A.N. I'm still alive and working on this story, just been rather busy and haven't found much time to write, anyways enjoy this chapter and i'll try and not let so much time go between updates.


Upon reaching the empty gym, Yako could only close her eyes and groan.

'Why did I believe him?'

Ignoring his laughter, she retreated from the gym doors to a nearby bench in order to quickly eat her lunch before the bell rang. When the bell sounded she tossed her waste into the trashcan and headed into the locker room to change.

"Why are you changing clothes in the middle of the day?"

She froze part way undressed when Neuro's question made her realize one horrifying fact.

'I have been undressing myself in front of a male, even if he is dead, for the past few weeks and he has probably seen me naked god knows how many times….Why the hell did I only realize this now?!'

Scrambling to pull on her P.E. shirt, she tried hard to ignore her burning face. Once she was safely clothed again, Yako glared at the air and hissed quietly, "Pervert!"

Neuro blinked, momentarily confused at the accusation, 'What?' Examining her thoughts more closely this time, a grin appeared in his face when he realized why she was so embarrassed. 'Oh, I can have fun with this.'

"Why would I waste time watching you? I have much better things to look at, ugly."

Yako's eyes narrowed and the embarrassed flush was replaced by anger, "You…You…bastard!"

'Oooh, I wish he had a physical body so I could slap him. How dare he—'

Neuro snorted in amusement, interrupting her angry tirade of thoughts, "You might want to stop glaring. As entertaining as this is…people are coming in, unless you like the looks the others have been giving you by all means continue to be angry at someone who isn't even here."

Yako took a deep breath to forcibly calm down. 'He is right and it's his damn fault why I'm this angry to begin with.'

"My mission is accomplished then."

She slammed her locker shut in response, only to realize she brought a lot attention to herself by doing so. Smiling sheepishly at other girls, she quickly hurried out of the locker room. 'I can't wait for this day to be over.'

Seeing the teacher enter the gym, she quickly followed him and proceeded to line up with her classmates. 'I wonder what we are going to do?' Going through the motions of stretching, Yako waited for the teacher to announce what physical activity they would be doing today.

"Okay class, that's enough stretching. Go run a lap in the gym and then we'll play some dodge ball," the teacher said smiling slightly. Half of the class cheered while the other half groaned. Yako herself was in the latter group. 'Why dodge ball of all things?'

"What is this dodge ball that causes you this much dread, worm?" Neuro asked mildly curious as to why her thoughts turned to various past instances where he threw objects at her.

Yako muttered quietly to him, "You'll see."

'Well if I look on the bright side, since I got some impromptu practice maybe I'll last longer,' she smiled wryly to herself.

Few minutes later…

Yako was trying hard not to break out into laughter. She watched another student get out by being hit by an extra ball that got thrown by an "unknown" person. She couldn't help but feel slightly relieved with how the game was turning out.

Once Neuro saw what dodge ball was, she figured he would use this opportunity to torment her more physically, but all he did was chuckle and made a vague statement, "Oh, that's why."

Dodging a fast ball, Yako watched another student get mysteriously taken down and smiled slightly at Neuro's idle comment, "Two down, ten to go."

Sadly, she was too distracted watching others get taken down that she did not see the ball heading towards her and the next thing Yako knew she was laying on the floor with a stinging face.

'Thank god it wasn't head on...I think it would have broken my nose.'

Tears came unbidden to her eyes from the pain and dazedly wondered if the ball hit her head harder than she thought because she was hearing some odd sounds.

'Was that a growl?'

It was something you'd expect to come from a wild beast, but the growling stopped before she could speculate where it came from. Becoming more aware of her surroundings, Yako could make out the concerned voices buzzing around her.

The teacher's sharp reprimand cut through her head like a knife, "Yamamoto! You're not supposed to throw the ball above a person's chest. Katsurugi, do you need to go to the nurse?"

'I wish the teacher wouldn't yell...Ow.'

Slowly sitting up, Yako eyed the person who threw the ball at her and mentally groaned. 'I knew that name sounded familiar. Why is the school delinquent in my class?'

"No, I'm fine sensei. I'll just sit out for a bit, if that's alright?"

Yako watched a smirk appear on the boy's face, 'He did it on purpose! What did I do?!'

"That's fine," the teacher sighed tiredly and gestured to the rest of his students to get back to playing, "Remember class, I don't want to see balls flying above the chest consider this your last warning!"

Annoyed, Yako watched the delinquent give her a mocking wave with his hand before heading back to the game himself and she couldn't help but wonder how she caught his interest.

Yako eyes widened slightly when she heard the feral sound again and thought in bewilderment, 'Is that Neuro?'

Neuro glared at the human-boy as he walked further away from Yako unaware he was voicing his displeasure to his host. His good mood from participating in the human game and getting free food while he was at it vanished quickly the instant she got knocked down.

'He hurt her.'

In the back of his mind, he knew he hurt his host on a more frequent basis and what the boy did was mild in comparison…but still it rubbed him the wrong way.

"Neuro?"

The girl's tentative inquiry diverted his attention from glaring daggers at the boy and irritated for reasons unknown to him, he tersely replied, "What?"

Neuro saw that she had moved to a bench. With forced calmness, he watched her gingerly touched her face and winced; and that one wince caused his irritation level to rise.

"Did you just growl?"

Frowning slightly he silently wondered, 'Why did she ask that?'

Listening to her thoughts, he learned that this feral sound had alarmed her and that she wondered if it was him who made that noise and if so, why was he growling.

'Why indeed,' Neuro thought annoyed with himself, 'Why does her getting injured cause me to lose myself?'

"Don't ask stupid questions…"

Yako frowned, 'Why does he sound so agitated?'

Lost in thought, the sudden yelling startled her.

"Katsurgi! LOOK OUT!"

Spotting the incoming ball, Yako raised her arms to protect her face, closing her eyes tightly, she waited for impact.

Eyes flashing with barely concealed contempt for the other humans, Neuro subconsciously stopped the ball from hitting her and when he realized what he did he snorted in disgust at himself, 'What's wrong with me?'

When nothing hit her, Yako cracked open an eye and saw that the ball was sitting at her feet. Lowering her arms, she stared at the ball in bewilderment, 'Neuro stopped it….wait he stopped it so that means…' Glancing that the other students, she saw that they were also staring at the ball and from the parts of the conversation she could hear she knew that the other students were wondering what the hell happened. 'This is not good…'

"Did you see that?"

"It looked like it hit an invisible wall."

"That was weird, why wasn't she hit?"

Laughing nervously, she kicked the ball back to her classmates and sighed in relief when they went back to playing. She knew she should have been more freaked out by other people seeing Neuro cause an unexplainable event, but at the moment she just didn't care.

Yako smiled slightly and let out a quiet whispered, "Thank you," to the air surrounding her.


A.N. Time shall go by in the next chapter, and maybe if i'm good, the first character will show up...otherwise it will be the one after the next.