Kaidoh, as his housemates soon found out, was an early riser. He also loved training and fighting a lot more than his new friends. He was a quiet sort, and he had a face so scary it could crack a mirror. The scary face didn't put the residents of Seigaku House off much, though; they never judged on looks or race.
There was something about Kaidoh that fascinated Sadaharu, and Sadaharu was very puzzled as to the reason. The younger boy had never been trained in hand to hand combat– or, well, any sort of combat, really– and wasn't a very quick learner. As such, his form was clumsy and awkward.
He did have some sort of experience in gang fights, though this caused his form to suffer. Gang fighters didn't really care about how one's form could become much more stable by widening the base area (by standing with your feet further apart) and lowering the center of gravity (crouching closer to the ground).
In any case, Kaidoh wasn't a natural fighter, but he was determined and hardworking. Both his stamina and endurance was amazingly high, and he was muscled all over thanks to his hobby: tennis.
It was peculiar, thought Sadaharu one day. Peculiar how almost every Stranger found on the streets in the human world were all so crazy about tennis. Almost as if playing tennis –competitive tennis, it seemed, for the most part– had something to do with the mutant cells in an unawakened Stranger's body activating and causing his or her powers to develop.
But of course, that was all speculation, and Sadaharu had been talking about Kaidoh, not the relationship between mutating Stranger DNA and playing competitive tennis.
Kaidoh joined Sadaharu on his morning run on his fifth day in the house. He had wanted to do so earlier, but refrained because of the wound that Hyoutei's Akutagawa warned him not to aggravate by doing any sort of strenuous physical activity.
Sadaharu was glad for the company; usually his jogs through the tunnels were quiet and made somewhat eerie by the blue fire on the torches in the morning. The fire, Sadaharu had realized, changed color according to the time of day.
In the early morning, the fire was blue. When it was late morning, the fire was a pale yellow. From noon till mid-afternoon, the fire grew slightly bigger in size and burned a bright, almost blinding orange-yellow. With late afternoon came a deeper, dimmer version of the blinding orange-yellow. Slowly, as the sun set, the fire darkened to a deep red-orange. The flame continued to darken until it turned a strangely still luminous purplish black, like an angry bruise. This was the color it maintained for the rest of the night. When dawn approached, the color would lighten to a dark purple, and the cycle would repeat.
Ah. Sadaharu had to stop going off on tangents. It was distracting to others. He had to remember that others were not as organized as he was.
Despite Sadaharu's fondness for the bandana-clad newcomer, Momoshiro did not share the same sentiments. It was something in their first impressions of each other that just rubbed them the wrong way. Kaidoh instantly disliked Momoshiro, and Momoshiro, perhaps in an unconscious response to Kaidoh's dislike, instantly disliked Kaidoh.
What interested Sadaharu was that they were the same age, almost the same height (only a single centimeter's difference– what are the odds?) and had apparently attended the same elementary school, though they had been in different classes and so didn't know of the existence of the other.
Sadaharu was, as always, hungry for new information on everyone and anyone. He blamed this on Renji, who got him started on this data thing in the first place. Hmm, come to think of it, Renji started him on a lot of things in his life. Like tennis and data and being homosexual.
And then Renji had the gall to just ditch him after doing all of that to Sadaharu's life. Bastard.
No. No, Sadaharu was over this. He was. It had been so many years ago.
But the pain of a first love gone sour was always the most painful, whispered a voice in Sadaharu's heart. You still feel the pain of it in your heart, all the time, and you know it. You'll never get over it. Never.
"Inui-san?"
Sadaharu snapped back to reality with a jolt. "Yes, Kaidoh?" he asked, trying to sound casual.
Kaidoh seemed slightly embarrassed and hissed like a snake. "Well, Inui-san, I think… I think we're lost."
Sadaharu blinked in surprise and really took in his surroundings. He'd forgotten that they were on their evening run through the tunnels when he'd lost his focus. Apparently, they were headed in the direction of the Kanagawa prefecture, which was where Rikkai House was.
Where… where Renji was.
"Ah," said Sadaharu out loud by accident. "I see. We've strayed off of our usual path. No matter, Kaidoh, we'll just run a slightly longer route today. Unless you're too tired?"
"No," said Kaidoh hurriedly. "I… I like running."
Sadaharu just had to smile. "I like running, too, Kaidoh."
And somehow, when Kaidoh smiled a small, shy smile back, the perpetual pain in Sadaharu's heart faded away.
Meanwhile, Kabaji and Ohtori had come home to Hyoutei House with a very interesting item held between them. The two had been out for a walk to familiarize Kabaji with the tunnels and Ohtori was sent to guide him because no one else besides Atobe could stand the unnatural silence that was bound to come with a walk with Kabaji.
(Atobe wasn't sent because, as usual, he and Jirou were holed up in their room doing things that shall not be mentioned here for fear of the rating going up.)
"Whoa!" exclaimed Shishido as Ohtori and Kabaji came into the house holding a blindfolded and gagged human man by the arms between them. The man was dressed in policeman blue and was wearing black armor and a navy blue vest of some sort. "What happened?"
"He tried to attack us," said Ohtori gravely.
"Usu," agreed Kabaji, looking serious. A weapon of some sort floated beside him, glowing purple.
"Huh. Must be one of those special policemen, trained specifically to hunt Stranger down," mused Shishido. "Well, bring him in and we'll see what we can do to get Atobe out of his room to make a cage. You know how he and Jirou get about their alone time."
Ohtori and Kabaji exchanged a glance. "Not to be disrespectful, Ryou-san, but isn't his appearance a little… I don't know… threatening?"
Shishido shrugged. "Not really. He was alone, right? People wander into our tunnels sometimes. Most of the time they get spooked and leave, but occasionally a particularly curious human will find a House, but since Seigaku's Echizen came to stay, it's been a lot easier to deal with. All we have to do is get that cocky little brat to degenerate the guy's memories and release him back into the human world."
"I heard somebody mentioning that short peasant from Seigaku?" Atobe drawled, entering the living room. His eyes sharpened as he took in the situation. "What's going on here?" he asked sharply, frowning. "Who's the human?"
"He tried to attack us, Atobe-san," said Ohtori.
Atobe sighed. "Humans," he said, extending an arm to the ceiling. "So much more trouble than they're worth." He snapped his fingers, causing a sound that seemed to reverberate around the room. A large, circular cage of ice materialized in a corner of the living room, forming slowly and seemingly coming together out of a white powder due to Atobe turning the water vapor in the air into ice.
Ohtori and Kabaji, after brief mental preparation ("On three, Kabaji-san. One, two, THREE!"), hoisted their hostage into the cage through the hole in the top of the cage, which was sealed quickly after.
"Nanya," drawled Oshitari in his Kansai accent, entering through the kitchen. "We have a prisoner, I see?" Gakuto trailed in after him, raising his eyebrows in curiosity.
"Choutarou and Kabaji were attacked," said Shishido by way of explanation. The human tried to say something and failed thanks to the gag.
"What?" asked Oshitari, feigning annoyance. "You'll have to speak up, I can't hear you," he said mockingly, raising a hand in the human's direction. His hand glowed navy blue, as did the blindfold and gag, and as he curled his fingers into a fist, the blindfold and gag floated towards him.
"I said," spat the human, glaring at them in hate, "that they attacked me first!"
"Bullshit," said Shishido immediately, glaring back. "They're two of the most gentle people I've ever met! Why the hell would they attack you?"
"Not them," said the human, still looking very murderous. "Their kind. Your kind."
"Oh, for God's sake," Gakuto burst out, laughing humorlessly. "You think all of us are evil because some rogue Stranger decimated your town? Why don't you stop and consider that maybe he had a good reason for doing so!"
"For your information, my father was killed by a Stranger," snarled the human. "What good reason could there possibly have been to kill an innocent man?"
"What good reason could there possibly be to kill an innocent Stranger?" Hiyoshi challenged as he looked down over the living room, leaning on the banister on the second floor. "Neither Ohtori nor Kabaji did you any harm, yet you assaulted them. Why?"
"A Stranger is unstable," the human began, but was cut off immediately.
"And what proof do you have of that?" challenged Oshitari, eyes cold. "You only saw one Stranger kill your father. Perhaps your father had tried to hunt him down, to put him behind bars for no reason besides his race."
"You say we are all unstable because the few Strangers you've heard about killed humans," said Taki quietly, walking down the stairs slowly. "Some humans are rapists and thugs and thieves. Does that mean that all humans are rapists and thugs and thieves?"
These words seemed to strike a chord within the human's heart. He appeared to be taken aback for a few moments, but soon regained his composure. "Th-that's different. Killing is in your blood, Strangers! Crime is not in ours."
"Killing is in our blood?" Jirou repeated mockingly, emerging through the same doorway Atobe had come in from. "And why do you say that? What proof do you have?"
The human fell silent, and the whole House stared daggers into him.
"Leave him," ordered a calm, authoritative voice as its owner stepped into the room.
"Kantoku," the boys murmured in greeting, bowing.
"He's just had his entire world's view challenged. Leave him be and let him rest. We are not a gang, nor are we heartless, and as such we will show compassion to him," said Sakaki, to general dislike.
"But Kantoku," Shishido protested. "He's a human! He'd have treated us like dirt, so why should we treat him any better?"
"Because sometimes it's about walking the higher road, Shishido," snapped Atobe.
"If we treated him like dirt, the notion that we are heartless, cruel beasts would be reinforced," said Sakaki. "We aren't. We're better people than that."
"He's not going to remember this anyway, Kantoku," argued Gakuto. "What's the point of convincing him that we're not as bad as we seem?"
"Because if he believes us, we might not have to wipe him," said Hiyoshi. "Power is precious. Since this guy is down here, it could be possible that his friends will follow him and attack us. This can happen at any moment, and we'll need every drop of power we have if that weapon Kabaji's holding is any indicator."
All attention was turned to the gun-like weapon.
"Well," said Oshitari. "This is unfortunate."
"What?" asked Gakuto.
"The human has received mental training, for one, and can sense the probe I sent into his mind. I did pick up some basic information besides that, though. His name is Izumi, and he's 36 years old."
"Shut up," growled Izumi. "If I were out there with my gun you wouldn't be so cocky!"
"Fortunately," continued Oshitari, completely ignoring him. "He's not the only one who understands this weapon. Kabaji has determined that this gun shoots lasers, and there are three possible settings for the laser.
"The first is non-lethal, to be used on children and the elderly, who offer minimal resistance. The second is mildly dangerous, to be used on normal Strangers, though someone like Gakuto would be able to turn intangible and allow the ray to go right through him.
"The third is fatal and cannot be phased through. Once the laser touches you, your powers shut down, as do your organs. If they don't administer the antidote within half an hour after that, you die, simple as that."
There was a tense silence between the House members. It was a dangerous weapon, and if a whole army of humans was armed with those, well, the Strangers had less of a fighting chance.
"Kabaji, take it apart," ordered Atobe.
"Usu," said Kabaji, and the wepon dismantled in a matter of seconds. Then it reassembled to form something else altogether.
"What's that, Kabaji-san?" asked Ohtori curiously.
"By God, this man's a genius!" cried Oshitari. "He's made a coffee maker! God knows how much we need one of these."
Kabaji seemed embarrassed and ducked his head shyly.
The tension was broken, and all the boys started cheering. Even Sakaki couldn't resist cracking a smile.