Chapter VII

Greetings, Cousin

The demon—with a massive wingspan, body, strength, and nightvision—it rules the cave—without a doubt.

Meanwhile, people threaten to tear it from its talons. It's very home. Men with bright clothing storm through the opening of the cave where the light is its brightest and do as they please—and the demon has had enough of it. It watches them, waiting for the right time to attack and eat its prey.

While the men busy themselves—building stupid contractions that would soon become a tourist attraction for the idiotic people that find stealing a home from a demon an amazing site to see—it attacks—and sadly kills no one. The men, quaking in fear from the disrupting of the demon attack—call the exorcists.

And the exorcists come to their aid.

I stand out by the gate to the Girl's Dormitory two days later.

It's my first day off from classes and I have nothing better to do this evening; Few girls stand outside in the fresh lightly cool breeze of outside, so I'm all alone.

My shoulder feels better and I'm glad. For the past two days, I haven't been able to do anything; from laying down properly to picking up simple household items. It's been a drag because sleeping in the shitty dorm with Eimi is hell. Even if I wasn't supposed to, I cleaned up my side of the Dorm and the bed—but the memory and the stench still lingers.

I wait for my brother—Nobuyuki—because I can't stand one more day without half my supplies from home. I had to ask a girl in a different dorm down the hall if she had a spare toothbrush (which she luckily did) so I don't contract bad breath. And with my sore shoulder, Masayoshi forbid me from walking anywhere out of the range of the Girl's Dormitory without him. I'm only out now because Nobuyuki is bringing me everything from home (but I'll be honest with ya: I've snuck out three times already with Shiemi, Izumo, and Izumo's friend Noriko Paku. Don't tell!).

Nobuyuki is basically my errand boy (there must be a better word for that); after classes two days ago, he brought me clean uniforms for the next few days and a few pairs of shorts I can use as undergarments. He's sweet—and I treasure his gratitude.

An elbow jabs into my left side and I gasp, swerving around. "H-Hello?" I ask.

Eimi stands there with her hands into her hoodie pockets with a grim expression implanted on her face. Her hand jumbles around in her pocket before she pulls out the temporary flip phone Masayoshi gave me in case I need him. "You forgot this," she says and I hesitantly take it. She's normally... not this kind. Except for the one time she offered a painkiller when I returned the other day with my cast, which I kindly decline. It's not that I don't trust her... it's just, that after that situation with her underwear I feel like she's out for retribution. Paranoid—that's the word.

Her eyebrow cocks up after my shaky hand flicks across her. "Well?" she asks, "are you going to take it or will I have to drop it down a drainage pipe—because quite frankly—I could give less a shit if you take it or not."

"No, no, no! I'll take it." I take my phone and hold it in both of my hands behind my back. "So um—" We awkwardly stare at each other. "—thank you for that. I would have hated if Masayoshi texted me and I couldn't text him back." I scratch the back of my head then stuff it into the back of my jean pockets.

She huffs. "Whatever."

"Ummm... okay..."

The bipolar roommate of mine walks away from both the Dormitory and I and leaves me to wonder: if she didn't care about my phone or not, why did she bring it in the first place?

Whatever, I need to keep a lookout for my brother. He's taking a damn millennium to walk his sorry ass here.

I wait longer and it's about another twenty minutes before I see my brother—the royal blue hue of his hair and the heavy jacket (he wears them even in the hottest days of Summer, which are pretty sweaty back in America) he wears able to be seen for miles—with Bon next to him; walking and talking as they each hold a bag of mine. It's refreshing to see Bon okay after a few days... but... why's he here? Waving the two over towards me, I walk to meet them halfway with a small smile tugging at my lips.

"We have yer stuff, sis," Nobuyuki speaks, smiling, "clothes, toothbrush, yer actual cell phone, and other necessities. Oh, and I found Bon wandering aimlessly too. He volunteered to help bring yer stuff to ya!"

My eyes gaze at Bon—his muscles protrude through the short-sleeved white shirt and black shorts he wears—unlike with his uniform which only makes look like an amateur body builder, but now he looks like one of those kinds of people who uses other people as weight lifts.

"Thanks, guys," I say, reaching for my spiral-styled bags but they don't budge or extend the bags towards my grasp. "Can I have my stuff?" I ask, pouting my bottom lip.

"Masayoshi doesn't want ch'ya lifting with yer shoulder," Nobuyuki says, "so he went to Mephisto for permission to allow him to carry yer bags through the Dormitory as long as that's the only thing he does."

"So he passes that burden onto you?" I ask.

"It's not a burden," he replies, "especially for helping out my lil' sis."

My head motions towards Bon as I nod at him. "And does he have permission to come too?" I ask.

"No, but it's not like Mephisto will ever find out." He chuckles.

"You didn't tell me that," Bon retorts.

"Yeah, whatever. Have fun with that," I reply waving my hand to dismiss it, "by the way, Bon: how's your head feeling?"

Bon runs a hand over the small red mark that still conquers his forehead; shifting any eyes on it. "It's fine," he replies, "and it's been fine since the day it happened."

No pain? My eyebrows furrow. "What do you mean? That horse sucker punched you into the other side of the world and you felt no pain?" I ask.

He nods at me. "I know. Crazy right? The demon shit that Greenman gave me must have worked."

"It did for me too."

I smile and wish they don't see the fake that the smile reeks. It's mysterious: a herb shouldn't magically cure brain damage. I hope everything is truly okay. Bon's a nice guy and I'd hate to see anything bad happen to him. "Well, I'm glad," I reply, "you looked pretty miserable lying on that bed back at the Ward.

"You did too. I too am glad you're okay."

That comment makes my feeble smile strengthen to a real one. "Thank you, Bon. Those words made my day."

"Alright lovebirds, stop eye bangin' each other," Nobuyuki buts in and I blush.

"Eye banging?!" Bon and I ask and gasp at the same time. "We're not eye banging each other!" We exchange glares. "See! She/He agrees with me!"

"Says the ones talking simultaneously."

"So?!" I growl. "So do Masayoshi and you. Like you're in some gay Host Club."

"We're twins." He chuckles. "We have an excuse and you two don't."

"Whatever." Bon growls and gains some footing beyond us. "Let's get this over with. I have plans for later." I silently agree and push Nobuyuki forward after punching him for the unwanted comment, then follow behind him. We enter through the gates and girls from all over—the few sitting in benches or merely walking the trails traveling around the two Chinese rock gardens located near the walls to the sides (they're pretty awesome to walk around)—stare at my brother and Bon. Some glares are of pure surprise because hey: a boy other than Shima in the Girl's Dormitory is pretty surprising, or disgusting, or even the fact that the boys are attractive.

Me, personally, I don't think they are (duh, one's my brother), but every different girl has their preferred taste.

Many girls wave to Bon as he passes them ahead of us and he does nothing but a simple nod at them before treading on.

I have made little friends. Most girls have avoided me because of the situation with Eimi the other day and since I'm roommates with the unstable abomination. Hey, but those aren't my words. Like I predicted, the rules of high school apply here to the Academy too: If you don't fit in, you're not our kin.

Nobuyuki must have been trying to catch my attention while I was zoned out and looking all around me because he and Bon stop, staring at me. "Sis?" Nobuyuki asks, "what's wrong?"

"Hmmm?" My head jerks to them. "Sorry, I was thinking. Let's continue walking."

"Well, stop thinking and listen!" he says in a loud and cheery tone and does as he's told. "Do you remember Kiara?" he then asks abruptly.

I puff a piece of my hair up with my breath and groan. Stupid question but I won't say that. "Of course I do, Nobuyuki. She's our cousin, why wouldn't I remember?"

"You haven't seen her since we lived in America."

"So?" I ask, "I wasn't an infant when I last saw her—why do you want me to remember her?"

"Well, she's coming over for a visit tonight and the next few days."

My eyes lighten up. I haven't seen my cousin Kiara since forever! It'll be so refreshing to see her; unlike most of my family—excluding my Aunt (which is Kiara's mother), and my mother—my family's pretty insane. Basically just my brothers. They're beyond crazy. Yes, I love them with all my heart, but for once, I don't want Nobuyuki's crude humor (as seen earlier), and Masayoshi's protectiveness (as I've explained so far) breathing down my neck. And knowing my cousin, she'll party and my brothers will be distracted by something other than me. Also, my cousin is a huge scary movie fan. Huge. Like, she's an otaku for scary movies and throws crushes on child serial killers like Freddy Krueger. Okay, maybe that's crazy, but that's the sort of crazy I can handle.

I used to love the days we would have an us night and do nothing but watch scary movies until our eyeballs melted out of their eye sockets. We once even made Nobuyuki piss himself when Kiara and I dressed up as Doll Tiffany and Chucky from the Chucky movies.

Goodtimes.

The Cherry Blossom trees come into view and their beautiful petals shower the top of my head. I swipe them away By now, Bon has slowed down (and probably calmed down after earlier) and matches my speed. Though he's not looking at me, I somehow feel his gaze upon me. As if he's thinking about me...

Nobuyuki walks behind us as we reach the stairs to the front entrance of the Girl's Dormitory. After a small and silent walk, we approach the entrance of mine and Eimi's dorm. I step out in front of it and tap my fingers together, remembering the embarrassing mess that resides inside.

"What's wrong?" Bon asks.

"My dorm's dirty," I jump straight to the point, "like—hoarder level dirty. But it's not because of me, I swear!" I flail my arms around and it takes Nobuyuki touching the top of my head and ruffling my hair to calm me down. "Eimi's extremely messy and no matter what I do I—"

Nobuyuki's finger presses to my lips, parting them and shutting me up. "Hush, sis. We won't judge you."

"We'll be in and out, so don't worry about it," Bon replies and he and Nobuyuki pass me. Nobuyuki opens the door (Eimi rarely locks it) and they stop dead in their tracks, eyes widened with shock. I smuggle my way in between them and sweatdrop with nervously raised eyebrows. On Eimi's bed is a Mt. Everest of trash, clothes, rotting food, and other dirty items pile until they literally touch the ceiling. Yet, on my side, sits a somewhat tidy state. Bleach and other cleaners surround my bed but sadly stains from Eimi's hoarder room remains (hopefully I'll be able to find a strong cleaner soon). My cleaning gloves, headband, slippers, and scrub brush lay on the fresh-cleaned sheets to my bottom bunk. The top bunk holds baskets of other clothes I'm washing for Eimi but once I'm done I'll sleep up there because the floor gives me nightmares.

"Have ya been cleaning?" Nobuyuki blurts out and drops my bag, grabbing my shoulders and roughly shoving my back against Bon's chest. Bon grunts while I stare at my brother with terror at his outburst. "Masayoshi will kill me! And ya too. Ya know yer not supposed to stressing yer back out!"

I grumble and grab my brother's wrist, tugging him off me. I don't mean to let my emotions spill out suddenly, but I push my brother against my bunk bed by his arm; my mind unable to take so much. I swear my hair is already turning gray. "Nobuyuki, I'm not some stupid princess sittin' her lazy ass in the tower waiting for a Prince to boss her around. I don't give a flying fuck what Masayoshi thinks so you can take all his words and shove it up his ass because I'm sick of being bossed around by you two!"

Nobuyuki stares at, shocked. I'm even shocked with myself. I never burst with anger.

"Damn..." I hear Bon mumble quietly.

I huff and puff and close my eyes. "Look, I'm sorry, Nobuyuki..."

A hand touches my chin and it's lifted up. I open my eyes and see a smiling Nobuyuki. "It's fine, sis. I'm glad yer finally willing to stand up for yerself. Now all ya need to do is tell Masayoshi yerself!" He laughs and seconds later I'm in a small fit of giggles. "Don't worry about me telling you what to do."

"I will, bro. Thank you." I pull my brother into a loving embrace. My eyes close and I lovingly rub my cheek against the fluff of his jacket.

One of his arms wraps around me and the others waves around at my side. "C'mon, join our hug, Bon!" he says excitingly.

"No—" Bon is about to say but Nobuyki brings Bon into the hug with one pull. The bag drops to the floor with a loud thump and Bon's weight crushes against me. I smile, though—for once it's not painful. I turn my head towards Bon and wrap one arm around him and squeezing him close to my side. I reach his collarbone and a slight waft of nice-smelling cologne lifts through my nostrils. The moment actually feels nice—I feel wanted and safe. For once... I'm glad to have body weight crushing me.

Bon's the first to pull away from the hug and when I glance up at him, I see a cute blush dust across his face. "Sorry." I chuckle and link my hands together hover them above my thighs innocently. "That hug felt nice. I'm so glad I could see you both today, but for now, I need to unpack my new things so I can have this whole mess situated."

"It was nice to help out," Bon says, scratching the back of his head, his blush gone. "I guess we'll talk later."

"Bye sis." Nobuyuki leans down and kisses my right cheek before he and Bon exit the doorway. I'm in the middle of shutting the door when he suddenly pokes his head back in, using his hand to pry the door open. "Oh, don't forget sis, Kiara's coming over late tonight, so we're planning to have a slumber party tonight, so we're all together for an all-day party tomorrow! We're even planning to mess with an Ouija Board again!"

Ugh, Ouija Boards are the most boring things ever. The last time we played with one, Masayoshi played a prank on Kiara, Nobuyuki and me (Nobuyuki pissed his pants there too), but no actual demon was summoned. C'mon, if I'm messing with an item that summons demons, I want to actually see one summoned. Then again I've already seen one and they're scary.

Still, I want to seem excited for Nobuyuki's sake.

I jump on the balls of my feet and clap my hands. "That's great! But where?"

"Since Rin's dorm comprises of him and his brother Yukio we've chosen to use the Old Boy's Dormitory as our party area."

I stop jumping. "Uh, where's that?" I ask. He knows I'm new and easily become lost.

"Oh yeah..." he drones, "ya haven't been there before, and I can't give ya a tour because Masayoshi has been up Shadow's ass since I've left and I need to make sure they do nothing... maybe Bon can stay and show you when it's time! Ya two can even go on a date during the wait."

"Wait, what?" Bon speaks up, "there's no way in hell I'd go on a date with her."

Ouch, straight through my heart. Bon must have noticed my eye twist at his harsh words because he adds sheepishly, "umm... well, at least I won't until I get to know you. Okay, I'll stay, but only to show Chie the way to Rin's Dorm later." He pushes past Nobuyuki and stands next to me.

With his hands on his hips, Nobuyuki smirks, satisfied with his accomplishments. "Okay, lovebirds! I can't wait to see ya two later. Now, I'll leave the door open so no funny business goes on while you two are left unsupervised." Bon and I glance at each other before looking away, succumbing to Nobuyuki's words and blushing. "Oh wait!" Nobuyuki opens the door wider. Down the hallway reveals Eimi walking towards us, her red eyes meet mine and I gulp. "Eimi's coming. She can watch ya two."

"What the hell are you three losers doing here?" Eimi asks harshly as she approaches the doorway and almost kicks it off its hinges with one swift kick.

"This is my dorm too," I say to her, fixing the door back in place.

Nobuyuki smiles, unaffected by her rash tone. "I need to leave Bon here with sis but I can't risk them doing the nasties while they're unsupervised. Can you watch them, Eimi?"

"It would be my pleas —"

"We're not five." Bon growls.

"Obviously. If you were, I would happily leave the two of you alone."

"Nobuyuki..." I facepalm. "Ah, screw it." Taking Bon's arm, I pull him into the room and push Nobuyuki's face out before slamming the door and turning to face Bon with a sigh. "Oh my god, I'm so sick of my brother's. They're driving me crazy."

"I can tell," Bon says.

"All they do is boss me around and claim it's because they just want to protect me."

"And that's the first time you've stood up to them?"

"Nobuyuki—yes—Masayoshi—no."

I grab my bags and throw them on my bed, zipping the first one open, seeing clothes like my shirts, jeggings, and some of my homemade clothes.

Meanwhile, the door opens and Eimi steps through. "Why the fuck did you slam the door in my face? This is my dorm too," she says in a mockery tone to what I said earlier. I look at her and roll my eyes before returning to picking some clothes out of the bag and folding them. "Ya know, you're a bitch. Your brother is just worried about this bozo knockin' you up."

"We're not even close to a relationship, so stop thinkin' that we'll have sex!" Bon snaps.

I can feel the grin lift on the sides of her lips—as she does when she's fed the misery of other's suffering. "Oh, but your body says differently. I can tell by the way you touch her—talk to her in a soft voice that you never use with your friends or the other females. Your mind has a chemical reaction towards this female, don't you? Don't deny it." She has him all figured out.

The anger fuming off Bon's body heats the entire room up. "I don't. Screw off." Bad words to feed to her.

Meanwhile, I casually fold my clothes and place them in the baskets I pull down from the top bunk. Please, all this is bullshit. Love, it's a pathetic feeling that's basically worthless until you're of age. And I'm not there yet.

"Yeah, whatever. Don't deny love." The bed bounces as I know she's hopped on her bed. Music from her side of the room blares loud—some band called One Ok Rock if I'm correct. With her earbuds in, it indicates that anyone in her bubble is in the range of her kill zone and shouldn't mess with her. I had to learn the hard way when I shook her and asked her to turn the music down—only to lose a clump of my hair in return. Maybe Bon will have the right mind and not mess with her unlike I did.

I finish the bag of clothes and reach the bottom, finding the light blue case belonging to my phone. Dropping the unneeded flip phone into the bag I pick up my real phone. After picking it up, I check to see if it's on (twenty percent of battery) and type my passcode in. I have a shit-ton of messages and emails and when I pull each one of them up, someone other than me (presumably my brother) had sent the same message: Fuck off. I grind my teeth and sit down, preparing myself for an hour of sending apologies. Damn my brothers.

Bon sits down next to me. "What's wrong?" he asks. I shove my phone near his face and show him all the angry messages I have in store. A bead of sweat drips down his forehead. "Oh damn..."

"I'm about to explode..." I mumble and toss my phone aside—it landing on a homemade beanie I had knitted some time back. I cover my face with my hands.

Bon's hand gently touch my lower back and he rubs the tenseness away. "Relax, Chie," he says, "I'm sure your friends will understand that it wasn't you who was texting."

I almost laugh at his words but stifle the sarcastic words threatening to bounce off my tongue. "I guess you're right." I look into Bon's soft eyes and he doesn't exactly smile, but I can see the reassuring expression he displays. He shifts and reaches backward, turning his head and motioning his hand better. He grabs my phone and the light brown beanie it had landed on. My eyebrows furrow. "What are you doing?" I ask.

He holds the beanie and phone in separate hands. His curiosity piques with the beanie. "This is pretty soft. Where did you buy it?"

"I made it." I smile at his dumbfounded expression.

"You did not."

"Yes, I did. Flip it inside out."

He flips it inside out and stares even more dumbfounded at the tag with my name written in it. "Unbelievable. Do you like knitting or something?"

"I love customizing clothes." I smile. "Half of my clothes and Masayoshi's and Nobuyuki's uniforms have been repaired by me."

He smiles. "That's a unique talent." He eyes the beanie.

I eye it too. "You can keep that. I have plenty and it takes me only ten to twenty minutes to put one together."

A blush forms on his cheeks. "You're a nice person."

I take the beanie out of his hands and place it his head. Pulling the hem down over his eyes at first, I adjust the hat until the hem holds over in the perfect place over midway of his head. I gently pull tuffs of his blonde Mohawk out and lay them flat to the side. After a few more readjustments, I stand up, saying, "stay right there," and move distance to view my work. I tilt my head to both sides before smiling. "Perfect. You look perfect in it!"

He chuckles. "That's good." He reaches up to the touch the beanie but I hiss.

"Don't touch it!"

And we share a laugh.

Bon and I don't do much for the rest of the time while we wait for dusk to come around the corner; talk, eat a small dinner, cower in Eimi's rage, and I even send almost a million apology texts to any of my male friends who Masayoshi sent a pissy text to (luckily receiving a few okays back). I then set my phone on the charger afterward.

Bon loves the beanie I gave him and hasn't taken any opportunity to take it off, and it warms my heart to see him act this way. It makes me ponder, though—since he's headstrong towards his friends and other students, yet acts soft with me—if he's a professional actor, and I'm only being played in his circus like before. I'm smiling though when I'm with him... isn't that good?

Eimi's snoring as she's asleep—and loud, indicating us to make our escape and head to Rin's Dorm for the party. Kiara should be here be now. I'm so excited that I nearly woke Eimi up when jumping up and down.

Walking out of my Dorm after grabbing my phone and stuffing it into the back pocket of jeans, I turn around and lock the door before turning back towards Bon; Eimi's snores still echo in the background.

I link my arm with Bon's and with a giggle, I say, "let's go!" And we walk. Fast. As if a teacher chases us from behind.

Retracing our steps, we leave the Girl's Dormitory hastily and step out of the gate. The cool night breeze blows strands out of my face and I embrace the feeling. Closing my eyes, I inhale the intoxicating scent of the outside air (having been drowning in Eimi's garbage stench for the entire day can drive the sanest man to the utter brinks of insanity), and smile as we walk. Bon leads the way and I remain to hold onto his arm. His eyes stare forward and it's not long before we pass many architectural statues of Mephisto Pheles, wearing an even worse clown suit than I had seen him wearing in person that makes me roll my eyes and giggle. For an important man, he seems as the biggest laughing stalk of the entire Academy.

It doesn't take long. After leaving the trail of the main Dormitories, we reach a long bridge. On the other side of it, this high, and very desolate-looking building casting a shadow that even touches us from the other side. It looks as if the years haven't been great to it—the paint on the side chip away and Through one of the windows a light shines, meaning life did reside inside. Erie. Enough to make me shudder.

"Are you okay?" Bon asks me as we step onto the bridge and walk. He moves closer to me.

"Yeah, the place is just creepy."

"It's abandoned. Mostly. Only Rin and Yukio inhabit the area."

"Why?" I ask.

He shrugs. "I have no clue. Mephisto works in mysterious ways."

I roll my eyes, chortling. "You've got that right."

As we reach the middle of the bridge, a voice calls out my name, "Chie! Cousin!" A female's that should belong the one and only, Kiara. There she is in the distance. Waving her arms frantically, her large bosoms bounce up and down. She wears a Friday the 13th shirt with Jason's mask on it with a black frilly skirt. She looks more like my brothers than me, but more with features than hair style. And oh boy, she's dyed it white. Now Masayoshi, Nobuyuki, and her are the real red white and blue.

"Kiara!" I call her name out and run the rest of the way of the bridge, tackling her into a hug, "it's so nice to see you again!"

"It's so nice to see you too!" She pulls back, holding my hands. I look into her amber eyes. "And after... oh, I don't know... four to five years? Is this your boyfriend?" she asks and I turn my head at Bon as he approaches us.

"No, he was only escorting me to the Dorm so I wouldn't get lost. If my brothers haven't already blabbed to you, I'm new to the school."

"Oh, I know! C'mon, everyone's right over here!" She takes my hand and points at the Dormitory. And she's right—everyone did stand there—at both ends, Shadow and Masayoshi (as it should be), Nobuyuki next to Masayoshi, Shima, Konekomaru, Rin, Shiemi, and Izumo. Most of them smile at me and it's like some large family gathering. The only ones missing are the Puppet Boy and Eimi. As Kiara drags me over to them, I manage to grab Bon's wrist and drag him along with me too.