AnAmericanYYH11

Can do, and will oblige Bara-Minamino.

Yes Princess of Nothing Land., My brothers were watching the show and singing the song…very loudly…it's hard not to hear them…they have quite a set of lungs…

Sacred Bovine, I guess you liked the Secrets of the Lunch Lady Chapter then...


Kassandra stretched happily the next morning. She'd had the strangest dream last night. Strange, but if it was for real, she could deal with that. Kurama in this world?

Certainly a nice dream.

Bored, and remembering a certain football player from her dream, Kassandra grabs her whip off the wall.

She had some steam to blow off, and any annoying sibling in her way, was gonna get it.

She stormed down the stairs. James took one looked at the whip in her hand, and froze.

"Dylan! Emilee! Watch out! She's going outside…with her whip!"

Kass ignores him, and walks straight through the back door. Outside in the yard was a nice big open space with one tree.

She decided to practice the same thing she'd been practicing for weeks. And still hadn't gotten right.

She flicks the whip up toward the branch. The same branch she'd been trying to get to for weeks.

It wraps around nicely.

Now, the hard part.

She pushes her weight against the tree, and she tries to flip up.

She almost makes it.

She curses in Italian, and tries again.

She gets even closer this time.

She curses in French.

Before she has a chance to try again, a certain someone stepped into the yard.

"Hello Kass."

"Get the heck out of here Ryan. I'm not in the mood."

What was he plying at she was so close to her house she could get in before he got anywhere near her.

She turns to look at the annoying boy.

Unfortunately, he wasn't alone.

He had about 4 other boys with him. One of which, was standing between her and the house.

That wasn't good. At all. Most definitely not.

Her grip tightens on the whip, the only weapon she had. Really, it's not like she carried her weapons around on a regular basis.

What do you think she is, an insane psychopathic demon?

Ryan noticed her looking at his buddies.

"Kass-"

"Shut it! I'm not going to listen to you!"

"It's one against four, Kass. No one can win against those odds."

"Just because you can't doesn't mean no one can!"

Ryan narrowed his eyes.

"I hate doing this, Kass, but you drive me to it…Guys."

The boys started to close in a bit.

Kassandra said nothing, only waiting until they got into range. Which, was in about….5, 4, 3, 2, 1…

The first boy reached out toward her and she sidestepped him. The next boy she saw was carrying a weapon. Trying out a new move she flicks the whip out toward his hand.

Well, it didn't severely injure him, but it did make him drop his weapon.

Kass picked it up without missing a beat, managing to get out of the circle as well.

"A pocket knife?"

The boys made no response but only lunged at her, two at a time this time. She dodged the first set, but the second set managed to knock her down.

Her whip went flying.

/Okay…that's not good…/

No crap, genius.

/Now is time for constructive hints, not insults. /

Fine…dodge RIGHT!

Listening to the voice she dodged right as one of the kids tried to grab her from behind.

Left!

She obeyed again and this time ended up stepping on one boys foot. Rather hard. Kassandra almost apologized, but stopped herself right in time.

At this point, everyone was either recovering from a lunge, or nursing an injury, so Kass took this opportunity to recover her whip.

Feeling a heck of a lot better with it in hand, she turned to face the boys again. This time she actually moved to attack instead of defend.

One boy found the whip twisting around his ankle. With one jerk he fell over, knocking the boy behind him over in the process.

Kass paused for a smile. She was having fun.

Yes, fun to cause discord isn't it, but lash out behind you…

Kass obeyed the voice for a third time sending a boy back on his back. The last boy however took off running; Ryan at some point during all this had disappeared as well.

"Bakas…"

Bravo…so how was your first real taste of victory and revenge

/No comment /

Come on, you can't tell me you didn't enjoy that…

Kassandra didn't answer. Maybe she didn't want to.

"I'd say that was enough practicing for today…"

She starts back into the house.


Kurama had been watching from the upstairs window of the house next door.

Well, actually he had been enjoying the breeze, but he heard the noise of the fight and turned his attention to Kassandra's yard.

She was in some sort of fight.

His first instinct was to rush down there, but something, mainly a curious Youko, stopped him at the fence.

-- She did well, for a mortal --

-Youko…-

--What? She did! Her reflexes were quite good, and she handled that whip quite well, compared o the other people I've seen. --

- No comment…-

--Admit it Shuuichi…you're impressed…--

- Alright, I am…what do you want me to do about it? -

-- Go talk to her…--

- Are you sure that's a good idea?-

--Yes. I am…--

Kurama cocks an eyebrow but he jumps the fence and stops her right before she reaches the door to her house.

"Kassandra. Nice job."

Kassandra whips around ready to strike if it was one of her assailants returning. She sees Kurama and freezes.

"Oh crap. It wasn't a dream…."

Kurama looks at her confused.

"Um…what was that?"

"Err…. nothing! I guess we should probably get to work on our project now…"

"Wait. First, where'd you learn to use that."

"Use what?"

"That whip?"

"Oh…um…well…I kind of taught myself, with a little bit of a visual aide…"

"Oh…That was really impressive what you were doing a couple of minutes ago."

The girl blushed bright red.

"You were watching that?"

He nods.

"Yes."

She groans.

"You weren't supposed to see that…"

Kurama cocks an eyebrow, something he'd been doing a lot lately, and shrugs.

"Anyway, we should probably get to work on our project."

"Yup…Just let me go put this away…Oh…and get dressed…"

She'd kind of just realized she was in a pair of pajama pants with kitties on them, and a really baggy t-shirt.

Before either of them can say anything else, Kassandra dashed into the house. Kurama followed through the open door, waving back at her siblings.


Kassandra slammed the door behind her.

"So it wasn't a dream…" she muttered as she changed into a baggy T-shirt and a pair of jeans.

She runs the brush through her hair, for the sake of running a brush through her hair. She didn't push it, because she didn't feel like ripping her own hair out.

Being sure to check that her whip was safely coiled on it's hook she strolls down the stairs in a much better mood than she had that morning.

Kurama was talking with her brothers.

Omigosh, what were they telling him?

(Sorry…but that would be my first thought…)

She stops moving to listen.

"And now, you hit A here, and the bad guy takes at least 15 damage…pressing B and left on the C stick, causes him to do this awesome flippy thingy move. Gosh I love this game."

"Ah curse the cut scenes…who cares if they kiss?"

Kassandra sticks her head in to see her little brothers playing a video game, Kurama sitting on the couch behind them, watching them, looking highly amused.

Kassandra clears her throat and nearly laughs as all three of them jump.

"Hehehe…Anyway…. Shuuichi and I have a school project, so an you spare him for the rest of the morning?"

Dylan and James glare at their sister annoyed. She always ruined their fun.

However they said nothing. Mom wasn't awake yet, and provoking Kassandra would only make her yell. And that would wake up Mom and that wasn't good and Kass--

"Thank you boys…You can get into the candy, just don't leave the wrappers all in the same place like last time…You almost got us all caught"

-And Kassandra was so much happier when they didn't argue. And that made them happy too…


She'd been really quiet sneaking down the stairs. He'd been keeping an ear out, but he assumed that that video game her brothers were playing had distracted him.

-- Yes…that did look like fun, didn't it? --

- Didn't what? -

--The video game. --

-Yes it did…what of it?-

--What makes you think I mean something? --

-Because you're you. -

--I'm you too, don't forget that…--

- Couldn't possibly. -

--Actually I meant that little cut scene…--

- See…I knew it…-

-- Oh shush and let me talk! --

- Do you promise to shut up at some point? -

--Of course! –

- Fine…-

-- Good. Now Shuuichi, didn't that look like something you'd enjoy doing? You're not going to answer me are you? No, I suppose not. Nevermind that though, I can go on without any comments from you. --

-Of course you can…but I'm going to talk to Kassandra now, and I really, honestly, don't need to be listening to what you're saying at the same time. -

--But- --

Too late…Kurama was not listening now.

"Kassandra…"


Kassandra heard her name and turned around.

"Hmmm?"

They'd been walking for a while now and he hadn't said anything. She had been wondering a bit about what was going on in his head, but she shrugged it off.

She stared at him, head tilted to one side.

"I told you to call me Kurama."

She blinked a few times and straightened her head. She shrugged.

"Sorry. Didn't know if it was okay to call you that in front of my brothers."

"Ah."

Silence lowered again.

Gosh, how she hated that…

"Kassandra-"

"Call me Kass."

"Why?"

"Because, it's easier. Besides. If you can make me call you Kurama, I can make you call me Kass."

"Fine. But if you call me Shuuichi, I get to call you Kassandra. Except in school."

"Fair enough…What were you going to say?"

There was a second of silence.

"I forgot…"

"You did? I do that all the time…it's quite annoying…"

"What are we going to do for the project?"

"I reiterate. You need to find the information and then I'll put it together."

"You never said that."

"You're right. I said I'm the creative mind that puts it all together."

Silence again.


"I hate silence."she muttered.

"What was that?"

He'd heard her just fine. But it was probably best he pretended he didn't.

"You heard me, I know you did. I said I hate silence."

How did she know he'd heard her?

"Okay, you caught me. Why?"

"Why do I hate silence? Because it's so oppressive and restricting. It can smother you, and you wouldn't even know it."

She answered casually, though also like she had said this many times before.

"That's an interesting way to put it…"

"Isn't it? Now about our project…"

"I know. And I have an idea."

"Another one? Wow…your just chockfull of them aren't you?"

"You could say that."

They sit down on a bench and start to talk about the project, both temporarily forgetting about everything else.

"-And when we put it on the poster board, we can include sketches of the plant in question-"

"Or better yet, bring in a sample of the plant."

"Right! Seeing is always preferable to a picture, however good it maybe."

Kassandra's mind was already a buzz with the images of the poster board and the display.

So intent on this, she didn't notice how they'd finished each other's thoughts.

But someone did.

(Should I stop here? No…I guess I'll keep going. I have time before I have to get this out…its not even noon…)

Kassandra's thoughts were disturbed by a short figure dropping out a tree.

She jumped a bit then settled back down.

"Hullo Hiei…" She said cheerily.

"Hn."

"Kass, don't be too cheery…"

"I know…"

"Hiei…how long have you been following us?"

"Since you left the house."

"But that was-"

Kassandra looks down at her watch.

"- Two freaking hours ago! Holy cow! Weren't you bored?"

"Hn. No. It was actually quite entertaining."

Kassandra stared.

"What?"

She looks at the ground hurriedly.

"Nothing…"

"Hn. Baka."

"I am NOT!"

Hiei turned toward her with something a little like shock on his face. But only for a second.

"You know what that means, then?"

"YES! And I am not a baka…because I know the next sentence out of your mouth is going to be baka ningen, so don't say it."

"Hn."

"I thought Hiei was supposed to be the psychic." Kurama joked.

"Me too…" Kassandra muttered but not so anyone could hear.

However, if the two demons heard, they ignored her.

"We need you back at the house. We're going to start searching for the girl."

"Hiei, you realize you could find her in a second, right?"

"No I can't. The demon sealing has that added effect. No exact pinpoint until the demon breaks free."

"Great…."

"Um…you know…I'm gonna scoot along home now, and well…leave you all to your searching. Happy Hunting!"

Kurama nad Hiei interrupted their mental conversation to look at each other.

"How'd she know we were searching for someone?"


End folks…the end…in the next part, we're gonna fast forward to Monday…possibly Wednesday…but I think it's gonna be Monday. There is going to be a week squished into that one chapter, so deal with it.

Sorry, I think I'm PMSing…which means poor Kassandra will too…

Either that, or I'm just in a reallyfoul mood...