Again, thank you WPD. This is the last chapter I'm going to upload. You guys do remember me saying this was done, right? I can promise you, no matter what, you will get to read this through to the end.
Disclaimer: Do I really have to say it? I dun own it!
Chapter 7: Rulers and Hn-meisters
Bri
Toguro loved nothing less than to torture me. That's it. He liked to torture me, that had to be the reason why he put me through this hell. The minute he walked into the classroom, he called for homework and said my name. Then he spoke so rapidly, I couldn't understand a word he'd said. When I asked him to repeat it, he screamed something about insolence and stupidity, and then yelled one word I really did know.
"DETENTION! This afternoon, Miss Wolf."
Needless to say, I was not happy. However, as class continued, he asked me question after question about what he'd been lecturing on, which I still couldn't grasp. Before long, he had given me a week's worth of afternoon detention and I stood out in the hallway for the remainder of the class.
Hell.
"That wasn't fair!" Keiko huffed as I crawled back into my seat after Toguro left. "He was talking so fast, I couldn't understand half of what he said!"
"Leave it alone," I murmured. "It's what he wants. He's trying to break me."
But for what?
"Bri, you can't let him do that, you've got to stand up for yourself!"
"Leave me alone, Keiko, it's not worth the time," I said.
Our pre-calc teacher strode into the room and began her lecture, too. I was already struggling to understand what she was talking about. Sure, I knew how to count in Japanese, but add, subtract, and do limits in Japanese?
She was asking for a miracle.
The rest of the day went rather well, I suppose. Shuichi did stay for history this time, though Keiko pointed out that he looked like he was falling asleep. I went to the art room, where I moved all the more quickly on my painting. I think my emotions were getting the better of me. Toguro was trying to break me. It was the only explanation…
The girl was beautiful. So very beautiful. I wanted to touch her cheeks, look in her eyes. But she looked away from me, into the nonexistent distances. Like she was avoiding my gaze. Why was she doing that? It was my painting. The painting should obey the artist. I knew that wasn't true, though. My doodles, where I'd gotten so good, I guess, never obeyed me. They always took the shape they wanted to.
I guess that's why my girl didn't want to.
I avoided Gina and went to the room Toguro had said was the detention room for him and my English teacher, Gunner. Only one other student was in there, a young man I recognized as one of my classmates. He had wild blue hair, but a tame, rounded face.
Glumly, he glanced up at me as I entered the detention room.
"Hey," he said.
"Hello."
"You're that Yank that Toguro-sensei doesn't like. Right?"
I smiled bitterly. "I'm not from New York. My name's Bri."
"Okay. Bri. Better than Yank, I suppose. I'm Touya Tsukashiro."
"Oh. I like your name, Touya." It suited him, peach arrow. His face was round, like a peach, and his hair was pointy, like a dozen arrows in a rounded quiver.
"Thanks."
"You know what I did," I said. "What'd you do?"
"Gunner gave me detention for listening to music during class."
"Ah."
"Oh, Wolf, I didn't know you'd be here." Gunner had arrived. "Toguro said there'd be a troublemaker from his class."
"I'm supposedly it," I said, glaring at the windows.
"Why? He said that this troublemaker had behaved terribly and wasn't paying attention at—"
"I was paying attention, I just couldn't understand him because he was talking way too fast for me to understand what he was saying," I said quickly. I think rather calmly, too, under the circumstances. "He did it yesterday, too. He put me on the spot and I couldn't understand anything coming out of his mouth."
"If that was the problem, why didn't you just ask him to slow down?"
"When I did, he put me out in the hall," I said.
Like a small child.
One that has behaved badly.
"Oh, well, in that case…hmm. I will talk to Toguro. Maybe we can straighten this out. In the meantime, as your detention…Let's teach Touya English."
I blinked at her. "Is that all?"
"Yes, I think that will suffice."
So I spent the hour or so teaching Touya English. Truth told, it was very enjoyable. I liked teaching someone more about my own language. It kind of made Japanese a little more fun, too.
But, needless to say, I was late for the meeting at the temple.
I followed Shuichi's written instructions, which he'd given to me with a sigh at lunch. He hadn't been too happy with me. Who would? I got detention on the day I was supposed to meet with his friends. When I reached the train stop, I got off and shuffled into the crowd. The instructions were very precise. Soon enough, I stood at the base of a large set of stairs, the likes of which made my back shiver.
I began the climb, feeling a stitch begin to grind at my side. My breath came in short gasps. I don't think I'd ever climbed so many stairs. At the top, a flash of black nearly frightened me back down the stairs. Then I saw who it was.
"Hiei! Dang it, don't do that!"
"Hn. Follow me."
He walked away as if nothing had happened.
"Hey, what's your problem?" I took a swig of air and raced to keep up with his brisk pace. For such a short guy, he sure was fast. I saw something in those red eyes, though. I paused a moment before speaking again. "Hey, you okay? You don't look so good."
He tried to cover it up, but I could still see it. "Hn."
"Okay, Hn-meister, where are we going?"
"Questions kill cats," he said.
I clammed up real fast. For some reason, I could sense an underlying tremor of power in his words. He meant them. Every word. We walked for a few more minutes. The building itself was extraordinary, a true piece of art in every bit of wood. I had little time to admire the intricate carvings, however.
Hiei seemed intent on getting out of my presence. After a few more minutes, I entered my own sweet heaven. It was a room full of video games! Karaoke, punching machines, and Janken, all unplugged but primed for glory. Though somehow I think I wouldn't be playing them.
Shuichi was seated in a corner with Kuwabara, Yusuke, Botan, Genki, and a strange looking boy wearing a red cloak. He was quite handsome, debonair, and had the word Jr. printed across his forehead. What really threw me was the tiny blue pacifier in his mouth.
"I see you survived detention," Shuichi said, hiding a smile.
"Gunner was running them," I said. "All I did was teach one of the other guys in class, Touya something-or-other, some common American English phrases."
A strange look came into Shuichi's eyes. Usually, I can read people pretty well. But this look, it was different. Something I'd rarely seen, and something I couldn't quite put my finger on.
"Well, now that she's here, why don't we tell her what we've been planning to tell her for the past hour," grumbled Yusuke.
"Tell me what?" I blinked.
"I think an introduction is in order, first," said the smooth guy. "My name is Koenma, and I am Ruler of all Spirit World. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Bridget Wolf."
"You know, I'm really getting tired of people butchering up my na—what the hell'd you say?"
"He's the runty ruler of the Spirit World, and usually he looks like a toddler," Yusuke said. "Can we get on with this?"
"Hold yer horses and back up a few stalls, Urameshi!" I yelled in English. "I'm not in the mood for yer dang shenanigans!" I relapse into strange accents when I'm angry, at least that's what Keiko always told me.
"What'd she say?" Yusuke asked. Shuichi looked about ready to burst in laughter. "No, really, what'd she say?"
"Basically, she said to be patient and explain what is going on," Shuichi said, his face perfectly straight. "And I agree. Sit down, this will take a while."
I made a face (though what one, I can't be sure) and glanced at the two remaining seats. One was between Shuichi and Kuwabara and the other was beside the suave-but-strange pacifier teen. I chose the former, seating myself beside Shuichi as close as I could without taking away too much personal space.
"Bri, I'm sure this will come as a shock to you, but we think it's best if you're on your guard," Botan said, seated on the other side of the one who claimed to be Koenma, Ruler of the Spirit World. "Meikou Academy is a scam directed specifically to get to you."
"Okay," I said. "Botan, are you on crack or something? It's a school."
Yusuke sighed and rolled his eyes. "Geez, do I have to do everything? Listen, kid, it's simple. This group of demons has been after you and the power you have for the last three years. They set up this big elaborate setup just to get you here and we haven't got a clue why."
"Wait a second, demons? As in, fire and brimstone, Lucifer, fallen angels, demons?"
"Not entirely, no," Shuichi said quietly. "Demons have souls, just as humans do. It is what they choose to do with their power that makes them. Most are just normal beings trying to make a living in the Demon World. It is when one of the radical demons escapes that we've a problem."
"Wait, we? How is it that you all are in on this? I mean, no offense, but you really don't look like the kind of group that automatically goes 'oh, you'd make a great friend, how about we go hang out at the mall?'"
Yusuke and Kuwabara laughed out loud, but Shuichi chuckled softly.
"You got it right, there, sister!" Kuwabara yelled. "Urameshi and me used to fight all the time before he became spirit detective."
"Spirit detective?" I glanced at the black-haired teen. He looked like any ordinary fifteen-year-old to me, and not very sleuth-like. "Like Sherlock Holmes?"
"Nope, I just fight the demons and do whatever the hell else Koenma wants me to," Yusuke shrugged. "It's supposed to earn my keep, I guess. Something like that."
"Earn your keep?"
"He died about a year ago," Koenma said. "I brought him back to life because he was not supposed to die just then."
"Oh, so he basically did something stupid and now he's making up for it," I nodded. Yusuke protested, but I spoke over him. "I got ya. So how'd Shuichi and Hn-meister over there get mixed up in this? And you, Botan?"
Kuwabara laughed at my little nickname for Hiei, but I think I was lucky that I was not alone with Mr. Hn-meister still.
"I'm a ferry girl for the river Styx," Botan answered. "In your culture, the Grim Reaper."
"You? Bubbly, blue-haired schoolgirl, Grim Reaper?" I shook my head. "No wonder I kept seeing ghosts."
Everyone suddenly went quiet.
"You can see ghosts?" Kuwabara said.
"Yeah. Is that a bad…thing?" I glanced around the room. The others were staring at me like I'd suddenly turned into a ghost myself.
"Not necessarily," Koenma said. "That might be a sign of what your powers are."
"Now you tell me I've got powers?"
Finally, the entire group just spilled. How Meikou was being controlled by the Vacant Lot and how, supposedly, the entire thing was a setup to get to me. In the midst of the explanations, Botan and Koenma exchanged a glance.
"Bri, we want you to know this so that you can put your guard up. Every teacher in that school with a few notable exceptions, are out to get you."
"Do you know who those 'notable exceptions' are?" I asked.
"An art teacher named Gina is one. The other is still an unknown."
"Our bio has got to be one of them," I growled. "There's no way he's human!"
"We don't know that for sure, though it's highly unlikely that he's not the ringleader, even," Koenma sighed. "Just know that we are watching."
Something tickled at the back of my mind.
"Wait, why are you telling me everything like this?" I asked. "I mean, it's great and all, but why? Why not just tell me a small lie, like some of the teachers think I've got something they want or something. Why'd you tell me that they were demons, and that you're the Ruler of Spirit World?"
"We've learned from past experience that this approach typically does not work quite as well as we originally hope," Shuichi said, glancing in Yusuke and Kuwabara's direction.
I got the hint.
"Oh…Keiko and Shizuru. You tried tricking them and it backfired. Am I right?"
"How'd you guess?" Yusuke glared at me. I think he was still fired up about the stupid crack.
"Woman's intuition?" I shrugged. "I don't know. I've always been able to do it, but it's gained clarity over the past few weeks. I can sense what others are feeling, and what they're thinking."
"Like a mind-reader?" Koemna asked. He sounded more in thought than actually listening, though.
"Well, no," I glanced up. "More like their feelings and emotions than the actual mind."
"Then that is your power, then." Koenma took his chin between his thumb and forefinger in thought. "Though why would they go through all this trouble to…" He trailed off.
"What is it, Koenma, sir?" Botan asked quietly.
"I seem to recall something of this phenomenon, but I can't seem to…"
"At any rate, I think Shuichi and I had best get home," I said, glancing at my watch. "We can discuss this more later, I think. Kaasan would worry if we were late."
And we left. Shuichi and I walked toward the train station alone.
"You seem to be taking this all well," Shuichi said quietly.
"Expect the unexpected and you'll never be surprised," I smiled. "I've had these powers for some time now, I guess I just never saw them that way before. I didn't think it was an uncommon gift to see ghosts, spirits, and demons."
"You can see demons, too?" Shuichi stopped. I turned back to look at him.
"Well, yeah. A lot of people I used to know were demons. I guess they did pretty well to hide themselves in the crowd, though, so usually, I thought nothing of it. Like maybe everyone else can see them, too, and they're just ignoring them. I'm just stupid, is all. Well, ignorant, I guess, is the better word."
Shuichi considered this for a moment. "Around what time did you say your powers began to increase?"
"A little less than a month. Why?"
"It might help Koenma discover what talents you possess."
Somehow, I think he was lying. But I didn't press it.
I never did.
Bri seems a little passive, doesn't she? She doesn't like to fight things, she doesn't dig for secrets. So why is this Vacant Lot demon hoard after her? Find out!
