Warnings: None

Scratch

Chapter 10:

"Dog Eat Dog"

Running.

We ran holding each other's hands like something out of a stupid romance movie. We ran flat out, toward shelter, and when we reached it I let her go and slammed the door shut behind us—just in time. The monsters collided with the door, ramming their bodies against it over and over again. I heard them snarling when I braced my shoulder against the wood. Keep them at bay, I thought. Keep them out.

Protect her!

She was scared spitless. Fear rolled off her in waves, so thick I tasted it. I looked at her over my shoulder and tried to smile, to say something that might make her feel better—I'm here, I'll protect you, that's my promise as a man—but the things outside howled and slammed against the door and I had to put all my strength into keeping them out. I grit my teeth and cursed.

Keep them at bay. Keep them out. Protect her!

I'd promised to protect her a long time ago, and I sure as hell wasn't about to break that promise now.

"Kuwabara," she said. I heard her fearful breathing, the hopelessness as real as the fear. "Kuwabara!"

I risked looking at her again, despite the strain in my shoulders and the sting in my arms. Her eyes gleamed bright with terror. I could only just see her in the light of the crescent moon. Its glow came in the tiny window behind her, silvery pale and cold, turning her eyes black.

And then the monsters found the window, and covered it with their clawed hands, and made the light go out—

I woke up in my bed, sheets tangled like they were trying to strangle me. For a minute I just blinked in the darkness. Then I saw the red numbers of the clock on my bedside table. It was stupid-early in the morning, and way before I actually needed to wake up. Sun hadn't even come up yet. Well, crud. I should just go back to sleep—

Wait. Why was I so awake?

Oh. Yeah. That dream.

I sat up and mopped a hand down my face. That had been a real nightmare. Hadn't had one of those in a while. But what had that been about? It was pretty real-feeling. Sharp emotions, clear images…only the more I thought about it, the more the dream faded. Where had the dream been set, anyway, in terms of place? Not my house, but where? Genkai's temple? My school? Somewhere familiar, for sure, but I couldn't quite remember. And who had been with me? She was a she, I remembered that, but…

I tried for a while to remember, but the harder I tried, the more her features slipped away. But I remembered the feeling of needing to protect her really well, so if I had to guess, it was probably Yukina. Yeah, those had been Yukina's eyes. I'd recognize them anywhere. They were too pretty to forget!

Had I dreamed about her because I was nervous about her coming to visit soon, maybe? Yeah, that was probably it.

Sleep was impossible after that, so I got up and went to Yukina's usual guest room and double checked that it was clean. There was more dust than I liked, so I wiped down the desk and the shelves until they shined. By then it was closer to when I'd normally wake up, so I showered, dressed, and went downstairs.

When I walked into the kitchen, Shizuru was already standing at the stove. She looked over her shoulder at me and smiled.

"You're up early, baby bro," she said.

"Figured I'd clean the guest room a bit before I left for school."

"Why is it you only ever clean house when Yukina visits?"

"Because she's amazing and deserves to live somewhere nice, that's why!"

I went to the table and sat down. Shizuru chuckled when I yawned, and then she slid three fried eggs off the skillet and onto my plate. I frowned.

"What, no bacon?"

"It's on its way, you ungrateful shit." She looked me up and down. "Yukina doesn't get here for another three weeks. Why are you cleaning today?"

Uh oh. I tried to look as casual as possible, shoving an entire egg into my mouth like I couldn't wait to eat. Which I couldn't. Shizuru's a good cook and I woke up pretty hungry. Nightmares work up an appetite, I guess.

"'Cause I couldn't sleep," I told her once I swallowed. "Figured I'd be productive. Y'know. Clean instead of lying around and stuff."

I hadn't told my sister a lie, exactly. I just wasn't saying why I couldn't sleep. Hopefully she wouldn't pick up on that. Shizuru loved dissecting dreams and would probably tell me I was going to start wetting the bed or whatever if she found out I'd had a nightmare about Yukina. She liked teasing me. I needed to keep the nightmare a secret, for sure.

Shizuru stared at me with her brow furrowed, lips pressed thin.

I gestured at my jaw. "Something on my face?"

She shook her head, eyes softening. "No. Just thinking, is all." She turned back to the stove and the bacon she'd promised. "Say. That girl you've been walking to school."

"Who, Tora?"

"Yeah. You think she'd be cool with Yukina?" The bacon sizzled as she flipped it over. "Last time she stayed with us, Yukina said something about making friends. Figured we could set her up with someone we've vetted." She shot me a glance over her shoulder. "From what you've told me, it sounds like Tora has some form of spiritual awareness, even if she doesn't know it yet. Demons might not scare her."

I couldn't help but smile. "Hey, that's a great idea!"

Yukina's purpose, when she stayed in Human World, was to observe human culture and try to fit in. More and more demons (mostly weaker ones) were starting to appreciate humans, and the benefits of living in the relatively safer Human World. We're not as dog-eat-dog as demons, so weak demons can live peaceful lives...so long as they can blend in with humans and not freak them out too much. Yukina was one of the few who had approval from Spirit World and King Enki to be here long term as a scout, sort of. They wanted some nice demons to live in Human World, get people accustomed to demons, before allowing mass immigration or a big reveal to the human population that demons existed. Which meant Yukina was basically testing the waters of Human World in preparation for the day the demons came out of the…closet? Cave? Something. Yukina took a part time job whenever she visited, and even took classes at a local junior college to learn about human history. She did great whenever she visited (she was always great!) but making friends wasn't easy when you didn't know how humans worked. Plus, most humans weren't aware demons existed, so she had to be careful she didn't get close to someone who would freak out if they knew what she was.

Maybe Tora was the perfect candidate for being Yukina's friend! She was nice once you got past the creepy poker face and the intense eyes, after all. And once I figured out if she was really psychic, I'd for sure introduce her to Genkai and the others, and tell Koenma about Tora's existence. With demons coming over to Human World, we needed all the sympathetic humans in our corner we could get.

"You just have to get her to admit she's a freak like us, first," Shizuru said of Tora, smirking. "And it really does sound like she is."

"Yeah, I think so too," I said. I'd told Shizuru all about the weird tree incident, Tora's freaky acrobatics, and the way Tora had reacted to my energy the night before when I got home and it was fresh in my mind. "I just wish I knew how to make her admit it, you know? I've thought of everything I can, but I just don't know what to do!"

"You don't know what to do," Shizuru repeated. She looked really unimpressed with me for some reason.

"Yeah! It's a delicate situation. I don't wanna scare her or nothin'!"

Shizuru lifted the pan off the stove and used chopsticks to transfer the bacon to my plate. Before I could start eating, though, she pinned me with the most disappointed look ever.

"Bro," she said. "Have you tried…asking Tora if she's psychic?"

I blinked at her.

"Because even if she lies, you'll be able to tell. And then you can reevaluate and go from there."

I thought about it for a minute, then stood up and pumped my fist into the air.

"Wow, Shizuru—that's a great idea!" I said. "I mean, at worst she'll just think I'm making a joke, but if she really is psychic, maybe she'll just tell me since I'm one, too!" I cupped my chin in my hand, thinking. "Gosh, why didn't I think of this before?"

"Because you're an idiot," Shizuru said, but I could tell by the smile in her eyes that she didn't really mean it. "Now eat your bacon. You're a growing boy."

I did as I was told and ate my food. When I finished and went to put on my shoes by the front door, Shizuru followed. She lit a cigarette and followed me when I went outside.

"Good luck at school today," she said. "You'll need it, after what your advisor told you yesterday."

I scowled. "Don't remind me." The reason I'd been called to the principal's office wasn't good, but luckily there was a handy solution to my problem. Said solution would really cut into my free time, which was dumb, but if it meant I could get into my top college pick, I'd make the sacrifice.

"Think Tora could help?" Shizuru asked.

"Probably," I said. This subject seemed right up Tora's alley based on what (very little) I knew about her. "Was planning on talking to her about it this morning."

"Good idea." She exhaled a cloud of smoke in my direction. "Now run along, kiddo."

She didn't need to tell me twice. I had a lot to do this morning, asking Tora both about the school thing and the psychic thing. Truth be told, I was sort of excited to figure Tora out. She was really super weird, and my sister's idea was really good. Yeah, just ask Tora outright if she had powers. It was perfect! I rehearsed what I might say as I walked to Tora's street and waited at the corner. I was a bit early, so I even tried practicing what I'd say aloud.

"Hey, Tora, you don't happen to have psychic powers, do you?"

Oh, but that sounded was too blunt, didn't it? How about, "Tora, I was wondering if you had any supernatural abilities I should know about."

Only that was too formal. I needed her to know having powers was no big deal, and I wasn't about to rat her out to a research facility or the government (well, maybe Spirit World government, but that was different). Casual, yeah, that was the key. Let's try, "Hey Tora, did you know I'm psychic? Yup! If you've got powers of your own, maybe we should start a club or—"

I got pretty caught up in practicing, so I admit I lost track of time. It wasn't until an alarm on my watch went off—the alarm that told me hey, get to school, you've got fifteen minutes before you're late—that I realized how close I was cutting it. I waited another minute or so, craning my neck down Tora's block, but eventually I turned and went to school without her. Had she left early or something? Or maybe she was sick. Gosh, I hoped she wasn't sick. She seemed fine yesterday, but maybe falling out of that tree had hurt her? I mean, she'd seemed fine, but I'd have to check on her at lunch and make sure. She might need someone to bring her her homework, or…

Kirishima waved to me when I walked into our classroom. I made it in just before the bell rang. He asked where I'd been as I sat down, but I just muttered "Later" out of the corner of my mouth and got out my textbooks. Our teacher was already talking, and we had a science test in two days. I needed to pay attention. Even if it was our very last semester, and my grades weren't as important, I still needed to stay on top. Couldn't lose my chance to attend a good college to a case of Senioritis. Shizuru would kill me and I really, really don't want to die just yet, thanks!

The lessons passed pretty quickly, even if they were boring as hell. When lunch started I told Kirishima about Tora being late, and how I wanted to go check on her to make sure she wasn't sick. He just rolled his eyes and passed a hand through his bleached hair like I'd said something stupid.

"She's got to think you're stalking her at this point," he said.

"Hey, no way!" I said.

"Yes, way. Showing up to her classroom for no reason—"

"I do too have a reason," I said—and in fact I did, thank you very much. Even more than just checking on her, or asking her if she was psychic. "Are you gonna come with me to find her or not?"

Kirishima rolled his eyes, but he came with me anyway.

Everyone looked up and stared at us when we entered Tora's classroom. A couple girls started talking behind their hands, looking at me like they really didn't want me there. Probably had heard about my middle school reputation. Oh well, let them judge me. I'm awesome; their loss. I ignored them and scanned the room, but Tora wasn't there. Uh oh. Maybe she was eating in the cafeteria today. Shit. How was I going to find her?

Luckily her class representative was still in the room. He walked up and asked who I was looking for, and when I told him, he jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the windows overlooking the schoolyard.

"She and Umi-san had a picnic," he said.

I frowned, then walked past him to the windows. I spotted Tora immediately. She and Umi had spread a blanket underneath one of the gingko trees outside, near the brick wall marking the edge of school grounds. Tora lay on her back, knees bent, arms extended lazily above her head. Her black hair fanned around her on the blanket, short strands dark in the tree's shade. Umi sat by Tora's side and played with the ends of Tora's hair. A few open and half-full bento boxes scattered the blanket, evidence of their lunch. Tora felt around on the blanket, found something in one of the bento boxes, and managed to toss it into her open mouth. Wow, good reflexes; she should really join the gymnastics team or something, after that stunt yesterday and now this. Umi laughed and clapped in response, then started petting Tora's hair again.

Tora chewed. She swallowed. And then she smiled.

"They look like they're having fun," Kirishima observed.

I flinched when he talked. I hadn't heard him come up behind me. Too distracted by Tora and Umi, I guess. Tora was laughing and smiling in a way I had never seen. Even from this distance, two stories up and a hundred feet away, the smile gleamed like she was in a toothpaste commercial. This wasn't the little small smile she'd showed me in the cafeteria. This was a big old grin, showing her teeth and crinkling her eyes, laughter shining in her face like she'd swallowed a flashlight. Gosh, she was actually pretty when she smiled like that. She was no Yukina, but wow. Smiling really transformed her look. She seemed a lot less ready to bite my head off, that's for sure.

But then she stopped smiling. It was like someone had flipped a switch or sounded an alarm. She went rigid, eyes popping wide, and then out of nowhere Tora sat bolt upright, fists clenching in the picnic blanket. She looked around. Her head whipped back and forth so hard, the tips of her hair smacked Umi in the face. Umi reared back with a sputter and said something (I couldn't hear from this distance, obviously) but then Tora rolled to her knees. She knelt on the blanket and kept looking around, hunching like she wanted to protect her stomach, and she looked up, scanned the school building—

Our eyes met.

Two stories up, a hundred feet away, through a pane of window glass…Tora's eyes met mine.

She went still on the blanket. Like someone had pressed pause on a weird movie about a paranoid schoolgirl, or something. I'd never seen her open her eyes that wide. They dominated her face, big and staring. Behind me, Kirishima gasped.

"Oh, she's really gonna think you're stalking her now!" he chortled.

"Shut up," I grumbled.

Not looking away from Tora, I lifted a hand. I smiled stretching my friendliest grin as wide as it would go. "Hey, look Tora, I'm not weird. I'm nice!" That's what I wanted the grin to say, and that's what I tried to tell her with my eyes—oh gosh, that sounds like something out of another bad romance novel. Um. Never mind. I shoved my hand into my pocket. Was I coming on too strong, like Kirishima said?

Anyway, whatever. Tora didn't appear to get the message. She stared a bit longer, eyes flashing almost yellow when the sun caught them, and the she stood up. Her lips barely moved, but she said something to Umi, and then she broke our stare so she could walk smartly away. She headed for the school; I lost sight of her when she entered the shoe locker room.

"Oh, shit," Kirishima observed.

'Oh shit' was right. I needed to talk to Tora, not lose her in the school! Maybe I could catch Tora by the lockers or something. Or was she coming up here to yell at me or something, and if I waited, she'd find me...and chew me out in front of the rest of the school? Oh, crap, what should I do? I opened my mouth to ask Kirishima and started to turn away from the window, but then something stopped me cold.

The Tickle Feeling.

Loud and clear, from zero to sixty in no time flat, the tickle feeling wormed up my spine and cupped the back of my neck.

I went rigid. The cold tickle settled between my shoulder blades. I shivered; Kirishima saw, and his eyes narrowed.

"What is it?" he said.

"Not sure," I grunted. "But it's big."

I'd been getting the Tickle Feeling since I was a kid. I'd been getting it long before Yusuke ever came into my life, too, and I'd had practice figuring out what caused it. Kirishima had seen me get the Tickle Feeling a hundred times when we were little, and he knew it meant something weird was about to happen. He knew I could sense ghosts, though of course he didn't know about Demon World or demons and whatever, but whenever I got the tickle, he knew to be on the lookout for weird shit.

I turned away from him and scanned the classroom, but I didn't see anything. I turned in a slow circle on the spot, scanning and scanning, but the Tickle feeling came from…behind me? It was cold and slimy, wriggling down my back like someone had dumped a snake down my collar, and it got more and more intense as I turned to face the classroom windows. Huh, that was weird. It was coming from outside?

When I looked through the glass, though, no one was outside it. No ghosts or demons hovering, no ferry girls like Botan trying to catch my attention. Even Umi had gone, the bento boxes and picnic blanket absent.

It was like Umi and Tora had never been down there at all.

And with that realization, the Tickle Feeling vanished.

I tried to find Tora, but couldn't. No idea where she or Umi had run off to, and I didn't want to use my powers to track them, so I just went back to my classroom and decided I'd catch Tora another time. It's not like either of my questions were urgent, after all. I mean, one of them sort of was, but the other…

I barely paid attention during our teacher's math lecture, but I'd read ahead in the textbook so that was OK. It wasn't until our elective period rolled around that I snapped out of my daze and got up to gather my stuff. Kirishima stood near my desk as other students filed out of the classroom toward…well, wherever it was they spent their elective period. Most seniors used it as a free period; no telling what they got up to.

"Arcade, or studying?" Kirishima said as I shoved books into my satchel. "I vote arcade."

"Sorry, man, but I don't have a free period anymore," I said.

His brow furrowed. "When did that happen?"

"Yesterday."

"Do you have to take make-up courses or something? Your sister will kill you if she finds out you failed a test!"

"What?! No, man, it's nothing like that!" I slung my bag over my shoulder and jerked my head toward the door. "C'mon. I'll tell you on the way."

We went into the hallway. I wasn't sure exactly where I was supposed to go, but I had a classroom number in my head, so I started wandering toward the wing where I thought it might be. Kirishima followed, asking again what was up with my changed schedule. I sighed and rubbed a hand through my hair.

"It sucks, but they changed the admission requirements for one of my top-pick colleges," I said. "Turns out I need an art credit for them to consider me. I'm technically grandfathered into the old admission requirements, but I'll have a much better chance getting accepted if I take an art course, and I don't have one, so…there goes my free period. It's my last chance to impress them, basically."

"An art credit?" Kirishima said. He looked totally skeptical. "But you're going to a science school. Why do they need you to have an art credit?"

"I dunno. Something about having a well-rounded student body. Sounds stupid to me, but whatever." I clenched a fist and held it over my chest. "I am going to become a scientist someday, and if it means I have to take an art class and be a well-rounded person, so be it!"

Kirishima snickered. "Too bad you can't draw worth shit. Or sing. Or act. Or—"

I glared. "That's why I'm taking photography, you big jerk."

He looked surprised, then impressed. "Oh. Good thinking. You just point and click. Even you couldn't mess that up."

I would've put him in a headlock for that insult, but I spotted a girl carrying a camera case a few paces ahead of us. Oh cool, one of my classmates! Better be on my best behavior. Didn't want to alienate my classmates with fighting so early, even if it was just horseplay. I stopped walking and jerked a thumb over my shoulder, back the way we'd come.

"Arcade after school?" I asked.

Kirishima grinned. "Goblin City, best out of ten? Loser buys snacks!"

"You're on."

"Cool. I'll tell Okubo and Sawamura." He snickered. "Have fun in photography class, Artsy-Fartsy."

He walked away, whistling, before I could protest the nickname. I didn't really mind the nickname, though. I was jealous he got to have a free period, like most of the other seniors did, sure, but like I'd said before: I was willing to take an art class if it meant getting into my top school. And plus, Tora said she liked photography, so she could probably help me if I needed it (and if I could find her and actually ask for her help, and whatever). That had been my second question for her: whether or not she'd be willing to gimme a hand with my photography class. Hopefully she'd say yes. With her help this class would be a cakewalk, even if it did cut into my free time.

I trailed the girl with the camera bag toward a classroom at the far end of the hall. I took a deep breath before entering. Should probably introduce myself to my new teacher since I was intruding on his class two weeks into the semester, and—

My thoughts scattered when I heard a gasp. A familiar gasp, and then the sound of my name spoken with a familiar, scratchy voice.

I looked up.

Tora was sitting at the back of the classroom.

She was staring straight at me.

And she looked pissed.

NOTES:

Well this bodes. Kuwabara seems to have joined Tora's photography class. Shenanigans will most assuredly ensure.

Love how he thinks photography is as simple as "point and click." Oh, wee babe. You're in for a rude awakening...

Many awkwardly gushing THANKS to those who reviewed the previous chapter! CalicoKitty402, MaoIsSleepy, DarkWolf1689, Baoh joestar, jcampbellohten, AkaMizu-chan, j.d.y., Aria2302, and procrastilove!