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Rukia peered into her purse, her growling stomach sinking. Everything was really going from bad to worse. Grimly, she grabbed the remaining coins.
“We’ll have to go back to stealing soon,” Rukia muttered to her daemon, a lean blue-grey fox trotting by her side.
“We’ll do what we must,” Shirayuki replied with a canine grin.
Rukia nodded, and scratched the fox’s ear.
She used the coins to buy some food from a street vendor. The vendor’s daemon, a black cat that sat on his shoulder, stared at them suspiciously.
Walking away from the market, Rukia saw two children huddling further down the street, their dirty faces forlorn. She glanced at the onigiri and peach she had just purchased with her last coins, and then looked at Shirayuki.
“No helping it, then,” the daemon said, shrugging his grey shoulders.
Rukia walked over to the children and crouched down in front of them. Their daemons, two grey mice, skittered away and vanished into the folds of the children’s tattered kimono. The kids stared at her, their wide eyes fearful.
“Here,” she said gently.
Their hopeless eyes brightened and they hastily snatched the onigiri and the fruit from her. Rukia straightened herself and watched them scurry away, her empty stomach rumbling.
“What now?” Shirayuki asked in a low voice.
“The usual,” Rukia replied, both resigned and determined. They turned and walked back to the market.
Shirayuki slunk to the ground, sneaking around one stall, while Rukia casually loitered near the neighbouring one, waiting until the stall-keeper and his daemon were distracted by the two customers. Her hand darted out, quick as a snake, and snatched one of the dango from the grill. She bit in, savouring the taste and walked casually among the stalls, inspecting the wares. Shirayuki appeared back at her side, and dropped a tangerine to her palm. The fruit quickly disappeared in the sleeve of her worn, faded kimono. Their routine held through and they managed to store away few more fruits and even some choice onigiri, until finally, just as Rukia had helped herself to some yakitori, she suddenly cried out loud in pain. She whipped around and saw that Shirayuki had been discovered, the vendor’s watchful jackdaw daemon was screaming as it attacked the fox, pecking, clawing, and aiming for the eyes. Shirayuki snapped furiously at the bird, but the commotion was already drawing attention. Rukia gritted her teeth as she felt each peck and scratch in her heart.
“Thief!” someone yelled.
“Shit,” Rukia spat. There was no helping it now. “Run,” she hissed to Shirayuki.
And they rushed off together, both smaller and quicker than the men clamouring after them. Rukia angrily bit into her stolen yakitori and gobbled the meat in a hurry as they ran.
They had almost got away, too, when rounding a corner, Rukia hit something quite solid. She bounded back but two large hands quickly gripped her shoulders and steadied her. She looked at the stranger, noting that he was wearing a dark haori and matching hakama, a straw hat that shadowed half his face, and a katana strapped to his hip.
Rōnin, Rukia deduced immediately – except, unlike a usual hawk or cat or even a wolverine, his daemon had taken the shape of a badger.
“You okay?” he asked, sounding gruff.
Her lips parted, and she was about to answer, when one of her pursuers yelled from behind.
“Hey, you! Catch that thieving bitch!”
Shirayuki snarled, its usually sleek blue-grey fur sticking up and Rukia recovered from her daze. Her violet eyes flashing, she tried to twist away but the rōnin tightened his grip. He turned her, bringing her flush against his side, but never let go of her shoulder.
His badger daemon trotted unhurriedly forward and stopped to stand in front of her daemon, calm and unyielding like a rock. Shirayuki stopped snarling and crouched down.
“Is there a problem here, guys?” he asked from the angry vendors.
“Yes! That filthy thief stole our merchandise!”
Rukia glared at them defiantly, her jaw set and violet eyes proud.
It was either that or starve, she wanted to retort, but knew that voicing the words would gain her nothing, the food vendors would not care. They treated all the street kids with disdain and regarded them the same as the rats scurrying about the gutters – vermin.
The rōnin huffed and dug a pouch from his sleeve, the coins within clinked merrily as the pouch landed on the dusty street.
“That should cover for it, eh?”
The vendors eyed him dubiously, but one of them retrieved the pouch and peeked inside. He seemed mollified enough. Few others seemed like they wanted to argue, but none of them dared to, not while the strange man was casually resting his right hand on the hilt of his sword. The vendors started to pull away, muttering to each other, but one of them turned to call:
“If I catch you stealing my food again, I will kill you, little bitch!”
“You’re welcome to try,” Rukia hissed, but the man didn’t hear her.
The rōnin apparently did, judging by his chuckle.
Rukia peered up, and from her place right by his side, could see under the edge of the straw-hat, catching a peek of brown eyes and wild orange hair. He was much younger than she had thought at first, maybe even younger than she was.
The badger daemon gently nudged Shirayuki’s jaw with its black nose, and the fox daemon regarded her, his golden eyes wide with curiosity.
Rukia finally shrugged his arm off her shoulder and took a step back.
“You didn’t really answer my question,” he reminded her after a moment of silence.
“What question?”
“Are you okay?”
“I suppose I am now. Don’t expect me to thank you, though. I didn’t ask for your help.”
“Well, you got it anyway, girl,” he replied.
She regarded him for a moment as Shirayuki hesitantly sniffed the badger.
“It’s not ‘girl’,” she spoke finally. “It’s Rukia.”