Nice and early! Here ya go!
"See you, Shuichi." I said, packing my bag as he passed my desk on the way to the door.
"Ah, see you, Toshiko." He replied, walking out. That left myself, Reki, and a group of girls in the back of the classroom.
"So, Toshiko!" Reki said, popping up beside my desk with a bright smile. "Are we walking together to my house?"
I nodded, flipping my bag shut before standing. She followed beside me as I walked out of the room.
"Oh… I'm not looking forward to that…" Her shoulders dropped as she began to sulk, purple depression lines appearing above her head.
I pet her head, giving her a smile of encouragement as we stepped into the shoelocker room, "Don't worry so much. Should anything happen, you can stay with me until we leave. Once we come back, we'll find you an apartment and a part time job, so there's no need for a fuss."
She brightened considerably, nodding her head perkily as she all but skipped over to her shoelocker. I went to the left side of the room, where mine was located. After switching my shoes, I shut the locker and headed to the front entrance, where she was waiting patiently. We then stepped outside and proceeded to her house.
"You'd really let me stay at the house?" She asked; eyes wide. I nodded. "Oh Toshiko! You're the best friend ever!"
My knees almost buckled from underneath me as she suddenly glomped me in a hug. I swallowed, not used to such personal contact.
"M-mm." I managed as she let go of me, walking beside me with a new bounce in step, the biggest smile I'd ever seen on her face.
"Will Zizzy or Ryo mind?" She asked. I shook my head.
"So long as you stay away from upstairs, then no. Besides, we're all on a team, right? Mind as well start to get used to each other." I paused, taking a breath, "One rule though."
Her eyes went from happiness to worry in less than a millisecond. "What?"
"Don't go in the basement. That's the only true rule. You can go upstairs, but Zizzy may not like it. You do that of your own risk. However, tread foot in the basement, I will know." I said in all seriousness.
"Would it be troublesome of me to ask what's in the basement?" She asked, blinking curiously.
"That would defeat the purpose of me telling you not to go there, wouldn't it?" I said with a smile as we turned onto her street.
"It would!" She said perkily, closing her eyes as she smiled happily, "But don't worry! I won't ever go in the basement! If I have to stay with you or not."
"Good, then we shouldn't have any problems." I said as we turned onto the pathway that led to her house. We both fell silent as we stepped onto the porch, moods falling into complete seriousness.
She stood firm, with her head held high, unlike the visit we took here this morning. I watched as she gulped nervously, swallowing the rest of her fear.
In her eyes… it was the fierceness, I noticed with an inward smirk.
She raised her hand and rasped on the door. Within seconds, her mother was at the door.
"You're not welcome here." She said stiffly, turning her nose up. Reki froze, stricken that it would be said so quickly, before she recovered.
"Then I'll just be a minute to pack my bags." She said, stepping in. Her mother regarded me with a cold eye as I followed the girl in. I stopped two steps from the doorway, however, and Reki headed all the way to her room, beginning on her bags.
"Where do you plan on taking her?" The mother asked; a slight waver in her voice showing her heart wasn't in the decision.
"Regretting it already?" I asked, tone cold as I looked at her from the corner of my eye. A short pause later, she folded her hands in front of her and stalked out of the room, biting her lip on the way out. Deciding I had better things to do than wait, I followed Reki's trail of opened doors to her room.
I paused in the doorway, examining the mess that lay before me.
Apparently, she had taken everything out of her closet and thrown in haplessly to the ground, causing a layer of clothes to coat the floor in a haphazard way.
"Focus on the thing's you'll need for school until winter break. That's when my parents go on the vacation. Clothes other than that can be packed afterwards, and then accessories or trinkets." I said as I bent over, grabbing the skirt to our school uniform and folding it. Going around the room, I picked up the separate pieces to our uniform, folding them before tucking them under my arms. When my hands were full, I moved to where she was sitting in the center of the room, an open and empty suitcase laying in front of her.
Her head was bowed as she sat on her knees, fists clenched in her lap. She was shaking, and judging by the little drops of water that fell onto her lap, crying. I sighed, dropping the clothes into the suitcase before squatting in front of her. I brought my right hand up, cupping her chin and tilting her head up so that she looked me directly in the eyes.
Tears poured out of her hazels, and with my left hand, I wiped them away.
"Be strong, remember?" I asked; voice no more than a whisper. She gulped, leaning away from me with a harsh nod. Biting her lip, she rubbed her eyes until they were clear.
"Right." She stated, trying to make her voice firm. Turning away from me, she busied herself with folding a uniform top and placing it in the suitcase.
With a sigh I stood, going about the room and finishing with the school uniforms. Afterwards, we gathered some of her everyday clothes, and then some of the more important trinkets, like jewelry and a few photos.
One of which she didn't even look at as she tossed it in the old bookbag that we were using to transport some of the smaller goods. I noticed, but kept silent about it.
She grabbed her cellphone off of her nightstand, placing it in the shirt pocket of her uniform.
A door slammed suddenly, causing Reki to jump. I searched the house for the aura that did it. It was the front door that had been slammed, obviously, because that was the only door with someone heading away from it. That someone had the same energy as Reki and her mother.
"It's your father." I said calmly, placing the ballerina statue I had been fiddling with back on the desk. She gulped, nodding, before rushing over to the bags and beginning to zip them all up.
"Let's leave quickly, Toshiko." She suggested, throwing me one of the two bookbags she had packed, slinging one over her shoulder and lifting up the suitcase's hand to reveal that it was a roller type.
"So you're name's Toshiko, eh?" Our eyes were drawn to the man in the doorway, presumably Reki's father, who stood with his arms crossed. I stayed calm, nodding as Reki glanced between us nervously. "What's your family name?"
His eyes were the same shade as Reki's, I noticed. But they were hardened, angry.
"None of your concern." I said evenly, knowing he'd tap my records and attempt to incriminate me. His eyes narrowed.
"You've been corrupting my daughter."
"Quite actually, I saved her."
He snorted in disbelief, sending a glare to Reki before looking back at me. "What could you have possibly have saved her from?"
"Herself, mostly. But you and your wife as well." His eyes widened at my blunt honesty as his fist clenched. His face was starting to turn red with anger.
"We're her parents! We know what's best for her! It's her duty to uphold our family honor!"
"Frankly, sir, no, you don't know what's best for her." He was fuming.
Seeing this, Reki decided it was time to intervene, "Daddy, don't-"
He raised a hand and took a step forward, about to slap his daughter for speaking up. My eyes narrowed as he accidentally stepped on my shadow.
"Stop."
He froze, hand inches from his cowering daughter's face. He turned on me, about to question me as to why he couldn't punish his own daughter when I stopped him from speaking once more.
"If you go through with that, I will kill you."
His eyes narrowed as he curled his fist into a punch. Reki's eyes went big as saucers. Four things happened at once.
He jerked forward, throwing the fist at Reki.
Reki jerked back, stumbling away from the angry man.
Reki's mother entered the doorway and made a run for her husband to hold him back.
I summoned Ryo's power, pulling his shadow under his right foot before thrusting it upward, creating a sharpened meter long black spike to come out of the ground and stab him right through the foot. He cried out in pain as Reki's mother reached him, sinking to the ground as the shadow melted back into its proper place. Reki watched her father with wide, scared eyes. The mother sank to her knees beside him, holding his shoulder tenderly as he gripped his foot in pain.
"It could've been through your heart." I said as I watched him grind his teeth in pain. Reki's mother's head swiveled to me, and she let out a horrified gasp.
"You're a demon!" She exclaimed before looking to Reki. "Don't go with her! We can work this out! As a family! Please don't go with her Reki! She'll kill you! Demons are bad! They kill and murder and take advantage of young girls like you! Don't go with her baby! Stay!"
Her pleas fell on deaf ears as Reki's bangs shaded her face. She turned her head away from her mother, walking around her whining father to the door of the room.
"Let's go, Toshiko." She said calmly. I nodded before realizing she couldn't see it.
"Right behind you." I said, walking up behind her as she began to walk out.
"No! Please! Reki-chan! Rethink this! She'll kill you baby! She'll kill you!"
Her mother's cries were silenced by the shutting of the front door behind us. We walked in silence for the majority of the trip back to the Horawada house. Only once we turned onto my own street did she start speaking.
Her voice was broken, beaten, and cracked.
"Would really have killed him?" She asked, not looking to me, but at the sidewalk. Hazel eyes were sad and grief stricken.
"If he had harmed you." I said without hesitation. It was true. It would take the majority of my energy to summon that long a spike that quickly, but I would have if it had kept my friends safe. She was silent again, fiddling with the straps of her backpack for a minute or so before she spoke up again.
"…Will you kill me?" I stopped short on the sidewalk, grabbing her bicep and turning her to look at me in the eyes.
"You won't die while you're with me unless you're standing next to a corpse, got it?" I asked harshly. Her eyes widened in shock, and we stood there for a few seconds. Eventually, her eyes softened and a small smile came to her face.
"Thank you, Toshiko." She said, and I dropped her bicep. She pulled me into a hug, burying her face in my neck. "For protecting me… thank you."
I patted her back, tilting my head onto hers, "Not a problem at all."
After a few seconds, when the hug was starting to get awkward (I wasn't used to the physical contact), we pulled away and smiled at each other, continuing to the Horawada house.
"We're back!" Reki announcer loudly, cheerfully, into the house as we took off our shoes. She seemed to have returned to her old (new?) self again.
"Eh? She's still here?" Zizzy complained, walking down the steps to greet us.
"Her father attacked her, so for the safety of a team member, she'll be sleeping on the couch here until we leave. When we come back, she'll find an apartment." I answered, walking over to the couch and dropping her bookbag onto it. Reki followed, doing the same with her own bookbag and schoolbag before pulling the suitcase up beside it.
"Oh? Sure she's not scared of sleeping in the same house with a demon? All alone? At night?" Zizzy teased, smirking as Reki shivered. Gathering up her courage, Reki turned to face the demoness with her hands on her hips.
"I'm not scared of you!" She proclaimed, causing me to smile.
That was a load of bull if I ever did hear one.
Zizzy grinned, holding up her hand and summoning a small, sparking ball of yellow electricity. Reki shivered in fear again, but didn't let it show as she turned her nose up at the demon and jerked her head the other way, as if very childishly saying, 'I'm not talking to you'. She finished that look with crossing her arms and plopping onto the couch. I laughed lightly as Zizzy dismissed the electric ball.
"You two can bond tomorrow while I'm out with Kurama." I said, placing my schoolbag on the coffee table and walking around said object to sit in the loveseat.
"The thief?" Zizzy asked, stepping off the stairs and heading into the kitchen. "What? You two buds now or something?"
Reki's jaw dropped, "Toshiko! You're cheating on Shuichi-kun!"
I sweatdropped, figuring that the girl didn't need to know everything. "No, you see, Shuichi and I aren't like that."
"Like what?" Zizzy asked as she walked in and sat on the armchair sideways, throwing her legs over on arm of it while holding a slice of… pizza?... in her hand.
Dismissing the fact that I had no clue there was pizza in this house, I sighed.
"Then, you're cheating on this Kurama guy with Shuichi-kun!" Reki re-accused. Zizzy started choking on the bite of pizza she had recently taken.
"No, Reki-chan, it's-" I started, but was interrupted by the demon.
"You're mating with Kurama?" Zizzy exclaimed with shocked yellow eyes. My eye twitched as I opened my mouth to stop their train of thought.
"Oh my God Toshiko! You're having sex?"
I slumped in my seat pinching the bridge of my nose as the two stared at me in shock, glanced at each other, then stared at me again.
"I'm going home. See you tomorrow night." I announced, standing up and grabbing my bag off of the coffee table. "Since I can determine you two will get along exceptionally well due to your compatible traits of ignorance and simplicity, I trust you won't need to call me while I'm out tomorrow. Good Night." I said as I walked to the front door, opened it, and then stepped out stiffly.
"…eh?" Zizzy managed, looking to terrified Reki.
"Dear God… I should pray for her…" Reki muttered, slipping off the couch and bowing her head.
Zizzy sweatdropped; confused at all the big words Toshiko had said, and not grasping the concept that she had been called stupid in genius terms.
Many thanks to Torin, who reviewed :D You are as awesome as always!
Please review! Just because it have it on a schedule now deosn't mean I can't start holding back the chapters till I get three per update. Or something along those lines, anyways.
See you next week!