Disclaimer: Don't own Champloo, goo-goo-ga-joob.

Tales of the Fireflies

Chapter One: The Demon

The sun was barely touching the earth. The girl stirred on her bamboo mat, sighing gently at the window she faced. She always seemed to wake up early, even when she didn't want to. Maybe it was because she loved to hear the morning begin.

Oh, how wonderful it would be to see the morning, up close, for real…

She wouldn't dare it. Mukuro would be most displeased if she disturbed his personal space in that way. He had made it clear in more ways than one that it was quite unwise to invade his territory. One day, he had made it extremely clear for her…

"Listen!" he had said, grasping the little girl's face hard enough to bruise. "Don't move from this room until you see the sun out the window. That's my time. You've got this whole big room, and all I ask is that you wait for the sun to come before you leave it. And never come to me during the night. I do business during the night, understand? You have the whole goddamn day to do whatever the hell you want, and all I ask is that you leave me the fuck alone. If you want to eat, if you want to live, you live by my rules. Understand me?"

Apparently, the seven year old girl hadn't answered quickly enough, for she earned herself another backhand.

"Kohza! Tell me you understand!" he demanded, grasping her face harder. The little girl nodded vehemently as she could.

"Good…" he finally let her go. He didn't give any reason for the exaggerated fervor of the beating, just grabbed his sword and walked away. "Let's not have this talk again…"

If only he wouldn't do things like that. Somehow, she knew that brothers were supposed to love their sisters. She knew Mukuro loved her. Of course he loved her. Brothers loved their little sisters.

If only he wouldn't do things like that…

"If only you could learn not to piss me off," he would tell her…

Kohza sighed at the open window, watching the sun slowly lightening the sky. If only she could see the sun rising over this hard, ugly land, just once…

The sunlight barely touched the ground in here, the trees grew so thickly. The tall, dead grass brushed by her bare legs, making them itch. Her nails raked over her legs idly, but her eyes didn't show any notice. She kept her eyes low to the ground. Even if the sun could get through here, she wouldn't be able to enjoy it. After all, they needed to eat something tonight.

The basket on her arm held seven shitake mushrooms and a bundle wrapped in a scarf. If she didn't find more mushrooms, they wouldn't have enough to make stir-fry, and they would have to eat fish and rice again. Her brother had grown bored of rice long ago, and she had to admit it, even she was tired of just eating rice and cold fish for the past three days.

Darker and darker the forest grew. Kohza wasn't afraid of the trees. She had grown up playing in the forest, living in this cesspool. The forest was just part of the ugliness of the place. It wasn't like a forest was supposed to be, with clean groves of neat trees and open valleys filled with flowers. There were no sweet sounds of birds singing. There were no happy babbling brooks. Here, dark, massive, twisted trees grew everywhere, reaching with clutching fingers, fighting one another tooth and nail for a piece of the sacred sun. Dead plants littered the bottoms, half drowning in the boggy ground, yet still struggling, struggling, always struggling to stay alive. Animals here were fierce, each one fighting to kill the others just to eat, to survive. The people here were like the animals, too.

Kohza hated the forest. Kohza hated the whole island. But most of all, she hated the fact that she lived here: that she'd lived here all her life and was unlikely to ever live anywhere else. That made her a part of it, a part that could never escape.

She knelt down to twist a ginger root out of the ground. Pulling her knife out of the ground, she gave the plant a satisfying whack and placed it in the basket next to the mushrooms. If nothing else, she could that in tonight's dinner. There was nothing better than fresh ginger to spice up a banal meal. Then, maybe brother wouldn't be angry tonight.

Mukuro could think up some of the worst things to say when he was drunk and angry. Even if he didn't hit her, it hurt her to be called lower than dirt.

Sometimes, she almost wished he would hit her instead.

The dark cover of the trees, so dark that it was almost like nighttime, enveloped her now…

Finding a soft, mossy spot on the ground near the foot of a rotting tree trunk, she suddenly dropped to her knees. She had walked at least five miles from the hut now, and her calves were starting to ache. Breakfast had been nonexistent, and her stomach was starting to growl. Even though she was bored of them, the rice balls she had packed for her lunch were calling to her stomach. Hurriedly unwrapping her small meal, she began to eat with her hands, and for a moment, felt almost satisfied.

The trees were so thick here…it was like being swallowed whole by the darkness…

Suddenly, there was a rustling in the grass several yards away. It lasted for less than a second and then stopped, returning the forest to silence.

Kohza looked up, suddenly aware of how vulnerable she must be. She was in the forest, eating food, and any hungry animal would surely be willing to kill her for it. Her tiny knife would do nothing against a boar or even a puma. Jumping to her feet, she held the knife in front of her, trying to look as if she wasn't afraid even as her heart did flip-flops in her chest.

The rustling began again. Something was moving quickly through the grass, closing in on her…Kohza's breath came in short bursts, eyes adjusted as much as humanly possible. Her heart was pounding against her ribs, a frenzied bird trying to escape the cavern of her chest. It was something big, she could make out that much. It was something big enough to kill her, and chances were, it would kill her. She could see herself, bleeding to death on the forest floor, paralyzed with pain, as smaller animals came to feed on her entrails, as flies collected to land in her open wounds.

It was perhaps five yards from her now. There was no running away. There had never been any chance to run away. This animal was too fast, there was no way she could outrun it. Knife still in hand, she closed her eyes and started muttering the old, dead words of a prayer, praying Death would be swift on his mark…

The rustling stopped.

The forest was quiet. Half a minute passed. Kohza cautiously opened her eyes, her body still shaking with fear.

Two feral, golden eyes stared back at her from the grass. A dark figure was crouching there, watching her intently. She let out a gasp of surprise.

Quick as a flash, the dark figure zipped away into the tall grass again, further into the Night Forest. Within seconds, it was gone, and Kohza was alone again.

The girl fell upon the ground, hugging her knees to her chest and clutching her basket, which she had dropped in the panic. After a minute or so, she had calmed herself down, and her mind began to wonder at the events that had occurred.

What had that creature been? It didn't look or act like any animal she had ever seen in her life. Something inside her told her that the figure she had seen in the grass was not an animal at all. Still, those eyes…surely, there was a beast in those eyes…

Was there a demon haunting these twisted woods?

Without thinking, she suddenly grabbed her basket. This was not a safe place to stay. Who knows when that…that…that whatever it was might be coming back. She'd run several paces away before she stopped in her tracks and looked back into the dreaded forest again.

If this really was a demon, it could have easily killed and eaten her. But it hadn't. It had shown her mercy. Looking over her shoulder to make sure she wouldn't be attacked again, she unwrapped her napkin and took out her half-eaten rice ball. She left it on a flat rock near the mossy place she had stopped to eat and hoped the demon would find it to be proper thanks for his mercy.

As she began the long walk back to their measly hut, she knew she was going to lie to her brother tonight. He was not going to learn of this demon.

And somehow, she also knew that this was not the last time she would see the Demon of the Woods.

(To be continued)

A/N: So thus is the first chapter, ne? Tell me if it's peaked your interest. Tell me if you think it sucks. Tell me what you think, because if you don't like it, I can discontinue the story. Either way, I'd like to hear your imput.

Peace out,
Elflord.