I know I haven't updated this story in a while and I'm so sorry! But now that I have high school to worry about it's even more difficult so please bear with me.
Chapter Nineteen: Three down, nine to go"It hardly felt like we were even on vacation." Duo complained aloud the first day back in school.
"Hn." Heero agreed. Somehow during their stay at the Sohma house the two of them had befriended each other without knowing it.
"Good morning Heero and Duo." Quatre smiled warmly, arm in arm with Trowa.
"Good morning!" Duo grinned in his goofy way.
A familiar blonde with blue bangs streaked past Duo's path on her way out the door. Yume looked pretty pissed off and stressed. "Hey Yume, wait!" Duo called and ran after her.
She stopped short of the door and half-turned to look at Duo. "What?"
"Where are you going? If you keep skipping so much you'll fail again." Duo reasoned.
A low chuckle escaped her lips. "I'm no longer worried about failing, I just dropped out."
"What?! I thought you wanted to stay in school." Duo nearly dropped his books at hearing this while Heero stood at the end of the hall listening and waiting for Duo.
"Well, I have to quit school in order to get a full-time job and take care of Gin. I actually have a soft spot for the little drama queen. Besides I've been getting pestered by legal officials because I am taking care of her without adopting her or making it a official or anything." Yume explained.
"Oh…" Hearing this, Duo began to understand all the times she had yelled at him. After all, dealing with school, a part-time job, taking care of an 11-year-old, and taking care of legal issues could be quite stressful. "Good luck to you then." Duo encouraged her.
Yume smiled gently for the first time in a while. "Thanks Duo, see you some other time." She waved and left the building without another word.
Duo joined Heero as they walked to first hour. "Who was that?" Heero questioned skeptically.
"Just a friend." Duo reassured.
Later that day…Duo closed his locker and strolled out of the school into the cold January weather wearing his coat. The day didn't turn out half bad. He no longer had Heero wanting to shoot him and Yume didn't hate him so life was good at the moment!
"Duo!" Yume yelled and ran up to him, gasping for breath.
"Easy Yume, you'll get sick if you run outside in the cold air for too long!" Duo scolded her for being slightly careless.
"It doesn't… matter…" She panted. "Gin is… missing…"
Now this was strange…
"She may have just wandered off, I bet she'll be back soon." Duo tried to comfort Yume.
"No, Gin wouldn't do that." Yume looked into Duo's cobalt eyes with a pleading look. "Help me find her, please."
"Sure." Duo nodded and the two of them split up to look for Gin.
During his search, Duo paused by a TV store and a news flash popped up on the many TVs in the shop window.
"Mysteriously, four people have disappeared throughout the city. Two young girls by the name of Satori Shindou and Naoko Takenaka are among those that have vanished. A young man by the name of Bob Zoloft is another person missing. And we have yet to confirm the fourth one." The news reporter well… reported.
Gin! She might be the fourth! Duo broke into a run to search. A guy with white hair and a black hairline was running towards Duo and the two accidentally collided.
"Hatsuharu! Watch where you're going next time!" Duo yelled at Haru.
"Same to you!" Haru retorted.
"What are you doing anyway?" Duo stood and dusted the snow off of him.
"I was helping Yume look for Gin when I got lost and crashed into you." Hatsuharu explained dryly.
"It's called street signs buddy." Duo sneered.
"Why don't you look with me?" Haru suggested because he didn't want to get lost again.
"Whatever." Shrugging, the two of them continued down the street in the direction that Duo had been going.
For a while their search was silent, Duo liking it this way for once. Hatsuharu was glancing around before he mentioned, "While I was at the Sohma mansion during New Years I did some research in the family's library."
"And?" Duo pretended to be mildly interested even though he didn't really care if Hatsuharu was studying or not.
"I found an old transcript that told of a legend in the Sohma family besides the zodiac folk tale. A long time ago, in the Sohma family, they tried to break the curse. But the plan backfired, leaving twelve people cursed at random. Unlike the Sohma family these twelve people were not actually possessed by the spirits of their animals, they only transform into the animal of their year. It's still a mystery whether or not there is a cat in the second zodiac." Haru explained in detail.
Duo's attention perked up at hearing this. "Well that might explain a few things… oh hey this is Ayame's shop." The braided boy didn't even notice the shop until he passed the flowery sign. Hatsuharu grabbed Duo's shirt and pulled him into the shop, not letting him escape his grasp. "What are you doing, Haru?!"
"Oh! Boys how nice to see you!" Ayame greeted casually.
"I guess you've heard about the disappearing of four people." The zodiac cow questioned solemnly.
"You can let go of me now, Haru…" Duo grumbled.
"Of course I have! Nori went missing after his morning break today." Ayame's golden eyes darkened.
"So he was the fourth one to be absent?" Duo asked.
"This is a strange coincidence. Do you suspect someone we know being behind this?" Haru continued his questioning as if he was interrogating Ayame.
"Stop ignoring me you guys!" Duo ordered.
"Of course I have a few suspects. Hatori and Shigure also seem to know something." The zodiac snake noted.
"You guys!!!" Duo raised his voice.
"Duo, we better go find Yume." Hatsuharu dragged a kicking and whining Duo away and out of Ayame's fabric shop.
Outside a park…The silvery haired girl, Gin, walked quietly through the snow, head hung low. Akito had summoned her earlier in the day, requesting to speak with her.
"Why do you trouble, Yume? You are only a burden to her you know… She'll eventually break down from the stress and leave you alone. She'll hate the sight of you and you won't have any where else to go." Akito smiled wickedly.
Gin stopped walking and tears started to pour from her eyes. Yume rounded a corner to enter the park when she saw Gin and was overwhelmed with relief. "Gin!" The blonde Yankee ran up to the younger girl and hugged her tightly in her arms. "You had me so worried! You better not do that again or else you'll pay…" Yume joked but stopped short when she saw the tears in Gin's eyes. "What's wrong, Gin?"
"You are only a burden to her you know…" TO BE CONTINUEDHope you enjoyed this chapter. The story will actually be ending soon, don't know how soon though so I'll get back to you on that.