I would have posted this about three months ago, like I originally wanted to, but I kept getting writer's block. I'm glad that happened, though, because then I would have posted it before Future Card Buddyfight 100 episode 19 and missed out on making it more accurate (and including new content.)

Megumi is not in this one, but I'm thinking of writing another one with her included.

The idea for this came from, of course, the original series's second ending.

I'm getting worried that something bad is going to happen to Jin in a later episode. If something can happen to just about everyone else…

Yamigitsune leaned against a tree, waiting. Jin had claimed he would sneak up on him, but with all the branches snapping and all of the "ows!", Jin wasn't doing a very good job. At least it kept him entertained and making decision based on dice… Yamigitsune had been Jin's Buddy monster for several weeks now, and so far very few outside of Jin's family knew. At least he was a lot happier than he had been those few weeks ago…

Yamigitsune watched as a shadow stalked towards him. He sighed, "Jin." The shadow froze. "Shadow."

"It's not my fault the sun is behind me!"

"You could either use the tree's shadow to hide yours or come at me directly," he started to leave, "It's almost sunset. We have to go home."

"Okay…" Jin ran up to him.

In his mini form Yamigitsune was almost Jin's height. He was going to wait a year or two before returning to his normal form. He was childlike and far less intimidating in his mini form, and he didn't want to scare Jin.

As they walked back they passed the shrine. It wasn't Yamigitsune's favorite place to be. Being near it made him feel nervous. He would get closer if Jin's grandparents needed him for one of the yearly festivals they held at it. Whether it was because of his humanoid kitsune appearance or his ability to create illusions, he wasn't sure. The first time he had willingly gotten anywhere near a shrine was back in Osaka, when he had asked if Jin wanted to be his Buddy.

"Can we Buddyfight?" Jin asked as they got back to his room.

"Did you finish your school assignments?" He still didn't understand why human children spent most of the day in school, and still had to do assignments when they got home. The young monsters in most of the Worlds only had to spend part of the day with a mentor.

He had been warned Earth's customs were different…

"All I have left is my history report…" Jin looked around his room.

"No," Yamigitsune sat down at the small table.

Jin gaped at him, "But I didn't ask yet…"

"History is your best subject. You don't need me to help you."

Jin sat across from him, "If you help I'll give you Pocky."

Yamigitsune looked down at the table and then looked up, "What flavor?"

"Strawberry."

Yamigitsune nibbled the Pocky, watching as Jin set up a Buddyfight game. Jin already had two decks, although they were identical. "You're not always going to know what cards your opponent has," Yamigitsune said.

"If you know the World they're using you will."

"Do you know every tribe in every World?" Yamigitsune drew several cards.

"…Do you?"

"Most of them."

Jin stared intently at his cards. "You go first."

Only a couple of turns later Yamigitsune won.

Jin looked up at him, "One more game."

"You have school tomorrow."

Jin sighed and got up.

Yamigitsune put everything away and made sure everything Jin needed for the next day was packed. By the time he was finished Jin had already fallen asleep. He turned off the light and climbed into his hammock that hung in the corner of the room.

Sometimes he still wondered exactly why he chose to be Jin's Buddy. Most of the monsters of the Skull Warrior tribe were yokai, and even in the human world yokai were attracted to negative emotions. That wasn't it. There were a lot of humans who with more negative emotions than Jin. Jin had been upset at the time, with his family being forced to move. It didn't help he had already felt alone, to an extent. Yamigitsune had known what loneliness was like for far too long….

Not long after they moved near Tokyo Jin's parents they sent him to live with his grandparents for a while, at least until they were financially stable again. He had been very stressed and had gone through a brief but very bad obsession with his dice making every decision for him. He still did make decisions based on the dice, but not as much as before.

Jin rolled off his bed and onto the floor, where his grandparents had put another mattress. Yamigitsune had learned early on being anywhere near Jin while he slept often resulted in getting kicked or slapped. He had also learned putting him back on the bed was useless because he would roll off again. Jin's grandparents had gotten in a raised bed in hopes of he would stop rolling off of it. Before he got it he would roll across the room and sometimes woke up in his closet.

It wasn't until the night he had somehow managed to roll down the stairs that they got concerned. They thought he would eventually grow out of it. At least he wasn't sleep walking… yet….

"Jin," Yamigitsune crouched next to the bed, poking him, "You have to wake up." Jin rolled away from him. "We have to leave in ten minutes."

"What?!" Jin bolted up, "Why didn't you wake me up sooner?!"

Yamigitsune watched him run around, tripping over his clothes as he changed into them, "I tried." He followed him down the stairs, "Your school supplies are packed. Breakfast is on the table. Your grandparents had to leave to do some errands."

"Is my lunch packed?"

"Not yet," Yamigitsune packed it together as Jin ate and put it in his bag. As far as Yamigitsune knew, Jin sleeping in late on school days had happened since…. Well, since Jin first started going to school. Why he woke up so late in the morning when he dozed during the short train ride back and forth and often slept during class….

Jin finished eating and ran out the door.

Yamigitsune stared after him, "Jin?"

Jin rushed back in, put his shoes on, and rushed back out.

"Jin."

Jin came back, grabbed his bag, and ran back out.

"Jin!"

Jin came back, "I have everything!"

Yamigitsune pointed at the table, "Dishes."

Jin ran over, put the dirty dishes in the sink, and ran back out. He came back a few seconds later, "I didn't forget anything else, did I?"

Yamigitsune picked up the train ticket, "Yes." He didn't know why in the human world Buddy monsters could ride for free. He had heard in the very few Worlds that had a train, like Hero World, or some other mode of transportation, a visiting human would have to pay just like everyone else. Of course, visiting humans were extremely rare…

They ran to the train station like they did every morning when it wasn't raining. Jin walked towards the first train he saw. Yamigitsune grabbed his shirt, "The next one, Jin, the next one. Just like always."

"You don't know that for sure."

"Did you look at the ticket?"

"No."

"That's how I know."

When the next train came Yamigitsune had to pull Jin along and find a place to sit. "The last time you watched the pigeon hop up the stairs you were late for school."

"Not by that much," Jin leaned against him, yawning, "Wake me up when we get there." He fell asleep.

Yamigitsune sighed. He should be used to it by now. It was because most humans that didn't have a Buddy monster didn't know Buddies couldn't use their full abilities in the real world, and his were intimidating, especially when he was in his normal form. That was the only reason why he was trusted with taking Jin back and forth.

At the next stop he woke Jin. The walk to the school was short, the school being up the street. The few reasons why Jin when to Aibo Academy instead of the school closest to his home was because it taught the Buddyfight game and allowed Buddy monsters outside of their cards. They normally weren't allowed in the classrooms, but most would be bored by the subjects taught, anyway.

Several of the other humans had Buddy monsters following them. Most of the monsters returned to their cards as the humans were about to enter the classrooms. The rest either stayed nearby, most of those working on their Buddy's assignments and others left, likely go get something their Buddy needed for the next class or to assignments to other teachers.

Jin turned to Yamigitsune, "Are you sure you can't take my place again?"

"The last time I did the teachers started to get suspicious because you usually fall asleep. That's why we agreed on I would take your place if you got sick."

"Okay… I'll see you after class…" He followed some of the other humans inside.

Yamigitsune sat against the wall, checking over the rest of Jin's assignments to make sure they were complete. He would deliver what was finished and help with what wasn't between classes.

"You're being ordered around by a human?"

Yamigitsune looked up the see the monster he didn't care to remember the name of. He wasn't even sure if it was male or female or even what World it came from. "Says the one who listens to their Buddy's every whim."

"At least my Buddy can win Buddyfights without cheating."

Yamigitsune gathered up the assignments, finding everything but one math problem complete. "Doesn't your Buddy scare everyone?" He got up to deliver the assignments.

The other didn't monster follow him. "Well, yeah. But that isn't why he wins. Not all the time," it sounded nervous, "I… have to do something." It quickly left.

The rest of the day was quiet, at least compared to the other humans. From what Yamigitsune had heard, and observed, human children typically had friends at school. Jin was usually alone, aside from when he would talk to another boy about his deck.

When they got back home Yamigitsune helped with any household chores that needed to be done. It was the only way that Jin couldn't easily bribe him to help with the assignments. If there was something that Jin needed help with it could wait until a little later.

Which was where he found himself several hours later. He stared into the empty Pocky box he held and over at Jin's math papers. "The answer is three."

"No it's not."

Yamigitsune quickly wrote out the equation. "Three."

Jin stared down at his equation, which he had somehow had the answer in the billions. "Oh." He corrected it and stared at the last problem, and looked back up, "Maybe you should do this one."

"I'm not supposed to help unless you don't understand it."

"It's about trains."

Yamigitsune solved the equation, one that would have taken Jin nearly twenty minutes. He needed a few boxes of Pocky to survive through that…. "You need to get a tutor."

"No I don't. I have you to help me."

"I'm still talking to your parents about it."

"Can I have the dice decide?" Jin brought out the pair of black dice he took with him everywhere. "Even for yes, odd for no?"

"You're still going to even if I say no."

Jin tossed them in the air and caught them. He stared at them.

"Even?"

Jin quickly cleared everything away and set up another Buddyfight game.

"Jin."

"It was a bad throw." He avoided eye contact.

"I'll talk to your parents about it in a year or two."

Jin relaxed and looked up from his cards, "How come you don't let me use you in Buddyfights?"

Yamigitsune looked down at his cards and looked back up, "You don't even use Katana World."

"Oh. What if I start using it?"

"Only if it's the Skull Warriors tribe."

"Can you take my place tomorrow? Please?"

"You're not going to sneak out to buy cards. I have to stay here, anyway. Your grandmother asked if I could do a few errands for her. I'll walk with you to school and I should be back by the time you're out."

"Okay…."

Yamigitsune waited outside of the school, watching as the other human children and Buddy monsters came out. Jin came out a little while later, staring at the ground.

"Jin?"

Jin didn't look up at him, "Can you not come with me to school for a while?"

"Your grandparents will have to bring you here."

Jin nodded, "That's okay." He didn't say anything else during the trip back. He didn't try bribery for help with his assignments.

"It's nice out tonight," Yamigitsune said, looking out the window, "Do you want to train?"

"Not tonight," Jin looked over one of his assignments.

"We can have two Buddyfights tonight."

"I need to study."

"…All right…"

Yamigitsune followed Jin the next day, sitting in trees to watch through windows. After sometime he moved to the roof where a garden was, staying out of sight as he listened to the humans. They only talked about card games. One of them was the annoying one that frequently lost at games and whined a lot, blaming those who won for "not letting him win."

"Are you waiting for your Buddy?" A boy a few years older than Jin watched him from a bench. Jin had mentioned him a few times, saying he wasn't in school very often because he kept getting so sick he had to be in the hospital. He was also one of the two humans in the school that Jin talked to, and he had even given Jin a few Skull Warrior cards.

"Jin was quiet last night. I'm seeing why."

"A few bullies tried stealing his cards yesterday."

"Again?"

"They only ever teased him about it and gave the cards back, but then they heard about you. They don't know who you are."

So they were some of the humans that thought stealing a Buddy monster was the easiest way to get one. "I could shapeshift into a weaker monster."

"My little sister would say to scare them away."

That could work… and he did want to return to his normal form….

Jin waited outside on the sidewalk, looking up and down the street. He flinched when one of the bullies called out to him.

"Why didn't you bring your deck today?" one of the three asked.

"I didn't want to," Jin said.

"Why not? We need stronger cards for your decks. Like your Buddy rare card. If you can't even use its Buddy skill, anyway…."

Jin set his bag down and went into a fight stance.

Yamigitsune appeared behind him, returning to his normal form. The leader of the bullies took a step back, "He looks mad…." Yamigitsune lifted a hand, summoning a small foxfire. He didn't even get it to float around before the bullies fled, screaming.

Jin watched, surprised, "You better run!"

Yamigitsune disappeared, going back home, returning to his mini form. He waited on the porch, relaxing.

Jin came home not that much longer. "Yami!" He ran up to him, "I scared the bullies away. They're not going to take my cards anymore!"

"That's good," he got up.

"Yami? What's a Buddy skill?"

He didn't reply at first, "Something you're not ready for."

"I am too. I'm a ninja in training."

"I'll teach it to you when you're a true ninja."

He smiled, "Okay!" He ran off. "I'm going to sneak up on you now!"

Yamigitsune shook his head. It was going to be a long time before he would let Jin use it.