Chapter 2: The Contract
AUTHOR'S NOTE: omg i can't believe that over 250 people have already seen my story! im not sure if thats normal on webnovel and i'm just overreacting but still im really greatful! thank you so much. I'll be uploading weekly. the story will just stay midly sexual untill quite far up into the plot, so thats why i put a disclaimer in the first chapter; to warn that there will be sexual scenes/themes. I'm more of a drawer than a writer so please excuse the slightly fast pace or the spelling mistakes 😅. well, wothout further ado, enjoy!
Akari ran and ran and ran. The rustles of leaves and the feeling of her bare foot pressing against the sticks and stones of the forest did not stop her. She could her the faint sounds of shouting in the distance
"were they chasing after her?" she thought.
Lost in a deep depression and a whirlpool of the instinctive need to survive, she raced through the bushes of the forest with no regard to her own body. Flailing her arms around her as her legs sprinted over logs, sticks and stones. But no matter how hard she ran the sounds only seemed to be getting louder, closer and angrier.
Then the sounds in her head turned into a mumble of words, before expolding into screams. Soon enough images of screaming tsuki, the corpses of her servants scattered around the corridor and her decapitated father filled her mind, only making her already extreme hyperventilating increase even more as well as make her scream uncontrollably. In the midst of her hallucinations, she lost her sense of direction and balance, causing her to slip on one of the many sharp sticks that continuously seemed to peirce the soles of her feet. She tumbled forward before falling off what seemed to be a mini-cliff hidden by the trees, but was merely a small, steep hill. She landed face first with a thud. Her body covered in cuts and bruises, with only her face remaining not completely battered and bloodied, the wounded princess lifted her head from the resting position of her fall.
But to her suprise when she looked infront of herself she saw a fine young man, who seemed to be only a year older than her, sitting on a beatifully aged stone bench straight in front of her, surrounded by the lush green and a beautiful, crystal clear, small blue lake. His eyes were as red as blood, and his skin was as pale as snow. But what enchanted her most, was his hair, which bore the colour of midnight. She had never seen hair so truely dark and black, not even the moonlight that gazed upon the two of them would bounce of his hair, which was strangely slightly spiky. His blood coloured eyes looked at her with utter suprise and confusion. Well he couldn't be blamed in all fairness, as a random injured girl just fell from the sky right in front of him. His eyes were wide with suprise, but his body remained still from the shock. His still posture was so graceful. At that moment he sat with such poise from his previous relaxed state before Akari had fallen down from out of seemingly nowhere. His leg bent over the other, and his elbow resting on his thigh. he held his chin with the back of his hand and extended his neck ever so slightly. Soon enough Akari noticed what she suprisngly hadn't noticed immediately, despite staring at his hair so much.
Cat ears.
resting gently on his head, perking up extremely straight from the shock and awarness of Akari's presence, were two gentle cat ears. The outside furr was covered in the colour of his pitch black hair, but the inside was palier than his skin, which was quite fair in itself.
"A.. demon? yokai....". The thought softly lingered in her mind.
A long, silent moment had passed between the two of them but then quite suddenly yet slowly at the same time, the supposed youkai's expression softened, and a mischevious and almost spiteing side smirk spread across his face. He then eyed her wounds and said in his calm, narcissistic voice
"human girl, entertain me."
"what?"
she thought, but before she could voice her words he carried on.
"you've piked my interest you see," he said leaning forwards and towards her, but still looking down on her.
"make a contact with me" he spoke again
"in exchange for your soul, i'll grant you your deepest desire." he remarked in a way so infuriating to the average person as it was clear his voice was filled with his egoistical pride and narcissism.
but Akari was no average person.
before these words she was filled with desperation so deep it was killing her and drowning her from the inside out. But these words acted as a sort of relief.
Revenge.
Revenge would be nice. She wanted her revenge. she wanted to cut the throat of prince Hikaru, and crush his corpse under her foot. And this desire showed so strongly and feircely on her body and mind for just a split second, before she regained her fleeting sanity. She stared deeply into the bloody eyes of the demon, the feral passion in his eyes like fire before a soft, meek and sore thank you left her mouth along with a wide closed smile, to which the demon replied with a slight widening of his eyes. But before she could collapse upon the earth that lay beneath her, a soft,long hand held her head up from the underside of her chin, and kissed her forehead. He than pressed his forehead against hers and with a more wide, innocent smile he said
"I'll take that as a okay."
And that was all Akari could make out, before she lost conciousness with her face still in his hands, causing her delicate figure to topple over. As she drifted away, she could hear a soft female voice singing a lullaby for her in her mind. So beautiful. Whoever could it be? she wondered as she quickly lost the ability to think, and fell into a peaceful, gentle sleep.
"My legs feel so heavy" she gently whispered to herself, her eyes still shut. However she soon opened them, finding out in the process that time had already passed to the next day in the late morning. She looked at her own body,
the bruises were gone?
she than looked at the bottom of her feet, her heels weren't cut, sore, bruised and cracked from the running in the forest anymore. She was still wearing the same ruined yukata, but she was completely healed somehow. Akari then looked around herself. She was still surrounded by the same green lush, and the beautiful pond. She then looked the other way, only to find the cat demon boy with hair black as darkness staring at her, his look expressing a mixture of boredom, pity and disappointment. his left leg bent upwards, his left arm resting on it while he held his face up with his left hand. The right side of his body just scattered about. Akari felt understandably uncomfortable, since he was staring at her like that and it didn't help that he had kissed her forehead last night either. He than let out a sarcastic sigh, obviously filled with annoyance.
"Just how long where you planning on sleeping you lazy human." he moaned
"Also its rude to just lose consciousness when people are talking to you, you know! On top of that you literally just saw for yourself that your injuries were healed yet i don't even get a thank you?!? Talk about rude! tsk." he pouted
Akari was in a daze from last night when she heard this, so she wasn't really paying him much mind. However all though his moans just seemed to her as a load incomprehendable jumble of words, she still was shocked back into reality by the loudness and tone of his voice. Suddenly the need to restrain her every action and word hit her like a truck. She quickly dusted her yukata of any dirt and patted down her hair, afterwards changing her position so that her legs were the side of her, her feet facing behind her.
"so-..... sor..ry" she said to him in her soft feminine voice, which of course was all an act. To be honest at this moment she wanted to get up, go to him and scream in those cat ears of his, but the need to act feminine and gentle over took her.
"Oh, and stop that." he calmy replied
"stop..what?"
"That, exactly that."
"what?"
"That fake act of yours, you fake woman, do you think im as dumb as you apes? I can tell when a annoying human girl is being a fake bitch like you are at the moment"
Akari was shocked. Not one person had ever questioned her personality, and she personally thought she had perfected the art of deciet, Not to mention he had said all of that so calmly. Very soon after that remark of his, blood started to rush through the princess cheeks, making her appear embarrassed, but that was not the case. Akari's hands trembled and then clenched, she got up with a start and marched silently and directly towards the annoying cat narcissist staring at him directly in the eyes for the entire brief 6 secounds of her march. Shocked at her sudden movement, the pouting demon flinched back a bit, still sitting down, but now supporting himself with his arms which were behind his back. Akari grabbed the cat demon by the tip of his ear, pulled it to her face and did exactly as she wanted to do in that very moment; scream out her heart in his ear.
"DUMB CAT!!! HOW DARE YOU INSULT ME IN SUCH A WAY AFTER KISSING ME ON MY FOREHEAD! I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW I AM A PRINCESS! A P.R.I.N.C.E.S.S! NOT A DUMB BITCH, NOT A FAKE BITCH, A PRINCESS~!!! HOW DARE A IRRITATING, NARCISSISTIC, ANNOYING, VAIN, IDIOTIC, CAT DEMON INSULT ME! BAKA!" She screamed, straight into those sensitive cat ears of his.
As soon as she let go of his ear they both keeled over, though one of them was already sitting to begin with, so for them it wasn't too much of a dramatic change anyway - well you would think that.
However the demon fell on his back, clutching his ears and rolling back and forth, crying out "OWWWW" while doing so. On the other hand the princess fell to her bottom after screaming and touched her lip gently with her right hand while supporting her body with her left.
"Did I really just..... scream at someone?"
She wondered how many years it had been since she raised her voice.
"Had she ever even raised her voice at all?"
She couldn't remember.
Shocked at her own actions, she just sat there for a moment, stiff in her position, staring straight at the being she had just yelled at. She stared at him while he rolled side to side clenching his ears like a child, and then soon without even remorse for what she had just done, a little giggle left her mouth. She actually did it! she raised her voice. she wept a small tear of laughter but soon wiped it away. This annoyed the cat demon. Very much. The pain of the shout soothed a little, to which the demon responded by ceasing to cry out in pain and roll around like a child.
"WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?!??" the demon shouted at her as he shot up.
"Well its your fault for being rude." the princess said with a slightly pouty face, which was quite adorable to the demon but he was too annoyed to care.
"Besides you brought it on to yourself" she continued.
" you said it yourself did you not? 'Stop with the act of yours', so i did."
The demon didn't particularly have a response, mainly because she was right. So he just sat there with his mouth shut, though he did flinch a little at her words, along with a annoyed face.
"So, whats your name 'oh-so-great' cat demon?" she asked.
"Don't you know how to ask nicely?!? you du-"
"fine then. Whats your name? She asked again
"..."
"Kuro." He replied with a annoyed tone
"Kuro? as in the colour kuro(black)?"
"Do you have a problem with it?!?"
"not really, its just weird to be called a colour."
"Well sorry for not being given a name to your liking"
a short, awkard silence passed between them. Kuro was clearly very annoyed with Akari, he stared at her with confusion and annoyance meanwhile Akari was tapping her finger against the dirt as if expexting something whilst looking away to the side. Her tapping fingers got louder and faster as time went by.
"....."
tap...tap...tap,tap...tap,tap,tap....tap,tap,tap,tap
tap
tap
tap
TAP
TAP, TAP, TAP, TAP, TAP, TAP, TA-
"AREN'T YOU GOING TO ASK FOR MY NAME?!?" Akari suddenly shouted, finally at her limit, hitting her hand against the floor and turning her head sharply to face him.
"Ah"
"Well say something!!" she then shouted again, though less loudly this time
"Ah ah~ shut up will you."
"Just do it!!" Akari said, her pace quickening, very obviously annoyed.
"Well whats your name then?!!" he replied, kuro pace was fast too as he as well was annoyed.
Akari breathed a sigh with her face towards the ground. Then she brought her face up and with a large smiled said,
"I'm Akari Aitsuki"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone