Chapter 2, acceptance in groups
Later that day when all the classes where over, our two favorite transfer students were packing up their stuff to go to the teachers office to collect their stuff and find out who they were going to be staying with. Unfortunately their plans were blown out of the water when two of the boys in class came over to them and disrupted their packing and asked, "Would you like to hang out with us?" the one with a neon-blue strip in his hair asked.
"Yeah we are going to go settle some things in the class at the Shirokin shrine, want to come?" the other asked, he was wearing a yellow basketball jersey.
Without waiting for a response the two boys just grabbed an arm of one of the girls and dragged them out of the classroom, across the school yard and half-way to the shrine before they let go. When the girls were free they had no choice but to follow the two boys that had literally kidnapped them from the classroom, in hopes that they would lead them back to the school if they asked nicely.
When they walked into a large courtyard that had trees and rocks sounding a paved walk way, they noticed that the entire class had shown up.
"What the hell is going on?" Momo asked Vana when they reached the line of students that were all facing towards… "Hey isn't that Yamato and Ren?"
Vana had been in the process of shrugging at Momo's question when she nodded instead at the last part. "I wonder what they are doing." She commented. Looking over at the boy that had dragged her along she reached over and pulled on his sleeve to get his attention. When he looked over at her she asked, "Um… What's going on?"
"Ren and Yamato are going to settle who is going to lead our class." The one in the jersey said.
"This fight will decide it for us." The boy with the neon-blue strip said.
Vana just looked back to where Yamato and Ren were having a bit of a standoff. Suddenly both Yamato and Ren toss their book bags to the side and make as to start to fight. Honjo started off the cheering for the respective person that each wanted to win. Some in the class just wanted to see a good fight. The only ones not cheering were Momo and Kiraya who were standing off to the side watching what was going on with curiosity.
Vana turned to Momo and asked, "Why did they throw their bags off to the side?"
"To get them out of the way? I don't know." Momo answered. She was curious as to what they would do. She had watched some fighting shows on TV as well as participated in some self defense classes, so she had a relatively large background in fighting.
In the midst of all the cheering there was one voice that stood out, it was the homeroom teacher, Yamaguchi-sensei. She was saying, "Don't lose you two! Go all out! Fire away!" all the while pumping her arms in an up down motion, as if she was fighting herself. Everyone that was gathered stopped what they were doing to look over in shock at the odd teacher that seemed to be encouraging fighting. Especially with the way the she was going, "Fight! Fight!" while moving her hands closer together in a start motion.
Yamato and Ren just looked at each other in disbelief that a teacher would do something like this. Yamato was the one that spoke up, and asked "Why are you here?"
Ren added his input by adding, "Wouldn't you normally stop something like this?"
Yamaguchi-sensei just gave them a look that suggested that they were being silly, "There's no reason to stop a bare-one, right?"
Everyone looked at her and said at the same time, "Bare-one?!" apparently Momo and Kiraya weren't the only ones that didn't know what it meant. Yamaguchi started off into a speech where she explained what a "bare-one" was and how it was going to bring the boys together as 'comrades' was the word she used, but Momo and Kiraya figured that she was trying to get all of the boys to be friends.
"What an odd teacher." Kiraya remarked to Momo when Kuraki started to complain about how she was still on about trying to get them to all get along.
"Um." Momo said as she nodded in agreement with Kiraya. Just as Ichimura was going to comment as well some ones phone started to ring. Yamaguchi looked down and pulled out her cell and answered it the conversation that followed lead to the entire group running. The reason being that when Yamaguchi was done with her phone call she turned to the group and explained what the call was about.
"That was Head teacher Sawatori, and he got a call from the locals about a group of high school students at Shirokin shrine." Here she paused as everyone looked around and came to the same conclusion as everyone else. "The cops are on their way. Run!" when she saw that no one was moving she repeated, "Everyone Run!!"
With no further prompting everyone split off into different directions and took off at a dead sprint, trying to put as much distance as they could between themselves and the shrine. Momo and Kiraya were dragged along for the ride for the second time, no scratch that… the third time that day, only to find themselves in different areas from each other.
Momo looked around as she slowed down to a jog, "Damn. Where'd everybody go?" looking around she noticed a small stream that split a walk way into two parts. She headed over in that direction. As she got closer she heard voices, 'Oh it sounds like Kuraki, Ichimura and Ren.'
"This is bad, I'm at my limit." One of the voices said.
She came into sight of the three boys when they started to say, "Man, what is Yamaguchi thinking? Kuraki said as he sat panting trying to catch his breath on a small foot bridge that stretched over the little stream.
"Seriously, where do you find a teacher that would cheer for a one-on-one fight?" Ren added on to the conversation that the three were about to have.
When they were interrupted by said teacher showing up and saying, "I'm right here." While trying to catch her breath as well. The three boys turned their heads in the direction of Yamaguchi. When they spied her they all jumped away from her in fright, the reaction that most have when someone shows up when they aren't expecting it.
Kuraki cried out, "What are you doing here?"
"Anyways, don't follow us around." Ren added as he got over his surprise.
"I can't help it." Yamaguchi responded to their comments. Momo had been standing on the other side of the bridge waiting to be noticed, but she couldn't pass up the opportunity to scare the boys even more.
Leaning over to Ichimura who was sitting at the end of the bridge closest to her, she said in a whisper, "Domo." Giving a little puff of breath to the back of his neck. When he shot up and spun around with a look of shocked surprise, Momo doubled over laughing. "So funny!"
Ichimura glared at her while rubbing the back of his neck trying to get the feel of her breath off, as if that would erase the feeling. When Momo got done laughing she held up her hand and said, "Yo!" as a greeting to the other three people that were still sitting.
With a sigh Yamaguchi stood up and addressed Ren, "Why do you and Yamato want to fight so badly? Do have some sort of history with him?"
Ren cast a glance in her direction and tried to explain, "It's nothing like that. He's picking a fight with me, so I have to answer him."
"Why don't you just ignore him then?"
"Then he would look down at me!" Ren said as he stood to get out some of the building frustration that this conversation was creating. "In the world there are only enemies and allies. I can allow an enemy to look down at me." When Ren said the last bit both Kuraki and Ichimura looked down both thinking the same thing, 'were do we fall?'
"You do know that Ogata isn't the enemy, right?" Yamaguchi said trying to get her point across while being gentle enough so as not to hit a nerve and end the conversation right then. Unfortunately she did, Ren gave her one last glare and then left. Kuraki got up and followed his friend immediately while Ichimura stayed behind to tell Yamaguchi one important fact about his friend.
"When Ren was younger he was bullied." With that he took off after his friends. Momo watched them leave for about two seconds before she cased after them.
When she caught up to them she called out, "Wait!" Running she caught up to them just as they were leaving the tree lined walk way. The boys stopped to see who had called out to them, when they saw who it was Ren just raised an eyebrow, but made no move to question what she was doing.
"What do you want?" Ichimura asked he was bringing up the rear of their group so he was closest to Momo when she came to a stop next to him.
"Um…I…um…Shit! How the hell…" Momo trailed off in her train of thought unsure how to express what she needed. "Um…Akadou…" she ran a hand through her hair in her frustration. Why did it have to be so damn difficult to form a sentence in a different language?
"What about school?" Kuraki said he was confused with what this kid in front of him wanted. "You want to go back to the school?" he asked in hope that he was close to what this, 'I don't know how to describe this little boy. Although he's not really that little…Hum…' Kuraki gave a shack of his head, 'Why was he helping this new person. I mean I don't even know this dude that well.'
"Hai!" Momo said. She was so glad that she at least understood what was said to her, 'at least most of the time.'
Ren shook his head and said, "We aren't going back to the school." With that he moved on and headed off toward their hangout area. Kuraki and Ichimura just gave a shrug at the new student and followed after Ren.
Momo watched as they started to leave, 'Holy crap! They're gonna leave me here! I don't know my way around! What am I gonna do?!' coming to a quick decision she cased after the boys for the second time that day. Once again she called out to them, "Wait! Um…can I go too?" she asked once she got even with them and was sure they could hear her.
Ren looked over at his friends, when they just gave him a shrug to show that they didn't really care he looked back over at the boy standing behind him. "Sure, puppy-chan."
"Puppy-chan?" Momo said tilting her head to the side in confusion.
"It's your nick name silly. Since your name is Urufu." Kuraki started off as an explanation.
"And since you are following us like a puppy…hence puppy-chan." Ichimura finished. Momo just nodded her head. 'I mean it does make since. Urufu does mean wolf, and I am following them around. So I guess puppy-chan makes since.' Momo thought to herself, with a nod she bounced right after the boys to where ever it was that they were going.
In the opposite direction of Momo, Kiraya was having a similar problem;
Kiraya had somehow ended up split up from her friend. So now she was in a place that she didn't recognize and she didn't know anyone or how to get back to the school. Turning around in place for the second time in the last two minutes, she thought back to how she ended up in the middle of a busy sidewalk.
Flashback to ten minutes ago.
"Everyone, run!" Yamaguchi said in a rush, and then everyone started to run towards the entrance to the shrine. Once through they split into two different directions, Kiraya went right and started to follow the boys that were headed in the same direction.
She spent the next five minutes running away from the shrine, following after the group of boys that she was with. After five minutes of sprinting she was running out of breath so she slowed down to a walk to recover her breath.
Looking up to catch her breath she spotted something that glinted in the sun light. "What's that?" Kiraya asked out loud to no one in particular. So she followed the glinting thing as it lead her down a twisting a turning and twisting way that somehow headed further into the city. Without realizing it she had headed at least a half-mile away from her closest class mate.
When she finally looked up she noticed that there was no one around that she recognized. "Oh crap. Now how am I supposed to get back to the school?" she stopped when she couldn't see the shinny thing that she had been following. Looking around she was trying to locate the shinny, when she noticed a bunch of bad looking guys headed in her direction.
Shrugging her shoulders she went back to looking for her shinny. She headed down an ally way that was a little darker than the street that she was previously standing in. coming towards the end of the ally she looked back up again in hopes to spot the shinny in the sky, and as luck would have it she does look up and spot the shinny in the sky.
"Maybe if I follow the shinny it will lead me back to where I started." Kiraya murmured to herself as she started after the shinny as it flew back in the direction that she had just come. As she headed out of the ally way she ran into someone on accident, due to the fact that she had been looking up at the time.
Snapping her attention back to eye level she came face to with the group of men that she had spotted earlier. "Ah. I'm sorry. I wasn't watching were I was going." Kiraya said as she bowed as is costume in this country, if she was still back home she probably would have apologized and then moved on. Standing back up she looked about in hopes to relocate her shinny flying object, when she was about to move after the shinny she was grabbed by the man she had bumped into.
"Were do you think you're going?" He asked in a voice that suggested that he really didn't care what her answer was so long as he got what he wanted out of her, what it was we will never know. For at that moment a cop walked by and just his mere presence was enough to scare them away without continuing to bother her.
'Thank god. For the cops.' Was the thought that crossed her mind before she got distracted with the shinny in the sky, as it started to move away from her again. "Ah, wait." So she started to chase after the shinny that had originally distracted her from staying near a group from school, and she followed it until it stopped again for the second time that day in another unfamiliar place.
"Ok, so now that I know how I got lost what now?" Kiraya looked around the square once more and noticed a bird off to the side sitting on a window sill with what looked like a silver chain in its claws. She moved closer to the bird and noticed that what she thought was a silver chain was in fact a chunk of silver colored wrapping paper, 'probably from a garbage can or something.'
Standing in front of the store window that the bird was perched on Kiraya took one last look around and decided to head in and ask for directions to get back to school. 'Hopefully Momo will be at the school by the time I get there.' With a large sigh, she headed inside and came face to face with one of the boy's from school.
"Oh, you're Honjo." Kiraya said as she pointed her finger at him. He just tilled his head to the side; he didn't seem to get her rapped fire English.
"Ah, you're that new kid from school." Kiraya started to nod to show that he was on the right track. "What was your name again?" Honjo asked as he put his hands in his pockets, he was trying to pull off the "cool" look.
"It's Kiraya." She responded to his question with deliberate slowness afraid that if she said it any faster he wouldn't understand what she was saying.
"Kiraya?" he said with a questioning tone, trying to make sure that he said it right. Looking over at Kamiya and Yamato he motioned to her to come into the store further. Kamiya looked up when Honjo made his was back over to the table that they were sitting at.
"Who's that, Kengo?" He asked when he noticed that there was another person behind his friend. When Kamiya asked his question Yamato looked up and immediately noticed that the person that he had been thinking about was standing behind his friend.
'Good god is he following me around?' yamato thought to himself not wanting to speak and draw attention to himself.
"Ah, hello Yamato and Kamiya-kun." Kiraya said with a little wave in response to Kamiya's question regarding who she was.
"What are you doing here kid?" Yamato asked trying to ignore the odd feeling that had settled in his stomach.
"Oh, well you see…I got lost." Kiraya said with a smile and a scratching motion to the back of her head, it was a nervous habit that she had yet to get rid of. All of the boy's sweat dropped at this comment, they where all thinking the same thing, 'how do you get lost and not freak out about it?'
With a shake of his head Yamato went back to thinking and drinking his soda, pretending that Kiraya wasn't there, in the same room with him… Honjo looked at Kiraya as if she had a second head, then with a shake of his head asked her, "Do you want to play?" indicating the dart board with a sweeping gestured of his hand. Kamiya just smiled and watched as the two started up a new game of darts.
"Well we don't have to worry about Honjo picking fights with at least one of the new students." Kamiya commented to Yamato as he sat drinking his soda absorbed in his thinking.
"Uh." Was all the response Kamiya got for his trouble. Yamato had started to drift back to what had happened earlier that day. He was still troubled by what that damn teacher, Yamaguchi, had to say about friendship or being 'comrades' as she had put it.
Honjo and Kamiya where talking in the background with the new student when Yamato slammed his glass down on the bar that he was sitting at in frustration.
Honjo glanced over and saw the look on Yamato's face and went back to the dart game he was playing, but not without a comment. "You were so close to setting things with Ren."
Kamiya piped in with his two senses on the other side of the room, "Man that teacher's so annoying."
Yamato just gripped his glass tighter in his grip as he let out through clenched teeth, "What 'really comrades?' Don't make me laugh. Next time I'll be sure to crush him." He then slammed his glass down on the bar for the second time that day.
"Aren't you guys over reacting a little bit?" Kiraya asked in a quiet voice hopping to not be heard, while at the same time hopping that they do hear her and take what she was saying in to consideration. Just as Honjo was about to comment to her about how naive she was being, Yamaguchi made her presence known.
"Why do you have to go that far? Why do you want to fight so badly?" Yamaguchi asked as she came into view from around the corner. She directed her question at Yamato hopping to figure out some of the hostility that existed between Ren and Yamato.
"I can only be No. 1 in fighting." Yamato said as he came to a stand to look the 'annoying teacher' in the eye.
"Huh?" she responded while cocking her head to the side in confusion. She also had one of those looks that you get when someone said something particularly stupid and just ended up confusing the crap out of everyone.
"I'm not good at studying, or sports. Is that a bad thing?" Yamato asked, he was trying to get his point across but it seemed as if the teacher wouldn't understand him at all.
Kiraya had been listening to the conversation for a while now and decided to add in her own two-sense to help lighten the mood. So before Yamaguchi could reply Kiraya said, "Nope!" in response to Yamato's question. Yamato looked back at her and she just gave him a cheeky smile in return to his questioning look.
Yamaguchi just ignored the smart-ass comment that came from the new student and asked Yamato, "Why do you need to be No. 1?"
"Don't patronize me!" Yamato snapped at the teacher when she asked a question that he didn't know the answer to. "Damn teachers like you, all you do is set ranks."
"Then let me ask you this." Yamaguchi started into her speech with a soft tone. "By fighting to be No. 1 aren't you setting ranks?" She paused here to let what she had just said sink in. continuing on she said, "When you're doing the same thing, do you have the right to talk all high and mighty?" She asked to get her point across. She was trying to get Yamato and the rest of his group to realize that life wasn't all about fighting with your fist but fighting for what you want, believe and love.
When Yamaguchi decided to go on a bit of a rant she started to make hand gestures that followed the conversation that she was having. She was just being funny, but she also didn't want her to see what she was doing, so Kiraya stood behind Honjo and Kamiya so that no one could see her without turning around.
Yamato just clenched his jaw in a stubborn set and headed out of the hangout without commenting on what Yamaguchi had just said to him. As he left Honjo and Kamiya both started after their friend, after calling out, "Yamato."
Kiraya saw that they were leaving and not wanting to be left behind with the bizarre teacher she chased after them. But first she had to grab her bags that she had set down. As she made her way out the door she called out, "Wait for me. Oi, I said wait!" chasing after the boy's she made it down the street with little difficulty. "So where are we headed?" Kiraya asked trying to break some of the tension that was in the group.
"Huh?" Honjo said as he stopped to face the short person that was following them.
"What do you mean "We"?" Kamiya asked trying to point out that she was not going to be following them around all night.
"Well I…um…I just got here today. I don't know my way around." Kiraya said with a little bit of difficulty. She wasn't used to using long sentences in Japanese yet. According to her schedule she was to go to the cram-school listed for further instruction, but that wasn't until tomorrow.
"Its fine let him come." Yamato said as he turned back to walking down the street. Kiraya looked at him oddly as he walked away, 'Did he just call me "him"? Wait do they think I'm a guy?' Kiraya thought to herself as she stood rooted to the spot watching them walk away.
Kamiya turned when he noticed that their little kitten wasn't following them like he was supposed to. "Little ko neko-chan what are you doing?"
Kiraya looked up at Kamiya and said, "Little ko neko?" Too herself and then to Kamiya when she had caught up, "Ne ne, is little ko neko, me?" she said as she pointed at her nose. Kamiya just nodded his head while giving her a pat on the head in response to how cute she was being.
Honjo threw his arm over her shoulder and said, "Yeah, come on our little ko neko-chan, let's go get something to eat." Kiraya just smiled up at him and nodded her head as she bounced out in front of the group.
After getting something to eat from a street vender the group of four teenagers spent the next hour or so wandering around town introducing their little kitten to the sights. They walked by the karaoke place that everyone from school went to, and the way back to the square that lead to the school. Once they had hit all the major area's that they would be hanging out at and took Kiraya along the major walk ways, the boy's of the group noticed that Kiraya started to lag behind.
"Is our little ko neko-chan tired?" Honjo teased their new friend when they stopped at a park that had a bench to sit at.
"Yeah kinda. I have been awake for over twenty-four hours. I would like to sleep." Kiraya said in an annoyed tone of voice while rubbing her head due to the large headache that was coming on.
"So where are you staying?" Kamiya asked Kiraya as he moved over to the back of the bench to lean against it.
"Um…I don't know."
"You don't know. How do you not know where you are staying?" Honjo asked in disbelief that someone wouldn't know where they were going to stay for the night.
"Why don't you stay with one of us?" Kamiya suggested to the group. Honjo and him then went into a debate over where she would be staying. Kiraya just sat and listened to the two of them bicker about the pros and cons of each of their houses. When about mid-debate they stopped and looked as one over at Yamato and said, "Oh Yamato, how large is your house?" together.
"Why?" He answered with eyes narrowed in suspicion.
"Well my house is too small." Kamiya started.
"And I have a tofu shop as part of my house, so it's even smaller than Kamiya's place." Honjo continued, but left the rest of their thoughts to hang in the air.
"And you were wondering if I would let him stay at my house?" Yamato asked. When he received two nodes to confirm that he was correct, he heaved a sigh and then looked over at Kiraya who had started to nod off while she was sitting on the bench. "Yeah I'll take him to my house to stay for the night."
Honjo and Kamiya shared a look of success with each other and then moved over to give yamato the room that he needed to wake the sleeping boy.
"Kiraya. Kiraya!" Yamato said to get her attention while giving her shoulder a firm shake to help rouse the sleeping figure.
"What?" Kiraya said as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, looking much like an awakening cat.
"You'll be staying at my place tonight. So grab your stuff and lets go." Yamato said as he moved away from the girl, that everyone thought was a boy. Kiraya just nodded her head and picked up her bags that she had been caring around all day. Once she was ready to go Yamato said his good bye's to his friends and headed off in the direction of his home, with a little shadow following him all the way.
Back with Ren, Momo, Kuraki, and Ichimura in the karaoke bar.
Kuraki was up on the stage singing a random song so horribly that no one could make out what he was singing. It was really off tune as well, it just made the scene all the more hilarious. "Do you do this every day?" Momo asked Ichimura who was sitting next to her on the couch in the room they were using.
Ichimura was about to respond to her question when Ren came bursting into the room, "Food is here!!!" He came in carrying a large pizza and had a large bottle of soda. Kuraki came jumping off the stage over to Ren to steal the soda.
When Ren set the pizza down on the table Momo moved over to the table and opened the box. "Pepperoni pizza!!! My favorite!" She said as she pulled out a large slice then settled back on the couch to eat. "Itedakimasu!" She said just before she took a large bit out of her slice of pizza.
The boys sat and stood there looking at the new addition to their group with big eyes and their mouths hanging open. "Waah?" Was the muffled question that Momo gave them when she noticed that they hadn't started to eat. Swallowing a large portion of the food in her mouth she asked around the rest of the food in her mouth. "What? Is there pizza on my face?"
"No, it's just we didn't think you could eat that much." Kuraki said. Ichimura just nodded his head in agreement.
Ren just stood there looking shocked with his mouth hanging open. So Momo got up and walked over to him and placed a piece of pizza in his mouth then closed it with her finger. Then she tilted her head to the side and let go to the pizza that she had placed in his mouth, and with a smile walked back over to her seat. After another two seconds Ren started to move again, he took a bit of the pizza in his mouth and moved over to sit down as well.
Looking over at Ichimura, "Who is singing next?" Ren asked as he reclined into his seat.
"You are." Ichimura responded as he also sat down to eat his slice of pizza. Kuraki decided that it was time to get puppy-chan to start interacting with the group so he picked up a cushion from the couch and threw it at her.
Momo had just finished eating her slice of pizza and was about to go and get a second piece when she got hit in the face with a couch cushion. Looking up after she had caught the cushion on its way to the floor, "Who did that?" She asked sweetly causing all the boys to shiver at the high pitched voice. When she made eye contact with Kuraki he gave her a small guilty look that she almost didn't catch, but she did and then threw the pillow back at him, only to miss and hit Ren in the back of the head as he stood up to start his song. Momo blinked and then looked sheepish while pointing to Kuraki and stuttering out, "He started it."
Kuraki just laughed at Ren when he got a face full of cushion, and so the large karaoke pillow/ cushion fight began. They kept on fighting for about ten more minutes before Ichimura spilt some of his soda on the couch and they decided to leave before they got charged more for ruining the furniture.
"See you later Kuraki." Ichimura said as they came to an intersection where the road split into two different ways.
"Ah. Good night puppy-chan!" Kuraki said while giving a cute little wave. They found out about halfway through their fight with the cushions that Momo didn't like to be called puppy-chan. So Honjo had taken to teasing her with the new nickname.
Momo just glared at him and ignored the comment with her nickname and moved away when Ren and Ichimura started off down the other street. Ren glanced at their groups' tag-along and asked, "So Urufu-kun where are you staying?"
Momo looked up at that comment and studied the stars that were visible with all the light of the city. "Don't know. Why?"
Ren and Ichimura looked at each other with a look that said, 'You take him. No you take him.' Their little debate was cut off when Urufu looked over at them and said, "Don't worry, I'll find some place to sleep. So don't worry, I'll be fine."
"Yes you will be fine. You will be staying with me." Ren said a bit defensively when he thought about his puppy-chan sleeping on the street or in some unknown place. It was so not happening.
"No that's ok…I'll go to a hotel or something." Momo started to turn down his offer, more like command to stay at his place. Ren just raised his eyebrow at her as if to say, 'really, and where do you have the money to pay for a hotel?' Momo (aka Urufu or puppy-chan for those who weren't paying attention) looked back at the sky and thought about the offer some more before she looked back at Ichimura then at Ren, with a heavy sigh she nodded her head and moved closer to where Ren was standing to show that she was willing to go with him. Looking over at Ichimura she gave a wave and said, "See you Ichi." Ren just nodded at his friend and then lead the way to his house.