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Death and the Maiden - Zombie-Loan	By : OokamiKasumi Category: -Misc Anime > Het - Male/Female Views: 1281 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: 'Zombie-Loan' characters, terms, and locations are property of Peach-Pit. This story was written for Personal enjoyment. No money was made from this work.

Chapter List
- 1-Death and the Maiden - Zombie-Loan
- 2-One
- 3-Two
- 4-Three
- 5-Four
- 6-Five
- 7-Six
- 8-Seven
- 9-Eight
- 10-Nine
- 11-Ten
- 12-Eleven
- 13-Twelve
- 14-Thirteen
- 15-Fourteen
- 16-Fifteen
- 17-Sixteen
- 18-Seventeen
- 19-Eighteen
- 20-Nineteen - END
- 2
- 3
- 4
Death and the Maiden
A Zombie-Loan Fan-fiction By Ookami Kasumi
~ Two ~
Wearing her fluffy, white terry-cloth robe and carrying a pale blue plastic pan full of bath things, Michiru opened the door to the humid bath room. She stepped into the spacious room with its bare stone walls and steamy, cracked mirrors then turned to close the door firmly and slide the dead-bolt in place. Michiru slid off her large round-lens glasses and tucked them into her robe's pocket.
The tiny reaper flew from her shoulder to stand on the rim of the steaming bath tub.
Michiru still had no clue what the heck had gotten into the guys during dinner. More importantly, why did Shito have such a problem with her bathing with the tiny reaper, Mr. Sugar Candy, or rather Kurou?
She spared the doll-like figure a quick glance.
Head down, the reaper paced the edge of the tub, back and forth, apparently deep in thought.
Michiru shook her head and shrugged out of her white terrycloth robe to hang it on wall hook by the door. He's just a spirit, a tiny spirit! His other form was rather...impressive, but it wasn't like she was bathing with him in that form. Shito was clearly over-reacting, which was rather unusual for him. Chika was the one who tended to get...explosive about things. Whatever... She huffed a breath up into her lavender-tinted bangs. The boys are just being big idiots over nothing - as usual.
Naked and already sweating in the steamy air, she carried her pale blue plastic bath pan over to the large tub then crouched to set her shampoo, conditioner, and soap on the floor. She leaned past the reaper to dunk her plastic pan into the tub's water, filling it.
Michiru knelt and dumped the heated water over her, letting it sluice down her body to spill on the floor's cracked tiles to disappear down the long vented drains all around the tub. The glorious heat lifted the small hairs on her skin and deliciously loosened every muscle it touched. A soft moan left her lips. After two more she was thoroughly drenched.
She turned to pull a low, plastic bath stool close, then sat down and picked up her soap and long-handled scrub brush. Humming the tune to a song that she'd heard on the radio, Michiru applied the soap and her brush with vigor to her arms, legs, feet, belly, and chest until she was covered in foam and her skin glowed pink.
The reaper suddenly sat on the edge of the tub and focused on her.
Her mind was suddenly flooded with the image of Kurou sitting on the rim of the tub in his other form: tall, imposing, long-limbed - and watching her with one burning violet eye.
Michiru stilled, her scrub brush poised over her toes. Her face heated. She pulled her gaze away and shook her head. Don't be an idiot. Kurou is a spirit! He would never think of me - a common human - that way. She grabbed her shampoo and began soaping her hair. Once that was done, she collected her pale blue pan and leaned over the tub to collect water to rinse off the soap.
The reaper inched along the rim to sit closer to her. "Fledgling, Michiru, do you know why I like bathing with you?"
"Um..." Actually, she didn't know. While scrambling for a logical explanation, she sluiced the water over her head to clear away the shampoo. "Because I'm small, I won't accidentally crush you or drown you?"
The reaper sighed. "No."
Michiru wiped the water from her eyes and frowned. "Because you like baths?" She leaned over the tub to collect more water and rinsed the rest of the soap off of her.
The reapers eye followed the path of the water down her breasts and belly. "I do like baths - with you."
Michiru set the pan down on the floor and stood to step into the tub. "Okay..." The heat of the water tingled up her legs. Slowly and carefully, she sat, sinking to her neck then stretched out.
Rather than hop into the water, the little reaper remained on the edge of the tub. "I have a confession to make."
Michiru drew her knees up to her chin. "Okay?"
The little reaper looked away. "When I first met you, I didn't much...care for you."
He didn't...? That kind of...hurt. Michiru folded in on herself, her gaze sliding down to the water. "Oh..."
The reaper sighed. "After...this happened-" He waved a non-existent hand at himself. "-And I was forced to be in your company for...the duration..."
Forced...? Michiru winced. Okay, that really hurt. She began to rise from the water. "I'm, sorry, I-"
The reaper hopped to his feet and shouted. "Sit down and let me finish!"
Michiru sat back down in the water, blinking at him. "O-okay...?"
The reaper began to pace along the rim of the tub. "Over time, I got to know you. I got to see that beneath your foolish naiveté and appalling ignorance, you're fairly strong-willed. Despite your apparent weaknesses, you continually walk straight into situations that render most humans into weeping, gibbering heaps."
Michiru blinked, sorting through what he was saying. It almost sounded like he was...complimenting her.
The reaper shook his head. "You're woefully untrained for fighting and appallingly unarmed, but that doesn't seem to stop you getting involved - usually over your head."
Michiru looked away. "I try to stay out of the way..."
The reaper snorted and folded his hypothetical arms before his chest. "I saw you throwing rocks at that zombie to draw its attention off of the Tachibana brat, yesterday."
Michiru ground her teeth and fisted her hands. "It was going to bite Shito! I just couldn't stand there and do nothing!"
The reaper snorted and looked her in the eye. "In short, I have since become...accustomed to your whimsical, yet willful nature." His glance slid away. "I have become accustomed to...you."
Michiru blinked. "Does this mean you do like me, at least a little?"
The reaper rolled his one visible eye. "Michiru, do you know why I prefer to sleep on your chest at night, or more to the point, between your breasts?"
Michiru froze. Between my breasts? Truthfully, she hadn't actually paid much attention to the fact that no matter how many times she set him on her pillow at night she always woke up with him nestled...on her chest, usually under her pajamas and against her skin. "Err..."
The reaper looked her dead in the eyes. "Because I find you attractive."
Michiru blinked, trying to find another meaning behind his words besides the most obvious one. Unfortunately, nothing came to mind. "But you can't!"
He scowled. "Because I'm small?"
She shook her head. "Because you're a powerful being and I'm...!" She looked away. "I'm not. I'm just an ordinary human."
The reaper rolled his one visible eye. "Michiru, you are not ordinary. In fact, you're not exactly human either."
The zombie teacher that had almost killed her suddenly came to mind. Michiru felt a sudden chill and sank deeper into the water. "But I'm...living, aren't I?" Bekko hadn't lied to her...?
Kurou nodded slowly. "Yes, you are living. Bekko's little spirit-mender Yuuta repaired your body after your first brush with death, despite the fact that he can not mend living human flesh."
"He...can't?" The chill burned down toward Michiru's heart. "But he did! He has...!"
The reaper nodded. "Yes, Bekko's brat did mend you, several times in fact because you are not completely human."
Michiru tilted her head and frowned, recalling all her encounters over the past year with zombies and other supernatural beings. Had they changed her in some way? "But, I don't feel any different from before...?"
The reaper shook his head slowly. "Michiru, you have never been completely human."
Anger sparked, burning away the chill closing in around her heart. Michiru sat upright with a splash. "I am so human! Both my parents were human!"
Kurou's voice softened. "Michiru, humans cannot see what a shinigami, a reaper, sees. Nor can they physically enter the spiritual plane and use it to go from Japan all the way to China. They certainly can't pull the soul from living flesh, or seize the core of a spiritual being."
"But..." Michiru bit her lip and settled back in the water. "But I can."
Kurou nodded with exaggerated patience. "Yes, you can."
Michiru fisted her hands. Kurou was obviously trying to tell her something, but she couldn't figure out what it was. "I don't understand!"
The little reaper sighed. "Michiru, when your mortal body dies, you will not go to Heaven, or to Hell, or Nirvana, or-" He scowled and waved a hypothetical hand. "-Wherever it is you humans go. You will come to me."
Michiru's eyes widened. She grabbed onto the sides of the tub. "What?"
The little reaper stared at her with one burning eye. "When your mortal flesh dies, you will become what I am; a reaper of souls."
She shook her head frantically. "But I don't want to be a reaper!"
He smiled sourly. "Neither did I."
Michiru's brows lifted. "You weren't always...?"
"No." He shook his head. "Although I was not born human, I was once just as mortal as you are now, and I had the eyes, just as you do." He shrugged. "That you can pull a soul from flesh while still in your mortal body is a bit surprising though."
Michiru bit her lip. "But that was..." That woman - that creature tried to kill Shito...! She looked away. "I was angry."
He smiled, so to speak. "So I saw."
Michiru gnawed on her knuckles. When she died, she'd become a reaper? "Oh God, what do I do?"
The reaper shrugged. "You live your life as best you can until your time comes, just like any other mortal." He took a deep breath. "And then you come with me."
Michiru blinked at him. "With...you?" Somehow, that didn't sound so bad. Even if he left when his core, his soul, was returned, she'd still see him again.
The reaper looked away. "We...reapers are supposed to work in pairs. You're to...be with me."
Her eyes widened. "I am?"
The reaper scuffed a toe on the tub's rim. "I was supposed to collect you over a year ago when you were first attacked by that zombie woman. You were supposed to die then."
Michiru frowned. She did remember seeing the black ring around her neck, though there was no trace of it these days. "But, I didn't die."
The reaper looked over at her. "No, you didn't, but you were supposed to."
Michiru shivered. "You're not going to...take me, are you?"
The reaper snorted and rolled his eye. "Not that way, no."
She frowned. Not that way...?
Kurou looked her dead in the eye. "You may live your mortal life-span for as long as you can keep it."
Michiru gave him a trembling smile. "Even if that's only until next week?"
The reaper blinked. "So you do understand how precarious your situation is."
Michiru looked down at the water. "I understand that what I'm doing; hunting zombies, is dangerous and that I could die, maybe even tomorrow, yes."
The reaper sat on the rim of the tub. "I'd like to say that once you have become...what I am, that your fears will be over, but..." He shrugged. "Well, you can see what happened to me."
Anger burned up Michiru's spine. "You're not dead!"
The reaper snorted and rolled his one visible eye. "Actually I am dead, and for...quite a while now."
Michiru lunged up to her knees, the water rushing down her bare shoulders. "That's not the point!" Scowling fiercely, she pointed at the tiny doll-like man. "You're still here! Maybe you're small, but you're still here!"
The reaper hopped back from her fury, his eyes widening. "Michiru?"
Michiru stood, the water running down her naked body, and raised her fist. "I'll get your core back! If I have to rip it out of that bastard's body myself, you'll have it back!" She threw her leg over the tub's rim and stomped over to her towel on the counter by the row of cracked mirrors. "I won't leave you this way! I won't!"
The reaper smiled. "I didn't know you cared."
Michiru angrily smeared away the fog on the mirror with the intent to glare at his reflection. "Of course I...!"
However, reflected in the glass was not the tiny doll-like figure sitting on the rim of the tub, but Kurou in all his long-limbed, whip-cord muscular, leather-bound, black-winged glory.
She sucked in a deep breath and clutched the towel to her breasts. "Kurou?"
He tilted his head, his mop of blood red hair falling over his patched eye. "Yes?"
"When did you...?" She turned around.
Kurou's tiny form sat on the rim of the tub. "When did I...what?"
Michiru looked back into the mirror.
Kurou was a full-sized again.
Michiru swallowed hard. Maybe I shouldn't have been bathing with him all this time.
Kurou's reflection spread out his long arms to grip the rim of the tub and his one visible eye seemed to ignite with inner flames. "You can see me in the glass - my true form." It wasn't a question.
Michiru nodded.
"I can see yours too; what you will be when you become a reaper." He smiled, though it wasn't exactly obvious when his face was so wrapped in bandages. "You're going to be magnificent. Deep violet hair, emerald eyes, and wings so black they blot out the sun. The undead will kneel before you and beg you to take them."
Michiru's heart stuttered in her chest. It sounded like a love confession. She took in a deep breath to clear her head. "But I'm not like that now."
Kurou's reflection rose to his feet. "Your current form is not without charm, Michiru." He stepped closer and his voice deepened. "Especially now, with your milk-white skin so temptingly rosy from the bath, and even in this form your hair occasionally shows a pale violet tint."
Michiru's heart leapt in her throat. I should have never bathed with him! She bolted for her bathrobe by the door and practically ripped it from the hook to get it on.
Behind her, the reaper chuckled. "Now you understand why your teammates didn't want you bathing with me."
"But...!" Clutching the bathrobe to her throat, Michiru turned around to face the tiny doll-like figure floating in mid-air. "You're not like that now! You're just..." She bit down on her bottom lip. A tiny doll. She couldn't say that. She didn't want to hurt his manly pride. However, he had been ogling her all this time.
"Agreed, however I freely admit to taking pleasure in watching you. Shall I reveal a personal secret to you in return?"
A personal secret? While she was curious, and a tad bit offended at his boldness, she didn't want him to reveal something he wasn't comfortable revealing. "That's okay." Michiru shook her head. "It's my fault for letting you...see me."
"And mine, as I did nothing to dispel your...assumptions about me." He floated back. "Come to the mirror. There is something I would show you. Something very few have ever seen."
Michiru took a few small tentative steps toward him. "If you don't want to...?"
The reaper floated further back. "But I do. I want to show you."
Michiru found herself standing beside the mirror. Strangely nervous, she turned to face it.
In the glass, the tall reaper stood right behind her with his wings folded back behind him and tucked under his feathered collar of his tattered cape. The buckled leather was tight around his slender yet muscular body. "Observe." He reached up and passed his hand before his face.
The bandages and the leather strapping that bound his face evaporated into smoke revealing strong cheekbones and arching red brows framing one open flame-violet eye. The other eye was closed by a scar that went from his brow to his jaw. Both eyes possessed long, long dark lashes. His nose was straight and fine. His jaw-line was strong, but his chin pointed and his lips elegant. Despite the scar, he looked almost...pretty.
Michiru couldn't help but stare. "So that's why she called you Mr. Sugar Candy."
His brows winged up, but his lips curved downward. "What?"
Michiru blinked, startled. She hadn't meant to say that out loud. "Err..." She licked her lips. "You're very..." She couldn't say pretty, but she wanted to - very, very badly. "Cute."
Kurou stiffened. "Cute?"
Michiru rolled her eyes. "Fine, you're very handsome." She frowned. "Why do you cover it, your face I mean?"
His lips twisted into a scowl. "I conceal it because no one fears a face such as this."
Michiru threw a pout at him. "But I like your face!"
One red brow lifted. "Do you?" He stepped closer, his breath whispering against the fine hairs of her neck. "Would you...kiss this face?" His deep voice rumbled all the way down to resonate in her belly.
Yes! Michiru swallowed and glanced away. "Maybe."
Something slammed against the bathroom door. The dead bolt popped free of the door to skitter across the floor tiles. The door swung open to crash against the wall and Koyomi burst across the threshold clutching her bath pan filled with her soaps. She was wearing a very small towel that strained across her ample breasts and barely reached her thighs.
Right behind her was Aso, who was also wearing a very small towel around his hips.
Koyomi froze, blinking then abruptly smiled hugely. "Oh, ah, Michiru! I didn't know you were still in here."
Aso slunk back around the corner, clearly trying to melt out of sight. It might have worked if his shoulders hadn't been so broad.
"Oh, ah..." Michiru turned to collect her towel and bath things at light speed. "I was just leaving!" She rushed out the door and around the corner without looking Aso's way and bolted for her room.
The tiny reaper shot Aso a glare in passing then floated after Michiru.
Aso frowned after the reaper. "What's his problem?"
Koyomi grabbed Aso's arm. "Who cares?" She dragged Aso into the bathroom and slammed the door shut behind them.
~ ZL ~
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Death and the Maiden - Zombie-Loan