Author's Note: As before, a second helping for you in one day. It's vacation week so I've had the time. Hopefully I will be able to get even further ahead before Monday crashes down to end my beautiful 'me' time. ::sigh::
Yusuke stared up at the sky as a cloud formed and then dissolved again. School sucked. If it weren't for all the nagging people in his life he wouldn't bother, all he needed to survive were his wits and fists—his powers as spirit detective were helpful too. The door to the roof opened and he waited to hear Kayko's voice carp at him for skipping class.
Silence. He shifted his gaze from the sky to the door and saw a strange girl walking over to the edge of the roof. He began to get a sinking feeling in his stomach as she climbed up onto the railing meant to keep people from falling. "Hey kid! Just what do you think you're doing?" he called, getting to his feet.
The girl turned and he saw she was young, probably a freshman. Her hair had a strange purple tinge to it, and it reached down to her elbows. Loose bangs fluttered in the air around her face. She had light brown eyes, sad eyes. She looked out at the city again and said, "I'm just here for the view. It's something I make myself do every now and then to combat my fear of heights." She looked back at him. "And what are you doing here? Skipping another class, Yusuke?"
He crossed his arms and his mouth quirked up in a half smile. "So you've heard of me?" he said.
She smiled. "I only arrived yesterday and already know that you're the most feared bully in school. Your attendance record after junior high has gotten better, though." She hopped down and walked right up to him. Yusuke glared down at her as she stared up at him. "You know," she said after a careful inspection, "I don't think you're half as bad as people say you are."
"Get away from him, Demon!" shouted a male voice. They turned and Yusuke recognized his companion, Kuwabara. The red head was glaring threateningly at the new girl.
Yusuke gave her another look, but found nothing inhuman about her. "Kuwabara, did you eat school food again?" he asked. Of course, it was also his way of telling Kuwabara to drop the subject of demons.
The not-so-swift punk blinked and then looked thoughtful. "Uh, yes."
Yusuke sighed and shook his head.
"Why did you call me a demon?" the girl asked. Yusuke gave her a sharp look. Usually people just dismissed the odd things that happened, like Kuwabara's outburst. Why was she not forgetting about it?
Kuwabara held up his hands in a shrug. "Well, your energy is really high, and that hair certainly isn't normal. It's like Botan and her hair, not human really." Then he winced and looked at Yusuke. "@#$&!"
Yusuke turned the girl around and looked into her eyes. "You're going to forget what that lug head just said to you…now!" he snapped his fingers and she closed her eyes and fell forward. He caught her and set her on the roof carefully.
Kuwabara was red in the face. "Lug head! Now you see here, Urameshi!"
Yusuke waved a hand and made for the door.
Neko sat down in the cafeteria and scowled at her lunch. Opening it up, she found the same thing she'd had since kindergarten(or so she thought). There was a serving of applesauce, a bag of crackers and carrot sticks, and a sandwich. At the bottom was a thermos, beat up and small, but precious. Inside was her favorite part of the meal, her milkshake. Everything was made with love by her father early in the morning before she was even awake. He seemed to spend all his time at work.
She was nibbling on a cracker when someone sat down beside her and set their tray down firmly. "Hi! Welcome to Sarayashiki High School. I'm Kayko." Her brown eyes were warm and friendly, reminiscent of someone Neko had known…
Neko smiled back. "I'm Neko Li, it's nice to meet you." She looked at the rest of the table and noticed two guys were sitting at the opposite end. One wore a green uniform, the other a red, against the school's rules.
Kayko followed Neko's glance and scowled. "Yusuke! Don't be a loner, come sit over here so I can introduce you to the new student!"
Neko blinked as Yusuke and his red-head companion sat. Strange, both wore uniforms of a different color from the other boys. The tall one had red hair and fascinating green eyes. When she met Yusuke's eyes, she got a sinking feeling in her stomach and her head began to buzz. Yes, she recognized him, he'd sent her to sleep on the roof after his friend shouted something about a demon. Kayko was handling the introductions.
"This is Kurama, he's new to the school as well. The one in green is Yusuke, you'll find he has quite the reputation, but he's really not that bad."
Yusuke glared at Kayko. "I'm not going to have much of a reputation if you keep telling everyone that!" he said.
Neko looked at her lunch and said quietly, "You wouldn't hurt Kayko, and you won't hurt me, so I'll ignore the gossip." Her three companions stared at her. She blushed. "Sorry, that sounded rather odd didn't it?"
Kurama gave his new classmate a closer look. Kuwabara had returned to class fuming and mumbling something about demons, this girl had a strong spirit energy, but had no sign of demonic powers. She looked rather cute, actually. Maybe she was like Kuwabara, naturally attuned to the spirit world. In a fight, if trained, she could become a powerful ally. Then he thought of the fourth member of the crew of supernatural crime fighters and rejected the idea of getting the girl training. Hiei wouldn't stand for it, he respected Yusuke and Kuwabara, but they were a special case.
Lunch passed with Yusuke and Kayko doing most of the talking, or arguing depending on how you looked at it. Neko got up to toss away her trash and Kurama joined her.
On their way back, she said, "They sound so…odd. They can't be in each other's presence for a moment without arguing, and yet I can't help but get the feeling that they're not really angry…"
Kurama said in his calm and quiet voice, "What is obvious to others isn't so clear to them. They sound married to me."
Neko paused in her step. Kuarama glanced over at her and noticed a pained expression. She resumed her pace and said, "Yes, I guess they do sound married." The bell rang and she ran off.
Neko sat in her tree house and stroked her cat's fur. She closed her eyes and hummed a favorite song, then looked down at her lap because Kiri's fur felt longer. She gasped. It was a human head! Kiri's gray back had been replaced with soft, black hair attached to the body of a young man facing away from her. He began to turn his head…
Her eyes snapped open and she looked around. She was back in her room, not a tree house, and in her lap lay a very grumpy cat. Neko smiled. "Sorry, Kiri, bad dream." The cat shook her head, rose, and left Neko's lap to curl up on the windowsill. Neko got off the bed and looked at the clock. It was only about five. Maybe she had enough time to go out and buy another book, she'd just finished the last one.
Neko ran downstairs and looked around. Her dad wouldn't be home for another two hours if it was a normal day. She grabbed some money and her keyes. About half way down her street, she realized she had no idea where the local bookstore was. Neko ran to a nearby pay phone and leafed through the phone book. She found a couple of stores that sounded interesting and continued on her way.
In no time she was hopelessly lost. The buildings seemed to form a maze around her that changed every time she tried to backtrack. Neko looked at her watch. Forget the bookstore, she had to get home. She decided to head due west towards the setting sun and then find some help. This was a big mistake.