dark circles under Yohko's
eyes, and several scratches, hastily covered with makeup.
"There's more under the clothes," Yohko admitted. "That's why I'm wearing a
long-sleeved shirt today."
"Bad?" Chigako asked, her concern for her devil-hunting friend evident be-
hind her glasses.
"Bad enough," Yohko replied. "And you know what the kicker was? The devil
told me he was on vacation! He was just wandering through town, seeing the
sights, killing a few natives for a little recreation. He even had on one of
those tacky flowered Hawaiian shirts."
Chi blinked. "You're kidding me."
"Nope." Yohko shook her head.
"Now I've heard everything...."
The girls' conversation was interrupted when the door to the hallway opened,
and a man entered the classroom. Whispered chats died out as he made his way
to the front of the room, taking a position behind the professor's desk.
"Sorry I'm a little late today," he began, "but I was tapped to substitute
for the regular instructor of this course at the last minute. Ms. Tanaki suf-
ferred a mishap a few hours ago, and will be unable to teach for the entire
semester. My name is Akira Banuruwase, and I will be your instructor instead."
Chi glanced at the new professor. _Handsome, check,_ she mentally ticked
off. _Well-built, check. Intelligent, check. Self-assured, check._ She
sighed. _He fits the pattern..._ She turned to Yohko for confirmation.
"Hey," she whispered. "What do you think--" She bit off the rest of her
sentence when she saw Yohko's face, which had assumed an all-too-familiar ex-
pression.
"He's an absolute hunk!" Yohko gushed, her eyes shimmering.
_Yep,_ Chigako thought, her head colliding with her desk top. _Just as I
predicted._
For the rest of the period, Chigako vainly attempted to listen to the re-
placement instructor as her best friend gave her a non-stop whispered account
of what she hoped to do with him.
"It'll be at the movies--no, wait--at a picnic in an isolated section of
woods. We'll look into each others' eyes... 'This is my first time,' I'll say.
'Mine, too.' he'll say. 'Akira-sensei...' I'll say..."
Chi sighed as Yohko told her fantasy the exact same way as she had countless
times before. Only the guys were different between tellings. She almost
wished it would happen already just so Yohko would get a new story.
Finally the period ended, just as Yohko ran out of material with which to
assault Chigako's ears, and the students began to file out of the classroom.
As the two friends stood up to leave, Mr Banuruwase called out, "Ms Mano, I'd
like to speak with you for a moment before you go."
"Busted," Chigako murmured with a grin as she headed for the door. "I'll
see you at lunch, Yohko."
"Okay, Chi," Yohko said, a sick look on her face. She turned to Akira.
"Yes, sir?"
Akira Banuruwase looked amused. "It might surprise you to know that I have
extremely sensitive ears. I not only heard you whispering to your friend
there, I heard *what* you were whispering." He chuckled as Yohko turned crim-
son. "While I certainly have no objection to being admired by such a lovely
girl as yourself, I would appreciate it if you could refrain from distracting
others from my lectures." He grinned. "And it certainly wouldn't hurt if you
could pay attention to the lectures yourself. Can you do that?"
Yohko, terminally embarrassed, simply nodded.
"Very well. You may go now," Akira said. "See you in tomorrow's class."
Yohko retrieved her books. "Sorry, Mr Banuruwase. It won't happen again."
"I'm sure it won't," the instructor replied. "Bye, now."
"Bye." Yohko hurried from the room, amazed at how Akira could have made out
what she was saying when she and Chi were seated in the back of the room.
_Damn, his ears are good...._ she thought as she made her way to her next
class.
*******
"I am *so* embarrassed," Yohko announced to Chi much later as she sat down
across from her friend.
Chigako snickered as she opened her bento box. "You had it coming, you
know," she remarked.
"Your sympathy overwhelms me," Yohko muttered sarcastically, sticking her
tongue out.
Chigako's retort was interrupted when her pager beeped. "Ah, excuse me a
bit, Yohko."
"Sure, Chi," the other girl said around a mouthful of food. Chi got up and
made her way to a public phone at one end of the room.
Yohko was draining the last of her soft drink when a loud "WHAT?!" made her
spray it across the table, where most of it landed in Chigako's opened, but
otherwise untouched, box. _Oops... Maybe Chi won't notice that..._ she thought
as the object of her concern stomped past and plunked herself back down in her
chair.
"What's the matter, Chi?" Yohko asked, seeing the perplexed scowl her friend
was wearing.
"Remember when I told you to never underestimate the scope of my intelli-
gence network?" When Yohko nodded, Chigako continued. "Well, don't *over*est-
imate it, either. They can't find *anything* on *Mr* Akira Banuruwase. It's
like the man didn't even exist until today! Incompetents... Hey! Are you even
*listening* to me?!"
"Akira-sensei...." Yohko was once again lost in her own world.
Chigako sighed in frustration. "And *this* all that stands between us and
Hell on Earth," she muttered. "Goddess help us all...." She took a bite of
her food, and made a face. _Hmmm... how much lemon/lime juice did I *put* in
here, anyway?_
*******
The next morning:
Azusa paused before the door to Yohko's room, sighing. _Why can't Grandma
or Sayoko-san ever do this?_ she thought. _Don't they know how violent Yohko-
sama can get when she's woken up?_ She blinked. _I think I just answered my
own question..._ She reached for the doorknob, muttering something about the
tribulations of an apprentice Devil Hunter, when the door was suddenly thrown
open. Yohko, fully dressed, charged out of her room and ran down the stairs.
Behind her, the door to Yohko's room rebounded shut, revealing a thoroughly
stunned Azusa, her face looking slightly flattened from impact with the door.
"Uhhhh...." She toppled to the floor.
"Morning, Mom! Morning, Grandma!" Yohko shouted cheerily as she passed the
dining room. "I'm off!"
"Hm? Don't you want breakfast?" Sayoko called after her.
"No thanks--I'm fine!" The two women heard the door slam shut as the young-
est member of the Mano clan left.
Madoka frowned. "Something's up. She's *never* up this early voluntarily."
Madoka's daughter smiled. "She's in love," she asserted, remembering how
she had acted at Yohko's age.
"Hmph!" Madoka snorted. "In love *again*, you mean. At least Yohko had the
sense to not go too far too soon, unlike her tramp of a mother."
"What is that supposed to mean?!" Sayoko screamed.
"Don't shout at your mother!"
"Are you forgetting who pays the bills around here?!"
"Are *you* forgetting who let you live long enough to pay the bills?!"
"Is that a threat, old woman?"
"Hah! Like *you're* a sweet young thing! Oh, look! Is that a trace of
grey?"
"That's it! You're gonna die!"
"HOLD IT!" Both women turned from glaring at each other from millimeters a-
part to see Azusa, still looking a little out of it from her impact with the
door, glaring at both of them and holding a small bell. "You know the rules!"
she scolded. "Now back off and bow." Azusa waited while mother and daughter
complied. "Ladies.... FIGHT!" As she rang the bell, both women grabbed what-
ever makeshift weapon happened to be nearest and began their morning exercise
in earnest.
Azusa sank into a chair and watched the battle. "The life of an apprentice
Devil Hunter is fraught with weirdness...."
*******
Yohko stepped into her math classroom to find Mr Banuruwase already there,
preparing the day's lesson. He looked up and smiled. "Ah, I see you're an
early riser as well, Ms Mano," he commented.
Yohko giggled nervously. "Ah, well, not usually," she admitted. "It's just
that..." Her voice trailed off.
"Ah, I see," Akira nodded. He turned to the chalkboard and began scribbling
mathematical formulae on its surface. "Well, to be honest, I've been thinking
about you as well."
Yohko's eyes widened in surprise. "You...you have?" Her voice was quiet,
but her thoughts were quite loud. _YES! He likes me! Even after yesterday,
he *likes* me!_ The excitable part of her mind was in fine form now, while the
rational part simply rolled its eyes heavenward. _On this day, Yohko Mano has
finally found the man for her! All *right*!_ Completely missing from her
thoughts were the memories of all the other guys she had thought this about.
Akira turned around to look her in the eyes. "I have," he said seriously,
answering her question. He chuckled. "When a pretty girl shows the kind of
interest you showed yesterday, it's kind of hard *not* to think about her."
Once again, Yohko's face turned beet-red.
"I guess I did kinda make a fool of myself," she mumbled, looking at the
floor.
"You needn't be embarassed," Akira assured her. "I'm sure no one but Ms O-
gawa and I heard you." He paused, looking at her. "I sense something special
about you..." he said. "Perhaps something... worth knowing better." He paused
again, nervously. "This...may not be recommended by the teacher/student rela-
tionship guidelines, but I find I don't really care. May I have the honor of
your company this weekend?" He looked into Yohko's eyes, waiting for her an-
swer.
The brown-eyed exorcist could have been knocked over by the proverbial fea-
ther. It was several seconds before she found her voice and said, "Of course."
In the meantime, her excitable side was having a field day lighting fireworks
in her head and forcing the rational part of her mind to retreat into its lit-
tle corner for the rest of the day, sucking its thumb.
Akira smiled. "Shall we say Friday evening, around six?" When Yohko nod-
ded, he continued. "Where can I pick you up?" Yohko gave him directions to
her house, moving a bit closer, her eyes locked with his. Akira took the hint
and began bringing his face toward hers, only to quickly step back as the door
opened.
Yohko turned toward the door as she also moved back, trying to hide any hint
of possible naughtiness. Plastering a smile on her face, she nodded to the
newcomer, only to see that it was just Chigako.
"Yohko?!" she exclaimed, adjusting her glasses as if they were responsible
for her seeing things that were not there. "You're *never* in class this ear-
ly! What's going--oh..." Her voice trailed off as she saw the instructor, once
again busy with his lesson preparations. "I see..." Frowning, she grabbed
Yohko's arm and hissed, "We have to talk, now."
Yohko snatched her arm back. "Chi! Class is about to start." Students
were already filing into the room and taking seats. "Can't it wait 'til
lunch?"
Chi sighed. "I suppose it will have to," she grumbled. She followed Yohko
to a pair of seats, noting gloomily that Yohko had chosen to sit in the front
of the room this time, all the better to view the professor, she was certain.
Glancing at her friend, she saw that small smile Yohko always got when she was
thinking about something good. She leaned her head against her desk, hoping
that for once she could make Yohko listen to reason. She was getting a very
bad feeling about this Akira Banuruwase, and was worried that Yohko was setting
herself up for a very bad fall.
"Ms Ogawa! Pay attention."
Chigako's head shot up at the sharp tone of the instructor's voice. "Sorry,
sir," she stammered. "I was just thinking."
"Well, think about math, then," Akira said coldly, returning to his lecture.
_Oh, sure. *Yohko* gets a friendly little 'The Teacher Is Your Friend'
chat,_ Chigako thought. _*I* get the Bastard Taskmaster From Hell._ Grumbling
silently, she glowered at the instructor's back, vowing that somehow she would
make Yohko listen to her.
*******
"Yohko, you've *got* to listen to me!" Chigako insisted later. She and Yoh-
ko were sitting in the student break room, devouring their meals. Well, more
precisely, Chigako was devouring her meal, while Yohko was picking at her food
with her chopsticks and staring dreamily off into space.
"He's so handsome..." she murmured.
"Hey!" Chi snapped. "Yo, yo, Yohko! This is important! I finally found
some records on Banuruwase."
"Well, there you are," Yohko commented, finally paying attention. "He's le-
git, so quit being so jealous."
"I'm *not* jealous!" Chi snarled, her eyes narrowing behind her glasses. "I
don't want him. Don't you get it? *Those records weren't there yesterday!*
They're *bogus*!"
Yohko sighed in exasperation. "C'mon, Chi, give it a rest. He said himself
that he was assigned at the last minute. They probably didn't get around to
entering his records until today."
Chigako drained the last of her juice before responding. "It's more than
that, Yohko. It's a gut feeling, for lack of a better term. That guy's bad
news."
Yohko waved her hand, dismissing Chi's concern. "I'm a big girl, 'Mother'.
I can make my own decisions. I'll see how our date turns out, and then we'll
see."
Chi's eyes bugged out. "You're *dating* him?! When? Where are you going?"
Yohko looked smug as she answered. "This Friday, and none of your business.
You'll find out everything on Saturday, *if* you ask nicely."
"Yohko, I'm begging you, don't!" Chi actually got on her knees in the clas-
sic beggar's pose. "Something awful will happen, I know it."
"Damn it, Chi! Stop that! People are staring," Yohko glanced around at the
other occupants of the break room, feeling a flush come to her face as she no-
ticed every pair of eyes in the room focused on the Devil Hunter and her embar-
rasing friend. "Look, if you're so worried about Akira, just go the head ad-
ministrator and ask about him. You're one of his students, too, and it's your
right to know about the man who's teaching you."
Chi rose to her feet. "Fine," she spat. "I'll do that." With that, she
turned and left the room.
"Hey, wait!" Yohko called after her. "You expect me to clean up after you?"
Chigako's response was a simple, "Hmph!" as she stomped through the doorway.
Yohko, grumbling, finished her lunch and began clearing their table.
*******
"So what can I do for you, Ms Ogawa?" asked the head administrator ten min-
utes later. He was a stout man in his middle years, and was currently looking
resigned to this unwelcome interruption of his work. The nameplate on his desk
read "Taku Kondo".
Chigako went straight to the point. "I want to know what credentials Akira
Banuruwase has. I'm in his Intro to Calculus class, and I want to make sure I
know all I can about my intructor."
Taku sighed, rising to his feet. "You always were a snoopy one, Ms Ogawa.
Did it ever occur to you that some day you might ask the wrong person for in-
formation?"
The admin looked straight at her, and for the first time Chi could see his
eyes clearly. They now glowed with the eerie stigmata of possession. "Uh-oh..."
the girl muttered as she backed toward the door. Naturally, she discovered it
locked.
"No escape that way," laughed Taku as he hurdled the desk with an agility
that belied his bulk. Not for the first time, Chigako blessed her decision to
accept Yohko's offer to teach her martial arts as she barely got her arms up in
time to ward off Taku's initial blows. She quickly dodged aside as the pos-
sessed administrator to crush her under his weight, moving to the center of the
room for more freedom of movement.
"It seems we underestimated you," Taku commented with an evil chuckle as he
rose to his feet. Chi could see a sizable dent underneath the carpet where he
had landed.
"I hang out with Devil Hunters," Chi retorted. "Naturally, I can hold my
own."
"No matter," the oni shrugged. "There is no way out of this room, and you
will eventually tire. I won't." He charged again, forcing Chi to scramble out
of his path. As he passed her, she lashed out with her foot, striking him in
the ribcage. She received little more than a slight grunt for her effort as
Taku stopped short of crashing into the wall, spinning on his heel to charge
her again. This time Chi leaped over his head, her hands chopping down to
strike at his neck as he passed beneath her. She landed on the edge of the
desk, a little off-balance. The desk moved slightly upon the impact of her
feet, and Chi flailed her arms, trying to maintain her footing. Her efforts
came to naught as she tumbled backwards over the side.
Taku paused as he spun around for a new charge, not seeing his target. He
laughed. "No use hiding, little one!" he called out, rubbing the side of his
neck, where his opponent had managed to cause some slight damage. "This is a
small office. You're likely cowering behind the desk, or perhaps the sofa."
"Right the first time, Chubs," Chigako said, rising from the floor behind
the desk, a strip of paper held in her hand. Before Taku could react, she
hurled it toward him, striking the admin on the forehead. Her aim was slightly
off-center, but the ofuda landed close enough to have the desired effect. Taku
screamed as the oni possessing him was banished, dark shadows flickering, then
dissipating around him. With a groan, the portly man collapsed to the floor.
"I knew those'd come in handy some day," Chigako commented to herself as she
walked over to the fallen head administrator. Crouching next to the unconcious
man, she shook him by the lapels. "Hey--wake up. You need to give me some an-
swers."
"Sorry--not today," said a voice behind her. Before Chi could turn around,
pain exploded in the back of her head. She collapsed on top of the man she
had defeated.
The figure of Akira Banuruwase stepped forward to stand over the two bodies
as the arm that had knocked Chigako out shrank back to human dimensions.
"I've had enough of your interference, girl," he growled to her unhearing
form as he picked her up. With fortune, Yohko's friend might actually have
talked the Devil Hunter out of her date with the faux math instructor, which
would have put a crimp in Akira's schedule. As it was, he was now going to
have to procure another oni to re-possess the head administrator, to avoid com-
plications later.
As he walked through the office wall with his burden, Akira muttered, "Con-
sider yourself fortunate that you have a role in my plan. You gain a few more
days of life. However, I can't risk having you disrupt my actions any fur-
ther." He considered what to do with the girl currently slung over his shoul-
ders as he walked the Dark Paths back to the apartment that served as his lair
for this mission.
"I suppose you will have to be my guest for a few days," he said as he exit-
ed the Path into his living room, stepping through a wall. With no further
words, the disguised devil carried Chi's slumbering form into a spare room,
dumping her unceremoniously onto the floor. Exiting, he placed a locking spell
on the door, then returned to the college campus via the Dark Paths.
Back in the room, Chigako opened her eyes and sat up, wincing as the move-
ment made her head loudly announce its presence. Looking around, she saw a bed
and an exposed toilet. "Classy accomodations," she muttered, regretting her
words as her head throbbed.
She got to her feet with a groan, and tried the door. As she expected, it
was locked. She made her way back to the bed and laid down. "I'm in trouble,"
she observed.
*******
To be continued....
*******************************************************
* Kent Magami and David Outram (kmagami@hsonline.net) *
*Second Deacon of Ryoga, Tracker of the Wandering One *
*Co-founder and High Priest of the Holy Order of A-ko *
* Motto: You can *never* have enough C-kos! *
*******************************************************
* Save the fighting for the classroom! -- Miss Ayumi *
* *
* One more step, and I would have advanced two ranks *
* and earned three meals a day. I, Damaramu, will *
* regret this.... -- Damaramu *
*******************************************************