If there was one place in Japan that couldn't afford to be hit by a hurricane it was small and lonely Oki Island. But now, when the sun should have still been shining, the sky was black with storm clouds. Villages, even forests, were being ripped apart by powerful winds and flying debris. That, or the deluge of rain was washing them away. Hundreds of animals and people were being killed, unless they could make it to the mountain shelters or had magic to protect them.

Then godly powerful lightening struck a speck in the sky. The world became as bright as day. It was stunning. And Eerie. The speck broke in two. One half disappeared from view immediately. The other was the moon. Only the moon did not fall, did not come crashing toward Oki like a meteor! Yet this brilliant light did.

However, although it looked like it was coming straight for them, the light fell instead into the sea. Water exploded around it, and surely the object sank deep into the water, never to rise again. But the sonic boom in its wake shook the earth. Combined with that great splash, tsunami rose in every direction. Some were battered down by the hurricane's winds, washed out before they could make land.

But one tsunami contained the light, and it would not be stopped. It rushed toward one of Oki's coves. As it went, the light began to emerge. Slowly it took on the shape of a woman, curled up in a ball, glowing from the inside out. The wave did not crash as expected. It merely kissed the sand and then smoothed forward, depositing the woman out of the tide. Then it slid back from whence it came.

The woman, a green-haired beauty in a flowing dress, laid half on her side, asleep. Her glowing aura winked out just as the hurricane finally ended and true night claimed the isles.

She was a dragon. Only the second one to be seen in Japan for at least 500 years.

Raiko is rarely surprised by the weather. He can sense the ebe and flow of the air and sky all around like a physical presence, like how an expert diver can sense the movement of the sea about themselves. It came with the territory of being a Raiju. Well, half Raju anyways. He could always tell when a day would be sunny, when it would be cloudy, if there was to be rain or even storms. With enough time and effort he could even the effect the weather, on a local scale at least. Perhaps that was why he was feeling a twing of guilt right now. Normally he tried to provide protection for the fearsome elements of the sky to the farmers and villages he was near. Sure it was normally for a price, but that didn't mean he didn't know the lives and crops he saved by providing this service. But to even weaken a storm he had to feel it coming days in advanced...and this Hurricane had come from nowhere.

No build up, no warning. As swiftly as a window being slid closed did the dark clouds of these monster storm blanket the sky, then with all the violence of a wrathful gods roar did the storm unleash its full fury on the land. This had intrigued Raiko, never had such a massive storm slipped past his senses. Not even those conjured by demons, sorcerers, or the divine Raijin himself. So the he was doing the insane, venturing out in the deadly maelstrom. Armed not with the clothes on his back, a hat to help hide the tell tale demonic traits of his bloodline, and a umbrella.

Young though he may be by even the standards of a half demon, with his umbrella in hand the storm was little real threat to him as long as he treed carefully. "Good old great-great-great granddad, looking after your grandchildren even from the afterlife." He said with a. somewhat ironic, appreciative smirk to the tool made of demon bone and hide. His only keepsake from his demonic side of the family.

The black-and white parcel opened and held before him like a shield, the winds and rain parted around him, if only just. He could not move quickly for fear losing his concentration and opening up his body to the deadly elements. He had to be nearing the coast and the eye of the storm, given his surroundings. He glanced warily upward at the swirling dark clouds, feeling a strange and ominous presences. "Not made by nature, demon, man, nor god...what on earth could have summoned such power so quickly..." How could a young storm demon not be at least a little curious.

as he came into sight of the shore, his question was answered, a bolt of lightning split the sky. But it didn't seem to come from the clouds proper. No, it came through the clouds, splitting them as easily as a breeze did the smoke of a camp fire. The sky could be seen in the gap made by the falling light and a chunk of the night sky laid bare once more. Like a falling star the mysterious light crashed into the sea with unimaginable force.

The resulting chaos in nature was hypnotizing, the sea and the sky the winds and the waves at war, canceling and killing one another till both lay still as if no storm had happened tonight at all. Only the light that had washed on shore, who was apparently not a light at all but a young woman. The moonlight illuminated her through the parted clouds as her own glowing aura faded. As the storm quieted down to nothing Raiko shut his umbrella and hung it on his back, running forward to inspect the mysterious woman who washed ashore.

He knelt by her side, daring not touch her for fear of what kind of injuries she may have sustained in the fall. "Clearly not human..." He mumbled to himself "But..this aura is neither demonic or divine..."

The young woman was clearly a princess. Something about the two gold, rose shaped, kanzashi clipped to her horns suggested it, as well as the very fine--but shredded--dress. It looked a bit Chinese, but at the same time so unusual that it couldn't possibily have come from there. She still wore shoes (they were strapped to her feet) and they were beautiful and strange as well.
What was a princess doing falling out of the sky? Well, she WAS a dragon. Never mind that only 1 had so far been seen in Japan since The Great Migration. There was no doubt this was another. A scaly, light-green tail was curled around her. Forest green hair, the same color as that on her head, ran down its length and formed the paint-brush like tip. She had long furry ears extending from the sides of her head; they were cow-like, except for the light green color matching her scales. Branchy, brownish green horns jutted from the sides of her head, growing backward and then gracefully curving back up. Of course her hands and feet were clawed, like any youkai. Finally, she had a sprinkling of scales on her cheek bones, half-circling her eyes, a bright green jewel on her forehead between her bangs.

Unlike a human princess, her body didn't appear noodly and unmuscled. But this did not necessasarily mean she was prone to exercise. She had a faint black eye but she wasn't bleeding anywhere and none of her bones appeared broken. Her hair was stripped from whatever style she normally wore it in, so it sprawled around her--all the way to her feet. Aside from being soaked to the bone and very chilly, if the paleness of her skin indicated how chilly she was feeling. Nothing on her face gave away her discomforts. It was slack with unconsciousness. Or death... But there was, thankfully, still a slight rise and fall to her chest.

Whatever power had made her glow and washed her onto the beach was probably not her own, and was definitely dormant now. Perhaps it had protected her before, but it wasn't anymore.

It didn't look like she would be stirring for quite a while, leaving her virtue and the pure gold accessories she wore unprotected. She looked beautifully tragic at the moment. But still, perhaps, not worth the trouble of saving. Since when did a DRAGON need saving, anyway? Then again, she clearly wasn't a normal dragon.

~Dressed like royalty...But normal nobles do not normally go falling from the sky in some sort of crazy storm~ He pondered as he more closely examined the sleeping woman ~The style is so western as well. A Chinese goddess maybe?~ He doubted that rather utterly, gods don't come to earth anymore, and there would be little reason for a deity of the western mainland to come out to japan. And the outfit was not entirely western in origin. Some unique amalgamation of the two distinct styles. ~Royalty then, not divinity, but royalty of where or what? And just what kind of beast are you? What has tails, scales, horns, and-~ Raiko's eyes widened suddenly and her almost jumped away from the sleeping girl.

"DRAGON!" He yelped aloud. His voice breaking the odd silence after the raging storm. like a stone breaking the smooth surface of a pond. "She's a Dragon." He looked up briefly at the sky, still mostly obscured by clouds. It would certainly explain the falling...and the weather. Only being he knew could exert this much control over the weather than the Raijin itself was the dragons. He looked back down at her. "A dragon princess..." He mumbled to himself. He anxiously fiddled with his umbrella. The smart thing to do would be to leave. She hadn't seen him, no one had seen him with her, there was no need to entangle himself in the affairs of dragons. With how they were ran out by the rulers of this land, he could not imagine them taking kindly to a return of their kind. The smart thing to do would be to leave, just pull up a little cloud and fly out of here as rapidly as possible.

So why was he stooping down and picking her up? Well it could be argued the young half demon was a idiot. You would probably be right about that. But the honest to god truth was that his mother raised him to never let anyone, especially a girl, go un helped when he could provide aid.

He carried her into the forest. He had seen a little abandoned shrine not far from here on his way in. It would provide shelter from the wind and a place for her to rest. he could also light a little fire in a brazier to help with the wet and cold. And he did just that, laying her down after getting a nice little fire going from bits of the interior of the shrines itself, as it was the only wood to be found that wasn't soaked after the storm.

He very briefly considered undressing her so that she would warm up quicker and her clothing would dry sooner, but he didn't want to think about what would happen if a dragon woke up naked and alone with some random demon.

Eventually the dragonness stopped being unconscious and started being asleep. Her closed eyes began to dart rapidly and her expression became fretful. It was all replaying...

Hieri in the museum, stealing the orb, killing the guards, running away from her. The chase. Over the edge. Down down. Storming like crazy. Past the point of no return. The battle!

Shinrai whined in her dream, weakly rejecting what she already knew was happening, had happened, was fact.

BETRAYED!

It hurt so bad, as bad as the first time. He hurt her. But every time she hurt him, she hurt herself too. You can't win when you're fighting someone you love. But she did fight him. She clawed and bit and ripped and gouged until she got that orb back.

And then what? She had it in her jaws. She was looking at him, with tears in her eyes. She already knew she couldn't go back up. So she had to just... get away from him. But he was already coming back at her. But she couldn't keep fighting him! She loved him too much! She wished...

No, NO! She'd only wished... She hadn't meant to WISH wish!

She'd caused that all-powerful lightening to strike. SHE had.

This time Shinrai keened and came awake with a gasp. Which turned into a sob. She would've cried then and there, but when she tried to raise her arms and sit up she found that her body was too heavy. This kicked her instincts into gear and distracted her from her grief.

She struggled to breathe evenly and quietly and strained her senses to get a picture of her surroundings before she moved. So far nothing alive seemed near but she couldn't just lie here unprotected. So she flexed her claws, readying to attack, lethargy or not. She drew her lips back in a threatening snarl. Then her emerald eyes flew open to fix on...

...A cowering half demon. Okay, Cowering wasn't exactly the right word. But as her dreams became resltess and conflicted, her energy had began to spike up in rather unpleasent ways. Perhaps Raiko was simply unused to sensing the energy of a dragon, perhaps it was simply because the dragoness was that strong. Either way The young half demon took what was clearly a more defensive posture than anything else, in case she woke up and assumed something bad was happening and she blasted him with...well, what ever dragons could possible blast someone with. He assumed it would be something storm related, given all the stories of how dragons could control the weather as well as any of the weather demon clans could.

Given that assumption, and to be specific about what exactly the woman's eyes finally settled on, was the white haired demon boy a good several paces away from her, in a corner of the room near the door but not blocking it, with his umbrella opened up and held before him as a shield.

"Hey stranger, seems you've had something of a rough night. Just keep calm, and maybe don't try to kill me? I'm really not in the mood to fight at the moment, especially not after going through the trouble of carrying you all the way here from the sea shore."

Shinrai sat up quickly. KAMI THAT HURT! Her eyes narrowed on the hanyou, ready to attack. But he wasn't planning to attack her. Suspiciously, her eyes snapped to the exit. Seeing it open was good. She glanced at him. He hadn't moved. Also good. Her gaze shot around the shrine, noting the absence of others and the remains of a fire, then returned to him. He looked... unthreatening. Her aura subsided quickly.

She sucked in a breath and sighed heavily. Very unprincess like. But the adreniline was still rushing. And her ribs were hurting. So she continued to breath deeply, pausing when he spoke. She kept her eyes fixed on him the whole time.

After his plea and explanation she finally looked away. With another sigh she settled back down on her back. It was undignified and vulnerable but it was too painful to rest any other way. She took a moment to think, while dodging away from livewire memories and dreams.

She smelled the sea, yes. Both from outside and from their clothing. She was also sandy and still damp, especially her back. The air was too muggy to allow for complete drying. She didn't remember landing in the sea or on the shore but she believed it and he really must have carried her here then. And he hadn't hurt her.

Appologetically eyes roved back to him. "Forgive me," she rasped. She swallowed and continued stronger. "Thank you, ah...?" She paused and raised an eyebrow hoping he would fill in with his name. Should she use her own when he asked?

As the dragon lady, or would it be more proper to call her a dragoness? How does one address a dragon? How does one really react to the fact that for the first time in the uncountable generations of both man and demon alike a freaking dragon once again stood, proud and strong, on the soil of japan? well, lay battered and bruised on the soil of japan. But still! While he couldn't begin to fathom the sort of things this could mean or the effects it could have on the state of the world, one that was for sure. It was likely to be big and messy.

"Raiko" He responded, taking a more neutral stance and folding up his umbrella. He proceed to carefully approach the pron girl and take a seat near her, though in a decent enough distance away to A) give him some time to get the hell out of the way if she decided to attack again or B) to give her the space needed to keep her conformable. "I'd as your name, but As far as I'm concerned once your good enough to take care of yourself you can be on your way. The less entangled I am in the affair of dragons the better." he gave a little laugh at the though "You're lucky a lone little half-demon like me was the only one attracted by the storm you came down in. Quite a lot of power in the sky tonight. If someone of actual status or alliances had found you chances are they would not have been so kind as I."

He noted the roughness in her voice and pursed his lips. He removed his straw hat, his calico-black and white cat ears half flopping up with the sudden freedom from the restrictive head ware, and pulled a small satchel free from his sash. He withdrew a small wooden traveling cup and with a little gesture of his umbrella made a small rain cloud, about the size of an apple appeared above it. It emptied fresh, clean water into the cup till it was about half full before poof-ing away. He placed the cup next to her, giving her the choice of whether or not to accept the charity offered.

"Though I must admit, I find my self curious as to why a dragon as descended now of all times." he gestured to his ears, which gave a little twitch "Must be the cat in me I suppose."

'Child of Lightening,' Shinrai translated. She had always liked that name; it was common among dragons as well. She couldn't help tensing as he approached but she allowed it. He was cautious enough not to be threatening. She scoffed slightly when he said he didn't want to be involved in her affairs... That was wise of him, she supposed.

Her eyes became haunted when he mentioned the storm and she looked away from him.

"It happens when dragons battle," she whispered.

Then came his warning about her species being hated. She knew it was true. It made sense and she'd already been warned a few days ago... She closed her eyes. It was just, at the time, she hadn't expected to ever end up here. Now that she was she needed to keep the warning in mind.

"Then I thank you for being the one to find me... Raiko-san," voice still a bit raspy. She turned her face back to him and watched as he removed his hat. Suddenly seeing his ears brought a smile to her face, which she quickly tried to hide. Her mouth began to feel even drier as he produced rainwater for her. She eyed it, waiting, and then he set it next to her.

"Sumimasen," she whispered, a brief apology for his trouble and a thank you.

She slowly sat up on one elbow and used the other arm to lift the cup and drink gratefully.

She cut her eyes at him and smiled ever so slightly. Then she finished the cup and set it down. There was a brief pause as she gathered her energy, then she levered herself into a sitting position. But not properly on her knees. She glanced at her dress, finding what a mess it was, and grimaced. Then she shoved all thought of her appearance from her mind. She was not her vain little sister! But she knew she must look horrific and a part of her was twinging with discomfort thinking that was so. She ruthlessly crushed it. Now was not the time.

She eyed the cat hanyou. He didn't want to be involved in her problems, but he couldn't help being curious... Well she couldn't blame him. She knew she probably should be on her way, like he suggested, without spreading knowledge of herself to anyone beyond what could be helped. But it went against her nature to be distrustful for long.

She maneuvered herself so that she could bow to him briefly, as part of her introduction.

Then she said, "It is nice to meet you, Raiko-san. My name is Shinrai. I came here chasing a thief." She paused and tightened her hands again, fighting down a wave of nausea. She looked up at the ceiling and then down again. Suddenly, it was all to much and she had to struggle not to cry. Why did he betray her like that? Was he dead, had she killed him? Where exactly was the orb... inside her? She sucked in a breath, almost a gasp. Her voice was vibrant with pain when she admitted, "I may never be able to get back up there!"

His eye widened at her words. When dragons fought? There had been more than one of them in that storm tonight then. Which meant that she might not be the only dragon to descend to the world tonight. He glanced back out the open door to the over cast sky. Calm now, with only the occasional distant rumble of thunder and firm gust of wind to indicate that the tsunami level storm had ever taken place.

He pushed the thoughts from his head and tried to lighten the mood. He nodded his head at her translation of his name, "Yeah, that was what mom was going for. To bad 'ko' is more often used on the end of feminine names than not. Mother was a kind woman, though perhaps not nearly a clever as she thought she was." he admitted with a shrug before adding. "No need to apologize to me miss. Not as if you actual hurt me, and I'm sure I would have been in a similar state of mind where I to have gone through what ever it was you had."

Watching the woman before her on the verge of terrible grief was strangely sobering. Dragons were...well, Dragons! Mighty creatures of legend and myth at this point, though every mothers child knew they were indeed very real. Beings of Storm and fury, of mist and life, nearly eternal being who were said to be the near equals to the divine gods of the heavens. And here was on of those creatures before him, looking battered and broken. Both physically and emotionally. He paused for a moment, unsure how to respond. A gentle memory of his mother guided him to an answer. 'Fight fear with knowledge, fight anger with love, and fight despair with hope.

"Never say never Shinrai-san. No door remains closed forever, and all paths can be walked on both ways. If there was a way up to the sky in the first place, all those centuries ago, a way down for you tonight, then their will surely be a way back home for you in the future. Certainly no sense burdening yourself with such a thought until your well enough to try at least." He almost half blushed at the end of his little speech.

"Sorry about that, I'm something of an amateur philosopher. I have a tendency to get wordy."

Shinrai was aware of her majestic reputation as a dragon and she hated to make a fool of herself. But EVERYONE knew that if you left the sky islands you could never come back. Soldiers had been sent specifically to test it out and never returned. Others had flown too far down and specifically tried to return but not had the energy. That was known as the "point of no return" and everyone knew where it was, although of course, it varied somewhat from dragon to dragon. Shinrai blasted past that point without a thought, all her attention focused on Hieri and the Orb and getting it back. But she hadn't gotten it BACK. She'd only gotten it away from him! And now she was stuck down HERE!

But then the cat cut in. Her long ears swiveled slightly toward him, listening. She began to control her sobs. She glanced at him over her shoulder, then she folded one sandy sleeve and used the inner side to wipe away her tears. She turned back to the cat and flashed him a watery smile.

"You're right. He somehow got up there so I can too." She put a little steel in her voice. She would search until she found a way!

Then she gave him a quick, geniune smile. "If you forgive me for crying, I'll forgive you for philosophizing."