A/N - Story #2 of the Kitty Yami series! Thanks once again to my GSB for coming up with this plot demon and my wifey for making me write it.
The leopard's jaws dug into the fleshy stomach of the wild boar and ripped off another hunk of meat. The leopard and the dead boar were high up in a tree, nestled on a huge branch, the boar being held up by the leopard's powerful paws.
With a tired yawn, the leopard released the boar from his grasp causing the dead animal to tumble to the forest floor. The leopard then laid his head down and closed his crimson eyes wanting some sleep. The forest was quiet therefore the leopard easily heard a branch snap down on the ground as someone step on it.
Curious, the leopard opened his red eyes to see what had caused the noise. It wasn't long before the leopard saw a man and his young son walking along the path.
'Jackpot,' the leopard, Atemu, thought to himself. He had been lost in the woods for a while and it would be nice to be around civilization again. Transforming into a black house cat, Atemu hurried down the tree and over to the two humans.
"Daddy! Look!"
"Don't touch it Yuan," the father warned. "It may seem like a friendly cat but it could have a number of diseases."
Atemu huffed in protest at that remark. He was perfectly healthy, in the prime of his life being around 3018 years old. He was offended that someone would think other wise but he knew he should expect something like that from a mere human.
"Can we take him home?"
"Absolutely not!"
With another kitty huff, Atemu darted back up the tree. It didn't matter if he went with the humans or not. He could easily follow them to their village after they moved along.
Atemu waited until the father and son were almost out of sight before once again climbing down from the tree. He then followed the pair at a safe distance so that they were unaware he was there.
Atemu was neither leopard nor house cat but a demon with the ability to transform into both animals, a rarity among his kind. 3000 years ago Atemu had lived among other demons until he was 18 and traveled to the Pool of Destiny with his best friend, a fire demon called Bakura. The vision Atemu had been given ad lead him to almost killing Bakura while the fire demon slept. Bakura had woken up though, which had been the only thing to stop the cat demon.
Since that day Atemu had been shunned by the demon society. Therefore he spent most of the past 3000 years living as a leopard and cat. Most recently, Atemu had been living in a forest, lost and unable to find a village to stay at. That would soon change however as long as he kept following the father and child. It would be nice to be around people again. Besides, whenever Atemu was around humans it always gave him an excuse to try and find the all brunet from his vision. It had been 3000 years but Atemu still remembered every one of the brunet's features.
'Seto…' the cat demon thought as he continued following the humans.
'Seto…'
Seto Kaiba rolled over in his sleep. A demon hunter for the past five of his 22 years, Seto had vowed to hunt down and kill every demon after witnessing the death of his young brother, murdered by a demon who attacked their village. Seto was still seeking revenge for that incident. Lately however the demon hunter had been troubled by dreams he had during his sleep. Ever since he had turned 18, at times when he was asleep he'd hear an unfamiliar but comforting voice calling out his name.
Blinking open his eyes, Seto got a good look at his surroundings as he sat up. He had forgotten he had stayed at an inn that night instead of camping out in the woods like normal. It had been pouring rain the night before so Seto had traveled to a nearby village to spend the night.
The demon hunter glanced out the small window in his room; it was still raining which annoyed Seto. It was hard hunting in the rain for it covered up tracks and many demons chose to stay inside during that type of weather. But still, it gave him an opportunity to question the town's people if there had been any suspicious activity lately.
Seto favored the color black, dressing mostly in that color. Black boots, pants and shirt, with the small exception for a long white cape, Seto began reattaching his weapons to his body. First it was a belt that had his sword and a dagger attached to it and then he placed a quiver full of arrows on his back along with his bow. Fully clothed he was ready to get some work done.
"Meow."
"Scoot cat!" the woman protested trying to hit Atemu with her broom. Atemu hissed at the woman before hurrying off her porch.
'Stupid bitch,' Atemu thought to himself. He really didn't like that village much; the people were so rude to a harmless, hungry cat.
Hungrily, Atemu wandered around in search of other sources of food. There were no wild animals near the village to hunt since two rivers, keeping both human and animal predators away, surrounded the village. The bridges across the rivers were guarded at all times and even a cat would get noticed if he crossed it one to many times.
As well Atemu was not yet ready to leave human company. He had already tried transforming into his human form but he had gotten turned away at the tavern when they found out he had no money.
Walking through the village, Atemu hungrily eyed the small pasture of cattle. He hated resorting to killing livestock but he had to eat. With no other option, Atemu decided that as soon as the sun fell he would feast.
"Excuse me sir," a polite voice said. Looking up from where he sat drinking some ale, Seto found a blond haired, teenage boy. "Are you the demon hunter I've heard about?"
"I am," Seto confirmed as he took another sip of his drink. The Weather had kept Seto suck at the village for a while and he was eager to find out what the boy wanted with him. "Have a seat."
"Thank you sir. Please help us. My name is Alexei and I come from the neighboring village Kukai. My father sent me to find you since we heard there was a hunter in the area and we think there might be a demon at our village."
"What makes you think that?" Seto inquired wanting to make sure this was more than paranormal thoughts. He had encountered many demon scares in his career, which turned out to be nothing more than an animal or an act of human negligent.
"A week ago a small black cat arrived in our village-"
"So?"
"He has crimson eyes."
"Go on…"
"Then a few days ago our livestock started being killed…"
"Wild animals?"
"No sir! Kukai is surrounded by two rivers for defense so any animals always stays on the other side of the water. Our bridges are guarded every night and never is there evidence that something has swam across the river."
"Anything else?"
"During the night we'll hear growling as if a monster is in the village. We're all too scared to go look when we hear it but in the morning we'll fine footprints of a large cat. These footprints are never found on the other side of the rivers so whatever is causing the footprints is in the village."
"Alright, lead me to this Kukai village and I'll look around. If you do have a demon, I'll take care of it."
"Thank you sir!"
The pair stood and walked out of the tavern unaware that the entire time they had been over heard by the white haired person sitting one table over.
"Cat demon eh?" The person murmured quietly to himself. A smirk appeared on Bakura's lips as he raised his cup of rum to his mouth. "Looks like I've finally found you Kitten."
Atemu was asleep on a roof when he was awaken by the chatter of people down below. 'Annoying humans,' Atemu bitterly thought to himself but he decided to eavesdrop anyway.
"Alexei has gone to find that demon hunter said to be in the area."
"Good…then our problem will be gone."
Atemu sat up in alarm as he overheard what they said. A demon hunter on his way to the village was not a good thing.
The cat demon mused over his two options, either leave before the hunter got there or use his human form and try and trick the hunter into thinking he was merely human. He knew however a professional demon hunter would not be so easily tricked though.
While debating still what to do, Atemu's eyes fell upon the old windmill in the distance, not too far away but far enough that it should be a safe hiding spot from any demon hunter. The windmill had been abandoned some years ago after a man was found murdered inside so Atemu knew it would make the perfect hiding place until the hunter left.
Jumping down from the roof, Atemu hurried across the bridge and raced towards the windmill before the hunter arrived.
"This is Kukai!" Alexei proudly said to the demon hunter as he lead Seto across the bridge and into the village.
"Good…I think I'll start my investigation by checking out that cat you mentioned."
"Too late it already ran off," a passing woman said who had overheard him. "He headed off towards the old windmill."
"Fine, I'll check it out. I'll be back later to see if the cat has any connection to those monster noises you've been hearing all night."
Turning around Seto walked back across the bridge and began following the path to the windmill in hopes of finding the cat he had been warned about. He wasn't at all surprised when he saw small cat footprints in the dirt leading in the direction of the windmill. "I got you," he whispered before hurrying off down the path.
"Interesting…" Bakura quietly murmured to himself as he watched the demon hunter from his hiding place behind a large tree. Bakura had been following the hunter and the boy ever since they had left the other village, as he knew they would lead him to Atemu.
Summoning a fire in the palm of his hand, Bakura stared into the flames. "You'll burn tonight Kitten."
Seto's piercing blue eyes searched around the inside of the abandoned windmill. His bow and arrow was cocked ready in firing position as he stalked through the dark building looking for the small black cat he had followed inside.
Seto knew the cat was a demon. No normal cat had red eyes nor could have been responsible for killing livestock in the nearby village. Like all demons, the cat deserved to die.
As Seto continued to hunt throughout the discarded windmill he was unaware he was being watched by unseen crimson eyes. The small cat was crouched down, hiding under a shelf, hoping the demon hunter would leave soon.
Atemu held his breath as the black boots of the demon hunter pasted by him. The hunter was good; Atemu gave him credit for that. As the hunter moved along, Atemu stuck his head out a little to marvel in the hunter's handsomeness. For a long time Atemu had been searching for the person he had a vision of at the Pool of Destiny and when he had finally found him, Atemu was horrified to discover that his secret love was a demon hunter.
Atemu's cat nose twitched upon catching a familiar scent, one different from the demon hunter. Glancing around the building, Atemu found the white-haired demon, leaning up again the wall in a corner. With his cat eyes, Atemu could easily see the fire demon smirk in the dark. Moving his arms, Bakura pressed a palm on the wall next to him. Before Atemu knew what was happening, the wall was lit on fire.
Smelling the smoke, Seto spun around only to find a wall of fire springing up from the ground and surround the fire demon, allowing Bakura to make his escape through his fire traveling ability.
"Shit," Seto grumbled. The demon hunter was about to abandon his quest for the cat demon when he caught a quick black movement of the cat he was hunting run from it's hiding place as it also tried escaping the windmill before the fire burned it to the ground.
The fire was rapidly growing quicker, but Seto had never lost a demon he was hunting and he wasn't about to start now. Ignoring the blaze, Seto fired an arrow in the cat's direction, swearing again when he missed. His swears soon turned to coughs however as the smoke intensified.
Turning around, Seto wisely decided to leave the cat for now and escape from the windmill while he still could. However when the cat distracted him, Seto had failed to notice that the fire and smoke were both spreading throughout the building fast.
The smoke burned at Seto's eyes and he continued to cough. Seto struggled to stay upright as he tried stumbling towards the exit. But he soon was unable to stop himself from falling to the ground.
Seeing the hunter fall, Atemu hurried to his side and began nudging at his neck with his nose. When that got no response, Atemu quickly transformed into his human form. "Wake up!" he begged as he shook Seto's body in between coughs of his own. The hunter still however did move.
Grabbing Seto's arms, Atemu attempted to drag Seto out of the burning building but quickly discovered that because of their size difference the hunter was too heavy for him to drag. Reluctantly, Atemu transformed into his leopard form. Taking Seto's white cape into his mouth, Atemu began dragging the hunter through the blaze. Soon they were out on the grassy lawn in front of the burning windmill.
Seto gave a small groan upon them reaching the fresh air and Atemu knew that he would be okay. Transforming back into a cat, Atemu curled up next to Seto's head, cuddling close to the hunter waiting for further help to arrive.