Disclaimer : I do not own Ushio and Tora. Lots of yaoi in this story, so yaoi haters beware. It’ll be confusing at first, but the story will explain itself over time.

Personality Switch

Chapter 1: Cursed Things

~The spear.~

Darkness crept through the beast’s memory. Small flashes of the battle burst through his head like daggers.

A hunter in the rain. The beast spear in his hands.

An old human in monk robes yelling incantations.

Pain shooting through his body as lightning crashed through the sky. The golden blades illuminated the faces of both hunter and monk. Before the emptiness took over him, the beast lord found himself looking into horrified violet eyes.

A bolt of pain jolted the beast awake. White eyes blinked in the firelight, confusion making the monster edgy. Narrowing his eyes into slits, Nagatobimaru peered around, looking for the source of the flame.

‘You’re awake. Finally,’ the youthful voice startled the beast who would have normally gutted the person that dared sneak up on him… if he could move. A young human man stepped out of the woods that moment, carrying a small armful of dead branches to feed the flames.

‘Man, I was really worried. That monk hit you pretty hard and you passed out. I can’t believe it…’ the boy continued to blabber on as the monster frowned and tried to figure out why the human was helping him and what the hell had happened to him.

‘You ok?’ The boy was peering closely at him, near enough to gut if the monster had any strength at all. The beast just frowned back in response until the youth looked away. Scratching his cheek, the teen just blinked dark opal eyes at him in his own confusion. ‘Oh yeah!’ the boy jolted out of his thoughts and turned to poke at something hanging over the fire on a stick.

‘I caught a rabbit cause I knew you’d be hungry. I don’t know if I can get used to the whole skin and gut it thing. Gross. But, it’s nearly done. I am so taking bath when we get back home…’ the boy was jabbering on and on again. ~Ah well. I’ll let him live, for now.~ The tiger lord rested his chin on his arms, eyes closing in sudden exhaustion.

‘Tora?’

~Tora?~ The beast barely twitched an ear at the nickname before falling into the darkness once more.

….tbc…

Author’s Note: No, this fic is not AU. It is done to the main Ushio and Tora series (though I just added the part about the monk because I needed an enemy who could curse Tora). Yes, you’ll find out why Tora’s acting so strange in the next chapter or two. Will be yaoi.