Previously:

"I'll look forward to our next meeting," Kazama told Sumiko as he took one of her hands in his and kissed it.

Sumiko felt his lips smirk against her hand a little bit when she blushed, which annoyed her. He thought he was so smooth… Well, maybe he was, but she was just taken aback for a moment, that was all. She wondered what had passed between them before, that he would go in for a move like that.

"I'll see you at school," Kazama said as he left with Shiranui and the red-haired man.

Sumiko waited until she was sure he was gone and out of earshot before turning to her uncle.

"Okay, what was that all about?" she asked with her cheeks still a little flushed. That kind of thing just did not happen in real life, especially to her. Did she wake up in a shoujo manga?

Chapter 2: How They Met

"You really don't remember him?" Chizuru asked Sumiko, looking concerned. "He seemed to really like you..."

"I have absolutely no idea why that would be..." Sumiko said, sweat-dropping. In her experience, guys tended to avoid her like the plague once they knew she was a yankee. And if that didn't do it, they would be scared off by how strong of a fighter she was because it made them feel inferior. "He can't know me that well if he's still that 'interested'..."

"He told me what happened when I asked him why he would offer to pay your hospital bills," Koudou said, looking serious. "Chizuru, will you go buy Sumiko some coffee?" he asked, pulling out his wallet and handing Chizuru the right amount for the drink.

"Huh? But..." Chizuru said. She wanted to hear what happened, too.

"Please," Koudou said, pressing the money into her hand.

Chizuru frowned but nodded obediently. She accepted the money and left to carry out the task.

"It happened like this..." Koudou said, launching into the story once she was gone.

««« Flashback «««

Kazama was walking with Shiranui and Amagiri late one night when he was sixteen because he had a craving for a certain novelty ice cream bar and felt like getting it himself. They were walking on a sidewalk between the road and a high wall of cement blocks, when a group of three girls about Kazama's age stepped out from around the corner. One was armed with a lead pipe, another had a wooden sword, and the third had a baseball bat that had nails sticking out of it. They all wore yellow ribbons tied around their arms.

"Drop everything you have of value, and we'll let you go with a light beating," the girl with the wooden sword, who seemed to be the leader, said with a nasty smile.

"Hmph. You don't know who you're dealing with," Kazama said, unfazed. "I'll give you to the count of three to make yourselves scarce." He, Shiranui, and Amagiri could defeat them easily, but he wasn't into beating up women and would prefer not to do it when it wasn't absolutely necessary.

"Hah! Who do you think you're talking to? This is Yuki-onna of the Yellow Cards!" the girl with the lead pipe said proudly.

"She doesn't look like a 'snow woman' to me," Shiranui said. "Besides, if you're the 'Yellow Cards', why are you wearing yellow ribbons? Shouldn't you be carrying cards instead?"

"Sh-Shut up!" the girl with the bat snapped as their faces flushed with anger.

"YAHHHH!" the girl with the lead pipe shouted as she charged at Kazama, who was closest.

It all happened in a matter of seconds, but to Kazama, what came next seemed to happen in slow motion. At the same time the girl with the lead pipe took her first step forward, a girl came over the top of the wall and jumped down. He watched with slightly wide eyes as the skirt of her sailor-style uniform floated up around her, revealing that she had shorts with a tiger stripe pattern on underneath it. He hadn't sensed her presence at all. The newcomer landed lightly on the sidewalk between him and the girl with the lead pipe. Her shoulder-length brown hair whipped out behind her as her dark eyes narrowed, and she spun around to deliver a roundhouse kick to the lead pipe girl's diaphragm. It was an instant K.O. The lead pipe fell from the unconscious girl's hands as her body was sent flying past her fellow yankees.

A fifteen-year-old Sumiko straightened up and looked straight at the remaining two girls.

"Oh? I see the Yellow Cards have stooped to mugging. Your community is going to hate you if you keep this up," she said calmly.

"A-Akane-chan!?" the girl with the bat exclaimed, shocked that she had been taken out so easily.

"Those shorts… You're with Oni no Hanabatake, aren't you?" the girl with the wooden sword said, narrowing her eyes at Sumiko. "You dare attack us? Who are you?"

"You think you have a right to complain after you all picked a fight with us over in our territory? I'm called Bara-hime," Sumiko replied coolly.

"A 'hime'!?" the girl with the bat gasped. "Don't you have to defeat over a hundred people by yourself before you get that title!?"

'A hundred people, huh?' Kazama thought. Did they mean one by one or all at once?

"Bara-hime… I've heard of you," the girl with the wooden sword said. "You're said to be their strongest fighter, right?" She smirked. "If we take you down, I bet they'll be too scared to set foot here again."

"You think you can?" Sumiko asked with a confident smile that made the other girl's falter.

"We'll take her together," the girl with the wooden sword told the girl with the bat.

"Yes, Yuki-onna-sama!" the girl with the bat said obediently.

"Oi, oi. You're seriously going to gang up on someone who's unarmed?" Shiranui muttered. "Oh well, it's not like it'll end well for them..."

It was clear to Shiranui, Kazama, and Amagiri that the Yellow Card girls were outmatched.

"Come," Sumiko said, inviting them to attack.

"YAAAHHH!" the Yellow Cards yelled as they charged at her. Sumiko ducked past the wooden sword being thrust at her and delivered a hard punch to its owner's diaphragm, taking the sword as her grip loosened on it when she started to fall. Sumiko stepped into the next attack, striking the girl wielding the bat with the wooden sword. The attacks happened so quickly, so close together, that both bodies seemed to hit the ground at the same time.

"Damn," Sumiko said, furrowing her brow. "I meant to keep one awake so I could make them take me to their leader."

"It seems you overestimated your opponents," Kazama remarked.

"You're still here?" Sumiko said, frowning as she looked at him. "You should get out of here before you get dragged into this mess."

"Don't you want us to thank you?" Kazama asked.

"Not necessary. I just happened to have business with these girls. That's all," Sumiko said, squatting down to dig through the Yellow Cards' pockets. She removed a cell phone from the pocket of the girl with the bat. She looked through the contacts and found one labeled 'Boss'. She tried calling it. "Hello?" she said when someone picked up. "To whom am I speaking?"

Kazama faintly heard a female voice ask who she was.

"I'm Bara-hime from Oni no Hanabatake. Is this the leader of the Yellow Cards?" Sumiko replied calmly.

Kazama heard surprise and panic in the voice of the other person on the phone as they asked what had happened to "Midori-chan."

"Midori-chan can't come to the phone right now. I knocked her and two of your other friends out," Sumiko said. "I'm here to teach you a lesson on behalf of my older sisters you injured. Where can we meet?"

The person on the phone shouted angrily and told her to go to the nearest local dump.

"See you there," Sumiko said. She hung up and returned the phone to its owner's pocket before standing up again. "The nearest dump is that way, right?" She asked Kazama, pointing in its direction.

"That's right," Kazama said. "You're going alone? You do realize they'll ambush you."

"Can it still be called an ambush if it's not a surprise?" Sumiko retorted smartly before turning to walk away and head for the dump, keeping the wooden sword.

Kazama smirked as he watched her walk away.

"We're going, too," he told the others.

"Sure. Sounds like it'll be a good show," Shiranui said.

"I will call to let the household know we will be late," Amagiri said, taking out his own cell phone as they followed Sumiko.

"Stay out of this," Sumiko told them when she realized they were following her. "It's dangerous."

"So are we," Shiranui said, smirking.

"It's none of your business. I have to settle this without outside help, or they won't respect my victory," Sumiko said sternly, frowning at them.

"We have no intention of helping," Kazama said. "We just want to see something entertaining."

Sumiko's frown deepened, but she stopped telling them to get lost.

They walked to the dump, but the place seemed deserted.

"Stay here," Sumiko told the guys as she stepped through the gate, suspecting her enemies were hiding, waiting to jump out and attack. She was right. As soon as she stepped through the gate, Yellow Card girls began to jump out from their hiding places behind piles of junk and attack blindly. Sumiko fended them all off and decided to start by taking out the strongest fighters first.

Kazama admired the way she moved. She countered her enemies with such ease that she seemed to be dancing rather than fighting. She was doing very well until ten girls charged her at once and grabbed onto her, holding her in place while an eleventh swung a lead pipe at her head. Sumiko moved her head at the last second, so she avoided a cracked skull, but her left clavicle was broken when the pipe hit her shoulder. Sumiko winced. Kazama took a step into the dump, but Sumiko noticed.

"I told you to stay out of it!" she yelled, stopping him. The other girls were a bit startled by the sudden outburst and looked in his direction. Sumiko immediately transitioned into a headbutt for the person in front of her. While the other girls were surprised by her continued ferocity, Sumiko kicked and twisted and managed to wrench herself free from their grip.

Kazama was surprised when Sumiko's dark eyes flashed gold. He saw it clearly, as did the others.

"Her eyes..." Amagiri said.

"Looks like she's one of us," Shiranui said.

She put some distance between herself and her attackers while she caught her breath, gingerly holding her broken clavicle.

The other girls smirked when they saw this, taking it as a sign of weakness. That was a mistake. Before they could take another step, Sumiko charged at them again and began take them out one after another, regardless of her injury. She never made the mistake of letting too many of them get too close to her again, and eventually, the whole Yellow Card gang was down. Their bodies littered the ground in the dump around Sumiko.

"Don't ever come near us again. Or it won't be just me who comes to crush you next time," Sumiko told the ones who were still conscious with a fierce glare.

Shiranui whistled in appreciation.

Sumiko brushed her hands off and left the dump, walking straight past Kazama and the others.

Kazama smirked as he watched her out the corner of his eye and reached out to grab her wrist to stop her.

"Wait," he said. "Don't you need to do something about that shoulder? Even if you are an Oni, if you don't set it right, it won't heal right."

"I'll be fine," Sumiko said, though she winced slightly as she pulled her left wrist free from his grip. "My uncle is a doctor. He'll take care of it for me. And we may call ourselves Oni no Hanabatake, but we don't refer to our members as 'oni.' We're 'flowers.'"

"I wasn't talking about your gang. I was talking about our race," Kazama said, furrowing his brow slightly. Did this girl not know what she was?

"Race?" Sumiko said, frowning.

"Don't play dumb. You're an Oni, right?" Shiranui said. "Which family are you from?"

"Huh?" Sumiko said, taking a step away from them. "I have no idea what you're talking about." She decided they were weirdos after all. "Excuse me." She tried to leave, but Kazama stopped her again, and this time he yanked her uniform's collar so he could see the spot where she was injured.

Kazama frowned when he saw that it was still bruised. That should be fading already.

"Excuse you!?" Sumiko said incredulously, swatting his hand away. "What is wrong with you!? You can't just do that to a girl!" she snapped at him.

"She's right. That was inappropriate," Amagiri told Kazama.

"She's still bruised. She isn't a full Oni," Kazama said, as if that excused his actions.

"No kidding?" Shiranui said, looking curiously at Sumiko. "Well, it isn't that rare, but… Who are your parents?" he asked her.

"None of your business," Sumiko huffed as she tried to walk away again, but Kazama stopped her. "Will you quit doing—!?" She was startled when she realized she couldn't get away from him this time.

"Amagiri, call the car," Kazama said before looking back at Sumiko while Amagiri pulled out his cell phone and made the call. "I want to know which family you come from. Who are your people?"

"My people?" Sumiko said, furrowing her brow in confusion.

"Yes. What is your name? Your real name?" Kazama asked.

Sumiko stared at him. She didn't think she should tell him. He was starting to seem dangerous.

"Will you let me go if I tell you?" she asked.

"I will let go of your wrist, yes," Kazama said.

"… Takahashi Sumiko," Sumiko said, frowning at him.

Kazama let go of her wrist, but remained prepared to stop any further attempts to escape.

"Takahashi? I've never heard of any Oni by that name before," Amagiri said as he put away his cell phone. "I'm guessing your father was the human parent."

"Both of my parents were human," Sumiko said stubbornly.

"Don't be like that. You can tell us. We're Oni, too," Shiranui said.

Sumiko looked at them like they were crazy.

"Ouch. That hurts my feelings," Shiranui said jokingly.

"You really have no idea what you are, do you?" Kazama said, frowning. "Amagiri."

Amagiri stepped forward and drew out a small pocket knife.

"What are you doing?" Sumiko asked, furrowing her brow with concern. She was surprised when he cut his finger. "What are you—!?" She was startled when she saw the wound begin to heal almost immediately. 'He's just like Chizuru…!' She looked at all of their faces grimly. "You say you're 'oni'?"

"That's right. And you're half Oni. It became obvious when we saw your eyes flash gold," Kazama said.

Sumiko stared at them. She had been told before that it sometimes looked like her eyes flashed gold while she was fighting, but she had always thought it must be some weird trick of the light. However, it was true that she always healed twice as fast a normal human. As she was thinking, a white limousine pulled up.

"Get in," Kazama told her.

"… Will you let me go home if I do?" Sumiko asked.

"Yes. I just want to treat your wound and explain your heritage to you," Kazama said.

Sumiko considered her options. Somehow, she didn't think she would be able to successfully get away from him just then if she tried to force her way out, and her shoulder really was hurting.

"All right," she said eventually.

—∞—

"Whoa," Sumiko said when she saw the huge house—no, mansion—that she had been taken to. Kazama was greeted by a number of servants as they made their way through the house, and he brought Sumiko to a small (by his standards) room to have her wound treated. She was served tea while they waited for a first-aid kit to be brought to them.

"You should drink your tea. It's good," Kazama said when Sumiko didn't touch hers, sipping his own cup.

"No offense, but I don't completely trust you," Sumiko said frankly. "Are you going to explain to me how oni are real?"

"Of course," Kazama said, and he went on to explain how Oni are a humanoid race coexisting with humans, which possess superhuman speed, strength, and regenerative abilities. In their true forms, all Oni have white hair, golden eyes, pointed ears, and a number of small white horns between two and four. Even in their normal guises, however, they are still much more powerful than humans. In the case of female Oni, who are rare and make up a smaller portion of the Oni population, their physical strength and speed are usually little better than a human woman's, unless they receive special training. "So you see, I'm very curious about you, a female Oni who is already so strong, despite having mixed blood," he concluded. "Who was your mother?"

Sumiko wondered if she should tell him. She had her reservations, but she could see Kazama was like a dog with a bone. She decided she should just do what she had to and get back home as soon as possible.

"Takahashi Koharu. But her maiden name was Yukimura," Sumiko answered. She was startled by the shocked expressions on their faces.

"Your mother was Yukimura Koharu?" Kazama said, looking stunned.

"That's what I said," Sumiko said, wondering what the big deal was.

"But Yukimura Koharu is famous among our kind," Amagiri said.

"Not only was she a beauty, but she was said to have strange powers," Shiranui added, holding his chin while he regarded Sumiko. "I guess I can see her in you, but you took more after your father in looks, didn't you?"

Sumiko frowned, annoyed that he seemed to be implying she missed out on her mother's beauty.

"Hmph. I see. So you're that woman's daughter… I had heard she broke away and married a human man..." Kazama said. "I also heard that she and her human lover passed away. Does that mean you're living with her half brother, Yukimura Koudou?"

"No. I'm living with my dad's side of the family," Sumiko said.

The others frowned at this.

"Why?" Kazama asked.

"I'm not sure," Sumiko said. "All I know is that they're really against me living with Uncle Koudou, even though they've made it clear they'd rather not have me around. It doesn't stop me from visiting him, though. I'm going to have to have a long talk about this with him..."

"I'll say. All this time and he never told you what you were?" Shiranui said. "That's messed up."

"Well, I can kind of understand it. I already felt like an alien in my father's family without knowing I wasn't completely human..." Sumiko said. "That's lonely."

"You don't have to be lonely," Kazama said. "You know what you are now, and you know where to find other Oni. You're welcome here any time."

Sumiko was surprised.

"I am?" she said. "You don't even know me. And I'm a delinquent."

"Hah. She came out and said it: 'I'm a delinquent,'" Shiranui said, amused.

"I thought it was obvious," Sumiko muttered, sweat-dropping.

"You were fighting because others were injured, weren't you?" Kazama said.

"That's right. A group of those Yellow Cards ganged up on two other Oni no Hanabatake members," Sumiko said. "They were attacked in our own territory by people who beat them to a pulp for entertainment. It was completely uncalled for."

"As delinquents, surely beating people to a pulp for entertainment is only natural," Shiranui said.

"Not for us. We have strict rules. Our gang was formed to protect girls who had no one else to watch out for them," Sumiko said. "We don't use violence for the sake of violence. We use it to make our community safe."

"That's very noble," Amagiri said.

"Not really. We were all helped at one time or another. We're just passing that along," Sumiko said, shrugging.

"Interesting," Kazama said, smiling. "For that reason, you defeated one hundred and three enemies single-handedly. You're an Oni, yet you protect humans. And from the sound of it, you're accepted by them, too."

"Some of them," Sumiko said. "Everyone in Oni no Hanabatake. Although, they just think I'm a strange human."

"Are you sure they aren't just using you?" Kazama asked.

"I've known the elder members ever since I was child, and they're always genuinely concerned for me when I'm injured," Sumiko said.

"Do you get injured often?" Kazama asked, frowning slightly.

"Not very. It's usually nothing major when I am," Sumiko said, shrugging again. "They just don't like seeing me hurt."

"Yet they send you on missions like this alone," Kazama said.

"Because they trust me, and I'm their strongest fighter," Sumiko said. She wasn't bragging. It was the simple truth. "There's another reason, but I'm not supposed to discuss it with outsiders yet."

"Now I'm really curious," Shiranui said.

"Get used to disappointment, then," Sumiko said.

"Ouch," Shiranui said, grinning.

A servant came in with the first-aid kit and a bag of ice.

"All right. You two can leave now," Kazama told them.

"Huh? Why?" Sumiko asked.

"I'm going to give you first-aid for that wound," Kazama reminded her.

"Just what are you imagining?" Sumiko asked, sweat-dropping as she looked at him with suspicion. "All this needs is a sling and ice."

"Is that so?" Kazama said, clearly disappointed.

'Did he think he was going to get my shirt off?' Sumiko wondered, unimpressed.

"Oh well. A promise is a promise," Kazama said. He picked up the first-aid kit and moved closer to Sumiko to help her put the sling on.

"Thanks," Sumiko said once she was patched up. "It's getting late. I should be going." She stood up to leave.

Kazama stood up, too.

"As you said, it's getting late. Why not spend the night here?" he suggested.

"I really shouldn't," Sumiko said. "I've imposed on you enough already."

"I don't mind," Kazama said. "You shouldn't feel that you have to hesitate to accept our help. As you are a female Oni, it's our duty to help and protect you."

"You shouldn't feel obliged to help me just because of that," Sumiko said.

"Stay the night. You're injured, and it can be dangerous for a woman to be out on her own at night," Kazama said.

"You're seriously saying that after you saw me fight?" Sumiko said, amused.

"She's got a point," Shiranui said.

Kazama stared at Sumiko. She could see he was serious.

CRASH!

There was a loud clap of thunder, and Sumiko realized she could hear rain pounding on the roof.

"That was sudden..." Sumiko said, sweat-dropping.

"Are you sure you want to go out in this rain?" Kazama asked her, looking like he had won. "You don't even have an umbrella."

Sumiko almost wondered if he had arranged the storm somehow, but then she recalled that there was a small chance of it happening in the weather forecast she had seen earlier that day. She sighed.

"All right," she agreed reluctantly. It sounded like it was pouring.

Sumiko was invited to eat dinner with them, which was rather grand compared to what she was used to, and then she was showed to a guest room, where she was supplied with comfortable clothes to sleep in. While she slept, her clothes were laundered and then returned to her nice and clean in the morning.

"Thanks for everything," Sumiko said, waving goodbye with her good hand as she set off after breakfast.

"Don't be a stranger," Shiranui said, waving back.

"Remember, you're always welcome here," Kazama said, sorry to see her go.

Again, Sumiko was surprised. She heard people say things like that to her so rarely. Kazama was rewarded with a sunny smile from Sumiko that was so beautiful it could have made a whole field of blooming flowers.

"Wow," Shiranui said. "I guess she does take after her mom."

"Don't fall for her, Shiranui," Kazama said strictly.

"Why? You want her for yourself?"

"Hmph. You're looking at my future wife," Kazama said, smirking confidently.

»»» End Flashback »»»

"Honestly. No wonder you suddenly showed up asking me about Oni… That had really surprised me!" Koudou said, holding a hand to his head. "He said he kept his eye on you after that. It must be true, because he seemed to know exactly when I started to need help to pay for everything…"

Sumiko stared at him.

"All of that really happened?" she asked, taken aback. "There's no way he really said that 'future wife' thing..."

Koudou sighed.

"He did. He really took a liking to you after seeing how strong you were," he said, giving her a look of sympathy. It was going to be a tough road if she didn't reciprocate.

"Well, that's a first..." Sumiko said, sweat-dropping. Most guys had the opposite reaction. She blushed. Knowing there was a guy out there who wasn't repulsed by her strength made her happy. Not that she planned to get involved with him any more than she already was… She was going to have her work cut out for her just catching up on the last nine years alone. "Does Chizuru know what we are yet?"

"No, and I would appreciate it if you didn't tell her," Koudou said seriously. "I think she's better off not knowing, for now."

"I think you should tell her soon," Sumiko said. "That's a big thing to hide from someone."

"Did knowing make you feel any better?" Koudou asked.

"… Not really. I feel kind of like there's a distance between me and my human friends now..." Sumiko said, a little sad.

"So, like I said, we'll keep it quiet for now," Koudou said, walking over to place a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"I got caramel added on top of the whipped cream, Sumiko-nee," Chizuru announced as she returned with the coffee. "So, are you going to tell me what you were talking about?"

"Maybe some of it," Sumiko said, smiling a little teasingly at her.

"Geez, Sumiko-nee. You don't need to tease me," Chizuru said, pouting a little bit.