Wolf's Rain: The Boy and the Pack
So I decided to go ahead and write another chapter today, hope you guys enjoy it. Don't be afraid to give me your critiques.
Summary: This story takes place BEFORE the events of the wolf's rain television show. When a young white wolf, Haru, goes on a journey to find paradise, she and her pack discover that the gateway to paradise, resides in a human boy!
Chapter 2
Musha led Haru through a small opening that was a hole in the foundation of an old run down building. During their trip there, Musha and Haru were chased by a pair of human bums who were trying to throw empty beer bottles at them. It was right when they entered the building that Haru had stopped running and started panting, with her head knelt towards the ground. Haru was surprised at how exhausted she was, but she was practically skin and bones from not finding (or being able to successfully hunt) any prey in the mountains. Musha noticed this on the way and even offered to run with Haru on her back, which of course she pridefully refused (also showing a little bit of teenage independence that Musha couldn't help but chuckle at). Musha, a more heavy bodied wolf, was excellent at conserving her energy, and simply walked ahead with ease as Haru stood there ready to keel over. Musha gave one continuous long howl that echoed throughout the building (which appeared to be an abandoned factory. The howl varied in it's beautiful tones, and it didn't take Haru long to realize it was a secret signal for their pack.
Immediately after Musha fell silent, Haru began to hear the rushing footsteps of several wolves making their way to the open. For a moment, Haru was excited to be able to see all her old pack mates, but that excitement was soon torn to shreds when, in shock, she noticed that out of the five wolves that appeared, she could recognize only one. That one wolf didn't even seem to recognize her.
"You've brought another outsider... is she still a pup?" a large (second largest in the group compared to Musha) solid gray wolf said. This wolf looked slightly older than Musha, he had several scars on his face and torso. This was the wolf that Haru recognized, this was Musha's mate, Kousen.
Haru could sense that Musha became more tense (almost agile) when Kousen asked her this question.
"To answer your question, yes, she's still very young, and I also want to point out, that she used to be a member of this pack. She's Suzume's daughter, Haru."
Suzume, Haru's mother, she neglected to mention her father. Still, Kousen's ear twitched in a most peculiar way when Musha stated this.
"Heh... so one of the wolves from the banished pack has decided to return..." Kousen glared down at Haru. Musha defensively stood her ground in front of Haru, whom was getting real annoyed by the rude welcome.
Kousen gave a small smile, "Welcome back, child."
With that, all the other wolves darted forward with eagerness at meeting the new wolf. From what Haru could tell, most of these wolves were young pups, only two were probably her age (those two approached her in a more slow civilized fashion while the youngest scampered towards her). The two little pups jumped up all over Haru, both had light brown fur (almost seeming to be blond). They stood at about a foot tall, and where curiously sniffing her all over. Haru smiled and giggled, their little noses tickled.
"What's your name?" The pups asked almost harmoniously. They were both boys.
"I'm Haru, what are your names?" Haru replied in a playful manner.
"I'm Shizu!"
"I'm Taru!"
Haru couldn't tell who's name belonged to who. The two other wolves came forward to introduce themselves. The first was a young female with light gray fur.
"My name is Shira" she said very politely.
The other wolf had good mannerisms too, and to Haru's delight, she began to remember him from the old pack too! (Of course, he was much younger back then) This wolf had solid black fur.
"Hello, I'm Mazui." the young male wolf tried to hide his blush at how beautiful he secretly found this new pearl white wolf to be.
"Yeah, hey! Don't you remember me, Mazui? We used to play together when were were very little."
Now all the young wolves attentions were on him, which made Mazui feel very uncomfortable. He knew he remembered her, and he remembered all those good times they had, but he tried to play it off as cooly as possible.
"Yeah... I recall a little white playmate."
Haru cocked her head, she wasn't sure how to take that response. While the two little pups jabbered away on what they liked to do for fun, Haru noticed that Musha and Kousen were talking off in the distance. She couldn't tell what they were saying, but she could still sense tension between them. The two older wolves noticed it too, and Mazui turned and started to walk over to them. Shira walked right in front of Haru's view of their conversation.
"So, where is it you came from?" Shira asked.
"I came all the way from the Torako mountains, it was a bitch to get up here!"
"Uh huh..." Shira seemed puzzled of Haru's mannerism. "But, why have you decided to come back here?"
Haru was getting tired of this girl asking all these questions, especially in that tone. "Well, I sort of felt inclined to come back and draw on mah roots, ya know?"
"Hmm..."
Haru and Shira glared at each other for a moment, Haru gave her a crooked smile.
"I've never seen a white wolf before!" exclaimed one of the little guys.
"Yeah... your fur's really pretty..." the other one said bashfully.
Haru nearly grinned her wolf teeth. "Awww! You guys are so freakin' cute! I could eat you up!" Haru nuzzled each of them, and nibbled on their ears. The pups squirmed and giggled.
Musha finally came over, her tension was gone, but you could tell she was suppressing an argument that her and Kousen most likely had. "I knew you'd get along with everybody quick!"
Shira bowed out of the conversation and went over to stand by Kousen and Mazui, who were quietly conversing. Haru felt a bit more comfortable now.
"Yep, and from the looks of it, you guys got a pretty sweet place here."
"Oh, we try and do better. We have to move a lot thanks to those damn humans."
"Can you stay with us?!" one of the little pups asked.
"Well, I was about to say, I'm hoping the humans don't kick us out so I'll have time to stay and hang out with you guys for awhile."
Musha smiled in her motherly way, then leaned forward and touched noses with Haru. "You're welcome here as long as you want, child. Come on, I'm sure the boys wanna come with us to show you around."
Both the little pups hopped up and down, and followed behind Musha as she began her tour around the building. Haru followed and for the first time in a long while, she felt at home.
You couldn't even hear the damn bass without an amp, thought a young teenage boy, trying to play his purple bass guitar whilst he sat with it on his bed. The boy was fourteen years old, with brown shaggy hair that was pressed to his head by a large red cap he was wearing. The boy glared down at his bass, named Daisy, with dark blue eyes, and he nimbly plucked at the hushed bass string.
"Damn, it." The boy put his bass to the side on his bed. He stood up and stretched his arms into the air. The boy had a thick figure, not fat, but definitely had a small gut. He usually wore a plain colored hoodie and long khaki shorts with a pair of converse. Today was no exception to his wardrobe. The boy looked tiredly at his bass, then lifted up his foot and kicked it gently. His bass amp blew out only a day before, today he wanted to go and buy a new vox amp for it. His mother said to wait till next week, but he figured he'd buy it anyway.
This was Kira, his bedroom walls were covered with posters of his favorite bands and musicians (most of whom he'd actually seen live). He had a large flat screen television across from his bed and several game systems and games were littered in front of it. The games were hardly touched though. In fact, most of Kira's time (at least on weekdays, after school) was spent with him staring out his large bedroom window that gave him a hawk's eye view of the city. Kira lived in a upper class apartment in an upper class part of the city. His window took up nearly a whole wall of his bedroom. He would stare out this window at the world he was too scared to take part in (at least without someone he trusted).
It was a friday afternoon, Kira had left school an hour before and would now mope around the house waiting for the evening to arrive at his doorstep when he could go be with his friends. Kira went into the living room and collapsed on the couch, lazily reaching for his remote, he turned on the 32 inch flat screen TV that hung on the wall and with lifeless movements flipped through the channels. He remained in this letharigc state, not saying or doing much of anything, until he heard a knock at the door which he eagerly sat up for. He hoped it was one of his friends.
"Hey, it's Dad." a voice called from the other side of the door.
Kira rolled his eyes, "It's open." He then flopped back onto the couch, not watching his father walk shyly inside.
"Is your mother here?" his father asked.
"No."
"Alright... mind if I 'hang out' with you a little bit?"
"Sure... just remember she gets home at around seven."
"Okay... so what are you up to?"
Kira pointed towards the TV (he was watching some random anime show he'd never heard of), his father just nodded and sat on the large arm chair across from the couch. Neither of them said anything, but just went on watching TV. Kira's father wasn't supposed to be coming around without his mother's permission anymore, especially when it wasn't his time with Kira. In fact, Kira was still trying to forget the last time his mother caught his father at the house without her permission. The fact that his father would risk putting him through that made him a little angry (which explained him hardly acknowledging his father arriving), but Kira also respected and appreciated the fact that his father cared enough to risk himself getting in trouble to see his son.
Kira spent the next hour watching a show he didn't even like, while a few short conversations with his father would occasionally spring up.
"Damn... I wish it was nine," Kira thought.
The sun had just finished setting, and Musha was trying to get the young pups to settle down and go to sleep. Musha slept with the little ones in the middle of the building, while everyone else slept in seclusion. Haru was told she could sleep anywhere, she hadn't chosen a place yet since she wasn't planning to stay the whole night (something she neglected to tell any of them). At the time though, she was content standing a few feet away from where Musha was sleeping and watching her trying to handle the pups. It was more funny than she expected.
Before she had time to laugh at the scenario, Kousen walked and sat by her side. Haru turned to look over at him, he did not do the same. He kept his gaze over at Musha and remained silent, Haru could tell we awaited her to ask questions, and she knew he'd be alright with answering them.
"Kousen... what happened to the rest of the pack?" she asked.
Kousen's eyes became heavier at that moment. "What do you think happens to a dog when it bites it's master?"
Haru was too embarrassed to admit she didn't know what he meant, Kousen could tell.
"We were constantly hunted... even after your father left... hunted even more than we usually are by the humans... it wasn't just fear and misunderstanding that drove them... it was hate."
Haru had noticed that ever since their pack left, humans began hunting for wolves even more than usual. "I remember... the hunts... they became more driven to kill all wolves after awhile..."
"What happened here changed everything... all humans began to hate us.... they saw what we could do when we needed to defend ourselves... it started with us, city wolves, first." There was now anger in Kousen's eyes.
"Kousen... what happened to your pups?"
With this question, Kousen finally turned and stared straight into Haru's eyes. "They're not with us anymore... they were killed."
At first, Kousen seemed to say this statement too bluntly for Haru to sense any feeling in it, but it was in Kousen's eyes where she could see the heartbreak, not just from the loss of his children, but from the loss of his mate.
"You and Musha.... it drove you too apart didn't it?"
Kousen paused for a moment. "She said I changed after it happened, so we decided to end our mateship with that... she copes by taking in parent less pups as you can see... these were all strays she had found... they're all she cares about now."
The two shared an awkward silence for a few moments, at least awkward for Haru.
"I could tell she cares about the youth... she treated me as if I were her own... what about Mazui? What happened to his parents?"
"Same fate as the rest of my pack."
"Oh..."
Another pause....
"I just wanted to tell you one thing Haru..."
"And what's that?"
"I don't mind you being here, but the minute you cause trouble, you'll have to go. One way or another."
After clearly fulfilling his intention, Kousen walked away to wherever it was he slept. There was no way to describe how Haru felt. She was confused on how to handle all she had been told. Haru decided she'd probably best lie down at least, to rest up for her continuing journey. She chose a small secluded corner where she curled up in, she didn't get a lot of time to get comfortable though. Right as she positioned herself for sleep, both Shira and Mazui walked up to her from what seemed to be out of no where.
"Up for a night out?" Shira asked (questionably in a daring manner).
Haru couldn't help but smile. She was up to any challenge, especially one given from the likes of this wolf.
"Sure pal, what did ya have in mind?"
Mazui tugged on Shira's ear. "We shouldn't do this Shira, it could be dangerous."
Shira ignored his statement. "There's a club downtown that I know a way we could sneak into, there's tons of music, drinks.... and food".
Haru could tell Shira was using this against her, both trying to use her near starvation against her while also implying that Haru was a fat ass. But, Haru couldn't deny that the food sounded tempting, and some good fun sounded great too.
"Sounds like a blast," Haru grinned, "So... I guess this means we'll have to take our human forms eh?"
"Not till we get there"
Mazui was full of tension about the idea, and it was obvious they'd done this kind of thing before, and this is how he always acted. He simply followed Shira's lead as she began to leave the building, Haru followed behind Mazui, who was secretly trying to stare back at her (of course, Haru could always tell).
Before they crept their way through the entrance, all three of them looked over at Musha, who was already falling asleep beside the pups. Once that was confirmed, they left for the dark city streets.
Nine in the pm, the time had finally arrived. Kira was already busy in the bathroom combing his hair, spraying on his expensive cologne, and choosing which hat to where. He made sure his father had left before his mother got home, his mother was in the kitchen doing whatever she did on her laptop.
Immediately after Kira left the bathroom, he heard the door bell ring and the voices of his friends outside the door. He ran to his room to grab his bass, and then proceeded to run out the door. His mother stopped him as usual.
"I don't want you going to that club tonight, you hear me, Kira Hizoku?" His mother scolded at him.
"Yeeeesss...." Kira moped, "Love ya, Mom."
"Love you, too."
Kira was out the door before she could finish the sentence.
The city was loud and bright, people were rushing everywhere to either get home, or stay away from home. In this heavy crowd were Kira and four of his friends, two of his friends were carrying guitars as well (which they convinced Kira to help buy for them).
"So, did it take you long to convince your Mom to let you go out?" one of his friends asked.
"Nah... I think she just forgot about what happened."
"You lucky bastard."
Almost a month ago, Kira had been caught by his mother coming home drunk. She had promised that Kira would not be going anywhere for the rest of the year, she hadn't enforced that promise though.
The club, of course Kira was going to it. The place was called, "Flying Lotus", and it was part of a revenue of clubs that his father and a partner of his owned and operated. Kira had a connection that let him in, the connection knew that Kira was the owner's son, and he didn't want to have to deal with an angry manager (whom was always eager to please the higher ups, even if it meant letting their fourteen year old son into the club). Kira and his friends were already prepared for the loud, almost ear shattering music that was playing in the club. They always heard it a block away. The club had two stories, the bottom was the dance floor, flooded with people most likely all doing ecstasy or some other psychotropic drug that Kira was too afraid to try. The top floor was the sitting area, where Kira and his friends usually hung out. They always sat in the same booth, where they would set up their equipment and play their guitars and drink a few glasses of sake. This was actually an effective tool for them, most of the older drunk girls found the group of "little" boys sitting around drinking and playing guitar to be rather adorable. Sometimes they'd have a few girls come and sit with them, of course the boys never got lucky enough to convince one of them to actually be their girlfriend.
Kira was always the one who had to go get his group drinks. He pushed through the rather annoying crowd , holding his hands over his eyes so the various colorful lights wouldn't bother him. He ordered a full bottle of sake and glasses for his pals (and a few extra glasses, in case if any girls were interested), and as usual, the bartender looked awkward and somewhat insulted as he gave the tray with the drinks to Kira (whom to only him, the drinks were free). Before Kira could even take two steps after he turned around from the bar, the tray he was carrying bumped into an unsuspecting patron. Trying to keep the tray and not to embarrass himself by spilling everything on this person, he swung left and right for a few moments before nearly collapsing to the ground.
"Fuck!" He yelled. Right as he said this, the tray went crashing to the floor. Kira went silent, hoping no one would notice. No one did notice, except for one girl, the one whom he had bumped into in the first place.
"What the hell's your problem?!" said the girl.
Kira was still staring down at his spilled tray when he heard her. "If you had just moved outta my-", he cut off his sentence when he turned to look at the girl who yelled at him, she was gorgeous.
The girl was slightly taller than him, with shoulder length light brown hair and green sparkling eyes. Her skin was light and fair, her body was slender, and she was wearing a loose fitting dark blue blouse and a short green skirt (the way she was dressed fascinated Kira). What drew his attention most was her age. Kira could tell she was probably a little older than him, but he knew for certain that she was too young to be in this club.
"I'm... I'm so sorry... I guess I wasn't paying attention." Kira tried to keep from blushing.
"Heh, damn right you should be sorry."
Kira felt like kneeling down and crying, the girl could tell he didn't mean any harm.
"Hey, don't worry about it, kid." She said in an care-free voice that strongly reflected her personality. "I get a bit clumsy myself at times!" She grinned at him.
Kira smiled. "My name's Kira..." he awkwardly held out his hand (he usually wasn't this bashful around girls).
The girl had to try and not laugh, but she reached out and gave him a surprisingly firm handshake.
"The name's Haru, but that's Haru-SAN to you, kid!" Haru laughed.