A/N: After taking a breather from the end of his writing debut, Tajeri Lynn the Extremo Luchadore rushes back into the stage with the fifth dose of "Souls Between the Walls." Hate to break it to you all, but this indeed will probably end by April. If that news breaks your patience, then hop along to another fic until final notice is made.

            JCA is property of Sony Entertainment Television and Kids WB. The following fic will possess potent, mature content that will whack out immature audiences.

Souls Between the Walls

Seymour sighed after what had been three months residing in Uncle's Rare Finds, And Then Some.., the current sanctuary of the beloved Jade Chan. But even with those days and nights laughing and sharing thoughts with Jade, he, the Sky Demon, still kept fears in him. He had not told her what he yearned to speak, words that would comfort him so much as he would hope they'd comfort her.

"Hey," said Jade to Seymour, readily keeping her verdant-hued pack around her shoulders, "you coming?"

"Uh, to what?" Seymour closed in to her.

"To high school, silly. It's going to be my last year, and yours, I think…"

"My last year? You mean I won't need to go to school anymore after that?"

"Well, um, you can, but from the way you do things, you're too smart for that. Maybe you should be on college, or something."

"Um," Seymour looked up at the chipped ceiling of the card shop. "Will you be on college, too?" he queried, having not contained college among his millenium-old lexicon.


"Definitely. My uncle Jackie wouldn't want me to take my noodle for granted. But…I don't know if he'll allow you in on that. Jackie's kind of secretly hoping that you return to your family so they can do that for you." Jade then frowned, staying solid as if she just stabbed Seymour's heart with that supposedly clandestine revelation.

"Hmmm…," Seymour turned his face depressingly to the creaky wood floors. The resolution was definite; by the end of the day, he had to tell her.

"Yeah, I hope so," he assuaged towards her shiny, fresh face. "But don't worry about me, Jade. I'm kind of tough, and there are worse things than not being on college. Let's just keep in mind about today, you know?"

"Yeah, today, all that. Did Ms. Lily say she's going to return our research papers today?"

"The 'dangable scrolls', like you call them?"

"Yup, I guess today's got to be the day."

"Cheer up, Jade. There are so many things worse than those, you know, like….death." Seymour softened regretfully at the closing word.

Fortunately, his sentence was blanketed out by the shiny optimism that was Jade's uncle, Jackie Chan. "Are both of you kids, ready?" Jackie spoke to both Jade and Seymour as he paced down the cylindrical staircase.

"You know we are, Mr. Chan," replied Seymour decently.

"Good. I am very glad to hear that. Uh, Jade, can I speak to you for a moment?"

Jade walked over to her uncle as he knelt down and whispered words to her. Hastily gazing upon the vacant prisms across the shop, Seymour then outstretched a pointy, demonic ear with private scrutiny pointing to the discourse, which, regretfully, was another dialogue of tedium and conundrums his ears ached from being accustomed to.

"Jade, Black wants me to stop these duelists who are pulling scams in the Thomas and Mack Center. Tohru, Uncle and I must duel against their cards to unveil the scam."

"Aww, but I want to join in on this too!"

"I know how well you pull off the duels, but you can't fight fire with fire."

"But-"

"Besides, Seymour Hsiwoositz can not handle the shop alone."

"Don't you trust him?"

"I do. But he doesn't have it in him, if you can get my drift."

"Urr! Fine, so where's the key?"

"Here," Jackie slipped keys from his pocket and laid them on Jade's hand, creating a jolly jingle that was more than Seymour's hardened ears could bear to hear.

"By the way, I have brought you the gift."

"Cool! Can I have it now?"

"Wha-But can't we wait for it?"

"Hello…Me, not we. You don't need to drag it along. That's my burden, right?"

"Yes, but if you are going to take it to the school, it could get broken, or worse, stolen. So I will keep it in the shop. I will need to go out now, or I'll miss the plane, okay?"

"Ohh….okay…" Jade groaned.

Jackie smiled, patted Jade's teenage noodle, and departed out of the lonely card shop to wave a momentary farewell to Seymour, who nodded his trident-mold head and twiddled his fingers in response. Seymour refocused on Jade's lithe form, and heard her speak with sly observation.

"But if Jackie's out of the shop…he won't be able to keep it in the shop, can he?" Jade queried with mischievously charming eyebrows. The moment Jackie's shoes shuffled out of the aged oak floor boards, the youth rummaged into her denim pockets to raise up a key long fed on by crusty rust. She knelt onto a padlocked chest, lying beneath dusty crates of as yet-sealed trading cards, opened the receptacle, and zipped her eyes as if a marvel was born before her.

Seymour nearly thrown open his mouth to reproach Jade for her disobedience, but he took careful note that whatever had been traded between Jade and Jackie was between them and them alone. Jade could abandon trust in the boy to formidable ignorance should he permit her to know that he had heard everything about them, whether by accident or by design. So he awkwardly projected his upper teeth and shut his lower lip. Even though he wanted to do the right thing for Jade, there were borders called privileges, and such borders couldn't be crossed without being downright unlikeable, a trait he truly feared reviving.

Jade allowed her bag to swallow up the contents of the receptacle, and then swooped it over her shoulder, calling over to Seymour, "Let's go."

******************************************************************************

Quiet. Nothing but the sound of quiet. Why did it feel this way in the 'high' school as it had been lying in the Void of the Netherworld? Seymour cringed even tighter as the sickly yellow-smeared walls seemed to close in on him every time he would turn to Jade right behind him; the walls seemed to be the most movable objects in the room, that and the irate clicking of a lone clock hand towering the door. If only walls spoke; had they had the senses of the living, they would've had years' worth of stories to tell. As it stood, though, they were just walls for mortals to confine themselves away from effervescence, from vivacity. The other children were statues musing on their own ambitions, whether it be pushing concrete gum left behind by a student hours ago or staring down at the dark stripes that layered atop the smooth desks.

The Sky Demon inside him yearned to grab Jade away from this earthly prison and fly up to the freedom of the skies. That could make Jade better; all she was doing was languishing an elbow endlessly on the desk, tapping the surface with a black-headed eraser, her eyes semi-narrowed down into listlessness, her mouth drooped into a frown.

His Wu grew angry, angry that her youth was being taken for granted with practically not a single blessed soul around to bless her. Seymour scratched his hands impatiently on the desk, as if he waited for something, someone, to make a reply of potency, anything besides him. He abruptly stopped when monstrous scrapes began to resound on the desk. He peered over and witnessed his thick, calloused claws sprouting back with their hideous purplish black hewn. Balling his claws and retreating them into his khaki pockets, Seymour shut his eyes and drew a deep, relieving breath before raising back five-fingered human hands over the desecrated surface of the desk. He whispered to himself in resolution to desperately mold the drab, listless form behind him into the shape bearing his own private liking. Seymour Hsiwoositz stood up with no one to care, and then noiselessly pulled up Jade's hands so her dazed face came into visible reach, and not a moment to spare, he speared readily his lips onto her own.

"Good morning, class. I am sorry that I am late, but-"

CRASH! KONK KONK KENK KANG KONK!

Ms. Lily and the other children, waken out of some psychic-less trance, moved their eyes down to the tiled floor to see Seymour having collapsed clumsily on Jade. Seymour laughed gently to the unwelcome crowd, but winced as Jade's palm sent his face in collision with his desk. Jade noiselessly slid herself back to her desk, and passively pulled it a few inches afar from Seymour's own, creating a roaring shriek as its legs slid onto the floor, echoing her current feelings to him. The students began giggling hopelessly at the sight, if only because they were glad to be on the surveying end. All Seymour did was turn his back up to the chalkboard in hopes that Ms. Lily could save his tail as it was for the other adults in this life, and hope Jade had nothing to say back, for the remainder of the class…

"Well," ad-libbed Ms. Lily monotonously, "it seems some kids can't wait for the senior prom." Some of the kids giggled louder, and even banged fists on their desks to contain their expressions. "Quiet!" the teacher alerted them. "What happened here should not be as important compared to your final grades for your research papers. Most of you did an unsatisfactory job, as I was expecting." The laughs easily subdued in immense silence. "And seeing that most of you are in a nice mood, I think you are ready for them." She pulled up her dreaded folder, and help up a stack bound together by a fragile rubber band.

"It is very ironic, though, that the most vulgar student of the day gained the only 'A' in the papers. Very well done, Seymour." She dropped the fruits of his labor onto the desk without making eye contact. "But let me remind you, the next time I see you do that again, there will be points deducted from your participation grade. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Lily," was all Seymour said, his mind locked in unhappiness over his overreaction to Jade.

"Now, we will move down to the lowest grades," Lily said as she walked over to the hushed crowd. Good thing that Seymour was in the foremost desk in the class; otherwise, he would've witnessed an everyday display of personal agony in the form of twisted faces and disconcerting rubs on the head. Everybody acted this way, except for him and…

"What?! I got a C?! Ms. Lily, this is so not right!"

Jade Chan.

"Is something the matter, Jade?" Lily queried as she continued passing the papers.

"What do you mean by this? Inappropriate material?! How does that drop my grade?!"

"Jade, this is a world history class, not a sex course."

"Hel-lo? This is a research on the history of sex? It's a creative idea and it does have a huge history in the world."

"Jade, that is not the kind of theme to be familiar with in this class."

"Huh? Come on, Ms. Lily, we're in a high school. By now, anyone would know what sex is. Everyone I know talks about it, even the smut parts of it."

"That may be true, but in a high school, there has to be an academic sincerity in the way students learn. If you keep up with this, Jade, there won't be many special people around to respect you."

"Forget respect. I'm out of here," Jade bitterly resolved as she pulled her backpack and stormed out of the door, tossing her research papers into the wastebasket and kicking the door to make way for her departure. Ms. Lily decided it best not to stop her, since that would waste time for everyone else's education.

Seymour begrudgingly looked up back at the 'A'-marked research paper. His paper was on a more proverbial topic, the topic of the artworks of Asia's history. He would've preferred something far more daring, with a lot more voice in him, like……mating. He knew how demons back in the ancient eras acted. Hell, he even knew demons could only produce offspring whenever they were asked to. But acting anomalous to the class (and Ms. Lily) meant putting his mortal identity on the line, so he allowed Jade to go along without competition.

Poor Jade. The Sky Demon really thought he was giving her a break from all the drudgery and familiarity of scribing work. The break was not worth it. As Ms. Lily proceeded to continue on with her work, he looked up at the wastebasket, and prayed to some anonymous force that no one would spit their snot down there, until the class was over, anyway.

******************************************************************************

Seymour walked down to the cafeteria, hoping that Jade would arrive at the usual lunch break, but found only her absence. Lying on the bench closest to the corner, Seymour locked his sights over the roving hives of students getting their meals on beige trays. He then wiped off the dust on the bench and set forth down Jade's research paper to read it. The paper had been barely rescued, barely in that someone had dumped a half-full (or half-empty) juice bottle without noticing Seymour fishing through the wastebasket. The trident-haired boy managed to parry the bottle with his free hand. Now it was meaningful to parry a warrior's blade for survival, but parrying a bottle to save a girl's ten weeks worth of work? Even Hsi Wu couldn't get it.

Then again, reading the work, maybe he ought to. The montage of fascination didn't slow down anywhere. There were peculiar stories of habits from countries he had never set claw upon. Tales about how gods sprang from sexual likening, about how monsters and animals became integral to the bestial philosphies, and then there were tribes which thought peculiar fluids were the essence against demons, and must therefore be devoured from one generation to the next…. The Sky Demon was astounded of these seemingly carnal acts. These humans did all this…without guilt, without shame? Not even his brethren ever did any such thing of the sort, because if they did, they would've boasted of them. And yet…even they never would accept all this. Were they really demonic as they always were?

Hsi Wu slapped his brow, not accepting that he had to be a demon. What was this deepening contrast between these demons and mortal humans, anyway? Demons were supposed to be ugly, violent, perverted creatures who knew no sense like common sense. And yet, as it stood, mortals were just as ugly, violent and perverted as demons were, only they had a more analogous shape.

But not Jade. Jade couldn't fit the apexes of those countenances, could she? A disheartened Hsi Wu hoped that wasn't so, much as he hoped he himself wasn't. To be fostered into the mire of turmoil again…he wasn't going back there and sink his lust down with him. The past must be avoided. The past must never arise back from the nothing. The past…

Seymour finished skimming through the paper's gist, folding it neatly with his five fingered-hands to sanctify it inside his scarlet pack, when his eyes transfixed at it again. The camera. The mirror to the past…that wasn't.

He gasped in hasty recognition.

"I want my toy!"

"I kept it? Still?" Seymour poked at the object's plastic antlers, somewhat pulling his finger back, and turning his face around. "Jade? Jade?" he called to the roaring room of ravenous youths. Assured, he turned to the opened ruffle of a bundle, sighed in unnerving aptness, and pulled the camera off. The Sky Demon knew reveling in this past cannot last long, but it was the only solid keepsake he had when Jade wasn't around. Laying it on the bench so it couldn't slip off, he pressed the little button that transported his sights to pretty Jade, a worried Jade, mayhap, but still pretty.

"Seymour?"

"Gyah!" the demon boy yelled as he quickly switched off the camera button.

Jade then put her hand on the camera, and her face met Hsi Wu's. "What was in that? W-why am I in it? Where was I in it?"

"Jade…It's…it's…it's going to be hard for you to believe this, it is, but-"

"Was that me in another life?"

Seymour grew inquisitive at the immediate answer. "Y-you can tell?"

"Course," she revealed her big smile. "From the moment you walked into that restroom, I felt you were something else. You're not really what you are, are you?"

Seymour froze. "…."

"Please, Seymour, just you and me. Nobody comes to this corner."

"Jade…I can't…This…this is too easy."

"Whoa, too easy? Standing up for me and sticking with me around is too easy? Maybe it is easy for you, but believe me……no one else has ever tried."

"No one?"

"Alright, I confess. Maybe this big guy whom I used to teach butt whup. He left school a year before me, and he never got to know all of what I did. But…you got to, because…I let you." Seymour smiled a tad. "Was that all true, by the way? All that stuff about you being a lonely orphan and everything?"

"Orphan, no. Lonely, yes. I wasn't supposed to belong to your world, this world you are in, Jade, but I couldn't resist wanting to remain close to you. I discovered you weren't as different as you were in the foregoing life, and this time, I wouldn't settle for the same mistakes. I wasn't about to play with you again."

"This time? You mean you played me once before?"

"Yes, and not once, Jade. This toy is not even my possession, it was yours, and I took it…away from you. You kept in much of yourself in it. I wanted it because I'm a hideous demon and……demons can't stay with mortals."

"That's not true. You could still be such a pal around the school."

"You believe so much."

"And you don't?" Jade focused her attention on a thin, familiar roll inside the pack. "Is that…?"

"Yes, your 'dangable scroll'," Hsi Wu muttered, his timorous face lowered before the vision of Jade. "I am sorry that the mentor did not accept it as well as she did mine. I didn't want to leave it abandoned, because…it told me a little of who you were. I am grateful how you wrote it. I'm something of a coward next to you. You wouldn't be afraid of this kind of work, and I am…I wish you can keep writing as you often would…Don't let that mentor change you, you know?"

"S-Seymour…" spoke Jade, her throat stubbornly hesitant to form a gulp. "You…you can't be a demon, not in that inward sense. You're better than most of these kids out here. I know now why you keep that camera, and it's not such a big deal. I can never know anything that's happened in the other life, but I can tell you want to change, keeping my paper and all of that. You're a nice kid, or whatever you really are, and…I wish you'd stay that way too. Don't you worry about me, because I don't want to change you either."

"J-Jade…"

"I forgot. What did you want to do with me back at class? Before Ms. Lily came in? Was that a kiss?"

"Forgive me, Jade. I didn't mean to upset you. I could not stand seeing you all alone."

"Seymour, it's okay to be alone once in a while. I didn't need anyone's help when it comes to quizzes, and I still don't."

"Aren't you mad at me for back there? You did hit me hard."

"That was kind of a stupid thing. It's not like I'm going to be mad for life."

"Stupid?! I was the foolish one in the class."

"Well, I was mad at you for doing that in front of everyone. But hitting you like that, that was stupid. I didn't want to feel alone for taking that chunk of embarrassment, so I did that to you. I'm really sorry, Seymour. You're the only one around to listen to me. The last thing I want to do is make you go away."

RRRIIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGG!!!

"Aw, lunchtime's over already? Well, I've got to hop over to algebra. Yuck!" Jade jokingly closed her nose in disgust, and then stood up. "But you will be staying around San Francisco, won't you?" she asked, slightly pleading. "You know, 'here to stay', like you said? Please? My uncles won't be a problem. I'll just tell them you're not lost anymore."

" 'Here to stay.' At least I wasn't lying about that," Seymour replied, his mouth creased into a small grin.

"Great!" beamed Jade. "Meet me back at the shop. There's something I want to give to you, you know, a little parting gift, so you won't forget about me whenever you're away. Just so I won't keep you waiting, it is NOT a kiss, and it's not another paper, okay?" She twirled her fingers to align the velvety tridents of his hair, spreading splendid shivers down to Seymour's feet. She peaceably walked behind him with a wave. "Later."

"Alright…Later."

******************************************************************************

Seymour assertively walked by the classified posters posted all over untold lines of brick walls leading towards "Uncle's Rare Finds…And Then Some". The Sky Demon only desired to revere the moments before he was to be bestowed a gift from the dream who had become reality, the passion who one day herself could become the gift, or something that couldn't be put in words. Knowing this, he walked, his eyes fixed tile after tile, his mind glowing in ever-humane enthusiasm.

"By now, she'd be waiting in the shop," said Hsi Wu to himself. "I can't believe this has occurred so soon."

"And I can't believe it hadn't occurred any sooner."

"What?" Hsi Wu turned and saw the aged enigma staring behind him. "You!"

The Shift arrived from a smoking alleyway and poured Cerveza down his dry gullet. He stared at the empty bottle, shaking it in hopes that it'd be magically refilled, and arrogantly lobbed it towards Hsi Wu's face.

Hsi Wu backhanded the bottle, sending it crashing onto a lamp post, the fragments cluttering down to a nearby trash can.

"I see you still despise me, even after, what, three months on earth?" queried The Shift as he wiped his chapped lips.

"Keep away from me. I have what I want, and I suppose you have what you want," Seymour snarled at the Shift in his demonic voice, his right hand mutating back to its purple-hued, fatal claws. He slightly concealed the claw under the other arm, until the beast of aggression happened to release it.

"It's just a suppose. But I am getting closer to immortality than you think."

"So why must that concern me?" said Seymour, mocking the Shift with a spew that clung to the enigma's already dusty shoes.

"It hardly does. I want to promise you that after this, you may not have the chance to see me again. That is all that must be said. It's clear that we were never on the best terms, and we don't have to be." The Shift looked down at his spoiled shoes, and shook off the demon phlegm.

"Fine. Now go away before you allow me to change my mind," Seymour threatened.

"Fine. Now I will go away before I change my mind," retorted the Shift, as he retreated back into the smoky alleyway, the sounds of rushing steam diminishing his every step.

Seymour looked at the alleyway bitterly, not even caring where the Shift went, so long as it was anywhere but here. Reverting his right to five mortal fingers, he rubbed his brow to rub away the regretful new memories that were The Shift, and decided to jog his way into the shop.

******************************************************************************

"Seymour!" Jade was waiting by the oak door, waving a hand readily.

"Hello, Jade," Seymour chimed as he dropped the pack by the doorstep, and reared his merry face for her. "So….um.., what's the gift, if I can ask?"

Jade closed her eyes and sighed deeply. "Well, it's hard for me to say this, but ah….ah.."

"You…didn't get it yet?"


"Oh, I did! It's just I haven't given gifts that much. I get scared," Jade chuckled nervously.

"Tell you what. Close your eyes again, and maybe you'll be brave enough to do it."

"Good idea," she replied, as she did her friend's bidding.

Seymour quickly sent his face jet set into her own.

"Here you go!" Jade suddenly said as she happily raised up a package all wrapped up in white tissues and red ribbons.

Seymour's face collided with the package, and he sprung backwards, scrambling down the doorstep, the stairs giving him rather unwelcome gifts in the form of hurt.

To Be Continued…

A/N: ARGH! The second-half looked like it lost most of the atmosphere I was hoping it would have. I don't know whether it should stay that way or not. But I'll present it to you fans anyway. You're all fabulous amigos!

            Extra note: Extremo Luchadore must be the last senor to ever know why Shadowcell was gone for so long. Heck, Tajeri Lynn STILL doesn't know, but everybody's been saying he be back…I'm glad he's back, and I know he's glad, too, because……the other fic was finished while you were out. Like to read it?

            Now, I will jump off the ring and prepare for my next challenge. Tag you in later!