Chapter 8.53.2
.oOAto, Rei, Chiba, blah blah blah. Just go look at all the other ownership thangies
#Shigure shakes head# Ahh... the life of authors. #takes a smoke#
#Author bangs on head# You said it, man. #sigh#
Rei sighed and dropped onto her bed. She'd just gotten back from taking pictures of Yusuke and Keiko. Together. There was even one of them in front of Keiko's parents' store.
"What am I doing?" she asked herself as she rolled onto her back. She let her wrist rest on her eyebrow as she counted the cracks in her ceiling. Pointless information filtered through her brain and she remembered she was almost out of film.
"Might as well use the rest of it up," she got up off the bed and picked up the camera off her dresser. She ignored the annoying ones in her living room and walked out the door. Maybe a few pictures of nature would clear her mind?
She found Kurama outside working on a few flowers. "Whatcha doin?" she asked him as she readied her camera.
"Playing," he smiled. Rei's finger was too slow, but at that moment, he blew some seeds and small petals towards her.
"Cooooool," she looked at the camera. "I bet that one'll be neat"
She smiled, thankful that she'd found something to take her mind off of things. Kurama talked with her for a little while before she decided to get up and grab a few more "nature" shots before it became too dark.
Walking further into the trees, she looked up and-- sure enough-- found Hiei. He looked like he was sleeping, so she grabbed a few shots of him. The film started automatically rewinding-- the noise of which woke him up.
"Ohmrmrmrmrm," Hiei started mumbling when he saw the camera in her hands. "Give that to me"
Rei started to walk away quickly(fearing for her life, and all) and answered, "No. If you all leave, what'll I have left? Let me atleast have a few pictures"
She instantly put on a pouty face. It didn't seem to do anything to Hiei but make him more annoyed, but he let her go. She started walking out of the woods, but turned and called back, "Hiei! Will you let me take a picture of you with everyone else"
"Go away"
That wasn't quite the answer she was hoping for. She didn't have time to ask him again, though, because Botan came bouncing up.
"Hey, Rei! What're you up to? Oh! Can I see?" she asked and didn't wait for an answer when she saw the camera. Rei handed it over and said, "I'm out of film. I have to refill it"
They started walking towards the house when Botan said, "Oh yeah, Keiko's here. I found Yusuke and her so I brought 'em here with me"
Rei opened the door and nodded, "Yeah. I was with them a while ago"
"Oh," was all Botan said. Rei refilled her camera when Botan had the idea to get Kurama, Yusuke, Hiei, herself and Keiko to pose for a picture.
That was easier said than done, though.
"Hey, what about us?" Rinku asked as he and Jin played Nintendo. Touya was half-sleeping, half-watching on the couch, but didn't seem to care that he wasn't 'invited'
Rei started to explain when they heard Kuwabara's voice. "URAMESHI!" he bellowed. "Well hey, Kuwabara," Yusuke answered. Kuwabara proceeded to rant at him for skipping school today, so Rei decided to go out there right then to take the picture.
"Okay, okay, everyone. Go stand over there," she said, waving towards a relatively clear spot. Amazingly enough, Kurama and herself were able to talk Hiei into standing in the general vicinity of the camera. But when everyone else posed, he just looked away.
"Take a few more, just to be safe!" Botan bubbled. So Rei did; afterwards, Keiko went home and Kuwabara got on Yusuke's rear-end again.
"Let's go get these developed," Botan suggested. So Rei finished up the other roll and headed for town.
"It just figures I'd have picked a 3-day developer," Rei groaned to herself when she looked at the receipt the next day after school. She stuffed it back into her backpack and walked towards the arcade.
She played the game called "Goblin City" for a few minutes before someone leane over the back of it. "Hey," the guy said. She recognized him as one of the guys Asato Kido hung out with. "You seen Kido?" he asked.
Rei shook her head, "Nah. I figured he skipped today"
The guy looked puzzled. "He wasn't with us, and we skipped"
Rei blinked a few times and shrugged. "Maybe he was sick"
"Maybe," the guy slightly agreed and sat back down on his side. Rei didn't have any more quarters left for the game, so she decided to head home. She found Botan sitting in her living room when she got there, though.
"Rei"
"Botan!" Rei threw her bookbag in the other chair. She looked around before asking Botan, "What happened to the others"
Botan scratched her cheek and answered, "Touya managed to talk Rinku into going back to Demon world with him. Jin decided to follow 'cause he said he'd be bored. So now it's just back to you, the guys and Suzuki"
Rei nodded and asked where Yusuke was. Botan jumped up, "He should be out of school by now. I forgot I had to talk to him. Sorry, bye"
Botan promptly left, leaving Rei alone in the house. "Well, that's nice," she said to herself.
Rei dropped the bags of groceries in her hands when she suddenly went cold. The guys didn't come home last night and now she felt something was wrong with Kido. .oOWhy, dammit? Why do I have to know what happens to every freaking person I know? she thought as she hurriedly scooped up the groceries and ran home.
She tried calling Botan on her mini-compact, but there was no answer. She wondered if Yusuke had a new case; maybe that was what Botan had to talk to him about?
Just then, the phone rang. Rei went to answer it.
"Rei?" a guy's voice asked.
"Yeah," she answered.
"This is Cameron. Have you been using the camera"
Rei sat down on the chair next to the phone. "Yeah," she answered.
"Good. We'd like you to come in and start taking pictures of REAL models. Can you do that now"
"You mean, 'RIGHT now"
"Yeah"
She sighed, "Sure. Be there in a few minutes"
When she got there, Suzuki was walking around in a short shirt and hooker boots. Rei's jaw dropped and she mentally wished they'd never met Cameron.
"Ah, Rei," Cameron came over to where she was gawking. "Isn't he gorgeous"
She gave him a 'you're-out-of-your-freaking-mind' look. He didn't seem to care, though. "Oh, Matt, here she is. Teach her," with that, Cameron walked off. Matt's hair color this time was a neon-blue. "Hey," he said as he walked up next to her, "Let's get started"
For the next few days, Rei spent almost all of her time at 'mnIfEst0'; meaning, her mind wasn't on why the guys weren't home yet. This morning at school, the teachers had said that Asato Kido was at a hospital in Mushiyori City with a severed spine. Rei figured whatever the guys were doing, it wasn't safe.
"Hey," Matt walked over to her as she clicked a few pictures of a new model. "These are pretty good," he finished. He had a few of Rei's developed 'model' photographs in his hand. Which reminded her that she needed to pick up her others from the shop.
"Ya think so?" she asked, clicking a few more.
"Yeah. Have you ever thought about going to school for this kinda thing"
Rei automatically shook her head, "Nope"
"Yeah," Matt went on, "I bet you could even get into this big school in Paris. I hear it's really good"
"Oh really"
"You should try. You've got talent"
Rei turned to him and rolled her eyes. "Come on, I click a button"
"You click it well," Matt winked at her and started walking away. "Just think about it. I could get you the info if you want." "Sure," she turned back to the camera and clicked away.
On her way home, she picked up her other photos. A few of Jin, one of Touya, too many of Jin and Rinku fighting, not enough of Hiei. She sighed. She needed a bulletin board or something to put these on. She shrugged and started to put them back into her bag when one fell out. It was the one with Keiko, Botan, Yusuke, Hiei, Kurama and Kuwabara.
Unexpectedly, tears sprung to her eyes. She unconciously shoved it in her bag and ran home.
The next few days were about the same. She went to school, then 'mnIfEst0', then home. One day, Suzuki finally had it.
"If you won't recognize my artistic genius, then I quit!" he shouted at Cameron. Rei just rolled her eyes; they ALWAYS did this before a big shoot. But this time, Cameron didn't act the same.
"Fine, if you won't learn to take orders, I won't have you," he said coldly and flipped his favorite boa over his shoulder.
Suzuki's jaw dropped; he wasn't expecting that. But he wasn't about to go back on his word. "Well, fine. I'm leaving," he said and walked out the door. Rei followed.
"Suzuki, you aren't really quitting, are you?" she asked. He turned and glowered. "Of course! He doesn't appreciate my beauty. I'm going back to Demon world where people die just to see me." With that, he walked off.
"Bye, I guess," Rei shrugged and closed the door. Matt walked up to her with a packet in his hands. "Here," he said. "This is the info for that school in Paris"
Rei took it and opened the page. The school was actually a highschool with a step-up program so she could easily get into a few universities if she wanted. She scanned a few pages and nodded her thanks.
When Rei went home that night, she had a really weird feeling in her chest. She didn't think it was something she'd ever felt before, but she knew it wasn't something physical. It had to be something about Yusuke and the others. But what? Suddenly she felt a huge gust of wind. "No," she whispered. The feeling in her chest was gone, but so was the mental string tied to Yusuke in the back of her mind. "He can't be. He's already done that once"
Rei sat up the whole night, waiting for the feeling to come back. It didn't, but her mental string tied to Yusuke seemed to be mended a little. Of course, it was fainter, but it also felt different. Finally, she drifted off to sleep, the whole time wishing for someone to come home.
The next day, her wish was granted. Everyone came home, but Yusuke looked quite different. They had to explain everything to her.
"Yusuke's anscestor was a demon. We don't know WHAT happened, but the genes lain dormant for many centuries, only to be awakened in Yusuke here," Botan pointed at the now long-haired, fang-bearing, face-painted Yusuke. Kurama was currently trying to cut off all the extra hair Yusuke had someone grown in these past few days.
"Yeah, the guy we fought was stinking hard!" Kuwabara put in. "Okay, let me sum this up. This guy Sensui was a spirit detective-turned-evil-mastermind obsessed with the destruction of the human race? And he was using psychics to build a tunnel like what Mr. Sakyo wanted to do? And they kidnapped Kuwabara, made you walk through a cave, fight a brat that's good at videogames, kill the brat, then another guy that was going to eat Kuwabara, and then defeat that Sensui guy"
Yusuke stirred around the yogurt he was eating. "Not after killing me, remember"
"Oh yeah. One of his split personalities killed you and then you come back to life after Puu turns into a huge bird. Then you all go off to Demon World, fight a bit, and then you turn into... that, and kill him. Is that about it"
"Well, minus the part in the beginning where we're all trying to find the tunnel. But yeah, that's about it," Kurama added.
Rei leaned back. "Sounds exciting"
"Hardly," they all said at once.
