Summary: An immortal meets a reincarnating mortal from his past, and destiny takes a turn down rocky road.

Prologue: Midnight

He watched. For the most part, he simply watched. And waited.

It was cool up here, on the rooftops. Dark and cool, with the stars were his canopy, and the waxing cresent moon too low and dim on the horizon to cast its light across him. Peaceful, in its isolation from the world.

And below him, a kid sped desperately through the streets, running for dear life.

*

Shiming knew the back alleys and side lanes of downtown Chou’An better than he knew the back of his hands. He had grown up here, born on the sidewalk, rumor had it, by a mother who’d then died or walked away, abandoning him to world.

He didn’t know how he’d survived the first few years. He couldn’t recall anything other than a life that revolved around living off scraps and other people’s charity. And occasionally, when the going got tough, taking a little surplus off those who could spare it.

He cursed as he misjudged and clipped a wall upon taking a corner too quickly. His sandals slipping on the dirt, scuffing and costing him precious seconds as he scrambled for his footing and launched himself forward again.

"Shit," he spat, cursing luck and fortune and whatever deity that had landed him in this predicament. It wasn’t as if he took very much. Just napped the bracelet off that rich twat’s wife, and she didn’t need it anyway, with all the rest of the jewelry dripping off her…

There were hired goons following her around. He hadn’t seen them, or he wouldn’t have picked on her.

He’d even dropped the stupid bracelet a few streets back. That hadn’t stopped them. One had probably paused to retrieve it, but the other three were still hot on his trail. And all the tricks in his book hadn’t managed to get them off it.

The breath was starting to burn in his lungs. Sure, he was as fit as they came, but there were limits to this. There had to be limits to this.

…Tell that to the pursuers who were currently gaining on him.

They were inhuman. They had to be. No one could keep up with him on his own turf. No one.

He rounded another corner and plunged to a stop. They were right in front of him.

*

The watcher rested his chin on one hand as he watched the kid back up two steps, and turn to flee… only to skid to a halt again as more dark shapes emerged from behind him. Effectively cut off, and soon to be in deep trouble.

The watcher snorted quietly. There had been a time when that kid would have been able to tell that his ill-chosen target was human only in semblance. There was a time when that same kid would have stared down the creatures currently approaching him, and rained death down upon them.

In another lifetime.

"Oh how the mighty have fallen," the watcher sighed, unheard.

The stars against his back were briefly blotted out by dark silhouettes. Then the shadows vanished once more, leaving the rising moon to shine down on an empty rooftop.

*

He’d heard of them. Who hadn’t? The rumors were carried on the wings of whispers, from mouth to mouth, from house to house to darkened sidewalks under flickering streetlamps. He’d laughed them off, dismissed them with a youth’s arrogance and a youth’s sense of invulnerability. But in the dark, under eaves still dripping with the afternoon’s rain, in a narrow alley, those rumors coalesced once more into solid forms that closed in from both sides.

Youkai, the combined voice of a thousand rumors whispered into his heart. In the gloom, their eyes glowed.

Pure, unadulterated terror was choking him. Instinct made him search desperately for a way out. His vision skated over grimy walls with their peeling paint, hopelessly solid as they closed in on him.

"What do you want?" he shouted. "I gave you back the stupid thing! Leave me alone!"

There was no reply save the heavy breathing of the creatures.

They were insane, the rumors said. With a liking for human flesh. They wore magical artifacts that hide their true form, making them seem human in appearance.

…Surely the bracelet hadn’t been a limiter. Surely.

"I’ll fight you!" he tried, hating the way his voice — still the high pitched squeak of a boy — quavered.

Water slopped off the roof to splash against the ground, and he jumped. The creatures emitted low gurgle that might have been a laugh.

Unnerved, he took a step back. There was a crunch.

The creatures charged.

*

He landed lightly in front of the kid, wrapping an arm around skinny shoulders to sweep the boy out of danger. His booted foot caught the lead youkai across the stomach, sending him flying backwards into his minions. He spared a moment to glance down at his charge as the youkai regrouped hesistantly. White-rimmed eyes, wide in shock and fear, stared up at him beneath wind tousled hair that shone dully. Under better light, those eyes would be purple, and that hair — once the kid got a good bath — would be a rich shade of gold.

"Have you no survival instincts at all?" the watcher asked, as he whisked both of them out of range of another youkai strike.

"I do!" the kid retorted, young and angry. At least some things didn’t change.

"Well, then look after yourself for a moment." So saying, he dropped his hand from the boy’s shoulders, and lifted his knee into a youkai’s crotch.

"Bastard!" the youkai snarled. "Who are you?"

"You don’t even have the Minus Wave as an excuse now," he replied. "Desist and withdraw."

"Or you’ll do what?" another youkai laughed. "One skinny human against six of us? You obviously know about the Minus Wave so you can’t be completely dumb, but you’re still a fool to think that–"

"Avoid being verbose," he replied, as he removed his elbow from the youkai’s mouth, along with several teeth. "Now will you leave peaceably, or will we have to settle this in an uncivilized manner?"

*

There was warmth around him, tugging him away from the cold gust as claws bissected the air where he had been standing. A man in a long black coat, light hair the color of which he couldn’t tell in the dark. A calm voice, speaking in his ear. He voiced a protest and suddenly he was standing on his own, and those creatures were talking–

There was a flash of movement as the stranger attacked, almost casually but with inhuman speed. But he looked human enough, with rounded ears and an absence of claws. Unless…

…Shiming’s eyes were drawn to the golden amulet that hung around the man’s neck, just visible beneath the collar of his coat.

"You’re one of them!" he hissed.

"Not exactly," the stranger replied, wincing slightly as one of the youkai caught him with a blow across the back of his hand that tore his gloves and stained them red with blood. With a move, he broke the youkai’s arm.

"But–"

"Boy, stand back."

"I–"

The stranger was abruptly at his side, shoving him backwards and out of way.

"I do hate doing this," the man sighed, and pulled off his coat.

Abruptly, the alley was filled with flying feathers.

*

He pulled in the wings with an effort, pulling his coat over to ward off the chill in the air. This shirt was definitely ruined.

He stared at the fallen youkai, waiting for a moment to see if they were properly paralyzed, before turning.

"You’re… you’re… a youkai," the boy stammered.

He smiled, sadly. "Those are youkai. I… am just an anomaly."

The boy was silent, staring wide-eyed at him. Finally, he crossed his arms and stuck his chin out. "So, you going to attack me now or what?"

He turned, and began walking away. "I would leave before those youkai recover from the effects of the poison. It isn’t permanent."

Puddles splashed beneath his boots. The first few times, confronting the hostility and lack of recognition in those eyes, he might have felt the grief more keenly. The eyes never changed, from one lifetime to a next. But it seemed that everything else did.

"Wait!" a voice echoed down behind him.

He paused in mid-step but did not turn.

"Who are you?"