AN: This is a rewrite of chapter 7 and just from the title below I think you can tell it's not as fluffy and not an interlude. I decide against putting a filler and write down what happen next in manga time line. I wish I can upload this on Sunday but well... I finish it today.

Chapter 7: Spark of Consternation

The sky was dyed in color of darkness, as if night had came to Misaki city. However only under sphere of distorting space this phenomena happen. Within it all human ceased to move, became living statue and even objects around them stopped moving even with defying law of physic. There were only two human moving, or rather two Flame Hazes could move inside Fuzetsu.

They were walking towards a pair of mother and children not far from them. "It's those two?" The female Flame Haze asked.

The male was holding a pendulum that was pointing at the mother and her daughter. "Yes…"

When they came closer they saw the daughter was holding a dark blue cat doll, in first glance it was just a normal cute doll but suddenly its eyes shone and it jumped out of the little girl's arms.

"Hiish! Flame Hazes!" It ranted as it slowly morphed to a giant cat with long fangs. "If I kill you all, Master will praise me!"

The girl stared at the rinne with indifferent face, "No, he won't." She deadpanned as her hair turned to crimson color and her eyes were set ablaze. "Your master already dead, rinne…" She muttered as she tore the incoming rinne in two with her nodachi.

The rinne was split in two, and the two burning half burned away and left no trace. "This is the last one?"

He shook his head, "It's not… another one is coming this way." Attracted by their power of existence, he assumed. "It's coming."

The two God vessels felt the vibration when a gigantic rinne walked towards their direction, screaming hysterically. "Power! Power!"

It looked like baby rinne Shana slew few days ago, but this one had an ogre like face. It didn't take them long to realize this rinne was not seeking for its master, it was desperate to survive. Seeing Shana spurn to action faster than he did, Yuji let her to attack the rinne.

Shana gritted her teeth when unexpectedly Nietono no Shana was met with resistance, she managed to cut one arm but the meat was lumpy and heavy to cut. "What's with this rinne?!" Shana hissed and decided to go for another slash, this time she aimed for the kill.

Much to their surprise instead of destroyed when Shana cut it in two, the rinne crawled with its hands to reach out for the nearest human in vicinity.

"How?!" Yuji exclaimed as Shana quickly separated the rinne from its remained limbs before it could grab its prey.

"Small core, so it won't die until we destroy that core." Futsugi explained.

Alastor chimed in agreement. "It's weak but persistent."

Shana nodded, "The flesh is tough to cut too…" Shana raised her sword, "I guess I have to cut it to pieces."

"There's no need for that." Yuji interjected, "You're going to waste your energy, Shana. Let me handle this." The dark haired girl frowned but she let Yuji to step forward. "Grammatica." Yuji called out for his offensive purpose crystal shards and pinned all body parts of the wailing rinne to the ground.

"I see…" Alastor murmured. "You want to make sure none of it escape before you burn it all with your flame."

Yuji nodded, "I guess I get all of it."

"No." Shana interjected before she stabbed her nodachi to the ground, pining a small chunk of meat that tried to escape. "Now we have them."

Yuji rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Thanks Shana… here goes." In instant jet black flame erupted and consumed the rinne at rapid rate.

Shana eyed the burning flesh her sword pinned with watchful eyes, 'When will I be able to do this?'

Yuji noticed Shana had been looking at his flame with somber expression, "Shana?"

Shana tensed before quickly made up for something to say in response, "That Friagne, even dead he still give us trouble." She glanced at him, and then to the mother and daughter. "Well… it's been week since he died so even if there are still leftover of his, they will cease to exist by tomorrow according to your estimation... ne Yuji?"

Yuji nodded, "Hm… thanks to this hougu, we can prevent casualties." Yuji glanced at the beautiful pendulum in his hand. "If not for this 'Point Me' we won't be able to detect these weak rinnes."

"Hm. Friagne left a lot of useful hougu behind… decision to seal his treasury is a good one, human may stumble upon it if we're not careful." Alastor muttered.

"I am still displeased that you left my Haridan there." Futsugi said with a huff.

Yuji sweat-dropped. "It's useful but I have no place with enough space to use it when it's not in dormant state." He glanced at the pair of mother and daughter. "I am glad they're alright."

Shana huffed in annoyance. "These two have no idea how lucky they're, picking up dolls from street and it turned out to be a rinne. If not for Yuji caught the tiny presence of Friagne's leftover they would have been killed."

Yuji smiled at her, "I am happy for them, and you can't blame this little girl… she has no idea what she picked up. It does looks like a cute doll."

Shana harrumphed, "Speaking of obliviousness…" Shana trailed off as she walked pass Yuji and peered behind a public phone box to find Tanaka, Satou and Ogata were hiding behind it. "These three are following us again, they have so much free time."

Yuji sighed wearily, "Well… just leave them be is what I want to say, but since we're prone to run to dangerous situation they really have to stop this."

"What's so interesting with following us anyway?" Shana wondered out loud, "I get the part that the whole class thought we're dating or whatever, but I still don't see it justify their curiosity."

They had been largely acknowledged as some sort of semi-official couple in class, the girls were excited for Shana while the boys gave Yuji admiring and envious look to get such a pretty girl. Strangely no one ever try to confirm it with them, and these three kept trying to catch them on a date.

"Oh well…" He and Shana walked pass them. "Let's give them a lesson." He saod as turning around and undo his Fuzetsu. The sky slowly regained its azure color and all human resumed their activity without care.

Tanaka stuck his head out to look ahead, frowning when he saw no one. "Hm… they're missing again."

"Baka! Tanaka! Don't stick your head out like that, it looks suspicious!" Ogata yelled at Tanaka.

"I agree, and you're too loud if you want to follow someone." A familiar cold voice said.

Realizing the source of the voice was behind them, they couldn't stop cold shiver from running through them. "Hiii!"

"Good afternoon, lately we have been running to each other afterschool a lot. Ogata-san, Satou and Tanaka…" This voice was not as cold but there was still a threatening edge on it.

Ogata laughed sheepishly, "Well… you guys take a completely different route home today, so…"

"So?" Shana echoed as her eyes narrowed dangerously. "What?"

It was spring and supposed to be warm but Shana managed to make the temperature dropped rapidly by her glare alone. Looking at the three frightened human Yuji decided Shana had scared them enough,

He leaned in to them conspiratorially, then said in a volume that just a little louder than a whisper. "I am understand you want to catch us on a date or perhaps make out session or whatever you have in your imaginative mind." Yuji said patronizingly, and the three teens blushed brilliant red.

Shana only raised an eyebrow at him.

"But none of that as long as you can't leave us alone ne?" Yuji was well aware the rumor would get worse but small part of him hoped they would be too embarrassed to spread it. "So please?"

Tanaka stuttered, "Of course!"

Satou and Ogata nodded in tandem frantically. "Sorry for interrupting! And bye!" They yelled as backing away and made their escape as if the devil itself was chasing them.

Yuji stayed still for a few moments after their classmates were out of sight but the blow he was waiting for never came. "Eh Shana… you're not going to hit me?"

Shana blinked innocently at him, "Why? You made them go away so what's the problem?"

"Well…" Yuji trailed off before he decided to wisely shut his mouth. "Never mind."

"…"

"…"

'I find it weird she is not flustered at all by what you said… ' Futsugi said through their mind link. 'I thought he was going to hit you at least once.'

'I know… I mean she couldn't be okay that I sent them off with that excuse…'

'Maybe she just didn't hear what you said?'

'Maybe? I am not exactly loud…'

Alastor was really tempted to chastise Sakai Yuji for daring to imply he and Shana were involved in inappropriate activity, but he dared not to do so that in front of her. It could lead to awkward questions from his innocent Flame Haze, who had textbook knowledge of human relationship, and zero knowledge of next level of relationship beyond platonic hugging and kissing.

Unfortunately Alastor had no idea leaving his Flame Haze clueless was like letting the time bomb ticking to the inevitable.

It had been a week since she and Ike saw Sakai-kun with Yukari-chan in atrium, and she didn't manage to gather any courage to try again in fear of being rejected. Her friend encouraged her to not give up, as Yukari-chan didn't say anything yet about their relationship. They were rumored already an item, but neither confirmed the truth and no one dared to ask.

Her friends and Ike-kun assured her that her chance was not zero yet so Yoshida Kazumi was determined to do better in her effort to win Sakai-kun's heart. She knew Yukari-chan was cuter, petite and smarter than her, Kazumi was well aware of that. However she also had her own good points, she liked cooking and her friends always said they were good. So Kazumi decided to bake some cookies to give to Sakai-kun.

She was embarrassed to give it directly to Sakai-kun, so her friend Fujita suggested her to casually share it to everyone for the first try. That way Sakai-kun could taste her cookies, and if he liked it, she could offer to bake another batch for him. She happily accepted the idea and after she discussed it with Ike-kun, class rep also agreed it was a good idea without being too obvious.

Although inwardly Ike thought Yoshida-san was already painfully obvious of her feeling.

However when the break period started she had a hard time to gather courage, and since she had plenty of time Kazumi decided to prepare herself first. She proceeded with her plan with giving the cookies to Ike, Fujita and Ogata first. However when she turned around to gradually move towards Sakai-kun, her crush was eating a big melon bread with Yukari-chan.

"It's not bad but too sweet." Sakai-kun said to Yukari-chan.

"It's good, and sweet enough." Yukari-chan protested. "The crust and soft core are perfect."

Sakai-kun nodded absentmindedly, before finished his chewing. "Whatever… I don't want to eat anything sweet for the rest of the day after I am done with this huge bread."

Shana glared at him for looking down at pinnacle of bread, "Baka."

Ike, Ogata and Fujita who heard Sakai so casually crushed Kazumi's hope couldn't help but sympathize with the poor girl, and angry at Sakai who was innocently oblivious of what he had done.

Fujita huffed and stomped her way to Sakai. "Oi! Sakai, how could you be so heartless?!"

Sakai Yuji stared at the bespectacled girl, wondering what he had done to be called heartless. "Excuse me?"

"Kazumi is sharing her cookies with us! And you go saying you don't want to eat sweet stuff!" She said as if that explained everything, and Yuji promptly gave her a look that indicated he didn't get her. "You don't understand girls at all."

Yuji stared at her in confusion, his hands were folding the empty plastic wrap of melon bread he just ate absentmindedly. "I am sorry if I have offended anyone somehow, and yes… I don't really understand girls." When he said the last part she glanced at Shana who was sulking and walking away from him. "I wish I do." Shana would be merciless at morning physical training for tomorrow, just thinking about it gave him phantom pain.

Fujita stared at Sakai who was still looking at Yukari-chan, maybe there was really no more hope for Kazumi after all. Sakai was totally fixated on her.

"Well then, excuse me." Sakai stood up abruptly and walked away, following Yukari-chan to apologize for whatever he had done wrong this time.

Kazumi bit her bottom lip, her heart felt hurt to see Sakai-kun didn't even look at her direction.

A week had passed since Friagne's demise, and Yuji had to say while the conclusion was not perfect it was not the worse. In fact as far as he was concerned it was for the best that Alastor decided he and Shana should keep an eye on them, and helped them protecting Misaki City. Lammie had decided to stay in the city for a while, a pretty long while in fact to collect torches Friagne left behind.

When they were not busy protecting the city, they lived like any other normal human in Misaki city. Yuji was glad Shana agreed to help him to improve his swordsmanship, and in return he helped her to refine her skill in unrestricted spell. Unexpectedly Shana had easier time helping him than the other way around. It was not like Shana was a bad student; she was devoted just a little impatient sometimes. It was not surprising that Shana wanted him to help her to call out her flame, but for some reason she couldn't and It frustrated her to no end.

After another exhausting night training under Misaki Bridge that only tire Shana, with no visible result in her effort to call out her flame. Yuji decided it couldn't be delayed any longer. Shana was getting frustrated that she couldn't do what most Flame Hazes naturally learned. At the rate she was going, she was going to hit a dead end soon.

For some reason Shana unlike most Flame Haze couldn't control her flame yet, which was odd. She had both capacity and mentality to pull it off supposedly. Most Flame Haze managed to do it fairly quickly and naturally, just like newborn baby learned how to crawl and walk. For someone as strong and talented as Shana, it was really odd

He had his guess though, but if he wanted to confirm it he would ask taboo question number one for most Flame Haze. Asking directly to Shana was out of question so he decided to ask Alastor. Unfortunately Shana won't give up the cocytus so easily, and outright annoyed that Yuji wanted to talk about Alastor but not involving her.

"Fine… I will say it in front of you, but please understand I just want to figure out why you can't control your flame yet." Shana tensed at that, and Yuji knew it was a pretty sore issue for Shana. "And I am not trying to intrude your privacy." Yuji added.

Shana huffed, "Just fire away! If it can help me, why not?"

Yuji sighed wearily, "I am sure you will not think so, because what I want to ask is why you become a Flame Haze."

Shana stared at Yuji with raised eyebrows. "That's it?"

"Ye… yes."

Why do you think I will get mad at you just because you ask that?" Shana wondered out loud. "I already know your reason, so it's just fair if you want to know mine."

It's his turn to stare at her bewilderedly. "Uhm… you don't have to tell me just to get us even. I mean… it must be hard for you."

"If you're expecting what to expect from most Flame Haze's past." Alastor suddenly interjected, "You don't have to worry as she is a special case, she has no grudge against Tomogara."

Yuji blinked at that, "You don't."

Shana shook his head, "No, I don't… " Aside from that one dead Tomogara who caused the whole mess that sunk her childhood home, she had no personal grudge against Tomogara. "My reason to be a Flame Haze is out of my free will, I choose to be a Flame Haze and I became one."

Yuji was speechless, it never crossed his mind someone would become a Flame Haze out of their free will. "Oh." But that explained a lot about Shana, and he instantly understood why she couldn't control her flame yet. "I see…"

"See what?" Shana demanded.

Yuji took a deep breath, "Shana, why do you fight Tomogara?" Shana gave him an incredulous look and Yuji knew she thought he should know the obvious answer. "Don't give me 'to protect the balance of this world' because that's… never the only reason we fight."

"… " Shana was silent for a few moment before she decided on, "I don't understand…"

"It's odd." Futsugi's deep voice muttered, "Why don't you understand?"

Alastor fumed, "It would help if you make yourself clearer, Sakai Yuji…"

Yuji swallowed, his eyes closed briefly. "Shana… to fight for the sake of this world is not wrong, it's a noble purpose to fight for." Shana brightened up at that, "However…" Yuji's voice dropped low, "It's born out of your devotion to your duty."

Alastor couldn't help but hear an alarm went off on his mind at Sakai Yuji's words, that the boy was treading in a very dangerous territory. "Sakai Yuji!" He warned the boy.

The boy eyed him skeptically before continued, "If you become a Flame Haze because it's a right thing to do, then… if that's all in it for you then you won't be able to call out your flame."

For Yuji who naturally understood the requirement to call out their flame, even better than most Flame Haze he couldn't comprehend he had just dropped a bomb on Shana.

"Wha… what?"

Yuji took a deep breath, "You can't call your flame out because to you, fighting tomogara is a right thing to do."

Shana was confused but she also felt Yuji had just told her something conflicted with everything she was taught for her whole life. "So what?! If I fight Tomogara that threaten the balance of this world because it's right to do so, it's not wrong."

"This is not about right or wrong." Yuji agreed solemnly, "It's just… shouldn't be the sole reason for you to fight, you should have reason to fight for your own sake."

"My own?" Shana echoed in shock, "That's unthinkable! And selfish!"

Yuji was taken back by Shana's sudden outburst, "It's normal for human to think for themselves." It was true he wanted to change the world for the betterment of everyone, but he was not that noble to think he didn't want anything out of t for himself too. He wanted to protect those precious to him, and there's his own wish. "Shouldn't be there a reason for you to fight as a Flame Haze?"

"No, there isn't!" Shana stated, leaving no room for argument.

But Yuji won't give up as there was something really wrong with this, "There's should be something you want for yourself! Even as a Flame Haze!"

"Why this have anything to do with my inability to use my flame?!" Shana asked in incredulous tone.

"Everything! Our desire, emotion, and feeling are the fuel of our flame!" Yuji explained almost in desperate voice.

"Then I have my devotion to duty as Flame Haze." Shana drawled in clipped tone.

"You should have reason to fight for your own sake." Yuji stressed.

"No! Why did you ask for such selfish thing?!"

Futsugi and Alastor were speechless as both of them argued heatedly. The God of Creation wondered what set his usually composed vessel off like this. He expected Yuji to step on a sore topic, which will set Shana off. From his perspective however, the one whose landmine was set off was Yuji and not Shana. Flame of Heaven's Flame Haze in spite of sounded as emotional if anything was thoroughly confused, and her anger was mostly because she didn't get why Yuji opposed her way of life.

"I am a Flame Haze! That's all in it!"

"No, it's not!"

They even returned to square one, in which Shana insisted she was just a Flame Haze. Futsugi and Alastor were completely at a lost of what to do and they had no chance to interrupt.

Yuji for the first time since he became Futsugi's vessel had completely lost in touch with his logical side of mind. There was something about the way Shana lived that he couldn't accept. "If that's the case you fight because you must not because you want to!"

"What did you say?!" Shana snapped, "I am not forced to do my duty as Flame Haze! I choose this path for myself!"

"And yet! You have no reason of your own!" Yuji pointed out heatedly. "You have nothing you want to achieve for yourself!"

"So what if I don't?!" Shana asked in exasperated voice. "Alastor told me that to prevent great calamity we have to protect the balance of this world, that's why I hunt Tomogara! That's enough reason for me!"

"Then you're forced!"

"I don't!" Shana shouted in anger, "What's your problem?! You… I don't get you Yuji! I am fine for my whole life as a Flame Haze!" That was right, she had lived as Flame Haze in training and a Flame Haze, she didn't know other path and yet Yuji shook her foundation of life! What right he had to do that to her?! "I don't need you to critisize me!"

"I am not criticizing you! I am telling you why you can't lit your flame yet!" Yuji yelled.

"Then you're wrong!" Shana yelled back, "I just have to train!"

"You did and it's not working!" Yuji reminded her. "It will be pointless if you don't try to change your perspective!"

She had enough, why did he corner her like this? Why did she had to change?!
"U… urusai! Urusai! Urusai!"

"No, you listen! I am trying to tell you that…"

"I am NOT going to listen to you!" Shana spat angrily, averting her eyes from him. "Enough! I don't want you to help me anymore! I only need to listen to Alastor! Who are you to tell me what to do?!"

For the first time since the argument began Yuji didn't give any reply, and Shana didn't expect him to be so quiet all of a sudden. "Yu… ji?" His silence scared her more, since she met him she was used to him throwing back some sort of snide remark, or emotional speech or kind words or even patronizing deadpan, anything but never silence.

"So."

Shana was startled, and she couldn't stop herself from shuddering because of how cold he sounded.

"I guess… you don't need me." Yuji muttered, his bangs were shadowing his eyes as he look down.

"Huh? What?" Where did that come from?! She just wanted him to stop pushing her and…

Futsugi and Alastor watched in horror as they felt inner turmoil in their vessel's heart. Futsugi had never felt his vessel was in so much pain like this, and he felt coldness, frustration and sadness. Alastor in the other hand almost choked by what he felt, he never felt so much mixed emotion within his current vessel. She was confused, frustrated, and angry.

"Very well then… training session for tonight is over." Yuji said, not looking at Shana in the eye and walked away in almost rushed pace.

Shana felt her temper raise to a new height it had never been before, "Yuji you… jerk! Baka! Baka! Baka!"

But Yuji was already out of sight and earshot, and it frustrated Shana even more. She was angry at him but more than anything else she was confused. "What do you want actually?! You jerk! Idiot!"

Alastor really wanted to console his Flame Haze, but the problem was he didn't know what to say to calm her down.

In another end of Misaki bridge, Futsugi was in the same predicament but he fared much better than speechless Alastor.

"Yuji… weren't you trying to help her to control her flame? How did it get to the point of you getting mad at each other?"

Yuji bit his bottom lip, "I thought you saw everything?"

"We did, but frankly Flame Heaven and I never understand how you get on each other's nerve… one moment you guys can get along so well as if you have been partners for your whole life and next you could argue about the most trivial thing that didn't make sense to us like old married couple." Futsugi droned.

Yuji flushed a deep red, "That's how it looks like to you and Alastor?"

He snorted, "Yes… and believe me it was very amusing but tonight it's just so painful to watch." Yuji cringed, "And Yuji… why are you so angry at her?"

"You listened everything."

"And it's not helping me to figure out why you're angry… you usually have more respect on other people's opinion." Futsugi muttered in chiding tone, "You're bothered that she see herself as just a Flame Haze, a tool of hunting back then, but now… you're simmering with anger and frustration…"

Yuji blinked owlishly, and his feet stopped walking. "Eh… but I am not… No, that's not why I am angry."

"Then why?"

Yuji didn't answer immediately, "She… " He stammered, "I don't want to talk about it…" He shook his head, "Or rather, I don't get it myself either… she frustrate me with her stubbornness and I feel very upset now."

Frankly Futsugi thought Yuji had no right to feel upset because of Shana's stubbornness, because he was equally stubborn.

Futsugi contemplated if he had to pry any further, but decided to against it for tonight. "Okay… I guess none of you are in condition to think clearly tonight, so just go home and sleep." Futsugi suggested, "Hopefully by tomorrow, you wake up and regret everything you said tonight… "

For once in his life Yuji didn't feel like want to be the one to apologize first in this, even though small part of his heart knew he was the one in the wrong here.

The next day

Futsugi was always fascinated by parent-child relationship of human race, and that was largely the reason he called his Trinity as his adorable children. Unfortunately they were his creations and even thought Hecate looked like a young girl, all of them were technically adults so he never got the experience of raising children. In spite of his botched contract with Yuji, he was grateful for the opportunity to experience how raising a child felt like. Yuji was a very calm and timid child though, so he never had any problem raising him. Even in his teenage period Yuji was still the same obedient child, and Futsugi sometimes hoped he got to see Yuji in his rebellion stage.

He should have known, that he should be careful of what he wished. It always backfired on him spectacularly and ironically.

"I don't know what to say to make it sounds like he is not being irresponsible..." He confessed in somber tone, "But he woke up early and left me with task of telling you that he is not up for training today." Then again knowing Yuji, he didn't face Shana himself not because he was afraid of her but because he knew they're just going to have another round of argument.

Her eyes lit up in anger, she was expecting Yuji to apologize but that guy dared to strap Futsugi on his phone and called Hirai's number. Futsugi had to play messenger and tell her what he should say to her face by himself. "WHAT?! He ditched me again?!" Shana yelled at the phone that was already set on speaker mode.

Alastor sighed wearily, "I thought so… it seems this time he is not going to laugh it off or apologize or try to compromise regardless who is in the wrong?"

"No, I don't think so." Futsugi replied evenly.

"I am not going to apologize!" Shana yelled in frustration as she went back inside her room, not even noticing Alastor had teleported from around her neck and stayed near the phone.

"Futsugi… I am very upset with your vessel now." Alastor said in clipped tone.

The Black God snorted, "So am I… but I really think it's mostly Yuji's fault but also partly her fault…" Then he added, " A little… and I have a feeling I can trace it to you or whoever raised the little lady, but I won't make assumption before I hear you out… so care to tell me in what kind of environment she was raised before she became a Flame Haze?"

Alastor was taken back that Futsugi asked such thing so suddenly. "What are you implying? She was raised by Specialist of Everything, Rainbow Wing Merihim and I in Tendoukyu since she was a baby." Alastor said in defensive tone, "Are you implying we have done something wrong?!"

There was a long silence in another end that made Alastor thought Futsugi had ended the line. "You raised your Flame Haze since she was a baby?"

"Yes." Alastor answered curtly. "She was abandoned as a baby in Hong Kong, and believe it or not we adopted her officially by human law. She even has the paper inside yogasa. We raised her as our child… but I didn't force her to be a Flame Haze, she chose to be one herself."

Futsugi wished he saw this one coming, her behavior was pretty much explained. "Flame of Heaven… if we're in Guze with physical body, I am going to strangle you."

"What?!" Since their stay in Misaki city Futsugi had been civil with him, and so suddenly the God of Creation made a threat of bodily harm.

"You… really have no idea." Futsugi shook his head mentally, "It's not that you have done something wrong, more like you have not done something right."

Alastor fumed, "I am not in the mood for playing riddle, your vessel confused both my Flame Haze and I enough last night."

"I am not playing riddle on you… but have you ever teach her how to interact with human? Social skill?"

"… As a Flame Haze…"

"Who used to be human, and still need to interact with human." Futsugi cut him off, "Now if you excuse me… I need to knock some sense on my vessel. As for you, I suggest you should knock some common sense on yourself one way or another."

And with that Futsugi ended the line, and Alastor was left hanging in the other end. "Common sense?!"

Misaki Municipal High School

Ike was amused to see Yoshida was so flustered by mere thought of asking Sakai to accompany her to buy present for her brother. He suggested it but Ike himself was not sure Sakai would agree to it. If anything Sakai that unexplainable unsocial guy would politely reject the invitation. Not to mention there was Hirai, who was openly displeased that Yoshida trying to get closer to Sakai.

If they had become an item, Ike won't say anything but the problem was neither Sakai nor Hirai confirmed their status and the closest they got to admitting it was teasing Ogata, Satou and Tanaka. His other reason to support Yoshida was also because he cared of Sakai, no matter how distant he was. Sakai was a nice person all around. Hirai in the other hand all of a sudden had this intimidating aura that screamed dangerous. Ike also felt Hirai's presence made Sakai even more withdrawn from the rest of their peers.

It was not like he blamed Hirai, because aside from one incident she dragged Sakai out of the class that Sakai readily agreed to. Hirai never showed any attitude of monopolizing Sakai, if anything Ike was worried it was the other way around. Hirai used to be a friendly and cheerful girl, and overnight she became this cold and haughty girl. Everyone seemed to forget how she used to be, and admired this new Hirai. She was a cold, ice like beauty they said. She was no longer friendly and cheerful girl but someone distant that admired and respected.

Something was really fishy here but something made him hesitant to pry.

"Ne Yoshida… this is out of blue but isn't Hirai your…"

SLAM!

Speaking of the devil, Hirai entered the class and Ike clamped his mouth shut.

"Oo… hayo Yukari-chan." Yoshida greeted her nervously.

Ike joined in, "Ohayo Hirai, where is Sakai?"

She didn't react to their greeting, but she definitely reacted to Sakai's name. Ike blanched when he saw Hirai glanced at him with eyes so cold, he thought it was still winter in April.

"I have no idea." She drawled icily.

Neither of them dared to utter a word as she marched to her seat.

In another part of Misaki City

Tanaka and Satou were sure in the last few days their sense of danger was broken after repeated exposure to Hirai Yukari's intimidating aura. After all why else did they follow a sexy blond woman and her talking grimoire, and they ate up her story about human eating monster in their city. They blamed it all to hormone, and boredom that made them skip class this morning.

"Three cups of your best black tea!" She barked her order to the waitress.

Then again for now let's enjoy spending time with pretty woman in café, their teenage mind supplied.

"So… ane-san, you need us to help guiding you around Misaki city?" Tanaka asked shyly.

Margery Daw snorted, "Yes… now tell me is there any big accident happened lately? Unexplainable one in particular?"

Tanaka and Satou looked at each other, "Well…" Satou trailed off, "There's this explosion in outskirt of Misaki City…"

They continued their date in the scene of the crime, but unfortunately Margery found nothing or rather, it was nothing worthy of her attention it seemed to the two boys.

"Strange…" She trailed off, "I sense some trace of Fuzetsu casted here but no repairing attempt, perhaps anyone who fought inside were too injured to do so?"

Marchosias laughed, "Who knows?! But I am sure no one is as lazy as you my precious Goblet, AWW!"

Margery blew her smoking fist she used on Marchosias, "Any other similar accident?"

Tanaka hummed, "Well… sort of but it's just a prank call."

Satou nodded in agreement, "Someone called the police and said there was an explosion on the rooftop of abandoned Yoda building, but when they investigated the location… there was nothing there."

Another odd incident, which indicated someone was fighting without Fuzetsu and casted it afterward to repair damage. "Hm… huh?!" Margery suddenly almost jumped in fright and Marchosias also yelped. "What the hell?!"

"Ane-san?"

"Margery-san?"

Margery took a deep breath, "What was that for?!" She yelled angrily to no one.

"A warning." Marchosias said grimly. "Shit, did just trespass on someone's territory?"

Margery wiped her sweat, looking at her henchmen's confused face she explained. "When I saw this city so full of torch… I thought a tomogara had went on rampage without control but apparently that's not the case, your city have a freaking guardian and recently involved in a big battle that resulted to this large casualties…"

Satou blinked owlishly, "A guardian? You mean a Flame Haze like you?"

She nodded, "Yep… and just now I felt she or he flaring his power for a very brief moment before quickly hiding it again. While I didn't feel a very large power… the fact he or she could hide this amount is astonishing… so I can't tell how powerful this Flame Haze is. Whoever it is… he or she is confident enough to take me on…"

"But this Flame Haze is hiding!" Tanaka pointed out. "He or She couldn't be that powerful."

Marchosias, the fang and claw of violence laughed at their naivety. "Ha ha ha ha! If this Flame Haze is not powerful, he or she won't bother to alert my beloved goblet of their presence at all! The fact they did means they're confident enough to take her on."

Margery sighed exasperatedly, "I will take the challenge if I must."

"But if it's Flame Haze, they suppose to be your comrade."

Margery snorted, "We prefer to work alone and anyone who get in our way, even fellow Flame Haze would get trampled."

"We are all lone wolf pals! We never get along unless we have to!" The grimoire laughed again.

But if this Flame Haze was their city's guardian, won't it be better if this Flame Haze was unharmed?

Margery saw the look on their face and sighed, "Don't worry… this guardian definitely has no intention to confront me, in fact I think he or she will let me waltz in this city as long as I don't make too much trouble."

"Eh?"

"I told you." Margery began exasperatedly, "That… just now I was given a warning not a challenge… it basically implied this, 'I know you are in my territory, I will leave you be as long as you behave.'Or something along that line… and added with the fact they didn't come to seek me out, 'I am strong enough to take you on, and this is my territory but I am not looking for a fight so leave me be too.' Like that~"

"Oh…" Tanaka and Satou was relieved that apparently whoever guarding their city was a reasonable folk. They almost thought it would be like catfight over territory.

Margery sighed wearily, "But still… there's another one… Flame Haze"

"Two of them?!"

She shrugged, "Probably someone like me… an uninvited guest or… a partner."

"But you said…" Satou trailed off.

She shrugged, "I said most of us… some works in pairs but very rarely and by the way…" She pointed her index finger up, normal human couldn't see but Margery saw a gigantic rune circle in the sky. "You guys won't be able to tell but this guardian of your just set up a barrier around the city. It seems whatever happened in that Yoda bulding you said… broke a lot of defense in this city and this fellow is in the middle of fixing it."

Tanaka and Satou oh-ed at that, "Sounds like a dependable fellow…"

Margery harrumphed, 'Lucky for you, but this means this fellow will know instantly if I do anything he or she doesn't like.'

'This city is guarded by a paranoid bastard, I say…'

'Which make me really worried that a tomogara manage to break in and caused such casualties…'

What the hell had happened in this city?

Misaki Bridge

Yuji had spent most of his morning and noon fixing defense mechanism he set up prior to his departure to train under Leanan Sidhe. He had been working on it for days, but it was progressing very slowly as it used to be a one month worth of work. He had been foolishly confident no one would be able to break in as long as the power he stored to it didn't run out, but Friagne as Hougu collector bypassed Yuji's barrier using one of his had really wrecked the whole mechanism of the Unrestricted spell that he had to fix everything from scratch again.

Apparently with using that particular hougu, any barrier could be destroyed no matter how strong it was. With this mistake in mind Yuji decided to use pillars system barrier, so it won't collapse unless all pillars placed inside the city was destroyed simultaneously. That however required someone to destroy pillars that were hidden all over the city.

This type of mechanism should work better than previous one, Yuji hoped as he let a seed shaped crystal to fall to the river in which it would sprout to a pillar point. This was the last of the seed he had to plant but the work was far from over, hopefully the temporary one he set up could hold on until he finished.

Unfortunately someone had sneaked inside Misaki City, a Flame Haze and a pretty powerful one at that. Yuji narrowed his eyes as he looked at the direction from where he sensed the presence of new Flame Haze. "Who is it, I wonder…" He had subtly warned the newcomer to not make trouble but he was not sure. "Hm…"

"Yuji… " Futsugi began impatiently, "You know most Flame Haze will ignore us as long as we left them be… SO, stop trying to distract yourself, go back to school and apologize to Shana!"

"But… I don't think she will forgive me…" Yuji muttered, averting his eyes from ranting pocket watch that was jumping around on the railing of the bridge.

Futsugi harrumphed, "Yuji… I believe your parents and I raised you better than that!" Yuji had a feeling Futsugi had wanted to say that for a long time. "That girl didn't get what you said because she really has ZERO common sense when it comes to feeling and interaction!"

Yuji nodded, "Yeah, I know."

"… You know? How?"

Yuji swallowed heavily, "After I have a good rest, I wake up in the morning with clearer mind and… I… put two and two together… and then you confirm it for me."

Futsugi wondered if his Yuji was really very smart, dumb, luck or all three together. "And what are you doing here instead of asking her to forgive you?"

Yuji groaned, running his nimble fingers through his locks. "She will not forgive me, I was being an absolute ass last night!"

"Language young man! So this morning you're not angry at her but avoiding her?!"

"…"

"What make you think avoiding her will help you?! She was waiting for you to apologize this morning and she would have!"

Yuji flinched at that, "Which mean I am really not going to be forgiven."

Futsugi eyed Yuji as if his surrogate son had been replaced by an alien, "Why you're acting so cowardly?"

"I guess I am…" Yuji muttered, "I don't think I can bear it if she look at me with disgusted face and say she despise me."

"I don't think she will…"

"Since when you're an expert when it comes to girls?"

Futsugi sighed wearily, "Fine… why don't you go to your mother and ask her help to think up some way to apologize to Shana?"

"Kaa-san was angry at me because according to her I bullied Shana… well I did."

Just Yuji's kind of luck that his mother was angry at him in time of need. "…Is there no female around left who is not angry at you now for you to get advice from?"

"Well…" Yuji trailed off.

Futsugi laughed out loud. "Oh, we do know someone."

Misaki Municipal Highschool (Roooftop)

"Argh! It's so frustrating!" Shana yelled in frustration before taking another bite of her bread, which unfortunately didn't make her mood better like usual.

"…"

Shana tensed, sensing Yuji's power flared for a moment before disappeared. "Hmph! Is that a warning for the new Flame Haze who just arrive in this city?"

"It seems so, very subtle of him."

Shana growled under her breath, "Who cares? That jerk!"

Alastor flinched when Shana mercilessly blow the empty plastic wrap and smashed it loudly. He also didn't miss how her hands twied tch and the tenseness in her body. This was not merely anger anymore but also restlessness and anxiety. She was scared and covering it up with her temper.

'Yuji is not here… he is not with me, I don't like it!' Shana couldn't understand why she wanted him to be by her side when she was angry to him, but she felt so miserable that he was not around.

'This is so unfair! Why I have to feel this way?! I don't like it!'

I hope from this chapter you can see glimpse of canon Yuji... and slight divergence of his personality in the same time. From what I see in light novel the reason Yuji ever give any chance to Yoshida is because to him Shana is very distant and it's like she can fly anytime and she won't need him because she is very strong.

As much as I love lovey dovey couple... Shana and Yuji at this point is not the type of couple that progressed peacefully, they're going to bump all over the place before they get there like in canon. Yuji in this story is more patient with Shana's behavior but in the same time he snap worse than canon Yuji would when his line is crossed. He is also even more awkward when it comes to emotion even though he is better than Shana, because he has been keeping human contract to minimum for years.

Feel free to ask question ^^ and Have a nice day... and don't forget to review!