It all began like it usually did for Harou Niijima and Shirihama Kay, with the usual pattern of Kay Shirihama's disappearance the day before. Today it was June, Friday the thirteenth, and unlike this year- the day and date seemed to catch Niijima off guard at first. Not because he had forgotten, not really.

I mean who in their right minds could forget the trauma's they had experienced as a child? Kay herself couldn't and was no different from him, though her trauma's went considerably deeper due to things best left unmentioned in the light of day.

The poor girl, it wasn't her fault that she lived with her back literally and figuratively, against the wall. But who could blame her after everything that had happened? There was a reason after all, why she didn't speak of her family's private matters and such. Being sold into prostitution as a child had worked wonders on her ability to keep her secrets hidden.

Again, not that he blamed her. She never should have been used by her father in such a way to begin with. But that was neither here nor there, today he'd cut the last few classes of the day just to see if he could find her. And after contacting everyone in the Shinpaku Alliance to ask them to keep an eye out for her, he'd gone about his usual routine of buying sake and beer at a corner store using a fake I. D. and then had- instead of heading home- gone straight to the Dojo where Kay had been living for the past year.

Hoping that she was holed up inside somewhere where it was safe and sound. Perhaps practicing her martial arts with her masters.

He seriously doubted that she would be, but hey, one can dream right? Stepping up to the large outer doors of the fenced in area, he reached out a hand and pushed as something or someone came crashing through the eight foot thick concrete wall and hit the pavement next to his foot. Looking down half expecting Kay-chan to be sprawled on her back or start screaming for help- he was only moderately surprised to see her master Sakaki laying there with an, What. The. Fuck? Sort of look on his face before he slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position and finally seemed to notice Niijima standing there.

"Oh it's you," He said none too happily. Probably because he had just had his ass handed to him but then again, he had never felt that happy about Niijima's presence wherever he showed up at the dojo to see Kay-chan. "Kenichi's alien freak-buddy." Niijima's pointed ears twitched a little bit. No matter how many times he heard the alias Kenichi- he still couldn't stop thinking of his friend as anything but Kay-chan.

Not to mention being called an alien freak sort of pissed him off.

Why if the master wasn't such a tall and imposing man with so much muscle... Ah who was he kidding? He'd still piss his pants if he got into a fight with him because he just knew that the guy had a mean streak in him that would probably be the death of him. "Is K-enichi in?" Niijima asked, pausing for just the briefest moment in time to make sure that he didn't accidentally call Kay-chan by her name, especially to the master's face.

Like Kay-chan, he wasn't entirely sure what the volatile master and his friends would do if they all found out that she was a girl. Sakaki glared at him for a moment then grunted and nodded before noticing the bag of sake and beer and cocked a brow at him before asking in a curious/suspicious tone as he sized the teen up, "What's that stuff for?" The unhappy look on his face just going up several notches.

"Hm, oh this." Niijima said as he looked down awkwardly at the bag wondering if perhaps he should have hidden the contents in his school bag or something before showing up at the dojo. The last thing he and Kay needed today was to be under the scrutiny of people like her masters. But he knew that it was pointless to lie to the man or try running. So he just spoke honestly. Perhaps for the first time in many years. "Kenichi and I have made a little tradition of drinking together once every year these past five years so... I hope you and the other masters won't mind if we get on with it. I'm kind of looking forward to curling up in some random corner once I'm good and drunk." Nijjima said, surprising the master a little bit since the previous times the kid had come to the dojo to see Kenichi, he'd had an ulterior motive for doing so.

Like world domination and such.

The master made a humming sound and got to his feet and popped his neck and rolled his shoulders a bit before saying, "The kid's in there somewhere." Sakaki said as he motioned with his head in the direction of the dojo grounds and the houses before going on to say, "Be careful though, he's been in a bitchy frigging mood for the past few days now."

"No kidding." Niijima said in a thoughtful tone as he thought to himself, I can't imagine why... as he walked through the large hole that the master had made in the wall and followed him to one of the houses where he and the other masters all lived before Sakaki made a 'Tsking' sound and said in an annoyed tone,

"Damn, he moves fast. I guess the kid ran for cover after putting me through the wall... Oh well, I'll surprise the little runt and get him later." Niijima's ears twitched as he gave the master a look of disbelief. Kay-chan had put this- this monster through the wall? Seriously? It's a good thing that I have the good stuff- I can only imagine what she'd do to me if she isn't able to drink and vent before she passes out tonight. He thought as an image of Kay-chan bending his body so that it closely resembled a pretzel crossed his mind causing him to shiver as he slowly started to make his way to the branch house where she lived with the rest of the masters.

Taking several steps inside the wall, Niijima paused for a second then turned and politely bowed to the karate master, shocking the hell out of the man if the way his eyes widened and his face paled was any indication at all, before he then continued on his way. Leaving Sakaki to his spaz attack before he then pulled himself together and went running for the main house to grab the others.

Niijima being polite for any reason could only mean three things, 1) Hell had frozen over. 2) He was dying. And then there was number 3) Kenichi was dying and Niijima was the only one who knew the when's and why's of the situation. And that meant that he needed Akisame and the others to help him spy on the two teens to gauge just how bad the situation truly was or would become.