This feels like one of those dialogue-heavy chapters to me. That just happens once in a while; everybody has those chapters from time to time. Right?

Nue and Kogasa both get a little development in this chapter, and we get to see things that we haven't yet seen. There's also an important piece of foreshadowing in this chapter. VERY important. If you think you know what the important foreshadowing is by the end of this chapter, feel free to say so. I won't confirm or deny your claims, but it's always fun to guess anyway~

One of the new girl's secrets I mentioned in the description (even though it says she only has one) gets revealed here, but I have a few more surprises up my sleeve for the surprise youkai. Let's see, if this story spans a five-day period…Nue and Kogasa are in for a pretty crazy five days XD

"You'd better be pulling my leg," Nue said, looking at the building in front of the two. It was an old warehouse, formerly used to store frozen materials like donated blood or ice cream, but it was abandoned some years ago after the cooler malfunctioned. Now the inside of the warehouse was vacant at all time, save maybe some boxes laying around. Even rats didn't live there; since the cooler malfunction, it was too cold. "Kogasa, if you live in this warehouse, I'm going to personally kick you into unconsciousness and take you back to my place."

"Oh, no, I don't live in the warehouse," the new girl nervously said. "I live right there," she said, pointing next to the door of the warehouse.

"…that's still the warehouse."

"No, next to the door!" Next to the door was the last thing Nue had ever expected to see, especially when it was the supposed home of the new student. A cardboard box. It looked big enough to fit Kogasa in an uncomfortable-looking pinch, and it probably came from inside the warehouse itself, but…it was a cardboard box!

"Nuh-uh. You're not living here," Nue said, grabbing Kogasa by the arm and pulling her away from her precious box. "Follow me; you're about to get adopted."

"A-Adopted?" For a short moment, Kogasa's face seemed to come more alive than it ever seemed in Nue's presence…for a short moment. Once a certain realization hit her, the smile on her face sank and faded. "What are your parents like?"

"I live with my uncle; my dad's younger brother. He's not all that bad, really, once you get used to him."

"What about before then?" That "once you get used to him" bit worried Kogasa a little. Was he mean? Alcoholic? There were so many potential negative traits that frightened Kogasa all running through her head by the dozen, and it was almost enough to make her try to force her way out of Nue's grip and run back to her box as it faded further away. "What's he like before you get used to him?"

"Still pretty cool. I mean, he's not perfect or anything - far from it - but I've heard that he's where I got my smarts." That was without a doubt. Nue's uncle was very bright, even if he didn't show it in his mannerisms, but he had flaws just like everybody. He wasn't afraid to say something completely inappropriate, and often made important decisions with coin tosses. There was also his past charges for attempting (and in three cases, succeeding) to seduce girls from Nue's school for which he was still on parole, and there were rumors that he once stabbed and killed a man…but hey, nobody's perfect. "On the upside, he has a freaking awesome job that keeps the two of us comfy and happy."

"What kind of job does he have?" The way Nue sounded when she talked about her uncle suggested a respectable position, like a business executive or even a doctor. Or perhaps he was a government agent! That would be odd, what with Nue being the little delinquent Kogasa had made her out to be.

"He's a heavy metal drummer and vocalist. Did you ever hear of the band YHZ-Saga?"

"Um…no."

"He's their drummer and lead singer. He's also the H in the band, for Houjuu, and he's not really home that much." YHZ-Saga was a band between two important milestones. They were between "Very popular" and "Famous" on the scale of fan base sizes, so lots of times, Nue's uncle was out touring. Of course, given that he was the man who raised her throughout her entire life, it was probably a big factor as to why such a formerly sweet girl turned into a complete delinquent who was probably going to get expelled next time she entered the school building. Which was pretty much her plan from the start. As Nue and Kogasa started going back through the local park, the delinquent girl wondered what her uncle would say when word got to him that Nue had been expelled, assuming she even did. With any luck, it would be "So, YHZ-Saga is looking for a new bassist…"

"Are you sure your uncle will be okay with me living with you?"

"He usually doesn't care about that kind of stuff as long as you don't trash the place. And if he does say something, just say your house burned down and I volunteered to let you stay with us because we've been school friends for a long time." Her uncle was always a sucker for a sad or touching story, and Nue avoided countless heaps of trouble in the last two years by taking advantage of that exact weakness. It probably wasn't nice, but Nue wanted to not get in trouble at home if at all possible; she wanted to get into trouble everywhere else. As the two passed a bench, Nue saw a wallet on the bench. Not far away, she saw a father pushing his son on the swing. Neither of them were facing the bench, nor was anybody else. I'll just take that, Nue mentally told herself as she subtly slid the wallet off the bench and into her school bag.

"I can't believe you just did that," Kogasa whispered.

"At least you're whispering. It's his fault for letting his wallet slip out of his pocket without him noticing."

"Still, what would drive you to do such a thing?"

"I'm a kleptomaniac," Nue plainly answered, as though she were relaying extremely commonplace information. "I've stolen some pretty weird things before, too. One time, about a year ago, I'd been trying to not steal anything for a month, and broke down two days before the 30-day mark, and walked home that day with five bags of popcorn from the grocery store, a box of candy from the pharmacy, two full sets of rainwear that I'm not even sure where they came from, and a few pieces of…ahem, special outfitting from a shop that kicked me out when they noticed I was under eighteen."

"That's a pretty strange shopping list," Kogasa said. It didn't sound like there was any particular theme with those items, though. Like she just grabbed things at random. Then again, it was probably exactly what she did.

"What about you?"

"Hm?"

"Everybody's got something up in their head. I like to take things that don't belong to me, and I don't think being homeless quite counts as a mental condition."

"Oh, I'm scared of…dogs."

"Dogs?"

"Yeah, I'm actually terrified of them. When I was little, I had a bad run-in with a big scary-looking dog, and I've been afraid of them ever since. I'm also scared of thunder and the dark."

"Aw, you're like a little kid~"

"H-Hey, I'm not a kid!"

"You'll be fine," Nue teased, patting Kogasa on the head as though she were exactly that. A little child. "You've just gotta hang in there and not be afraid, and you'll grow up to be big and strong just like your daddy."

"Quit it!'

"You'll both be so strong together, eh? Like father, like daughter~"

SLAP!

"…"

"I'm sorry," Kogasa said, facing away from Nue when she realized what she'd just done. "I lost control and I shouldn't have. I couldn't stand hearing about him like that, though."

"Hey, I'm sorry too, okay? I didn't know you had such a personal bone about your old man. Guess we've both got that problem, huh?" Nue's mother at least had the decency to pop in once every couple months or so to see how her little girl was doing, but at each visit, the father was nowhere to be seen; not even to visit his own brother who was raising his daughter for him. "So what did yours do?"

"I'd rather not talk about it, if that's alright."

"Say no more. Everybody's got some skeletons in their closet, and we're no different. And before I forget, I have to tell you something important."

"Oh?"

"If I'm not in class tomorrow, it's because I'm probably getting expelled next time I enter the school building. I've been getting on the principal's nerves since freshman year started, and I think swapping our bags like that was the last straw." Then again, she was also pretty sure that setting the cafeteria on fire three months ago was the last straw, as well as a year ago when she let loose a whole box full of snakes loose in the teacher's lounge. There was also that one time in the girl's locker room about three weeks ago, but…that actually wasn't entirely Nue's fault. The other girl was just as guilty in that one. And the coach conveniently forgot to say anything about it.

"Are you alright over there?"

"Huh? Oh, I'm fine. Just thinking about this little incident from a few weeks back. Have you ever been in the girl's locker room?"

"No. I was in the classroom for about thirty seconds, then we were in detention for six hours and then we left. Why?"

"Never forget this. That locker room is probably the safest place in the entire school. Deadbolts on the big heavy doors, everything's built into the floor or walls, no windows, and it's altogether pretty impenetrable if you lock it up tight. Keep that in mind, okay? It might come in handy later."

"I will."

"Actually, during my freshman year, there was this student that went completely off her rocker and started shooting everybody. Everybody, boys and girls both, were quickly escorted to that locker room. I remember that the senior class was completely unaware, and…well, subtly, the boys enjoyed the view they got."

"What's this got to do with the locker room being safe?"

"Not much~" Nue guided her heterochromatic companion around a corner, and pointed to a house a bit further down the street. "That's where I live," Nue said. "That's where you're living now took, alright? There should be a guest room down the hall from my room, so you'll have your own room too."

"I get my own room?"

"You bet, box-girl. Oh, there is one important rule."

"I promise I won't break it, ever."

"Good. Just make sure that no matter what you do, you never bug my uncle when he's working. If you hear the sound of drums coming from his room, then just assume he's working, alright?"

"Sure thing, Nue."

Creak… "And we're home! Lemme show you around." As soon as the two stepped inside, they were met with a staircase and the option of going up, left, or right. Pointing into the room on the right, she said "That's the living room. There's a computer in there if you have to do some research for a school assignment or something, but I don't really trust it for games." Guiding Kogasa down to the rooms on the left, she said "Here's the dining room, and the kitchen over there. You can slide on the tiles if you're wearing socks, and it's pretty fun."

"This is quite a place," Kogasa said, just a tad overwhelmed by all the rooms flying at her at once, accompanied by information and on most occasions, a fun bit of trivia Nue had to share. "What's upstairs?"

"Right." Guiding Kogasa up the stairs, Nue warned "Be careful going up and down these in the dark; I fell once and cracked my head wide open. I've got a nasty scar on the back of my head to prove it." Pointing to the room the two were faced with upon reaching the second floor, Nue said "That's the bathroom, and immediately to our right is the old man's room." Nue could hear the sounds of drums. He was in right now, and working. That was good; Nue wanted to introduce Kogasa to him as soon as possible, so that there wasn't much confusion later on. Instead of right to that room, though, Nue turned left and pointed down the small hallway. "The guest room is at the end of the hall, and mine is right next to it. Questions?"

"I've got one," a man's voice chimed in from right behind Nue, actually startling the delinquent girl and causing Kogasa to jump a good foot into the air. "Who's your friend, Nue?"

Enter the uncle!

I actually based Nue's house almost exactly off the house of a friend of mine. If you're reading this, I know you know who you are; I just moved your door a little bit ;)

Also, I'm probably moving up to New Jersey in about three weeks, and that's a very good thing for a number of reasons. A: It's my home, and I'll be very far away from Florida which is the biggest thing holding me back. B: I've got quite a few friends up that-a-way. C: I just don't like southern states, Texas notwithstanding. I like Texans; they're cool folks :3

Also, even though she's human in this fic, I'm surprised nobody made a comment on Kogasa's blatant lack of eggplant umbrellas. Of course, now that I've said something, everybody's probably gonna ask "Why doesn't Kogasa have her umbrella?"

That part's coming, okay? Be patient, and see if you can't figure out that foreshadowing I mentioned earlier.