Scars, bodies, and a new arrival. [PRIVATE for Suzuko and Nariko.] [rated M for possible language and/or violence]

Chikiba yawned. It was dawn, the sun had started peeking it's head out from under the skyline. In the distance, a plastic bag fluttered across a crumbling street. What was she going to do today? she thought. Probably nothing, as usuall.. Her stomach grumbled. Well she knew one thing she had to do. Get food.

She streched out on all fours and got up. She began searching around the area for food. Walking down along a broken bridge, she stopped and sniffed the air. There was something omitting a sweet smell. She followed her nose across the bridge and towards a old run down hotel.

The old shutters that were probably painted black at a time were hanging by their hinges. Walking through the doorway, Chikiba noticed that the actual door that led inside the hotel had been ripped off. Probably by strong winds. Arriving in the lobby, she saw a garbage can leaning against the back wall along the secretary desk. She inched forwards careful of her footing in case the flooring gave-way. Making it over to the garbage can, she peered inside it.
There, she found a half moldy box of angel cakes. She wrinkled her nose up at the smell of mold. But she was glad at the fact that half the cakes were still edible. Removing the box from the garbage, she inched her way back to the doorway again. She was about to leave when a staircase to her far left caught her eye. She set the cakes down in the far right corner so that they would not get stolen. Approaching the dark staircase, she noticed that some steps were missing. Regardless of that it still looked sturdy and climbable. So Chikiba decided to climb up it.

Grabbing a step halfway above her head, she pushed her body up. latching onto another step below her with her left leg, she slowly began to Ascend into the darkness. This reminded her of the time she tried to climb up a mountain to reach a goat. Before she knew it, she had reached the second level.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Nariko had been walking for days now. Every morning, he got up and left his temporary shelter, whatever it was, to walk around. He would choose a direction that he liked, and then start walking. If he smelled something good, he'd follow the smell. Hopefully it would lead to some food.

On todays walk, he was distracted by a sweet odor in the air. It smelled like something delicious. It would definitely be worth it to follow this smell. He followed the smell for a few minutes, walking at a brisk pace. It would be delicious!

He found himself being drawn to an old hotel. He was getting closer and closer when he stopped. There was another smell present. The other smell wasn't food... It seemed to be feline, and female. It also seemed to be partially human. This called for further investigation.

He walked into the old hotel. There was a trash can in the corner. He walked over to it, and checked its contents. He found an old box, half filled with some moldy angel cakes. If he ate those, he'd probably end up getting sick. He sniffed the air. The sweet smell and the feline smell were both strong in here. Looking around, he saw a staircase, and in the corner of his eye he noticed some more edible looking angel cakes in the corner. He'd be back for those later. First he wanted to see who this other person was.

He walked over to the staircase. It looked pretty old. Some of the steps were even missing. Being cautious in case some steps were to give out under him, he climbed the stairs up to the next floor. The smell was really strong now. He looked around for this mysterious feline lady.

Chikiba paused for a moment to catch her breath. Climbing up those steps was no easy task. after a few minutes she got up and looked around her surroundings. though it was nearly pitch black, she could still make out the outlines of furnature, a lamp, bed and other odd shapes along the walls. This was thanks to both her feline eyes and gaps in between a few borded up windows. This permitted small semetrical-like shapes of light to break into the room here and there.

Chikiba walked over to a window to her left. Looking over the board's condition, she knew she'd have no trouble ripping them off. Setting her paws on the first board, she pulled slightly outwards. After a few short seconds the board gave up it's resistance and tore off the window. "Hah." Chikiba said smugly. "I'll make quick work with the rest of you." she said fiercely. True as her words, she quickly proceeded on tearing off the remaining boards. The rusted up nails gave no resistance. Wiping her brow with a paw, Chikiba stared out at the clear blue sky. It must have been mid-morning now. Allowing herself to be mesmorized by the scenary for a few moments she let her guard down. A moment later she heard the footsteps of someone climbing up the ladder.

"FUCK FUCK FUCK!" She cursed at herself under her breath. She should have been more alert. Sniffing at the air she caught the scent of an unfamiliar animal. A dog maybe? It was absolutely male. But that wasn't all. There was, another scent. It took her a few moments to process it. It had a similar scent to Lily's. It therefore must be Human also. "A dog boy?" She laughed at the thought. Quickly she glanced around the room for a place to hide. She noticed a closet at the far end of the room. Briskly walking towards it, she stopped just in front of the door and glanced back. The dog or whatever the hell it was hadn't made it up the ladder yet. Letting out a sigh of relief, she walked into the closet and slowly closed the door behind her. "If he finds me, I'm screwed." she thought.

~*~*~*~

Nariko got to the top of the steps. He could hear something from one of the rooms. It sounded flustered, but it quickly became silent. There was light streaming in from one of the rooms. He slowly made his way towards that room. When he got in, he noticed that all of the boards had been ripped off of a window. The boards were laying on the ground by the window, and the now open window lighted the entire room nicely.

He looked around the room. It was dusty, not much had been in here for a long time. There was some furniture in here. It had been covered before the previous owners had abandoned the place. These covers were now really dusty. He noticed another door in the room. The dust around it had been disturbed. Nariko wondered where that door lead to. It was probably a closet, but he wasn't sure. Either way. the smell of the cat girl was on the other side of the door. Cautiously, Nariko opened the door.

Chikiba Inched her way back, back, back until she was pressed up against the back wall of the closet. Something brushed against one of her paws. She was about to scream but quickly covered her mouth to trap the sound. Looking over the smooth floor surface, she located an object lying a few inches away. Cautiously picking it up, she rolled it around in her paws. Feeling it over, she noticed the object was metal. It wasn't heavy either. Trying to focus her eyes on the object, she came to the conclusion that it was a flash light. Feeling over it she found a button. Suddenly a ray of bright yellow shot from the object. She was right, it was a flash light. "This will make it easier to look around in here now," Chikiba thought.

Flashing the light around, Chikiba discovered a medium size pocket knife. Picking it up she noticed it had a can opener, wine uncorker, toenail clipper, filing board, along with many other things including a long thin razor sharp knife. Chikiba decided to keep this as protection. She also found a regular knife and a knife holster. Fastening the holster around her right thigh, she placed the pocket knife in the pocket. Suddenly she heard creaking, and the closet door slowly opened. Chikiba clicked off the flashlight and placed it with the pocket knife. She bared her teeth and gripping the regular knife with her right hand. Obviously this thing was following her and she wasn't going to die without a fight.

After opening the door, Nariko noticed a light coming from inside. It was quickly gone though. His suspicions had been correct, it was a closet. And the cat-girl was definitely inside of the closet. His nose wasn't wrong very often.

"Hello? Is somebody in here?"

He felt stupid now. Why would he wait until he had trapped the person inside of a closet to say hello? If they were nice, they were probably very frightened. If they weren't, then he would be a very easy target if he tried to get in the closet.

"I don't want to hurt you, is somebody there?"

Nariko backed away from the closet. He left his dagger where it was. He didn't want to frighten or intimidate her. Make her more frightened then she might already be, or give her a reason to attack him. He backed his way over to the window, on the other side of the room. He didn't sit down or lean against the wall though. Staying standing, he waited to see if she would come out. And waited to see what she would do.

Chikiba heard someone say hello. What should she do...? Should she stay where she was? Maybe she could lure him in that way, then attack. On the other hand, she didnt know where the boy had gone. He could be outside the closet waiting for her to come out then to strike her. She did not know if he was even armed and if he was, with what? She decided to wait in the back of the closet in the darkness. Where it was safer. "C'mon damn you, I'm waiting." she whispered. The knife still in her hand, she was ready for anything.

~*~*~*

Although Nariko's best sense was his sense of smell, his ears weren't that bad either. After a few seconds of waiting, he heard her whisper something.

"C'mon damn you, I'm waiting."

Nariko wasn't quite sure what to do at this point. From her comment, he suspected that she might not be the friendliest. In either case, waiting obviously wasn't going to work. He would have to be the one to do something first. Maybe he could lure her outside of the closet.

"Waiting, are you? For what? I don't plan on doing anything to you. You're the first person I've seen in a while. And your smell is so... intriguing."

That should do it, he thought. Maybe she would come out now. Remaining standing, he waited for her response.

"shit" Chikiba muttered to herself. He had heard her. From what she knew about dogs, they had very good hearing. This confirmed her fact that he was part dog. From what she had seen on tv while living with her mother in the U.K, in the human court of law, what you say could be used against you. Figuring that he was using some type of logic like that, she decided to remain silent.

"What will you do now?" she thought.

~*~*~*~

"I already told you. I don't plan on doing anything."

She seemed pretty intent on staying in the closet. And why wouldn't she? The closet was a safe zone from him. He tried to think what it would be like in her shoes. He didn't know if she was nice or not, but she didn't know if he was nice or not. He could easily just be talking nice to her to lure her out, then strike quickly. But if he wanted to attack her, he could easily just strike through the wall of the closet at her. There would be no way for her to dodge the attack, or even brace herself.

"If I had planned on hurting you, I would have already done something by now. From a defensive standpoint, you're a sitting duck right now."

He walked over to the other side of the window. Again, he remained standing, and waited to see what she would do.

She considered his words, like hell she was a sitting duck! Who the fuck does he think he is? acting all superior. Chikiba was becoming bitter. She started to dislike this punk. HE was more of a sitting duck. If you asked her. Again she remained as she was. If he wanted to see her so bad, then why didnt he just come in and get her already? She was getting tired of this. She regretted coming to the Hotel in the first place. Growling she clicked on the flashlight again. She franticly searched for an escape rout. underneath her was a buried trap door. She face palmed at the fact that she had been sitting on it the whole time. Getting up, she pulled at the trap door. open up you fucker" she thought tugging at the floor. slowly, the door opened and she sliped down into the black hole.

~*~*~

As he stood there, he was listening, to see what she would do. He heard her growl, and a light turned on with a click in the closet. Would she come out? The light was moving around in the closet. What was she doing? He heard some noise from the closet. Hinges? What was she doing in there?

The light faded away. There was no click like when it had been turned on, and it didn't disappear all at once. It was as if it had gone through a tunnel or something, then rounded a turn. He listened hard. He couldn't hear anything anymore. But that was just a closet wasn't it? Normally, closets only have one entrance. Nariko couldn't take it anymore, he walked over to the closet and looked inside. The sight surprised him at first.

"Well I'll be damned..."

What he saw was what appeared to be a trap door in the floor. It was open, leading to some dark place below If she had found a trap door, he doubted that she would wait for him to find it too, and then ambush him. She was probably in the middle of fleeing as he sat here looking at the trap door.

He took his dagger out from where it was behind him, in his belt, and jumped down into the darkness. Whatever was down here, there was no turning back now. Her scent was still relatively close, so all hope wasn't lost.

Chikiba landed on her ass on something hard. She quickly flashed the light onto where she was sitting and let out a scream of terror, "AHHHHH"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Nariko landed on his feet at the bottom. He quickly knelt down to absorb the impact. Right before he had landed, the girl had screamed. This confused him slightly. He stood, taking a defensive pose, waiting for something to attack him. The light was on down here. It was coming from a flashlight. Thats what must have been making the light in the closet. The girl was on the ground by his feet. He couldn't quite see her face, but she had a nice figure. She looked like a pretty girl. Then Nariko realized what else was down here with them. He didn't have the time to look at her for now, his mind had to stay sharp. Plus there was still the very real possibility that she might attack him now.

Chikiba looked behind her, she saw that the boy had landed in front of her, but she didnt really care anymore. Behind her, was a pile of skeletons. The empty eye sockets of the skulls seem to glare at her. It was very eerie. Slowly Chikiba got up. She tilted her head still staring at the huge grouping of bones. Then she picked up the flashlight and flashed it around the room she was in. Everywhere she looked, there was nothing but skeletons. It appeared as though she had fallen into a cellar.

On the far right, the wall was lined with dusty shelves. On the shelves, there were jars of food such as olives, pickled onion, and dill pickles. She looked at the boy in front of her, he hadnt seemed to notice her, or so she thought. He was staring off into the distance in opposite direction of her. Chikiba looked in her right hand, she noticed the long slender knife still remained there. It gleamed from the light of the flashlight. This is it she thought. I'm going to kill him. Gripping the knife hard, she lunged at him from behind. The flashlight hit the cement floor of the cellar and rolled around. "I'm not going to die damn it!" She yelled.

~*~*~*~*~

This place was slightly creepy, he thought. It wasn't necessarily the skeletons that had spooked him. No, what frightened him was that there was so many skeletons all in the same place. What frightened him, was that something had put all these skeletons here. And the thing that had put these skeletons here was definitely dangerous. He was looking around the room at the skeletons. Behind him, the girl was shining the light around the room. He wasn't very good at seeing in the dark, so he was grateful for it. He heard her get up from behind him. He stopped looking around, but didn't turn around. He listened, wondering what she would do. He heard her lunge forward suddenly. He whipped himself around.

"I'm not going to die damn it!"

She had lunged at him, a long knife in her hand, and was going to stab him. He struck her blade with his own, knocking hers off its course. Jumping back, he waited to see what she would do next.

Chikiba was thrown off guard slightly by the quick reaction of the boy. She went flying like a bouncy ball pinging off a wall. She hit the ground hard. scraping her knees and the side of her left forearm. Chikiba struggled to lift her head up. her body had been placed in an akward position. She looked like a sprawled cat laying in sunlight. only she wasnt content, she was angry.

"Bastard.." she muttered. Within seconds she stood up. Her hair had been slightly disheveled from the rebound off the boy. The left side of her face was covered in dirt and dust particles from the floor. She prepared to attack again. Running diagonally in front of him then doing a backflip above him. She landed with a clean thud behind him. She hunched over awaiting the damage to be inflicted onto the boy.

She got in front of him, but flipped over him instead of attacking straight out. He wondered why for a quick second, but soon found out. While she was over him, he saw a short glimpse of her blade, as it shimmered in the light for a quick moment, before striking him. It was too short of notice, he was fast. but not fast enough to dodge the blade, with such little reaction time.

The blade struck his right shoulder, striking the bone, and making him drop his dagger from his hand. She had hit him, damn. No time now to stay still though. She was getting serious, he would have to get serious as well. The girl had landed behind him. Holding his right shoulder with his good hand, he swept his leg behind him, in an attempt to kick and trip her. Then, using his other leg, he jabbed his knee at her face.

"I don't want to fight you!"

Before she knew what was going on, Chikiba fell to the ground. She bumped her head hard against the concrete. The boy jabbed his knee in her face, pinning her to the ground. "I don't believe you," She said coldly. She desperatly flailed her arms trying to get out from underneath him.

"Get OFF of me" she screamed.

She looked at her right hand, the blade had dropped from her grasp. It lay a few feet away. No way she could reach it with him on her. "Shit" she thought. She could barely breathe with him on top of her. What do I do now? She bared her teeth and growled at him. Then it hit her, She summoned up all her strength and slowly moved her head towards his knee. Attempting to bite into it.

~*~*~*~

Nariko saw what she was trying. She was going to bite his knee. He couldn't let her give him an injury to both an arm AND a leg. He raised his knee quickly, but brought his left hand down on her chest, keeping her pinned down.

"I don't want to fight you, I'm not your enemy!"

He had not landed a good hit the entire fight. All he had done was try to dodge her hits, and hold her down. He wondered to himself why she was fighting him so vigorously in the first place. His right shoulder was starting to sting without his good hand putting pressure on the wound, and it was still bleeding.

Chikiba didnt move quick enough. The boy shifted his knee's position and put a hand on her chest. She was unable to reach his hand with her teeth so she tried using her claws.

"Then why the fuck were you so keen on following me huh? I don't care who you are. I trust no one." She said with a growl.

While she said this, she inched her paws slowly to his hand on her chest. Hopefully her words had distracted him long enough for her to damage his hand.

~*~*~*~

After him moving his knee to pin her down with his hand instead, his knee was know free. He saw her slowly moving her hand towards his hand. Bringing his knee down hard and fast, he pinned her hand to the ground.

"I haven't seen anybody else alive for so long, I wanted to meet you very badly. Plus your scent... it's quite infatuating. Why would a pretty girl such as yourself have to be so vicious?"

Nariko was finally able to get a good look at her face now. She had a pretty face. He found himself looking into her eyes. They were a deep blue, with a hint of red in them. She had beautiful eyes.

Chikiba heard his words. Her anger was starting to fade.. But no, "I cant trust you" she said. Looking at his face, she continued. "No matter what you say." She then shot her face away from his as if to slap him. "I've learned not to feel emotions. I've abandoned most. The only things I feel now are fear and anger. I've come to utterly despise everything. Nothing is the same anymore." She said all this with narrow eyes. Her lips curled downwards in an ugly frown.

She gave up resisting against him, for the moment.

He looked at her, feeling slightly sad for her. Life without emotions would be a terrible life.

"You should never have to live your life without emotions. Fear and anger are terrible things to live with. With all that negativity, you need some positivity as well. What about happiness and love? I believe that these is required to truly live. Without them, why live at all?"

He took his knee off her arm, and his hand off her chest. Sitting up, he looked at her.

"It looks to me like what you need is a friend."

Chikiba doubled over and started breathing rapidly. Once she had caught her breath, she turned to him and laughed. "Friends?" such a humorous word. Why bother with friends..? I dont NEED "friends" I dont really NEED anything." She got up. She knew this wasn't true, but she rather lie to herself then face her demons. "I've spent all my life running. I've grown prone to being alone. And I much prefer that."

She walked around The boy and kneeled down beside him. She snatched up her blade and got back up. Walking around again, she walked a ways away from him towards where the flashlight had dropped. It had rolled over to the wall with the old food on it. She turned around and faced him. "I'm leaving now." She said. With that she started towards the pile of skeletons that she had landed on before.

~*~*~*~