Two Months Later

As was their usual habit Kouta, Lucy, Kahlua, Sun, and Daisuke were having lunch together.

"Open up wide Kouta-kun," Kahlua said. She had a piece of spicy chicken in a pair of chopsticks.

"Kahlua you really don't have to… mmmph!" Kouta was cut off by having said piece of chicken stuffed into his mouth.

"Your blood is always extra yummy when you have some of Antoinette's cooking." As always Kahlua had brought a bento to school with her and was feeding Kouta while Lucy glared.

"Do you have to do that every damn day?" Lucy ground out.

"Sure I do!" Kahlua replied eagerly. "I can't have poor Kouta eating the school lunch. When I have his blood later it would be like me eating it second hand! Yucky!"

Aggravated and annoyed Lucy picked at her own meal. Oddly though it wasn't Kahlua and her antics that were bothering Lucy.

Today was Monday, the day they released their weekly issue of the school paper. She had one of the extra copies on the table beside her tray. On the back page of this week's edition 'Poor Kabuto' had Kabuto and Lisa taking a bath together while Kiyoko gathered their clothes for the laundry.

Even that was not what was troubling her.

The main articles had been researched and written by Daisuke and involved the after math of the events Lucy had sent into motion. In Japan there were plans for a trial of someone named Kakuzawa who had apparently been in charge of the facility and was also a male Diclonius. The papers never got tired of mentioning that. Reading it had sickened Lucy. How could anyone deliberately perform such horrors on members of his own race? To Lucy that made him even more despicable than Kurama.

Kakuzawa was going to be charged with war crimes and with crimes against humanity. To listen to the Japanese he was solely responsible for everything that had happened. There was not a single mention of Kurama or of any of the hundreds of others who had worked at the research facility. So far as Lucy could tell Kurama, if he was alive, was going to walk away from all this smelling like a rose. The thought made Lucy sick.

There was more.

A report from the World Health Organization warning of the increase of mutant births worldwide. Massive protests in Washington D.C., London, Madrid, Berlin, and Tokyo. More than three million people had come out demanding their governments pass laws to prevent Dicloni births. China had already passed just such a law. There were scattered reports of babies with horns being murdered in several locations in Japan. One of the reports was of a mother smothering her own newborn.

The students who read these stories found them troubling, and not in the way human readers might have. Youkai Academy was founded on the philosophy of 'co-existence.' In the belief that it was possible for humans and monsters to live together in harmony. Yet in reality 'submission' would have been a more accurate description. They were being taught how to survive and blend into human society. No humans were learning about monster cultures. Humanity had to remain ignorant of their existence. If anyone had to wonder why the recent events would show them. Humanity might pretend to be more civilized and more advanced; but the truth was that when humans were frightened they were more savage than any orc or goblin.

Given her experiences Lucy understood that better than most. In the time since the Chairman had rescued her she had often wondered if there was any real hope for the future. Most of the time she thought 'no.' One day humans would learn the truth and then one side or the other would have to perish. She had always believed humans to be too selfish and too arrogant to ever share the world, and much too proud to admit they were not God's favorite.

There were times though, late at night, when she was lying in Kouta's arms and the idea didn't seem so impossible. Having gotten his love and forgiveness anything seemed within reach.

Even more troubling was what was not in the news.

All this had begun with the events in Kamakura. Newspapers in every language had screamed about massacre and about horned girls with horrifying powers. After the opening days though all mention of Kamakura had ceased. Focus shifted to Kakuzawa and reports of Dicloni births in Japan and the possibility of them elsewhere. No mention was made of what finally happened there to the prisoners she freed or to the local residents.

Kouta kept calling trying to find out about his relatives. All the numbers in Kamakura itself were no longer active. His other family members were also in the dark. When he tried calling the prefecture police and local government he'd been politely informed there was no information available. He had tried calling area papers and TV stations to at least find out something. They too had stone walled him. When reporters and newscasters refused to talk about a story there was obviously something going on behind the scenes.

Kouta had next tried contacting the Japanese national government.

The Chairman had called him into his office and told him to stop. He was drawing too much attention to himself and that was dangerous, not only to him but to Youkai Academy. So after all this time Kouta still had no idea as to the fate of his uncle, aunt, and cousin. He still had hope they were all right. Lucy had her doubts but kept them to herself. She finally had everything she wanted. The last thing she was going to do was stir up trouble.

There was a stir in the middle of the courtyard.

Everyone looked over to see a boy surrounded by four others. The boy's tray was knocked out of his hands and in the next moment he was on the ground being kicked and stomped on. Most of the other students swiftly looked away not wanting to get involved.

"Shouldn't we do something?" Kouta asked.

"No," Lucy said flatly. "Don't borrow trouble. They haven't bothered any of us."

"Yet," Daisuke said quietly. "This gang though is getting more and more arrogant. They're not even trying to hide what they are any more."

Sun took out her sketchbook and quickly wrote in it. "They call themselves 'Yuujin.' I've heard they've started taking protection money from weak students."

"They call themselves 'Friends' do they?" Daisuke pushed his glasses back up. He was watching as the four students sauntered back over to their table. There were half a dozen more Yuujin sitting there.

No one was paying any attention to the boy they had just beaten. He was just left there groaning.

"How are they allowed to get away with this?" Kouta demanded. "I used to run with some Yankees who would get into fights, but they would never do anything right out in the open like this."

"You attended human schools before coming here?" Daisuke raised an eyebrow. "That's pretty unusual."

"I did too," Lucy added. "It's not that strange."

Kahlua turned to her. "You went to human schools? That explains a lot."

"What was that?" Lucy growled.

"The point I was trying to make," Kouta spoke quickly before the two of them could really get into it. "Is that if someone did this right in the open they'd get suspended, maybe even expelled."

Sun began to write. "It isn't like that here. Monsters believe violence is natural and should be accepted in certain cases. You can't attack a teacher or member of the student government. You can't disrupt class or challenge a teacher's authority. You can't destroy school property. Those are the only hard lines you are not allowed to cross. If it's an issue between students the administration believes in keeping a hands off policy."

"They expect us to learn how to deal with violence the same way they expect us to be able to use a subway or work in an office." Daisuke said. "It's all part of the education."

"That's barbaric!" Kouta said.

"I agree," Daisuke said. "That's how it is though."

"The world isn't a nice place Kouta," Lucy told him. "You've seen for yourself how cruel it can be."

Kouta pushed his chair back and stood up. "If the world is cruel then it's up to us to change it." He walked over to where the boy was lying on the ground.

"Oooooooh, I looooooove when Kouta gets all manly." Kahlua got up as well.

"Kouta you're going to get yourself in trouble." Lucy muttered but also hurried to join him.

XXX

As Kouta helped the boy up and asked him if he was okay the Yuujin members looked on disbelieving. A couple of them quickly got up to show these interlopers not to mess in their business.

"Sit back down," Akira said.

"Yes, sit back down." Akio said right after agreeing with his cousin.

One member sat down immediately but the other stared back defiantly. He had short cropped blonde hair and a hateful face. "Why should I?"

"Because if you don't you'll just get your ass kicked and make us all look bad." Akira said.

"Do as you're told Masaru," Akio said.

Clearly not happy at being overruled Masaru sat back down. His eyes remained on Kouta though.

A lot of eyes were on Kouta and the two girls as they helped the boy get to the nurse's office. Though no one spoke out loud it was clear most of them approved.

Daisuke also looked on, taking in both Kouta's action and how the others were reacting to it. He felt a bit ashamed. He loved to talk about truth and how important it was. He'd had plenty of courage writing editorials about world events taking place hundreds or thousands of miles away. Yet like everyone else he'd kept his head down and kept quiet about things happening right in front of him.

"Sun, when we go to the club room today I want to start outlining next week's edition. We're going in a new direction."

"What do you have in mind?"

"Let's start investigating Yuujin."

Sun was clearly startled and hesitated before writing her reply. "Are you sure? Won't that cause trouble?"

"Probably," he said with a mournful sigh. "But maybe it's time to at least try and make things better."