Author's Note: It's been a while, mostly because I've been practicing my pathetic drawings of Xero and Cirth and partly because of school. But lucky me, it ended so I got all the time in the world. I think this chapter and the next chapter are going to be a bit of a 'What the hell?' kind of thing, especially this chapter. This chapter has a pretty high 'What the hell?' rate. But anyway, please R&R.

---

Chapter 12: Cat-Boy Cirth

Rhana led Cirth into a small cottage in the middle of the forest. It wasn’t much, especially not for Cirth, but as long as it was good enough for sitting in for a few minutes, it didn’t matter. She quickly cooked up a pot of tea that he declined to, but she had poured it anyway and with quivering hands. “You don’t have to be afraid. You’re magic will be blocked for just about ten minutes and then you can use your spells again.”

She smiled, but didn’t say anything. There was just something about his eyes, his crimson eyes that made her sense that if he had a choice, he really would have killed her. But didn’t he have a choice? It made her confused and even more unsettled. “You…you never said your name.” She said when she sat down.

“I don’t see how that really matters.” He took a quick sip of the tea and cringing at the taste. He wiped his mouth and put the cup far from him, “Nice tea. Anyway,” He paused and looked at the table, “What happened to make Xero sick?”

“I don’t know.” Rhana said slowly, taking a drink of her own cup of tea, “She looked to have been running for hours, she had blood and dirt on her shirt-“

“The blood wasn’t hers.” Cirth added, “We had a run in with a homicidal Akirian monk.” He stopped seeing the uselessness in the fact and took another sip of the tea forgetting about the bad taste. “Go on.”

“Well, she was scared. She was terrified.” She said, and she looked up quickly, “She spoke. It was only once but she said,” Her lips were moving but nothing came out as if she were thinking out loud, but not ‘out loud’. “She said, ‘How could he?’”

Cirth’s eyes went blank. He remembered everything that he had done, and she was watching. He had delighted in killing them all, and she had seen that on his face. “It’s all my fault.” He muttered, closing his eyes. “I can’t lose her." He said it to more to himself then anyone else. His eyes snapped open and looked straight at Rhana, startling her, "Where is Itashinai Village?”

“It’s at the northwest border of the forest.”

“Show me.”

---

Xero had wished she hadn’t eaten the seagrass and fish soup like Maiyo had suggested. It was making a long passage through her stomach and some had even gotten stuck in her teeth that, no matter how many time she had flossed, the flavor was stuck. “Does anyone have a peppermint?”

“A what?” Kenshi had asked.

“A peppermint. You know, it’s a candy, it’s red and white striped, you put it in your mouth and suck on it and it makes your breath smell good.” She was amazed that one of the things she remembered was a peppermint, even when she hardly even knew what her own name was. Maiyo noted that her memory was returning, but Xero didn’t think that so much. A peppermint was a very common candy, she remembered, then thought that if no one here knew about them, maybe it’s not a memory. “Maybe I’m just delusional.”

“No, you don’t seem the type to have delusions.” Kenshi said, stirring up a fresh batch of salad, “I’m sure in some part of the world, those pepper-thingies are common. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but this is a pretty small village.”

Xero looked out of the window, “I haven’t. I want to go out but-“ She cover her ears again, self consciously. “I don’t want to be reacted to the way Yohko had. Is everyone here like that?”

“Worry not, Xero-chan,” Maiyo said, as she cut tomatoes into pieces. “Yohko is a special girl. Very energetic. Most people in this town are pretty centered. You should not fear what you think will happen and take a step outside and smell the fresh air.” She said and continued to cut up food for the nights dinner.

Everything that Xero asked for them not to put in the food, they did. “You want to be healthy don’t you. Health and beauty are two great things in this world. That is what I think. You’re a beautiful young girl, demon or not. You just need your health up a bit.” Maiyo had said and Xero, jumped off of the counter she had been sitting on in the kitchen and went to the hall. Down that hallway was the shattered door that was previously blown appart by Yohko's rage.

“You want to go for a walk?” Kenshi asked, stepping up from behind her. “It’s okay. I’ll protect you.” He reassured her, but for some reason, it made her feel uncomfortable. Especially when he offered her his hand. Even with the feeling, she took his hand and they walked through the blasted door.

Xero kept glancing around as soon as they came outside. People in the streets glanced at her. Some took a step back when they noticed the unnatural eyes and cat demon ears. Some even looked at her claws in hopes that they wouldn’t be used. “Just keep walking,” Kenshi croaned, almost nervous himself.

A little girl was on the road where they were walking and from the looks of it, her mother was too busy having a chat to see what her daughter was doing. She was just making her way to the other side of the road, just as a blind horse carriage was making its way through the town. People had noticed and reacted by gasping and just watched as the horse was trotting his way rapidly through the road.

Xero saw this, and even noticed the little girl’s mother looking over just before her daughter was to be trampled on. A name was called, but it was fuzzy when her attention was on what was happening. The little girl shrieked, then giggled.

The memory of it wasn’t there. She didn’t know how she ended up in front of the porch where the girl’s mother had been obliviously chatting. The little girl seemed to be immediately cheerful at what had happened, especially after seeing Xero’s ears. “Kitty!” She yelped playfully clapping in her arms. “Kitty! Kitty!”

Xero put the child in front of the porch and stepped back to watch the little girls mother come and scoop up her daughter, looking up at Xero with both fear and gratitude. But she still felt like she was a monster to the town, even after her rescue. She walked back to Kenshi, still hearing the cheering of the child still yelping ‘Kitty! Kitty!’ She smiled, looking back, “At least I have one fan.”

---

Cirth walked through the brush that Rhana had said to walk through. “Go to the northwest and walk for thirty meters until you find a path. From there on, you should be able to see the opening to Itashinai Village.” It wasn’t a hard walk, or a long one for that matter. It was only a very annoying walk through the trees and bushes that likes to bite and scratch his skin.

When he finally got past the thickets and thorns, he found the path that Rhana told him about, and just as she said, he could see the opening that led into Itashinai. His body vanished and reappeared at the border of his destination. He stepped aside to let a horse carriage pass through into the woods, then continued his search.

“Lose your prey?” A voice echoed through his mind. Cirth twisted his lips at the familiarity of it. “Okami’s not going to be very happy about that.”

“Okami can kiss my ass if she’s the one who sent you. Why are you here? It can’t be on her orders.” He said looking up at the sky, “Come out, Hyuga. Don’t be such a coward.”

Hyuga did come out. He appeared out of the shadow of a tree, looking at Cirth up and down with a grin, “You look like you’ve been through Hell, Akuma. Do half-breeds not suit your taste? I hear snakes like you would enjoy a nice big meal like this one.” He snickered, and Cirth’s eyes seemed to repeat his question, and Hyuga answered. “I came of my own will. So what if I didn’t get clearance. I’m a first class demon, I do what I want.”

“First class, huh?” Cirth chuckled, “You don’t really believe that, do you, Hyuga? The size of your ego fits the size of your head perfectly. No wonder there aren’t any brains in there.” He smiled at the sight of his rival’s anger and reveled in it. “You didn’t get this mission. This mission concerns the life of Okami-sama, and you didn’t get it. Who’s the first class demon here, Hyuga? Just ask yourself that. Who is it?”

“You’re not fit to do this job, Akuma, and you know it. You’re getting too close to that half-breed. Just hand her over and let me take care of it.”

“Okami doesn’t want her dead, you dolt. She wants her brought to her to be changed into a useful member of Okami’s army, if possible. Someone as twisted as you couldn’t get inside her head and mend the mold of her being. She’s too innocent, and you wouldn’t understand that.”

“So you are getting close to her.” It was an observation, not a question. Hyuga took amusement, knowing that if it happened things wouldn’t turn out well. “Well, I’d like to find out then, how a ‘innocent’ half-breed could take down a demon-lord like Okami-sama.”

“I couldn’t tell you that.” Cirth said, “Just tell Okami that she will be brought before the new moon rises.” He said and turned around toward the left boarder of Itashinai, where he decided was the first technique to try to find Xero. “By the way, Hyuga, I do not have a weakness for the half-breed. I need her, if only for Okami and nothing else.” He said it strongly, so much that it even surprised him. He walked away from Hyuga, but as he walked away, a voice seemed to come closer, ringing througout his head.

“How could he?” It was just a phantom of a voice that resembled Xero’s, but it was all in his head. Echoing like a scream in an eternal abyss. He had to stop and rub the temples of his head to relieve himself of the ongoing throbbing.

“Damn half-breed.” He cursed silently. Then thought about it. Xero was innocent, more than any half-demon he met and in the one hundred and twenty years of his life, he had met many weak and pathetic ones. But none compared to her. How could she kill Okami, a demon lord that was more powerful than even himself?

The question was interrupted by another voice, coming from behind some trees and brush.

“By the word of Akira, let this object be shown!” It was a girl’s voice. A very loud girl’s voice. He followed it to a secluded area. It was a human, around Xero’s age, he though, maybe a bit younger. Her hair was brown and she wore a long cape that he only saw on a percentage of the worlds humans. It was just another sorceress. “Damn,” she muttered, “It's just another rock.”

Cirth noticed the ton of rocks that surrounded her and turned to leave before he got mixed up in it. But he was too late. “Hey, you!” She shouted and he, unwillingly looked over his shoulder, “Yeah, you! The guy with the hair.” He glanced up at his black and red hair and rolled his eyes. Turning around and going to her.

He stopped a few feet in front of her and place his hands in his pockets, waiting for something to be said, "Do you know anything about sorcery?"

He licked his lips, "No."

The girl gave a whimper, looked around and grabbed his sleeve after he tried to leave, "Wait, please. I need your help."

He glanced at the rocks around him, "I don't think so, girl. I'd rather not be an experiment to fake magic."

"Fake?"

"You heard me." Cirth sneered trying to tear her arm off him. He couldn't port with someone on him the way she was. He juggled the thought of forcing her off but decided not to. "What do you want from me? I already told you, I'm no sorceror, and I wouldn't want to be. Like I said, all sorcery is is fake magic." She sat staring at him with rage, "What I mean is, the magic doesn't even come from you. It comes from someone with magic that doesn't give a shit if you borrow magic from them."

"Then what is real magic?" She asked in a rage that was being contained within her.

He snapped and a fireball appeared and was controled by the index and middle fingers. It floated around the sorceress and came back to Cirth's palm, "Something that you can't do." He flipped his hand so that the index and middle fingers would point to the sorceress's feet where the fireball obediently followed. She jumped back shrieking as the fireball vanished in a puff of smoke and dirt. She had been forced to let go of Cirth's shirt.

He grinned and his image began to flicker.

Angry the girl fell to the floor and drew a pentagram in the dirt and touched it with her hands, "Saigen!" She looked up and saw the image of Cirth return in confusion. He looked down at her, she drew a line in the dirt that touched Cirth's boot and he hadn't had time to react. She once more placed her hand on the pentagram and shouted, "Tatazumai Henkou!!" She paused for a second as the pentagram began to draw itself in a red glow, and when it reached the line that led to Cirth boot, she shouted one last thing, "Neko!"

"What the Hell?" He muttered as the red glow seemed to cover him. He tried to take a step away but found his boots had turned into paws. His whole body seemed to be shrinking, "Oh shit..." His voice trailed off as he fell on all fours and black and red fur covered his body and his miniaturized body fell out of his jacket and pants.

He walked out on all fours from under his trench coat and shook himself, glaring with his still red eyes as he looked at himself and his paws. His mouth opened and, luckily, he found that he could still speak; "A CAT!!" He roared, "You turned me into a cat! You damn sorceress, are you crazy!?"

Suddenly she looked up innocently, "Oh my God, I am so sorry! I didn't mean to!"

"Didn't mean to?" He shouted, angrily, his voice hissing like a cat's would in a savage anger. Then something unexpected happened, something odd. His ears twitched. Suddenly he could hear nearly everything; footsteps, people talking in the town, and a familiar voice. He couldn't make out what she was saying, but he knew the voice anywhere. "Xero." He turned and ran toward the place where the voice was coming from.

"Hey!" He heard the sorceress he had left behind, and he even knew that by the sound of her feet, the sorceress was chasing him. But that didn't matter. Xero's voice was closer, and so was another's voice that was near her, but he didn't care who was with her, but where she was. He stopped in an alley between a couple of buildings. He peaked his nose out to glance at the owner of Xero's familiar voice; it was deffinately her. He had an urge to run out to her to shout at her and ask her in a loud tone where the Hell she had been. But then again, he took another glance at himself. He was completely naked except for the massive amounts of fur. He was a cat and no longer someone who was intimidating.

The question of the hour: How exactly can a cat be seen as intimidating? He stepped back a few feet and his face slammed hard into something. He looked up at the sorceress who had finished following him. Her eyes looked out and saw Xero talking to Kenshi. "Do you know her?" She asked.

Cirth nodded, "She's a...she's someone I need."

"You're girlfriend?"

"Hell no!"

He stopped after his reaction then peaked back out to see if Xero had heard him. She and Kenshi were looking around, but they didn't know where the shout came from. He turned back around to face the sorceress, "She can't see me like this. I'm naked, full of fur, and a foot tall. If she sees me she'll," He paused and shivered, "I don't want her to recognize me."

"Well then, you don't have to worry about that. She doesn't remember anything."

His eyes widened and he peaked out his head again, "Nothing? She doesn't remember me?" The sorceress shook her head. Cirth's jaw was opened just a tiny bit, and he watched Xero talk to a man. A human he noticed. He grimaced at that. He looked like the pacifist type that stayed at home and took care of his family while other men became samurai and shinobi, or even sorcerors. She didn't deserve to stay in one place and not see everything the world held. "I'm Cirth, by the way." He said, "And I'm going to need you to change me back."

"My name is Yohko." She acted as if she hadn't heard the last part. She kneeled beside him and petted him, "Nice to meet you."

He turned his head back, "Don't touch me." He said, "So can you do it?"

"Do what?"

Damn humans. "Turn me back into myself."

"Oh!" She smiled and shook her head, "Not a clue."

All the excitement was making Cirth a bit tired, and for the first time ever, hot. He was sweating, something he had never done before, and it was aggitating him. "Well, you turned me into this! Why can't you reverse it?"

"You made me angry." A moment of silence followed, but she found a way to replace it, "I remember more when I'm angry. If you want me to turn you back then I'm going to need practice. If I get angry again, I might turn you into a beatle, so I wouldn't chance it if I were you."

It was her only excuse and Cirth took it. He thought that maybe he deserved it. The only person who can reverse a sorceress's curse was the sorceress who placed it. It was one of the main rules of magic and he knew it well. He was going to have to live with being a cat, at least until Xero's memory returned.

An idea then came to him. He wanted to help her get her memory back, and he had an idea. "Yohko, don't tell anyone about me, especially Xero...um...does she remember her name?" Yohko nodded sharply and Cirth's smiled, glad that she knew something, even if it wasn't about him.

Cirth turned around to give Xero a last faraway glance. She was walking away to the left. He had to go.

"Are you going to see her?"

"That's the plan." He ran out from his hiding place, praying to Akira that she wouldn't recognize him. Not for a while anyway.

---

Xero's ears twitched when a drop of water hit them. She turned her head upward to stare into the gray clouds that were descending over them, "Looks like it's going to rain." She said and looked to Kenshi with a smile, "We better get back to Maiyo's hut."

Kenshi nodded in agreement, walking along beside him. She walked shyly beside him, keeping her distance like a puppy, or rather a kitten, who had been previously scolded and then asked to follow its master. The feeling she was experiencing was somewhere in the middle of fear and nervousness, but still couldn't figure out why she felt either. "Kenshi-kun," She said, "Why do you act like you do with Yohko? She told me that you two used to get along pretty well. I was just wondering..." She trailed off as she noticed Kenshi's discreet but obvious rage and annoyance. But she had to continued, "What changed?"

"She did." He said bluntly, "She met that witch, started to practice sorcery and nearly destroyed everything she touched. And as I got farther away she got more obsessive about me." He explained as they walked. "She was once shy, a lot like you believe it or not. After all the magic she just--" He stopped, "She got out of hand. I can't get her away from me, or the forest witch. She's obssessed about me, but she loves doing magic. Xero," She looked up at him and he gained her complete attention, "You have to understand. I love her. But she can't have both me and magic. It doesn't work that way."

They were still standing in the middle of the dirt road, not moving, both feeling uncomfortable. Xero felt obligated to say something, so she opened her mouth, and she shrieked. She had grabbed on to his arm after jumping, and just before feeling pathetic. Her cheeks became bright red when she looked down and saw a cat.

Kenshi chuckled and knelt down, "This is a strange cat." He reached out to pet it but the cat hissed. It was an odd kind of hiss, almost like a snake would if it were threatened. He jumped up, "I don't think it likes me. But it is a wierd animal. Cat fur isn't usually like that. Look at the coat. It's red and black, that's just the strangest looking thing I've ever seen."

Red and black, Xero remembered, black and red. A stranger. Someone that was hiding the truth. A stranger of mystery.

Xero shook it off and knelt down and the cat, Cirth, obediently rubbed his head against her in a way to seduce her to him. A perfected plan, he thought, grinning behind the cat face. He hated the fact that he had to act so innocent, pathetic and shameful in his thoughts just to get her to invite him to go with her.

She picked him up, and at first, claws bit into her in reaction, but remembering his cause, he tried retracting them and luckily for him it worked. She looked into his eyes. Crimson eyes that pierced into her and glowed in reaction to her shadow. "He looks familiar." She said still looking at him, "Do I know you, kitten?" She seemed to jump at her own words that she dropped him, but he found his footing before-hand and landed on his feet. She came down fast, to reasure him by appologetic massages to his fur, "I'm sorry. That was an accident. It..."

"What?" Kenshi asked, looking at Xero's thoughtful features.

"...Kitten..." She said, hearing an echo of a voice. "Someone used to call me that." She thought harder. She remembered seeing the fanged teeth that hung out a a meticulous grin. A strange mark on the cheek of someone's face, their voice, metalic blue hair that waved in windless air, spilling blood, the cries of pain, seeing the fangs of a stranger pierce another, then the scent of the forest. She knelt down, holding her stomach with one hand and her face with another, "Oh god..." She muttered in dispair as tears came to her eyes. She remembered the blood and the agony, she remembered what she had seen and the screams she had heard, but still the stranger was lost to her.

Cirth came closer to her, wanting to ask what was wrong. To ask what she had remembered, but part of him knew exactly what she had seen in her memory. A massacre.

Instead of him, Kenshi asked what was happening, what was wrong. She hadn't answered. "Common. It's going to rain soon, we better get to Baa-chan's." He said, getting her up. Cirth looked up at him, "Leave the cat. We can't take him with us." Xero didn't agree, but Cirth growled at the boy's ignorance. He wouldn't take 'Leave the cat' for an answer. He followed them every step of the way, and lay next to Xero when she got back to Maiyo's hut. She petted him, and he wished he could talk to her, if only to make her remember and knock her back to her senses. But all he could do was listen and wait for Xero's memory to return and for Yohko to be able to perform the countercurse.

---

A/N: I know, Xero still doesn't remember Cirth and it's not what you want, but Cirth's officially a neko. He can't say his smart ass remarks and that's bound to make him a bit more psychotic...at least by demon standards. Cirth might have seemed to be out of character, but he wasn't. He'll get back to his old ways soon enough. Well, this was a pretty slow chapter and I'm sorry for that. Next chapter there will be more action, more tears and maybe even a sexy naked demon Cirth if I feel like it.......excuse me. Please review now....