Chapter 1: Practice in the Rain and Already Causing Problems

"That's good, gentlemen, keep running! Adagio, keep the pace, or you'll throw off Mitsuhara!" Kaien shouted from midfield, eyes carefully watching as he conducted freshmen practice. The 1st year squad was crisscrossing the field passing the ball to their partners as they passed before shooting as they reached the end of the row. It had been two hours since his introduction to Ryoko Aramori, and he'd been at practice for about an hour and a half.

Another line passed, and he called the next drills.

"A Half, take Home Box for shooting drills. B Half, line up in midfield, and run dribble-shoot rows into the Away Goal. Go!"

"Yes, sir!" the boys shouted, and Riku, who had sat on the bench watching, stood and ran to the Home net. As the drills began around him, Kaien started running suicides up and down the midfield line. He contemplated the dream from earlier, and what he was going to do with a female roommate. He looked up at the sky, and just as he opened his eyes, the first raindrop fell and hit his shoulder, immediately soaking into his t-shirt.

"Oh, shit! Everybody pack up! Riku, supervise!" he shouted, darting for the cover of the entrance tunnel.

"Right, you heard the man! Balls in crates, gentlemen! Tanaka, Suzuki, take down the goal nets!"

The squad was a hive of activity. None dared to challenge the sudden end to practice, lest one of the upperclassmen hear them, and make them run as punishment. Everything was put away in record time, and the freshmen were allowed back to the locker room, where Kaien stood in the Coach's office filing a practice report. He stood in his Yokai practice suit, a green jacket with red accents and matching pants with white sneakers. Some of the players clapped Kaien's shoulder sympathetically. They didn't give him a hard time because it wasn't something that he could help; if it was, they'd still be playing.

"Okay, gentlemen," Kaien called through the locker room as the players were finishing up.

"It was a good practice today, and I'm sorry it had to end so suddenly. Go back to your rooms, get some sleep, and be ready for general practice tomorrow. Dismissed when you're ready!" he said, and the team called out, as was traditional when the Captain spoke. Kaien picked up his bag, and pulled up the thick hood on the track jacket.

As he walked out, Kaien very nearly stepped in a puddle, which would have been the end of him.

"Easy, boss!" Riku called, the mad dog hoodless and jacketless in the rain. Lucky bastard.

"Yeah. Hey, do me a favor, and check in on the twins and my new roommate. Make sure that she's still there, and they aren't dead of boredom."

"Yep, you got it!" he shouted as he ran ahead.

Kaien kept walking, focusing on staying dry. He was just beginning to feel the damp seeping in when he managed to get under the awning of the dorm building.

Upstairs, he dropped his bag by the door, and immediately shucked his jacket. The twins sat nonchalantly on the sofa watching television with Riku.

"What's up?" Hikaru asked calmly.

"I could ask the same thing. Where is she?"

"Sleeping. She reversed your rooms."

"Oh. Well, I wasn't counting on that. How'd she get the shirts down?"

"The shirts?" Itsuki asked, but it was more of a squeak.

"Yeah, my door is open, and I can't see them on the walls."

"Oh, those shirts! I dunno!" Hikaru laughed nervously.

"You two helped her didn't you. When I told her to do it by herself! Did she tell you that she was supposed to do it herself?"

"Yeah, when we were finished! She said 'Oh and to think that Akashiya would've made me do this by myself'! We were horrified, you gotta believe it!" Hikaru said crossing his arms defensively. Kaien closed his eyes.

"I believe you. I forgive you. It's her that I'm pissed at."

"You know, I think she's got it pretty tough. She mentioned to us that this is her sixth school in three years. She's also an only child, and her dad's work is constantly moving them, or her powers are."

"Okay, so we just factor that into our protection strategy. You two will be the only other people to be left alone with her from here on out. I'll take main watches, but you guys'll back me up. If I'm impaired and you two are unavailable, then we'll work our way from Riku to Ochi," Kaien declared.

"Sounds good. What about games? We can't just sit out," Itsuki said.

"We can try to talk Coach into letting her stay on the sidelines, maybe as another assistant or something," Hikaru suggested. Kaien and Riku nodded.

"You know something? I'm really happy for you Kaien," Riku said, patting his shoulder. Kaien looked at him as if he'd lost his mind. Riku flashed a wolf smile.

"You have instantly gone from Yokai's Most Eligible Bachelor to being taken. Sure there are a bunch of broken hearts, but that's the easiest pickings for a girlfriend I'll ever get here! I mean, who would want the boyfriend that has to go home to another woman?" Riku laughed. Kaien punched him, and then sighed as the realization set in; it was true. The Headmaster had officially cock-blocked him in the grandest form imaginable, and it wasn't like he was even having relationships of that nature!

"Look, I'm gonna go get changed, and then, I'm going to finish Imahara-sensei's math homework before bed. I've had a long day," Kaien announced standing up.

"While you do that, we'll be out here. Hey, Riku, pass out the XBOX controllers will ya?" Hikaru replied, reaching for the remote to change the television settings for the console.

"Just don't overwrite the current save file," Kaien said from his guest room. The twins had helped Ryo move everything, so all of his drawers were organized like they had been that morning, and everyday prior. The bed had been moved and remade, only he guessed that Ryo had done it due to the lack of hospital corners, which he applied. Kaien picked up his school bag, and pulled out the math textbook and a notebook, and set about calculating and drawing vectors until it was dinner time, at which point, the master bedroom door opened and shut, and Kaien recognized the sounds of his microwave working. He stood up and stretched before walking out to the living room.

"Hey, Aramori?"

"What?"

"Were you planning on bathing?"

"Why, wanna watch?"

"No, I need a bath."

"Okay, and this matters to me because?"

"There's only one bathroom in here, so there's only one bath tub."

"You can't use the communal?" she called, now pulling the bowl of instant ramen out of the microwave.

"No," Kaien replied dumbly. Ryo snorted.

"What, to good for them?" she mocked. Kaien clenched his teeth.

"No. The water's bad for me."

Ryo looked at him. Something had suddenly clicked in her mind. Power beyond comparison, devastatingly handsome, weakness to water.

"You're a Vampire!"

"Congratulations, you've solved the puzzle that wasn't a puzzle. While you're eating, I'm taking my bath, so don't bother me," Kaien announced, and walked into the bathroom.

Once the doors were locked, he started the bath that ran herb-treated water and shucked his clothes before climbing in. Immediately, he sunk into the warm water and let it relieve much of the tension in his muscles from practice and his yelling matches with Ryo. He reached over to the soap rack and grabbed his soap, an almost empty Old Spice bottle. He lathered up, and made sure that he was clean before there was a crash and a scream from the living room.

"What happened?" he called.

"It's all good! Ryo just dropped the bowl of ramen on her way back to the kitchen. We've got it!" Riku called from the living room.

"Alright!" Kaien called back, and settled back into the water. He quickly finished his bath, and hopped out of the water. Pulling a towel from a nearby shelf, he dried off and pulled a pair of his boxers from a drawer under the sink and put them on.

Kaien opened the door to the living room, and did not like what he saw. All three of his guy friends were out cold on the sofa, the bowl that Aramori had dropped was still in pieces on the floor, and there was no sign of the girl anywhere.

"Oh bother," Kaien muttered, and he ran to his room to get dressed in the polo and khakis from earlier. When dressed, he woke up his team and told them to go to their rooms.

"One of you call the Headmaster and tell him that she's gone. I'll go find her."

"We can go with you!" Hikaru claimed, and Kaien shook his head.

"Nope, one of them imitated Riku, so that means that they're probably doppelgangers. It's better if I go and you guys stay put, that way there is no confusion at all. I should be back soon!" Kaien ordered while he put his shoes on. Once his task was finished, he was out the door before anyone could say anything.

AN: So, yes, I'm still kind of bored. I'm still trying to see if I want this to go anywhere.