To her relief, Inari did make it to her dorm on her own, but her energy crashed almost immediately after. Hiyori wasn't back yet, she had said something about her English Club having a long meeting, but Inari couldn't really recall because of her drowsiness.
She managed to change into her pyjamas and set an alarm on her phone for the next day before crawling into her bed. She closed her eyes and fell a sleep almost immediately.
About an hour later, somebody woke Inari by shaking her arm gently.
When she opened her eyes, Hiyori was standing over her with a concerned look on her face.
"Are you okay? It's only seven."
"Had a bit of a harrowing day," Inari replied groggily. She sat up and rubbed her eyes.
"I'd say, what happened to your arm?" Hiyori asked, looking at the bandages that peaked out from underneath Inari's sleeve meaningfully.
Inari hesitated before answering, tugging her sleeves down a little.
"I fell down the stairs."
A perfectly epilated eyebrow rose.
"You fell down the stairs?" Hiyori repeated sceptically.
"Yeah, I'm feeling a bit under the weather, didn't look where I was going and missed a step."
Hiyori reached out and put the back of her hand against Inari's forehead.
"You are a little warm," she confirmed. "I'm going down to the dining hall anyway, so I'll get you some food. Rest some more Inari-san."
"Thank you, Hiyori-san," Inari replied before lying back down.
She had barely closed her eyes when she realized she hadn't told her brother about what happened in the earlier text message she send him.
She grabbed her phone and shot him a quick message.
Was forced to use foxfire during P.E. because of an incident with a Leaper.
It didn't do much, but everybody is fine.
-Inari
Jun probably wouldn't see the message for a while, but she was determined to keep him posted on the major events. He would definitely have given her a hard time if she didn't tell him about the Leaper incident, but one of the teachers did. That didn't mean she would tell him how hard using her powers had actually been on her. Hiyori was right, she was running a fever, and while Ukobach usually stopped her from overworking herself, she was becoming more aware of the fact that she used too much energy when pushing past her seal.
Inari dropped the phone back into her bag. With a sigh she eased back into the warmth of her bed and closed her eyes.
The next day Inari was feeling remarkably better. She had woken up before Hiyori and didn't feel any of the fatigue that had lingered in her bones the day before as she got up to get dressed.
Hiyori had made sure Inari at least had some soup the day before, and even went as far as getting a wet cloth to help cool down the fever a little. Eventually Inari had managed to shoo her roommate to her own bed, ("We've got a Japanese history quiz tomorrow, you need your sleep Hiyori-san") but it had taken quite some effort. Hiyori's honest concern had lifted Inari's spirits a lot.
Inari's regular classes went by pretty fast, she was able to pay attention and the test went pretty well too, considering yesterday's events.
In fact, Inari's day was going normally until lunchtime rolled around. Inari had bought a bento from the convenience store on campus and planned to eat it in the classroom, because the food in the cafeteria was way out of her budget.
There were only a few other students left in the classroom, making the divide between the students on a scholarship and those whose parents could afford the tuition obvious.
Inari sat down near two of her classmates who both had a homemade lunch with them. They made some small talk while opening up their meals. Inari had just broken apart her chopsticks and muttered a quick "Thanks for the meal" when the door to the classroom suddenly opened.
"Is Yukimura-senpai here?"
Inari's gaze snapped to the door at the sound of Suguro's voice. He was standing in the opening, looking a little nervous without Shima and Konekomaru on his side.
"What's he doing here?" Inari muttered to herself. Despite defending him in front of Kamiki the day before, she was not in the mood to talk to him just yet. She had not forgotten the way he had treated Rin. She was still debating whether she'd react or not when one of the girls she was sitting with did it for her.
"Do you know that delinquent Yukimura-san?" The girl asked in a 'whisper' that Suguro could probably hear perfectly from the doorway.
"He's not a delinquent Nakajima-san." Inari protested lightly.
"He's got bleached hair and his ears are pierced," the girl 'whispered' back as if that was all the evidence needed to judge his character.
"I know but-" Inari sighed deeply, she had to admit he looked downright rebellious, especially if you didn't know him. "You know what, never mind. I'll see you in Biology, Okay." Without waiting for an answer Inari got up, slung her bag up to her shoulder and picked up her bento.
"Let's go," she muttered as she walked passed Suguro out the door. The younger boy followed her without a word.
They ended up in a little courtyard close to entrance to the educational labs. Inari had deliberately chosen the spot because it was private enough to talk, but close enough to her next class to bail and claim she wanted to be early if she didn't like the way the conversation was going.
Inari sat down at one of the little benches, and placed her lunchbox in her lap as she waited for Suguro to talk.
"Listen, I'm sorry about yesterday," he started, wringing his hands together. Out of the public eye, he seemed a lot less self-assured, and Inari realized that the over the top self-confidence was at least partially faked.
He paused for a moment as if waiting for Inari to reply, but she just raised an eyebrow at him and kept silent. She wanted a proper apology instead of a simple 'sorry'.
Suguro seemed to get the hint, and after a moment of thought he spoke again.
"The way I behaved was childish and stupid, and I'm really sorry it's gotten you hurt Yukimura."
"The scrapes will heal in time," Inari shrugged, keeping her voice as cold as she could.
"But you sending that blast of wind-" he paused again and shook his head. "You looked dead on your feet after, Okumura was fussing over you like crazy."
"Listen, what you did was incredibly stupid, -and you better not pull a stunt like that ever again- but it's not your fault that I panicked and overdid the foxfire." Inari interrupted. Suguro opened his mouth to reply, but Inari held up her hand, a clear sign that she would not be interrupted.
"The whole mess in P.E. is not what I want an apology for, although I do hope you've apologized to Rin about that already."
Suguro nodded at that. His cheeks were stained red and he looked quite small for somebody who was 6 feet tall.
"Yeah," he said quietly before she could continue. "In the classroom yesterday."
Inari paused at that. If he had truly apologized in the classroom, she had slept through it, which meant she had been sleeping a lot deeper than she usually did during naps. The idea that the foxfire was taking such a toll on her body was unsettling.
"That's good," Inari muttered, trying to pull her thoughts back on topic. "Anyway, I want you to know that I don't appreciate the fact that you insinuated that I'm here because I'm somebody's 'woman'. I've worked my ass off to pass the transfer exam, and I won't allow you to spread bullshit that undermines my hard work like that."
Suguro had the decency to wince at that. Inari took a moment to look at him while she waited for him to reply. She had been annoyed with him for his attitude towards Rin, but that particular remark had actually angered her, as it was a dig at both her new friend and her intelligence.
"I am sorry about that," Suguro stated softly, and Inari felt the last of her anger seep away. "I shouldn't have said something that stupid. It's not a good excuse, but I let my temper get the better of me. I promise it won't happen again."
"Thank you." Inari said softly.
Now that the air between them was cleared, Inari and Suguro ate lunch together amicably, comparing their store-bought bentos and making small talk.
At some point Suguro complained about the way he'd seen Rin flail around Okumura-sensei in the hallway on his way to Inari's classroom. When he realized he'd been criticizing Rin again, he stopped in his tracks and glanced at Inari.
Inari swallowed the bite of rice she had been chewing and wiped a stray grain from the corner of her mouth.
"I don't understand why you care so much about Rin's actions anyway. He didn't enrol just to torment you, you know." She stated carefully.
"I know you're right, it's just…" Suguro shrugged instead of finishing his sentence, apparently he couldn't explain why he couldn't get along with the other boy either.
"I promise Rin is serious about becoming an exorcist. They don't let just anybody enrol after all."
Suguro scoffed at that, the sound so full of contempt that Inari didn't know how to react to it for a moment.
"Okumura has been enrolled by the Headmaster because of his special circumstances," Suguro stated, his voice soaked in displeasure. "He's just some lazy rich kid."
Suddenly it made sense that Suguro hadn't calmed down after Tsubaki-sensei had spoken to him. The boy had had to work very hard to get into True Cross on a full scholarship, just like her, and if she had heard a teacher insinuate somebody got into true cross because of connections, Inari would have felt angered too.
Still, Inari knew more about Rin that Suguro did, and she intended to put an end to his assumptions quickly.
"Oh come on, he is not 'some lazy rich kid'." Suguro's eyebrows drew together in a deep frown at that.
"Isn't he? He doesn't do shit in class-"
"He tries, but he wasn't lying when he said he wasn't good at learning in a classroom setting." Inari interrupted. "I've been tutoring him from the start of term, but he has so much to catch up on."
"What do you mean he has to catch up?" Suguro asked. Curiosity seemed to have pushed his anger to the background.
"He wasn't raised with knowledge about the order," Inari supplied. "You and your friends were raised in an exorcists' temple, Kamiki might have some demon blood far down in her family, and I've known about he order since slightly before my grandmother died, but Rin-"
"His brother is the youngest exorcist True Cross ever had!" Suguro protested.
"Exactly," Inari shot back, "I'd think that these 'special circumstances' refer to the reason why Okumura-sensei was trained under the previous Paladin starting when he was seven, yet his twin brother didn't know anything about demons until he got his temptaint a month ago."
Suguro took a moment to think it over, thoughtfully looking at his now empty lunchbox.
"You are probably right," he admitted after a while. "I really hadn't thought about that."
Inari shrugged at him.
"I'm closer to Rin," she said, "but I don't know more than that either, so whatever these circumstances are, they are probably a sensitive subject. Don't pressure him into telling you, okay?"
Before Suguro could react, the bell that signalled the end of lunchtime rang. Inari quickly gathered her belongings and said goodbye to Suguro before making her way to the science labs.
Inari walked into the assigned room and took notice of the new poster on the wall between the anatomy posters of different animals. It warned about the dangers of eating disorders and it was probably put up just for this lesson, as Inari also noticed a scale on the ground in front of every workstation. Apparently they would be dealing with body weight this lesson.
Inari sat down at the workstation Nakajima-san was already sitting at, and took out her biology textbook and a notebook.
"So, what did the delinquent want? Did he confess to you?" She asked in the same 'not-whisper' she had used during lunch. The people who were entering the classroom looked in their direction, and Inari lightly pushed the girl's arm.
"He's not a delinquent, he's in class 1A!" she protested. The A classes were for the smartest students in a year, they often consisted entirely off scholarship students who had worked their hardest to get placed in them. "And he did not confess to me, he just apologized for something that happened during world religions cram class yesterday!"
Nakajima-san's eyes widened when Inari informed her of her extracurricular classes, all thoughts of confessing delinquents forgotten.
"You are in the World Religion classes? Isn't it really hard to get in to? I heard you need to meet ridiculous standards!"
Inari snorted at that –those ridiculous standards usually were having family in the order- but did not get the chance to respond as the teacher entered the room and started roll call.
When he had finished roll call, the teacher explained they would be calculating their body mass index and explained the process. Inari dutifully took notes during the lecture, but she was eager to get to the practical part of the lesson. The practical lessons were always a welcome distraction from all the theoretical studying she normally did.
The practical part wasn't very hard, all they had to do was help each other measure their height in centimetres, write it down on a stencil and then step on the scales next to working station. When Inari did that, she noticed something off about the number displayed.
"Hey, Nakajima-san?" She asked still standing on the scale. She stared intently at the weight, half expecting the numbers to change suddenly.
"Hm?" the other girl acknowledged her without looking up from her stencil.
"Did the scale give you your regular weight?"
After cram school, Inari only stopped by her dorm to tell Hiyori she suddenly had to tutor somebody before running off, not bothering to answer as the other girl questioned whether that was wise after being so sick the day before.
She had to dodge students left and right as she sprinted towards the old abandoned dormitory, but didn't slow her pace at all. Inari had been itching to speak to Ukobach ever since the science class, and sitting through the cram school had done nothing to ease her mind. Of course she had noticed that her skirts sagged a little more than they did when she first tried them on, but she had written that off on the fabric loosing it's stretch. Never had it occurred to her that she had lost over 10 per cent of her bodyweight in the passed two weeks.
When she reached the backdoor she usually entered the dorm through, Inari took a moment to catch her breath. She quietly pushed down the door handle and slipped inside. The dining hall was deserted, but she could hear sounds coming from the kitchen, so she made her way over there.
Rin's loud voice stopped her in her tracks.
"But it's so annoying having to hide it all day!" he whined. For a moment Inari wondered who he was talking too, as Okumura-sensei had said he had a mission and ended his class early, he couldn't be back already, right?
"Showing it so openly is still improper little prince," Ukobach replied a lot softer. Inari's eyes widened in surprise, and she snuck towards the kitchen door on her tiptoes. It was slightly ajar, so she slowly widened the gap and peered inside.
Rin was standing in front of the stove, stirring in a pot while conversing with Ukobach who was standing beside him on the counter, handing over spices.
What really caught Inari's attention though, was the long, black tail that protruded from underneath his shirt.
She had had her suspicions from the first da they met, but seeing them confirmed was something else entirely, and she couldn't avert her gaze.
It swayed from side to side with little flicks, and Inari had to put a hand over her mouth to muffle a giggle. The movement reminded her a little of a cat's tail, although the tuft of longer hair at the end made it more similar to a lion tail.
Inari backed away from the kitchen and walked back to the door. She slammed it loudly to announce her presence and give Rin a moment to compose himself before making her way back to the kitchen. Revelation about Rin or not, she still needed to speak to Ukobach.
A/N: Wow, this chapter was hard to write. I had so much more dialogue at first, that I decided to rewrite entire chunks of this chapter. I think it's easier to read now, but as always, I love reading your feedback so tell me what you think!
I'm thinking about changing the summary so it appeals to more people, but I always have a hard time coming up with them, so I'll stew on that for a little longer.
I'm looking forward to your response!
