The Exception

"Hi, peeg." Jade said gently, sitting Naraku's guinea pig up on his butt in her lap. His paws rested on her thumbs and he chattered happily, seemingly unbothered by her constant attention. "You need to name him."

"Why?" Naraku looked up from his sketchbook at her. He was in the middle of sketching the guinea pig with Jade, but she was making it difficult because she kept moving around.

"It's weird."

"If you wish to call him by a name, be my guest."

"Yes!" Jade giggled, lifting the pig into the air, supporting his butt with one hand and holding his chest with the other. She kissed him on the nose and placed him back into her lap. When she stroked his back, he purred so strongly that his body vibrated. Jade gasped with a giant smile on her face. "Do it again!" She ran her fingers down the guinea pig's back and he purred again.

"He does that occasionally."

"Does it mean he likes me?" she asked curiously. Naraku looked over again. The guinea pig was sniffing and still squeaking, so he wasn't frightened.

"He likes how you pet him." he answered.

"Cool. What should I call you?" Jade poked the pig's nose. "Hanger Dan?"

"Absolutely not. Not in my home, not in my presence, and not while I'm alive." Naraku interjected with disgust. Jade burst into laughter, letting the pig hide under her hands from the loud, unfamiliar noise.

"Hey, you said to be your guest and you haven't cared until now." Jade argued mildly, still smiling.

"Allow me to recant and edit that statement; be my guest and call him by a name that won't make me physically ill."

"Okay." Jade snickered as she began thinking of names so cute and sweet that it would give diabetes to the healthy, my-body-is-a-sacred-temple Naraku. She stared at the critter in her lap, studying his color and markings; a light, creamy gray with three large, darker gray blobs on top of his head, over his left eye, his side, and his butt. They reminded her of the gray smudges graphite left behind when erased or smeared. One ear was the dark gray and the other was the light gray.

"You're actually serious about this?" Naraku asked incredulously, realizing her silence was caused by her thinking of names for a guinea pig, his guinea pig, that she barely knew.

"How about Dab? Because he has dabs of dark gray."

"Better, but still awful."

"Hmm," Jade inhaled deeply as she tried again.

"Why are you here? With me?" Naraku inquired calmly. He saw Jade glance at him, but she pulled her gaze away. Snuggling the guinea pig on her chest, she shrugged and stared at her knees.

"I spend time with you everywhere else. Why is this different?" Jade replied, rubbing the guinea pig's small, dark gray ear. "Do you want me to watch him while you're in Colorado?"

"You're not going?" Naraku frowned.

"Oh, uh, I figured you didn't want me to after, uh, after what I did,"

"I'm not angry about it."

"I was thinking you were uncomfortable with me."

"No." he insisted, knowing it was a lie. "You can still go. I won't stop you." Naraku flinched when her saddened expression immediately changed to excited.

"Thank you!"

"I didn't do anything."

"You could have said no."

"Why would I?"

"Accept my gratitude." Jade ordered with cooled frustration. Naraku snorted quietly and returned to his sketch. "So, are you going to give me a tour of your crib?"

"A tour of what? It's an apartment, not a castle." he said skeptically.

"I've only seen your living room and kitchen." she insisted, holding two fingers up.

"Fine. Put him on the floor. He will follow." Naraku relented, standing up and placing his sketchbook on the table. Jade did as he said and watched with amazement as the guinea pig trotted after Naraku hurriedly.

"Naraku, he's adorable! You taught him cute things!"

"I did not." Naraku bit back, opening his bedroom door. "This is where I sleep sometimes."

"This is where the magic happens, right?" Jade asked, performing one, strong pelvic thrust. A mixture of amusement and concern appeared on her face when she saw the way Naraku was glaring icily at her. His face was completely serious and his body had gone rigid. "I think this is the meanest look you've ever given me."

"You're annoying me."

"You do it to me." she reminded him, striding into his room. It was as she expected; immaculately clean. His bed was king-sized and had black sheets pulled over the mattress with matching pillowcases. His dresser and nightstand were also black. He had two landscape paintings marked with his initials hanging on the wall on either side of his dresser. The bathroom connected to his room was spotless, too.

"See? There's nothing interesting." Naraku pointed out.

"There's one more room," she said. He nodded and walked to the other room, opening the door and flipping the light on. The guinea pig followed Naraku loyally. Jade walked carefully, making sure not to step on the little pig.

"This is my office." Naraku said dryly. Jade examined his desk, which had various maps and articles scattered around with notes scribbled on them.

'Those must be for the lake he's studying.' Jade noted, realizing one map was of a lake and the surrounding area. She spotted a handheld microscope pushed back against the wall and poked it, noticing the scratches and chipped paint along the surface. Jade turned and began looking through the various books on his bookcases. He had five wooden bookcases, all of which almost reached the ceiling. The books were alphabetized and each bookcase held related subjects of his interests; biology, botany, chemistry, geology, physics, psychology, zoology, books he read for fun, and on the bottom three shelves bookcase on the farthest wall from the door, were smaller, thick books. Each book was a plain color; red, black, blue, green, brown, purple, gray, yellow. They were so small that he stacked them on flat their back covers instead of standing up. Jade could tell they were older due to the wearing and tearing on the bindings and occasional smudges of dirt.

"What books are these?" Jade asked, holding up the green one she randomly picked out.

"They're mine."

"I know that, smart-ass. I was asking what they're about or what they're called."

"You misunderstand; they're mine. I wrote them." Naraku explained, walking over and sitting down cross-legged beside her. He saw the excitement spread on her face as she quickly opened the book.

"You illustrated them, too?" she asked with a wide smile. Naraku nodded. "That's awesome!"

"Get a hold of yourself." Naraku ordered, but his tone was calm. He was more than fine with her flattering him; he just despised the heat rising in his cheeks and the feeling of elation building in his chest.

"Did you identify different tree species? I can't read Japanese." Jade held the book open to a random page.

"Yes. I walked around with an encyclopedia and used it to identify them. I did the same with animals, microbes, clouds, rocks - anything I didn't know, I wanted to know it."

"Oh." Jade flipped through the pages, examining the illustrations of trees, their leaves, and buds. The colors and shading were perfect. His handwriting was crisp, and although she couldn't read Japanese, she was sure the descriptions were worthy of official publishing, too. She heard Naraku click his tongue and lightly pat the top of his thigh. The guinea pig ran to him and leapt directly into his lap.

'Don't acknowledge that. He'll just get embarrassed and mad.' Jade told herself. She closed the green book and grabbed the other darker green book from the shelf. This one appeared to be about different flowers and herbs.

"When will you receive your grade for the excellent modeling I did the other day?" Naraku's grin was smug. Shaking her head, Jade forced her gaze to remain on the open book in her lap

"That was," Jade cut herself off with a giggle. "I'm completely at peace with it. I imagine we'll get our grades next week."

"And the feminazi? Sango, I think you called her?" he continued, leaning back on his hands. "Her anger subsided after about three minutes of staring at me."

"It subsided on the outside." Jade corrected him, flipping through more pages. His deep chuckle sent shivers down her spine.

'Why couldn't he have some screeching, pre-pubescent voice?'

"I must admit, I'm hesitant to see your sketches of me. Your skills are abysmal."

"Well, I'm still having issues holding my arms up, so,"

"That makes it undoubtedly worse. Did you end up giving me a micropenis?" he questioned humorously.

"Better; I censored it." Jade said. Immediately, Naraku leaned forward and scowled. He looked completely offended.

"With what?" he asked sharply.

"Pot leaves."

"Oh," Naraku exhaled and his expression lightened as he mowed that image over in his head. When he decided that he liked it, he laughed softly. He looked down when the guinea pig began biting his jeans and pulling on the fabric, signaling his need to relieve himself. Naraku scooped him up with one hand and held him against his chest, slowly exiting the room. Jade continued her browsing through Naraku's plantlife book. She heard the refrigerator open and the water run, followed by loud, sharp chopping noises. It must have been snack time. Jade flipped the page.

"Uh," Jade froze. On the back of a page of a flower with a cuplike shape and two color variants, were colored sketches of a young woman with pale skin and long black hair; straight in opposition to Naraku's wavy hair. There was one sketch of her sitting against a tree with her nose buried in a book, one of her holding the same type of flower from the other side of the page and smiling, and a third one of her with an annoyed expression carved into her face, as if she had been told a bad joke.

'Her hair is black. Maybe a relative? Sister?' Jade immediately shot that idea down. Naraku's hair was wavy, his skin was darker than this sketched woman's, and his brown eyes had a reddish tinge to them while the woman's were a lighter gray, almost-blue color. Although, that didn't mean a relative's features had to be the same. Jade didn't look anything like her shorter, curvier cousins, her voluptuous aunt, or her grandmother, who looked like a confident seductress in her younger days. They all had the classic dark, almost black hair, dark brown eyes, and browned skin related to Mexicans. 'No man, or boy, in his right mind would sketch his relative like this.' The poses, the clear effort he spent on making sure her shape, shading, and highlights were flawless - it was intimate. Jade heard his footsteps approaching and felt her heart slam against her chest, causing her body to twitch violently. She frantically flipped to a different page.

"Are you still looking at those? You can't even read them." Naraku complained calmly, sitting down on the floor beside her. He offered her a bowl of diced fruit. The sharp aroma of apples, oranges, and grapes entered Jade's nostrils. Naraku pulled the bowl back to himself when he noticed she had broken out into a sweat. "What?"

"N-Nothing. I mean, my heart still randomly flutters sometimes." she explained, trying to catch her breath. Naraku placed the bowl of fruit on the floor and reached forward, pressing two fingers against the side of her neck, just under her jaw. Jade remained still as Naraku stared at his watch on his left wrist, his lips moving as he counted the beats of her pulse. When he finished, he looked up as he solved the math in his head.

"What is your normal resting heart rate?" he asked, still staring up.

"Uh, before or after Fight Club: Chemistry Edition?"

"Both. Also, I rather enjoy that description of what happened."

"I'm clever, sometimes." she shrugged, trying to blink away the images of the sketched woman from her memory. "Before, it was normally just under seventy and now it's usually eighty, close to ninety sometimes."

"It's currently one hundred-thirty-six, so don't stand up." he said, finally lowering his gaze to her. "Is that why you wanted to come over? To die in my apartment and inconvenience me?"

"No, but I'll keep that in mind for the next time you piss me off." Jade giggled, leaning over to pinch a piece of a grape between her thumb and index finger, plopping it in her mouth.

"You should do more cardio. A resting heart rate of sixty or seventy is still relatively unhealthy for someone your age and size."

"What's yours?"

"Thirty-eight, forty,"

"Wait, at rest?" Jade asked with horror. Naraku blinked, staring vacantly at her.

"Yes." he answered. Jade leaned away slightly and gave him a distrustful, wide-eyed stare.

"You sure you even have a heart?"

"Literally speaking."

"Fair enough."

Once Jade was feeling better, Naraku ushered her out of his office and back to his living room. They both agreed to finish grading the lab reports since Naraku was unwilling to do most things she would have suggested anyway. Jade tried to be a little more forgiving than Naraku when it came to grading, but his criteria was difficult to work around. He was difficult.

"Does it still hurt?" Naraku asked, breaking the silence between them. Jade looked up and tilted her head with confusion.

"What?"

"You've been rubbing your chest for a while." he pointed out. At that moment, Jade realized her left hand was gently pressed against her chest.

"No. I think it's just a new habit of mine." she said. She saw him nod and return to quickly crossing out wrong answers and correcting them with a red pen. She tried to do the same, but her mind kept wandering back to the sketches of the young woman.

'He hasn't mentioned any kind of interest in anyone. He hates people. He teases about sex, but Bruce said he isn't interested in that stuff.' Jade glanced up at Naraku. He must have been grading one of the better student's reports because he looked content. 'Maybe he only engages in romantic relationships, not sexual ones.' Jade shot that idea down as well. There was no way Naraku could care about anyone, even a tiny bit. 'But he apologized to me.' Her leg began to bounce and her breathing began to quicken. 'He's so fucking confusing!'

"You're acting strange." Naraku stated, looking up and staring back at her. Jade knew she was caught; her eyes were wide and she felt her heart pounding. Her body was doing things she had no control over!

"Uh, no?" Jade replied unconvincingly. Naraku placed his pen down and picked up his glass of water, sipping from it and never breaking eye contact with her. His gaze tore through her so powerfully! She feared he could actually read her mind! Clearing his throat, Naraku placed his glass down and breathed softly.

"It seems like you wish to ask me something." he said calmly. Jade felt her heart slam against her chest again, screaming at her to do something, anything!

"No," she choked out. Her breaths were shallow and labored, her vision was going blurry, and while her skin felt hot to the touch, her blood in her veins ran cold.

"If you die, I'm using your body as fertilizer for my next batch of weed."

"Ha, okay," Jade tried to laugh, but it sounded more like a whimper.

"Perhaps I don't want to hear your question if it's making you react this way," Naraku remarked, finishing off his water and keeping a watchful eye on her while doing so. Jade resigned to resting her head on his table to avoid eye contact with him, which he was perfectly fine with.

Jade's heart finally calmed down after half an hour and she began to help finishing off the grading the reports. She glanced up at Naraku once more, but he was lost in Science World again, so she decided to leave him there. She couldn't help but to see him in a different light now. She tried to convince herself that the sketches could have meant nothing, but her gut was telling her otherwise. Did he actually have a friend? Was she his girlfriend? Did she reject him? Could that have been why he was so bitter and resigned against any kind of relationships or was he already that way and she was his exception?

'If I bring it up, he will probably start torturing me again. Just leave it be, Jade.' she urged herself.

"Did you say you brought your Xbox?" Naraku asked after what seemed like an eternity of silence. Jade looked up and nodded. "I suppose I can watch you play when we finish grading."

"You're in luck; I suck now."

"Excellent."

Naraku placed the newly-graded reports inside a folder and slid them into his shoulder bag, alongside the gradebook. He looked over to watch Jade hook up her console. It didn't take her long. Jade quickly reached behind the router, which sat beside the TV alongside the modem, and pulled the cable she needed. Naraku strode into his kitchen and opened his alcohol cabinet, hearing electronic pops and notifications echoing from his speakers.

"Do you have beer?" Jade called out.

"I have other options."

"Cool. If I don't drink while I play, I probably will have a heart attack."

"Gin and tonic?"

"Dibs!" she said enthusiastically. Naraku snorted, but grabbed the two needed bottles and two small glasses. He dropped ice cubes in first, then poured the gin and tonic water simultaneously. He had made the drink so many times he didn't need to individually measure the ingredients anymore. He heard Jade curse dramatically and frowned as he stirred the drinks, listening to her rant about notifications. He grabbed each glass, joining Jade on the couch. Jade took one glass from him and toasted a thanks to him before downing half of the drink in one go. Naraku could almost see her hair bristle as she shook and forced her body to take the alcohol. Sitting in her lap was a portable arcade stick. Naraku arched an eyebrow.

"You take this very seriously." he remarked, taking a sip from his gin and tonic.

"Well, when you can win thousands of dollars, even tens of thousands, in tournaments, you kind of want to take it seriously. Have fun, of course, but treat it as a job."

"A job that you work while drinking?"

"Bruh, I've bodied people while being drunk and high at the same time." Jade stated proudly, placing her hand against her chest. "It doesn't matter once you're mid-to-high tier."

"Heh, point taken. I've conducted my fair share of experiments while high." Naraku replied smugly, taking another drink and looking over at his TV screen. He barely had time to observe the images or hear the music as Jade's fingers tapped several buttons rapidly, bringing her to a character selection screen. Once more, Jade's fingers tapped before Naraku could see each character, though he did spot a raptor, a robot, and a few female characters.

"So, this is my main; Sabrewulf. Prepare yourself, because I'm about to talk fighting game nonsense to you." Jade stated.

"I suppose it's fair since I've melted your brain with chemistry several times." Naraku retorted calmly. He was playing it calm and cool on the outside, but he was genuinely interested on the inside. He didn't know much about this particular game, but a few of Jade's videos revealed that if there was one thing she was good at, it was knowing exactly what her character could do in any situation.

"Sabrewulf is a rushdown character, which means he's in his prime when being used aggressively or by someone just patient enough to make every blow count, which makes him seem even more devastating than he actually is. He used to be top tier, but he's lowered in ranks over the years, which he kind of deserved because his Eclipse was some bullshit, even though I abused the shit out of it." Jade began, pointing at the screen. "He has ridiculous reach on his grabs and high-low mixups. His forward dash is great for mix-ups and for resets, and dear fucking god, the mind games you can play with this character are never-ending."

"Mind games? The gameplay is that complex?"

"Oooh yeah. We call it, "footsies." You stay just out of reach of each other, jabbing, jumping, lunging, doing fake-outs, seeing who will fuck up first, and with Sabrewulf's dash and reach, he's fantastic in that aspect. I like to bait my opponents into doing something unsafe by acting like I'm about to do something unsafe. You can also condition your opponent by punishing or not punishing their actions."

"I see."

"My favorite thing to do, especially to Hisako players, is to run full-speed at them and uppercut."

"A Japanese character?" Naraku perked up slightly.

"Yeah, Killer Instinct likes tropes, so she's the vengeful Japanese ghost girl trope."

"Onryō." Naraku said.

"Onryō...cool." Jade repeated. "Well, she has a naginata which has really good reach and she can parry with it, and her forward-dash is possibly the best in the game, but Sabrewulf's running uppercut beats her out and Hisako players get saaaaaalty." Jade giggled, backing out of the screen and switching over to find matches to fight.

"You take great joy in this." Naraku said with a grin.

"Definitely." she agreed. The game found a match and threw her in with an opponent she didn't know. Naraku watched as she chose Sabrewulf, which brought up a menu for her to choose one of her custom costumes and colors from. She chose a dark green Sabrewulf with a smokey green aura. He was wearing protective goggles with a green tint, a green apron, torn brown pants, and brown gloves with the fingers cut off so the werewolf's claws were prominent and ready for use. Naraku began chuckling.

"Is he a scientist?" he asked with amusement.

"Yep. Sabrewulf hates his curse and is constantly trying to find a cure. His stage is an alchemical laboratory." Jade explained, tapping the buttons and waiting for her opponent to finish their selection. "But, my backstory for him is that he's a drug lord in the midst of New Mexico, but instead of selling that crystal blue persuasion, he sells the dankest weed ever known to man or monster, which explains why he's green with green smoke emitting from his body."

"Heisenberg the werewolf?"

"I named him Heisenwolf." Jade snickered as Naraku groaned with disgust. He wasn't going to admit that he thought it was amusing. The match began with the announcer shouting, "Fight!" Jade's opponent was a paper-white woman with black hair, black clothes, a maroon cape, and a set of sharp fangs in her mouth.

"The werewolf versus the vampire," Naraku pointed out.

"Yeah, fuck this bitch!" Jade replied bitterly, blocking the vampire woman's dive kicks and weapons made from her silver blood. When Heisenwolf tried to swing back, the vampire chuckled tauntingly as she turned into mist, floating out of the werewolf's range. Naraku's eyes studied both characters' health bars. Despite blocking most of the attacks, Heisenwolf's health bar was missing a chunk while the vampire was missing none, but hers was being replaced with a silver bar.

"Does she use her health against you?" Naraku asked.

"Yeah, Mira literally uses her blood, so some attacks require her to use her health bar. But if she can catch me in a bite combo, she can gain it back." Jade explained, pointing at the screen. "Just like that." It was just as Jade said; the silver bar was mostly replaced with a green color. "However, if I can get her to use enough of it, I can kill her a lot quicker."

"Hm." Naraku took another drink. Heisenwolf was being completely overwhelmed and his controller knew it, cursing under her breath. The vampire, Mira, had complete control of the air and ground space, jumping over the werewolf from the front and back, forcing him to either block or take a hit. The werewolf was quick, but the vampire was quicker and before long, despite Jade almost bringing the game back into her favor, Mira caught her in a nasty combo, ending it by slaying the werewolf with a powerful blow from a silvery scythe. Jade leaned back, performed three quick, frustrated jerk-off motions over her lap, and jumped back to the character selection screen to prepare for the second match against Mira.

"This player is aggressive. I don't think they know a lot of her moves are easy shadow-counter bait. Let's find out." Jade said, choosing a different color variation of Heisenwolf; a black coat with a bloody-red snout, matching torn trousers, red apron, black gloves, and red-tinted goggles.

"Does changing the color actually help?"

"As long as you believe." she replied, slowly waving her hand and donning a misty-eyed expression. She jumped into the second round. This match started off differently as Jade was able to leap over the blood bat projectiles and dive at Mira from the air, catching her off guard and completing a short and savage combo.

"Moment of truth," Jade murmured, backing away slightly. The vampire dashed forward with a spinning dive kick. Heisenwolf blocked. She continued with a flip kick and Heisenwolf opened his stance as the announcer shouted, "Shadow counter!" The werewolf answered back with five rabid slashes, barking and snarling and bouncing Mira off the wall and leaping at her, capturing her in a second combo. "Break?" Jade asked, throwing out a counter. The announcer screamed, "Counter breaker!"

"How did you know they would go for it?" Naraku asked her. His eyes rested on her face, but quickly darted back to the TV as Heisenwolf finished his onslaught with an overhead arcing slash. He dashed back and forth over Mira's body, waiting for her to stand. She did and mist-dashed out of range. Once more, she cast out her blood bats, and once again, Jade answered with a jump and a dive kick.

"On paper, Sabrewulf loses this matchup almost every time, so they're banking on me being overwhelmed. They think they can go shit-ham without consequences." Jade sighed after she bit away the last of the vampire's first lifebar. "Good ol' 'Wulf might not have the advantage, but he has a few tools to keep things honest."

"I see." Naraku believed he knew what she meant. When there were bats, she either jumped and kicked the unguarded vampire, or she would use her shadow meter to jump through them unharmed and catch the vampire as she was running away. Jade didn't break every combo, but she shadow-countered every kick combo her opponent tried. Since her opponent was swinging away with abandon, they were draining their own lifebar for Jade. All she had to do was clean up with shorter, safer combos. She took the second match convincingly.

"This is going a lot better than the other day. I was getting destroyed." Jade admitted, taking a quick swig of her drink before jumping back into the third, deciding match. "I have to be careful because they know that I know now." Naraku paid close attention to the match and she was correct. Her opponent was no longer flying back and forth or aggressively swinging away at her. They were cautious, carefully poking to draw Jade out or find a chink in her armor, but Jade was far more patient and cool-headed.

'Whenever she gains the lead, she backs off and makes them come to her. A desperate aggressor is more likely to slip.' Naraku realized. He smirked to himself. Not only was it Jade's game strategy, it was her life's mantra. It was exactly how she dealt with him; poke him enough to set him off, then put all focus into ducking and weaving and when he was vulnerable and out of ideas, she tagged him back. In the end, Naraku walked away far more exhausted and frustrated than her. 'I remember avoiding her. I couldn't handle her because she was handling me.'

"Fuuuuuck. That match-up is difficult." Jade whined after her Heisenwolf howled victoriously. She tapped a few more buttons to search for another match.

"Do you not play another character?"

"I'm passable with Riptor, and-" Jade smiled widely when Naraku stared back at her blankly. "She's the raptor."

"The Jurassic Park trope?"

"Yep. One of her moves is Clever Girl.'"

"Ugh. Kill me."

"They gave her feather costume options, though." Jade added quickly, backing out of the search and relaunching it for faster results.

"I'm glad that in a game with vampires, werewolves, ghosts, robots, and terrible movie references, the developers decided to be scientifically accurate and gave the raptor feather options." Naraku responded sarcastically, draining the rest of his gin and tonic. Jade began laughing and did the same with her drink. She cleared her throat after placing her empty glass on the table.

"I don't trust myself in tournaments with Riptor, but I've got a good grip on Spinal, so he's going to be my cavalry if Heisenwolf can't scratch it out."

"I assume he's the skeleton."

"Yeaaaaah! What gave it away?" Jade asked him excitedly, but Naraku could taste the sarcasm in the air. He stared her down until she finally cringed and apologized. He stood up and grabbed her glass, only for her to fire another sassy remark at him.

Time seemed to fly by as Jade continued to play. After her second gin and tonic, her skills improved somehow, and her gameplay changed from being respectfully patient to being a calculated troll. Heisenwolf would jab, jump, and snap his jaws aimlessly, giving off the sense that Jade was unsure of which buttons did what, and when her opponents took the bait, she would go insane. Time after time, she would pull off fifty to sixty percent combos and even landed an eighty percent combo due to one of her well-placed counters.

'She is a force to reckoned with in this world.' Naraku admitted silently, watching as she dove under two flying daggers, connecting a low blow to the legs of her opponent. They tried to break, but the spinning dive happened so suddenly that they only had a split second to guess light, medium, or heavy, and they guessed wrong. Her opponent wasn't a chump, though. She was a tall, brown-skinned Latina woman wielding two daggers and wearing brilliant white armor with long white dreadlocks to match. She dodged and blocked many of Jade's attempts, too.

"White Diamond beat me twice in the Combo Breaker tournament back in May." Jade said aloud, blocking the two daggers again. "She's probably one of the top ten best players in KI."

"Where do you rank?"

"Top twenty or thirty, I think." Jade leaned forward as the match began to draw to a close. Both characters' health bars were below the danger line. One touch and one of them could go into their ultra and end the match immediately. Both werewolf and warrior swiped at each other, standing just out of range. The clock was counting down the final seconds of the match. The music, which grew more dynamic and dramatic the more the fighters ripped each other apart, was now playing fast and loud, indicating the fight was coming to an end. The woman threw her daggers individually and Jade blocked both, sucking in air through her teeth. "I have one chance!" Heisenwolf charged forward with reckless abandon. The Latina woman connected her daggers and threw them. "Shitshitshitshitshitshit!" The shadow energy surrounded Heisenwolf as he crouched down. He then launched himself in the air at the woman, bypassing her charged daggers. His claws connected and Jade activated her ultra, quickly standing up with both hands in the air as her arcade stick fell onto the couch beside Naraku.

"What?"

"Aaaaahhhhhhh! I can't believe that worked! I've never done that against her!" Jade screamed, now pulling on her hair.

"Wow. Good fucking games, Weed. I didn't even think that was possible. I'll have to remember that." a woman's sultry voice echoed from the TV. She sounded mildly amused. "I'm recording, so if you want that footage, hit me up. Will you be at Regionals?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Jade continued to celebrate, but she had pulled her phone out, presumably sending a message to White Diamond as she didn't have her headset with her to reply.

"I'm still confused. It was an impressive move, but you've performed better ones." Naraku pointed out, holding her arcade stick in his hands as she sat down. He handed it to her and waited for her explanation.

"Okay," Jade began, her smile wide and contagious. Naraku almost wanted to smile with her, but he scolded himself. "Maya's daggers are unblockable, unbreakable, and they track you down when she throws them after they're fully charged. It's better to block anyway because you can recover quicker than if you're caught pressing buttons. But,"

"They are still projectiles, so your shadow slash was able to provide you enough temporary invulnerability to bypass them and enough range to chase her down, open a combo, and activate your ultra." Naraku finished confidently. It had happened many times in the previous matches. It was almost her signature move.

"Exaaaaaactly."

"You're drunk."

"Tipsy."

"Sleep it off here." Naraku told her. Then, he turned and grinned at her. "Another?"

"In a few minutes. Thanks, friend." Jade chirped, patting him on the shoulder. Naraku tensed up, almost flinched from her, but instead, he looked away silently and forced himself to hold still. Slowly and gently, Jade slid her arcade stick into his lap, giggling maniacally. "Want to try?" she asked slyly. Naraku blinked and inhaled deeply. Yes. He did. When he readjusted it in his lap comfortably, Jade began bouncing and smiling.

"Shut up." Naraku bit.

"I didn't-"

"Shut up." he repeated sharply. Her mouth closed and she ceased her bouncing. "You can speak now. I don't know which buttons do what."

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Gasping, Naraku sat up in his bed, feeling around his blankets to make sure he was still in his room, in his apartment; far away from that place. He held his head with his hands and exhaled, his body shuddering with it. Naraku winced when he felt the familiar burning pain on his back where his scar was, but when he touched it, it was fine. There was no pain; he couldn't even feel that patch of his back.

'Why am I dreaming about that lately? It happened years ago. Why now?' Naraku wondered, closing his eyes. They ached, and his body was still heavy from the deep sleep, but his mind was running, burying the dream and the memories in a flood of new, repetitive thoughts. He moved off his bed and onto his feet, deciding to start his day early.

When he was released from his therapy prison after another session of silence, Naraku decided to take a leisurely stroll around the campus. Summer had left a couple of weeks ago, but the weather was still warm during the day. The nights, however, were cool, and the breezes told of oncoming rain and chilly air that required sweaters. Naraku could see the green color of the leaves beginning to dull in many trees and bushes. Some leaves were already shifting to yellow or orange colors. Autumn had always been his favorite season. He enjoyed the scenery once the trees' leaves all changed colors. The cooler weather made it easier to wear the clothes he preferred and his long, heavy hair became a warm ally. His preference of the season wasn't because of his approaching birthday, though, as others assumed of him. Had he not been forced to memorize the date, it would be just another day to him.

'At least I don't have to pretend to be grateful for it anymore.' he reminded himself. That had been the worst part of his birthday in the past; thanking someone for forcibly bringing him into existence while watching his sister be celebrated for her existence. As if that wasn't aggravating enough, he was given such a magnificent mind that every other person on the planet was a dull, moronic experience for him. 'I suppose Jade isn't terrible. She tries to communicate with me.' Naraku felt his chest tighten. There was once someone else, too.

"Stop it." he whispered to himself with frustration. He noticed his thoughts would spiral out of control recently and they would lead him back to something he didn't want to remember. The only way he could make it stop was when he buried himself in his work. Sketching, working out, reading for pleasure, devising plans against Bruce and Sesshomaru once his probation period was over; none of it was enough to keep his mind in the present. Only his research could calm him. Something deep inside him demanded that he continue his research. He had even thought about drugging Jade with the pink solution made from her blood even though he told himself he wouldn't use her again. He truly didn't want to, but that deep something continuously suggested her anyway.

'I have a few ideas for the solutions, but it will require me to sacrifice unknown amounts of both, and if these ideas yield nothing, I probably won't have much left to work with.' Naraku stopped walking for a moment, noticing he was standing near the fountain, which had been turned off due to incoming cold weather. 'Unless I can find a way to extract it from the microbes. If I can do that, then-'

"Hey! You!" a familiar voice barked. Blinking, Naraku turned around, watching as Sango marched towards him quickly with her dark brown hair spilling over her shoulders. From what he knew, she was determined, stubborn, and completely overbearing; he often wondered how and why Jade was friends with her.

"Should I begin stripping?" Naraku asked her with a grin while tauntingly unbuttoning the top two buttons of his light blue shirt. Her cheeks blushed red, but she stayed on course.

"I'm here about Jade."

"I haven't touched her today, or yesterday," he announced flippantly, tossing a strand of his hair behind his shoulder.

"What's going on between you two?" she blurted out. Naraku took a moment to read her. She definitely wasn't happy, but her posture didn't scream, "Murder," either. Her crossed arms did indicate her short fuse was already lit, though.

"I paid her; she does my bitch-work." he answered simply, his tone sounding as if they were discussing the weather.

"Yeah, I believed that for a while, but now I'm not so sure." Sango huffed, uncrossing her arms and planting her hands on her hips. "Are you guys sleeping together? Secretly dating?"

"Why does our relationship have to be sexual or romantic?"

"So, you have a relationship with her, do you? I thought you just paid her to do your bitch-work."

"What does it matter to you?" Naraku asked her accusingly. "What Jade does is her business, not yours, and my business is certainly no concern of yours." That struck a note with her and he wasn't even trying to that time. Sango inhaled deeply and stared at the ground, her foot tapping a steady beat.

"As her friend, it's my responsibility to voice my concerns to her if I see her interacting with dangerous people."

"You've done your job quite well. You deserve a raise." he remarked, flashing her a quick grin. "However, the more you voice your concerns, the more she will back away and run directly to those dangerous people."

"Please, she-"

"You must have said something bothersome recently because she asked to hang out with me Sunday and then drunkenly passed out on my couch after downing three gin and tonics and a shot of tequila, all served by yours truly. I woke the next morning and she was alive. She left my apartment alive. I assume she returned to you alive. Hungover, but alive."

"She was with you?" Sango looked completely blown away, but she quickly regained her composure. "Alright, then. Why did you hang out with her?"

"Look, Dr. Feminazi, I will not stand here and be psychoanalyzed by a young woman who gets offended when I exhale in her general direction. Did you honestly seek me out just to ask me what we do together? Ask Jade. Or have you already and you simply don't believe her?"

"I asked why, not what."

"It doesn't matter."

"It does!"

"Not to you. Our partnership, relationship, whatever it is you wish to call it, is none of your business."

"You make me feel like I'm going to find her laying in a ditch somewhere."

"Oh, spare me." Naraku whined as he rolled his eyes. "I have access to all kinds of chemicals and disposal units. Even if I didn't, burning the body is just as effective. You would never find her if I wanted to kill her."

"What if it's an accident?" Sango asked, her tone dark. A coldness shot through Naraku's body. "What if one of your little schemes or pranks goes wrong and she doesn't make it?" The icy sensation was now burning! He was burning! Her screams began echoing through his head.

"I-I am not," Naraku's teeth clamped together. The burn on his back was unbearable.

'She didn't make it.' He would have allowed his entire body to burn if that meant going back to stop himself from making such an obvious error in his calculations.

"I am one of the most experienced students on this campus and in this city. If anything, Jade is safest with me in terms of experiments. I am in complete control of what goes on when we do work together."

"Oh, so the whole flipout and comatose thing had nothing to do with you or the experiment? You were there, you were in complete control of that situation, and she almost died!" she spat as she waved her arms dramatically. Naraku looked away, exhaling loudly. "Yeaaaaah, that's what I thought. I guess I should be somewhat relieved; it looks like you can feel something after all. You seem bothered, Naraku. What's wrong?"

"You're so worried about Jade ending up dead in a ditch somewhere that you're forgetting about yourself." Naraku replied calmly, but coldly; his eyes locking on Sango's. He saw hers widen slightly. "I highly recommend you bring a friend the next time you feel the need to seek me out. I am done with this conversation." Naraku turned and decided he was going to read in his office until the urge to strangle someone disappeared. Naraku glanced back and saw that Sango had begun walking in the opposite direction.

His office darkened as the sun began to set. The clatter of chairs, doors, footsteps, and chatter had died down hours ago. Naraku reached over and turned on the desk lamp he found inside the department's storage closet.

"Hm, that's odd." he murmured to himself, highlighting the sentence he just read. He was nearly done reading all of the articles Bruce found for him the first time through. This particular article was more of an observational article than it was an experimental one. It stated that there was an alarming lack of fauna in and around the lake. Birds rarely chirped, bugs rarely buzzed, frogs rarely croaked; it was nearly dead except for the plant life around the lake, which flourished and held some of the oldest trees and purest, untouched land in all of Japan.

'Why couldn't I have visited the lake when I was a few years older?' Naraku brooded. His mother took them there once. Naraku and Kagura were only five years old at the time, though. Had they been seven or eight, he could have taken some notes. His sister probably would have taken some pictures. The notes and pictures would have been laughable at best, but anything would have helped solidify the memory. All he remembered was the coarse sand, chilly water that his sister and himself were only allowed to dip their feet into, and some local tales about the lake being cursed or poisoned. The possibility of poisoning was why his mother forbid them from going into the water and while at the time and for many years later, he found that to be ridiculous, he now knew that there had been some truth to that tale after all.

"Except the water has been tested and no poison was found." Naraku grumbled, continuing on to the next paragraph. He did have a possible explanation for the lack of fauna in the lake, though. He finally began messing around with his extraction values and found that the phosphorus and nitrogen levels in the lake were exceptionally high, which would cause an algae bloom. That was probably why his samples were overflowing with microbes and with a consistent excess of algae every year, the lake became anoxic. There wasn't much on the planet that could survive without oxygen.

"Jade's beloved water bears do." Naraku snorted and shook his head. He was one-hundred percent sure that when he eventually would quiz her over this material, she would bring up the eight-legged creatures.

'My only issues are where are the nutrients coming from, how are they leaking into the lake, and why was there a sudden increase instead of a gradual increase? Nearby agricultural sites don't quite explain any of it thoroughly.' he inhaled deeply and closed his eyes, rubbing them gently and hissing, "Goddamn it," under his breath when he felt the cold, wet tip of the highlighter graze his forehead.

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Sango glanced up from her zoology book when she felt the table shake again. Jade was sitting across from her with one earbud in her right ear, a mouse and external hard drive plugged into her laptop, and a concentrated frown carved into her face. She watched her odd friend pull her loose, gray T-shirt from her skin, shift the shirt around on her torso, and then reach up to readjust her bra. Her movement shook the table again.

'I wonder if she realizes she has lost weight.' Sango wanted to say something, but she chose to keep her mouth shut and think it through. Since waking from her coma, Jade had been touchy about nearly everything. Sango felt terrible for her. She couldn't imagine having to rebound from all of that. She barely dodged having to go to physical therapy, though Sango helped her out with exercising and building her muscle strength. 'I know that coma patients can wake up with completely altered personalities, but there's something off with hers. I've never heard of being so angry that your nose bleeds.' It only happened once, but it was enough to shake Sango to her core.

"Motherfucker," Jade grumbled under her breath, viciously and repeatedly tapping a key until whatever displeased her was gone. Sango reached over to grab her water bottle, taking a long gulp from it.

"Hey, Jade," Sango began after swallowing a mouthful of water. Jade's eyebrows rose, her frustration shifting to curiosity.

"Yeah?"

"You're still going to that conference, right?"

"Yeah."

"I don't mean this in a bad way, but your clothes don't fit. You've lost weight."

"Yep. It's annoying."

"Would you like to go shopping for some new clothes before you leave?"

"Sure." Jade said with a nod. Sango nodded in return and returned to her textbook, writing down a few more notes for the chapter. Still, she had an uneasy feeling in her gut whenever Jade was around. Kagome had noticed it, too, but she insisted it was part of the healing process, and that the old Jade would return before the end of the year. Sango was doubtful, though.

'As long as she is around Naraku, she won't be the same. Should I tell her I spoke to him? He might have told her already. She might be angry with me for going behind her back like that.'

"Do the stuff that I want, please." Jade whined, flicking her laptop lightly. Her eyes widened with shock. "Oh, you did the thing. Thanks."

"What are you working on?"

"I'm messing around with this cool program where you plug in whatever values you have and it will spit them out onto different graphs and will convert them to different measurements to make it easier to read. Then I'm going to put them onto my poster for the conference."

"That sounds helpful. Can I get that program?"

"Yeah, I can copy it onto your laptop,"

"I have an external hard drive."

"That's a better option."

"So, what are the values for?"

"I'm interpreting and comparing phosphorus and nitrogen levels of this lake for Naraku. He already knows what this all means, but this is his way of making sure I'm keeping up."

"Oh? So, what is happening with the lake?"

"No fuckin' clue." Jade laughed. "Something, something algae, something, something, low oxygen; that's about where I am."

"Oh."

"Alright," Jade's heavy exhale made Sango's body tense up. "What's on your mind?"

"Nothing."

"Bullshit."

"That, right there; your attitude. I just want to help you and you act like I'm the enemy." Sango began, but she held her hands up and shook her head. "I'm sorry, okay? What you do with him is none of my business. Maybe he has changed."

"I wouldn't go that far, but he is trying harder with me. I have to give him the benefit of the doubt. He did save me." Jade said. "Why are you bringing him up?"

"I talked with him the other day."

"Really?"

"Well, more like we bickered and then he threatened me."

"Asshole." Jade groaned, letting her head fall backwards. "Please, ignore him. He's making things seem worse than they are because it upsets you."

"So, you don't feel in danger with him? On edge?" Sango pressed on.

"Danger? No. On edge? Eh, he's a dick. It's going to happen. I just," she paused, trying to gather her thoughts. "I get the feeling that deep down, he wants a friend, but his pride won't let him admit it. I'm just working with what I have. I don't hate him. I've tried to, but I can't bring myself to it."

"Alright, then." Sango exhaled, the sensation of relief overcoming her. Maybe Jade hadn't changed and it was just Sango's conscience that was clouding her judgment. It was an answer she would expect from Jade; playing the middle ground. "If that's what you want, then I'll back off. I'm sorry. And that coma comment I made was way out of line."

"I'm sorry, too, for losing my temper." Jade said, reaching across the table with her fist. Sango bumped it with her fist and both roommates nodded at each other. "Oh, uh, Naraku is too much of an ass to ask, but would you be willing to watch his guinea pig while we're gone? He has a little portable cage and all of his food will be prepared."

"Sure. I won't turn down an animal because its owner is a dick." Sango replied with a smile. "What's his name?"

"Naraku refuses to name him, but I've been calling him random cute names. Hanger Dan is the one Naraku hates the most so far."

"Then I'll call him that."