A/N: Thanks to everyone that reviewed. To readers and reviewers: Comments, critics, flames or anything are welcomed. Please don't hesitate to remind and correct me if I made a mistake again or the characters are OOC.

Volume 9 Chapter 3: A Quiet Peaceful Night

On the fourth day of the ura butou satsujin-- the day the representatives from the four blocks were determined:

"Block A" hokage vs. saakasu, hokage won without bloodshed.

"Block B" kaisentai vs. uruha ma, Gashakura eliminated all four opponents.

"Block C" uruha rai vs. erekiburan, uruha rai was clearly victorious.

"Block D" POG vs. uruha kurenai... 2 minutes and 11 seconds into the match-- POG's five members completely disappeared from the surface of the earth.

Uruha mansion, 8:35 PM.

=HOKAGE TEAM CHARACTER REPORT=

Name: KIRISAWA FUUKO
-- Age: 16

-- Birthday: August 2nd

"Raiha, put that down! Your opponent for tomorrow is me!"

I looked up from the document I was reading, and saw Joker and Neon are sitting together on the couch. It's quite a rare sight, since Jisho just recently died, and Neon hasn't really got over it yet (Even though she doesn't show it). Joker said that he should stick around her and (sort of) cheer her up. But from the way I look at it, the only thing he did is pester Neon much more than usual. "Just a minute. I thought you're gonna spy on the Hokage tomorrow instead of participating." I continued reading.

-- Horoscope: Leo [that really explains a lot.]

-- Blood type: B

Joker appeared on top of the paper. "You know, you're starting to have that look." He grabbed the report away.

"What look?" I said, eyeing him carefully with a smile.

"That 'Kai' look." Joker paused and cast a quick glance at the paper, reading it out loud. "-- Record up till now: 1 Win with Fujimaru from Kuu team. Ya know, if I were her, I'd kill that bastard. Or better; smash his face repeatedly to the ground until his mama won't recognize him anymore."

"She's a lot more forgiving than you. Than us, in fact." I pulled the file back to re-read it for the last time.

-- Team Hokage's bright spot. More like a guy than a guy. [Very true. Her punch is almost as brutal as Mikoto's.]

Note: Use onitsume (claw) crystal on Fuujin which resulted in creating the skill Kaze tsume (wind claw). Appears to be oblivious of Fuujin's true power.

CLICK CLICK CLICK

Joker was having the time of his life adding today's photos to his "Uruha album". He'd been amassing this secret collection of rare pictures. I even heard that he once had a picture of Aki and Miki just coming out of the shower, but apparently Neon snuffed it out and the photo was nowhere to be found the next day. "Hey, Raiha-han, smile! The girls at Ura butou satsujin are going crazy about you. By the way, would you pose naked for me? After all, male porn is so hard to find nowadays. I'll sell it to the highest bidder. C'mon, don't give me that Kai look again!"

I finally placed the file down. "Are you saying that I'm obsessed with her?"

Both of them exchanged glances before exclaiming in unison. "HELL YEAH!"

CLICK CLICK

"If you want, I'll snap her some pictures for you." Joker said with a huge, blatant smirk on his face.

Neon looked around the room as if she's inside a very filthy place, and say flatly to Joker. "I'm thirsty."

Joker looked back at her. "What does that has got to do with me?"

"What are you, a man or a mouse?!" She turned away from Joker irately and revert her attention to me. "Buy me something to drink from the dispenser. Please."

I looked at her with a desperate smile. Aki or Miki would gladly go to the dispenser machine (mind you, it's at the park, and that's about 1 km away) and bring home several soda cans for their beloved sister, but I can't find a reason to refuse Neon. Kurei hasn't given me anytime to mourn for Jisho's death as well. I can't call it mourning though, since he's actually still alive - in a different way. Besides, arguing with Neon was like arguing with a wall---or Joker. It was equally pointless. "We have everything in the fridge. I'll get something for you."

"There's nothing in the fridge. Last night I got really hungry, and finished everything inside." Joker answered, the mischievous grin never leaving his face.

Neon fixed him with her patented death glare. "No late-night snack for another week…"

"The uruha assholes last night went wild next door! How the hell can I sleep?!"

Mokuren Mikoto = mad lovers = uruha assholes. That's Joker's theory of the day.

"MOVE your bed! What are you, stupid?" cried Neon.

"No, I'm Joker." He poked his chest with his thumb. "And I already did that last week. I should ask Kurei if I can get a new room, away from those two. And I mean, really FAR away."

I raised my eyebrows. "Is it really that bad?"

Joker motioned us to come closer. "I told you, those two…" He whispered in a disgusted tone. "It's probably continuous groaning from my porn video tape player. But I had switched it off yesterday night, so that could only mean one thing... they were hum-"

Neon looked like she was ready to throw up her dinner. "That's enough, Joker." She scolded. Some trains of thought were too horrifying to imagine.

I stood up and stretched. "What will you have, HIGHNESS?"

"Pocari Sweat."

"Instant coffee," said Joker.

"Yes, drink another can of coffee, so you'll spend another sleepless night gobbling down our food supply."

"Hey, I'm just following the rules of nature! People should eat when they're hungry. On top of that, my occupation needs an infinite supply of energy. Eating is how I replenish the energy that has been lost during battles."

"Nobody here eat as much as you! And you're not even fighting, Kurei-sama and Noroi are the one-"

Sighing resignedly to myself, I left them with their pointless old- married- couple- like bickering, acutely aware that it will last for hours. Listening more of it will make me insane.

It was an average night at the hotel park. The wind blew gently, the moon shined, the stars are twinkling and the sky is a dazzling midnight blue. There was not a thing to be heard. Except that... two people were running around the grounds. I was about to walk back to the mansion with two cans in my hands, but directly change my mind when a familiar voice was heard from the pathway. I spun around, and there was the girl with the other Hokage member, Ishijima Domon is having late night jogging.

"Domon! Run faster!"

She looked even cuter tonight, with her brown bangs whipping on her cheeks, sweat flowing on her skin, and the dampened shirt completely emphasizing her curves. DON'T STARE AT HER THAT WAY, I told myself... she would kill me if she found out. I shook my head, and turned my attention to Domon, who has stopped running and is trying to catch his breath.

"Fuukoooo can we rest for a little while?"

She stopped running. "You are pathetic!! You are so useless, you can't even do better than a girl!"

I found myself walking to her. She was so busy lecturing Domon that she didn't realize I was approaching until I was already at her back. "You speak really forcefully, clear cut and powerful!!" I exclaimed.

Fuuko gasped. I swear I thought she was going to have a heart failure and drop dead to the ground. That must mean a good thing. She remembers me!

And she's stuttering. "Y... you, back then…"

'Yes, the one you knocked out.'

Well that was what I really wanted to say, but however, that really wasn't the right
thing to do.

"They call me Raiha... it was terrible what happened the other day..." I went on and placed my right hand on my forehand, acting like I was regretting something. "I don't know what happened but you were gone when I woke up, such a sudden separation... an unfortunate incident."

I could feel her confusion, like giant question marks flashing through on the air. I bet she is making a mental note by now: 'He didn't even realize that I knocked him out?? Gosh, this guy is so slow... I bet most Uruha guys are slow and stupid to boot.'

"But we finally meet again!" I charged to her, grabbed her shoulders firmly, and she let out a muffled yelp.

P O W!

But it didn't last for long. The gorilla-like man had given me a mean punch that sent me flying. (Ouch.) He bellowed at me the moment I stood on the ground again, his spit is spraying all over my face. "What do you think you are doing with my idol?!"

"Hi! Nice to meet you, my name is Raiha!" I tried to smile, even though my head still hurts and my face is covered with spits.

"HOW DARE YOU!?" Domon doesn't have enough patience and swings his fist offensively for the second time. It was simple to see where the punch comes from, I evade the blow with a swift movement, and didn't forget to place the soft drink cans on the top of his head.

They looked surprised. "I'm sorry, I just have a very amiable personality, please forgive me if I offend you. As for Domon, you have a good punch, but your arm movement is over exaggerated, and it's easy to see it coming. If you can move your wrist a little less and support it with your waist, I think you will get better results."

I waved at them and sauntered off. "Anyway, bye. Fuuko, let's go on a date some time."

"In your dreams!!" It wasn't Fuuko that replied to my request, but the gorilla-like man.

I grinned even wider. Domon's irritated complain can still be heard from where I stand. "Who was that guy, Fuuko!! You like him!?"

"What are you talking about, that I like him!! He's just some weirdo I met before!!"

So she thought of me as just a 'weirdo'. Well, I'd show her one of these days. Something a LOT worse than just a stupid weirdo.

Neon was at the front gate of the mansion, crossing her arms and glaring me an irritated look. I could see an invisible twitch developing on her temple. "You sure took your bloody sweet time," She said crankily. "And empty handed."

I grinned and turned out my empty wallet. "Sorry, when I got to the park, I just realized I don't have any coins with me."

She sighed and leisurely raised a hand to her cheek, brushing the red strands back behind her ear. "It's okay. Kirin and Rasen are off to town to buy us some late night snacks. Go to bed, you have a fight tomorrow."

I pulled out a ruffled piece of paper from my pocket and offered it to Neon. "Then you'd better keep this. I might not come back alive tomorrow."

She looked mildly surprised at the letters written on the piece. "You idiot… why are you still keeping that?"

"It was a blood oath I made with my good friends," I shrugged and grinned. "I can't just use it as toilet paper."

Neon sighed, and her eyes brimmed up with tears. "Throw it away. There's no reason to keep it now that Jisho is gone." She shrugged dejectedly, walking away from me.

JISHO

RAIHA

NEON

That's what's written on the tousled paper. Our blood contract to live and die for Kurei.

Unknown to Neon, I mutely insert the piece back to my pocket.

I had my own reasons.

Volume 11 Chapter 5: A Mysterious Old Man

They say that I'm different. And indeed, I am. My personality is nothing like a normal girl. I don't have any interest in things like romance, music, or fashion, the things that normal girls like. All I'm interested in is beating Recca and Domon up. When the other girls were playing with their blonde barbies, I went to the swamp to search for frogs with Recca. In junior high, I was dejected and alone. Somebody made my view of life completely changed back then, and I turned a bit friendly.

Still, girls my age are supposed to talk about the new boy bands, current leading pop singer, the latest fashion trend, and worst: romance (read: boys they like). I instead, spend most of my time at the school's rooftop, be Yanagi's assistant or pick a fight with the boys.

I never felt like a girl because I didn't grow up like one. But there is one side of me that sounded (at least) like a girl. My mother used to read me classic fairy tales. Most of 'em had the typical plot: a princess that needed to be rescued and then live happily ever after with a prince of her dreams. But I really like one of them, the one titled 'the little mermaid'. So much that I dreamt of a prince. And the most embarrassing thing is, somebody actually overheard it.

"Hey!"

It was inside the hotel park, 12:40 PM. I was sitting on the grass, doing light stretching. He's not the first one. Domon has been following me everywhere since junior high. But he's nowhere to be seen right now, though. I bet he's stuffing his face at the restaurant.

"I don't really mind if we walk together, but why are you following me around?" The brown head finally pop out off from the tree at my back, and he grinned goofily at me. "Raiha." I thought he was just a weirdo at first, but right now people might see him as a stalker. I was practicing and he just approached me outta nowhere. Not that I really mind, because, well, he's not so bad looking anyway… Alright, godammit, I will grant you one thing, and one thing only: he IS kinda cute.

He gave off an excited wave. "Come on! The finals are within a week!! Let's have another round!"

I can't believe this. We've been running, like, 10 km already and he still wants to have another round?! And to have an uruha guy remind you that you're going to fight one of his friends next week just makes you more edgy. I scowled at him and replied louder than I should. "That's enough. I'm already really nervous about this! Just let me practice alone!!"

He suddenly has this rare serious expression and looked straight to my eyes. "How cruel. I just wanted to be with you."

My heart skipped a beat. I felt blood rushed to my face with lightning speed, so I made a feeble attempt to appear furious and look away so he won't catch me…blushing? I'm blushing?

"Do you dislike me?" He chortled.

Who would?! Eh, I mean…

"D... dumbass!! What are you talking about!!" I exclaimed nervously, giving a miserable effort to brush off my awkwardness with anger.

W... what? Just an instance now... what was that strange feeling...?

"young-- little-- girl—"

But my embarrassment quickly changed to something else, UTTER ANGER. Somebody is… squee…zing my bre…asts… from my back, and the molester sounded undeniably male. A very old scumbag, in fact. Raiha looked completely shocked, and fresh blood is rushing out of his nose.

"Whaaaat was that old man!?" I raged, all of the blood rushing to my face. But the pervert with happy-faces-shirt ran away with a bow in hand already, leaving me standing there flabbergasted, mortified and totally fuming with fury. "Go after him Raiha!! Come on!!"

But Raiha didn't move. Instead, he pointed to his head. "I think there's a letter." Apparently, there's a note attached to an arrow shot right on his forehead.

A vein is wearily twitching under my eye. "What are you up to now......" I pull the paper from his forehead heatedly, and gave it a quick read.

-- Save the little crystals before you find fuujin's main crystal, {don't use it freely} --from the mysterious old man--

"Mysterious... old man..." I echoed.

How did he know about fuujin......!?

I was about to walk back to the hotel, but found out that Raiha is having trouble with his nosebleed. I threw my towel at him and he pressed it to his nose. "Thanks."

We exchanged awkward glances. "Don't mention…" I moved and shook my head in a way uncomfortably. "…this to anyone."

He nods. "Not a word."

"I swear, if I found that old geezer, I'll make sure that he learned a thing or two."

My mind inattentively trailed off to Recca's words when I was fighting Ganko at Kurei's villa. 'If you make another scar on her, then there's no way she's gonna get married!'

I can't get married anymore…

"I'll marry you if nobody would." Raiha suddenly said.

Did I just say my thought out loud?

I rolled my eyes to him, and he buried his face deeper to the towel. I really wanted to hit him. Or better, knee him somewhere it really hurts. But I was more surprised to see Raiha's face beginning to turn the same shade of as Recca's flame dragons.