Chapter Three: After School
Kurama was seated at his desk, reading a book during his free period. It was the last class of the day and Kurama had just finished his homework and had a few minutes remaining and decided to read a book he brought with him. Some of the other students in the class were gossiping about whatever and others were finishing homework. After a while, a few of his classmates walked up to him. When he saw them from the corner of his eyes, he marked his page, put the book down on his desk, looked up at his classmates and smiled.
"Hey Shuichi; we heard you placed first in the exams again last week." Said a female student.
"Congrats." A male student spoke up.
"Thanks." Said Shuichi.
"So, hey; since it's the end of the week, some of us were planning to go see a movie after school today." Another female student spoke up. "Wanna go?"
"I'm sorry, but have to pick up my little sister from school." Said Kurama. "I told her I would take her to the park." Kurama grabbed his book and started to put it in his school bag.
"Aw…That's so sweet." Said a female student.
"How old is she?" Asked someone else. "What's her name?"
"Her name is Riku. She's 6 and attends kindergarten down the road."
"Aw…I bet she really looks up to you." Some of the girls squealed.
"Heh…I don't know about that." Said Kurama with a smile.
"Well, we'll see you next week Shuichi." The classmates walked off. Kurama watched them leave, and then the final bell rang, signaling the end of the day. Kurama grabbed his bag and headed out the building and toward the kindergarten.
Once Kurama made it to the kindergarten, he saw Riku leaning against the wall beside the teacher.
"Shuichi!"
When seeing Kurama, Riku ran up to him and hugged him around the leg.
"Hi Shuichi!"
"Hello Riku. Ready to go to the park?" Kurama asked, then he looked at Riku's knee with a questioning look. There was a little bandage on her left knee. "What happened to your knee?"
"A boy pushed me down after play time." Said Riku. Kurama looked at the teacher, who came up to them.
"One of the children got a little out of control when it was time to come inside from play time and bumped into Riku, knocking her down. It was an accident. But we told the child's parents anyway. The child did apologize to Riku as well."
"Oh." Kurama looked from the teacher to Riku. "Does it hurt?"
"At first it stung. But I'm better now."
"I'm glad to hear that." Kurama picked her up. "I don't know what I would do if something awful should happen to you." Kurama smiled and poked Riku in the stomach. Riku giggled and grabbed Kurama's big hand in both of her little ones. Then the teacher gave Kurama Riku's things. Then they left the school.
"Know what Shuichi?"
"What?"
"That boy pushed me down on purpose."
"Why would he do that?"
"He says I'm wired." Riku looked down and watched Kurama's feet.
"Why are you wired?" Kurama asked.
"Sometimes, I can see what some people really look like on the inside."
"What do you mean? A demon or monster?" Asked Kurama.
"Yeah! The man we saw going to school today. Outside, he looked tough, but inside, he was colored like that yucky nori Mommy feeds me, and horns on his head." Said Riku.
'What?' Kurama was thinking back to the demon he had killed on his way to school this morning; his little sister was talking about the same thing.
"Like Hiei too. Outside, he wears all back and on the inside, he turns green and has a lot of eyes; like in my pictures."
"And Hiei never appeared infront of you looking green and having a lot of eyes?" Kurama asked Riku the same question he asked her earlier.
"No."
"Hmmm…" Kurama started thinking about something.
"Anyway, you're not wired. You're special." Said Kurama.
"I know I'm special!" Riku shouted out. "I'm a princess!"
Kurama laughed.
"Now! Onward to the park horsey!" Riku pointed straight ahead.
"Whatever you say your highness." He smiled.
Riku was riding on Kurama piggy back while they were walking to the park. Riku was holding a little figure in one hand and swinging it around in Kurama's face, her other hand was clutching around Kurama's neck. Kurama's hands were looped around Riku's legs to keep her secure on his back.
"We made origami cranes today!" Riku squealed. "See! See!" Kurama laughed as she swung the folded paper up and down in Kurama's face.
"I can't see it if your swinging it around." Kurama un-looped on of his hands from one of Riku's legs to grab her swinging arm. Once her arm stopped moving, Kurama was able to get a good look.
"That's a good crane. So, who made it for you?" Kurama joked.
"Meanie! I made it all by myself after the teacher taught the class how to make them!" Riku yelled, then her voice got soft. "But, I have five other cranes in my bag, but they don't look as good as this one."
Kurama laughed at his sister. "Well, at least you kept trying, and look how it paid off."
"Yeah! I think that should get me two ice creams!"
"You think so?"
"I know so!"
"I'll have to think about it." Said Kurama.
"Ice Cream!" Riku screamed. Kurama just smiled as they entered the park and saw the ice cream stand. Kurama bent down so Riku could slide off his back and run over to the ice cream stand. Kurama walked behind her, with his hands in his pockets.
"Hi little lady." Said the ice cream man.
"May I have two scoops of-" Riku started, but she was interrupted.
"One scoop." Kurama was right behind her.
"Huh?" Riku looked at her brother.
"One scoop." Kurama said again.
"But Shuichi, you said I-"
"I never said you could have two scoops, the last thing Mother needs in the house is a 6 year old on a sugar rush like last time."
"You meanie." Riku pouted and turned back to the ice cream man who was smiling at her.
"May I have a scoop of chocolate-no strawberry-no, um, chocolate; um-" Riku couldn't make up her mind. Kurama bent down to her level. "Why don't you get one, I'll get the other and we can share?"
"Kay!" Riku looked from her brother to the guy. "One chocolate and one strawberry please."
"Coming right up." Said the guy and he started working on the ice cream and Kurama put the money on the counter.
"Kurama?"
Kurama heard his name and turned around. "Hello Yusuke, Kuwabara, Keiko." Kurama looked at his sister. "Wait here for the ice cream." Then he looked back up to who called his name and walked to the little group. "What are you guys up too?" Kurama asked.
"We thought we might go to the arcade. What are you doing at the park?" Asked Yusuke. Then Riku came up to the group, holding ice cream in each hand. She was trying to hold then together in both hands, as not to drop them.
"Shuichi, ice cream."
Kurama bent down to Riku's level to take the strawberry ice cream from her. "Thank you Riku." Then he straightened up and looked at the three.
"Who's the kid Kurama?" asked Kuwabara, looking down at Riku, who was hiding behind Kurama's legs, licking her ice cream.
"This is my little sister, Riku. You also need to remember that I go by Shuichi." Said Kurama.
"Oh, sorry." Said Kuwabara.
"You never said you had a little sister." Said Yusuke.
"You never asked." Kurama smiled. Then Keiko bent down to Riku's level. Riku peered around Kurama's legs.
"Hi there Riku. How old are you?" Asked Keiko.
"6. Who are you?"
"Well, my name is Keiko. That's Yusuke and that is Kuwabara." Said Keiko, pointing to herself and the two guys behind her.
"Keiko?" Riku asked and then her eyes lit up and she tugged on Kurama's pant legs and looked up at him. "Like Princess Keiko and Prince Yusuke who saves the princess from the bugs controlled by the 4 monsters!"
"Prince Yusuke? I like the sound of that." Said Yusuke.
"Careful kid, you don't want to give Yusuke a bigger head than he already has." Said Kuwabara.
"Hey, I don't have a big head!" Yusuke smacked Kuwabara on the head.
"Ow."
"So you've been telling her about the missions we've been on?" Yusuke walked closer to Kurama.
"Yes, well, I had to tell her something to make her go to bed." Said Kurama, as a sweat drop appeared on his head.
"Hey Riku?" Kuwabara bent a little so he could look at Riku. "So who am I in your big brother's stories?" He asked.
"The goofy sidekick." Said Riku. Kuwabara froze in shock. Yusuke and Keiko laughed.
The goofy sidekick?" Yusuke was holding his stomach. "Good one!"
"Hey! I'm no ones' sidekick!" Kuwabara laughed. "Thanks a lot Kurama!"
Kurama back up a little, and Riku, being right behind him, had no choice but to back up.
"You're also a loud mouth idiot." Came a voice. Everyone looked around for the owner of the voice until they saw Hiei standing on a tree branch.
"Hi Hiei!" Riku waved her free arm. Then in the blink of an eye, Hiei was standing beside Kurama and Riku.
"What some ice cream?" Riku asked, holding up her chocolate ice cream cone to Hiei, who lightly shook his head no.
"Aw…"
"Loud mouth? Why you, listen you runt, at least I'm not almost the same height as a 6 year old!" Yelled Kuwabara.
"Hmph…" Was Hiei's only comeback.
"eh…why don't we go find a place to sit." Said Keiko. Everyone agreed.
Everyone was seating on a couple benches. Riku, for the most part, was ignoring the conversation everyone else was having and ate her ice cream and sitting on Kurama's lap. Once she finished her kid sized chocolate ice cream cone, she grabbed Kurama's arm, the one that was holding the strawberry ice cream cone and brought it to her lips. She still had a hold of Kurama's arm as she started eating the already half eaten ice cream.
"Keiko?" Kurama looked at Keiko, who looked at him in turn. "Could you take Riku to the swings for a moment?"
"Oh, sure." Keiko stood up, knowing that Kurama wanted to talk to the guys without Riku around.
Riku looked up at her brother. "Is that okay?" Kurama asked.
"Yeah." Riku finished what was left of the ice cream, jumped off Kurama's lap, walked over to Keiko, and grabbed her hand to make her get up. "Let's go!" Then she ran as fast as her little legs could, while still holding Keiko's hand. The guys watched them for a moment.
"So…" Yusuke turned his head to Kurama. "…what's up Kurama?"
"Yeah…something about your sister?" Kuwabara asked.
"Yeah…" Then Kurama looked at Hiei. "…Hiei, did you ever appear to Riku in you Majin form?"
"No." Was all Hiei said.
"She said on the day she met you, she could see your Majin form." Said Kurama. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out the drawing on Hiei and Majin Hiei Kurama had taken from Riku's room and showed it to the group.
"Hey, that's a pretty good drawing." Said Yusuke.
"Yeah, better than anything to can do now." Said Kuwabara. Yusuke glared at Kuwabara.
"Then on the way to kindergarten this morning, we walked passed a demon in human disguise. She told me when I picked her up that she could see what he really looked like. She said he was scary and knew something was wrong with him before I was able to tell he wasn't human. I was able to see his demon form and she was able to describe him." Kurama looked to Riku and Keiko at the swings. Keiko was pushing Riku with her telling Keiko to make her go higher.
"She might have an amount of spiritual awareness." Said Hiei, crossing his arms.
"Did she say anything about being able to see Yoko?" Yusuke asked, talking about Kurama true demon form.
"No. I just found this out this morning, and since you three are here, I thought I should say something." Said Kurama.
"Maybe it's just a kid thing. You know how most kids are more in tune to the Spirit World and their senses are more heightened." Said Kuwabara.
"For once, the dope makes since, but I've never heard about children being able to see demons in human disguises before." Said Hiei.
"What about letting Genkai check her out?" Yusuke suggested.
"I had thought about it. But I don't know a lot yet about and I don't want to scare my sister." Said Kurama.
"Hiei!" Riku ran from the swings, Keiko walking behind her as Riku jumped onto Hiei's lap.
"En…What do you want?" Hiei asked; Riku's arms around his neck. Hiei still had his arms crossed.
"Wanna play with me?"
"No."
"Can I play with your sword?"
"Hell no."
"Wanna play House?"
"No."
"Dress up?"
"When Hell freezes over."
"Uh?" Riku looked at him Hiei.
"Hiei, if you would please watch you language around her." Said Kurama.
"Hmph." Was Hiei's reply.
"Please play?" Riku asked again.
"No." Said replied again. Then Riku's eyes got bigger. The Puppy look.
"Can I use marker on your face?"
"For the last time; no."
"Aww….Don't you love me?" Riku asked Hiei, puppy eyes and a big smile. Hiei said nothing. Then Riku looked over to Kurama. "You love me, don't you Big Brother?"
Kurama had a sweat drop on his head. "You know I do." 'Oh, she wants something.' Kurama thought.
"What about you two?" Riku looked at Yusuke and Kuwabara. She smiled big and her eyes went wide. Giving the two a full view of her puppy dog look. Yusuke and Kuwabara twitched. Kurama looked at the two; no one (but Hiei) could resist "the look".
"Bye Riku!" Keiko waved to Riku.
"Bye Bye Keiko!" Riku waved back. She and Kurama were going in the opposite direction than Kuwabara, Keiko, and Yusuke. Hiei left a while ago when Riku kept clinging to him.
"Bye bye Yusuke! Kuwabara!" Riku yelled.
Yusuke and Kuwabara turned to face Riku and Kurama. "Later kid." Said both boys. Riku giggled. Both boys had little drawings on their faces. They were unable to resist "the look" and when Riku asked to draw on their faces, they agreed and Keiko also just had to join in the fun.
"Come on Riku, Mother must be waiting for us." Said Kurama, pushing on Riku's back a little to get her to start walking.
"Okay…you know what Shuichi?"
"What?"
"Your friends don't look ugly or scary when they have butterflies drawn on their faces." Said Riku. Kurama laughed.
*Nori: Seaweed.
A/N: I hope everyone likes my story so far. Please send good reviews. Also, please read my other stories if you haven't had the chance yet. ^_^)