Solitary Mask

Chibi Tsuki

A/N: I don't have a single clue what the mask is made of. I actually got/borrowed the idea of Saint Seiya and somehow the characters manage to breath and see under it. *shrugs* Btw, if anyone has any questions about some of my characters feel free to ask as they may be rather confusing, it goes for some of the Japanese words used although I try not to use any other than the commonly used ones.

Obaasan: old lady (the word Yuusuke calls Genkai in the Jap version.)

Ningenkai: human world (just thought I'd put it up again in case someone didn't know)

Rekai: spirit world (as above)

Chapter 5

Arousing Suspicion

"So you work at a cafeteria?" Kurama asked casually, noticing his friend become more relaxed as he spoke. "Which one?"

Mikazuki poured herself another cup of tea and replied, "It's near the shopping arcade, although it's not that big in comparison to other cafeterias, it's fairly busy throughout the evening towards seven o' clock." She thought silently for a second. "It's called-" The doorbell rang, interrupting their conversation. "Excuse me for a second." Kurama nodded and watched her leave him, running towards the door in hurry. He glanced at her mask on the table and touched the light material. It barely weighed a thing but it wasn't plastic, instead it felt like something familiar from possibly another world. Dismissing the thought, the looked at the clock ticking on the kitchen bench and collected his bag, the sky was already darkening. His friend came back, along with a woman, not much older than her. "Let me introduce. Emi, this is Minamino Shuuichi, my classmate. This is Hirawa Emi, a friend of mine." They greeted each other with a bow.

"I'll be leaving now," Kurama announced.

"I'll see you tomorrow at school." She led him to the door and thanked him again for his notes as he left the house and stepped onto the road.

Arriving home, Kurama heard the phone ringing and ringing. It didn't cease to stop until he answered it, "Hello?"

"Kurama? It's Yuusuke are you free tomorrow evening around five?" The person on the other side of the line spoke casually in his cool assertive self.

"Not until six-thirty, what's the matter Yuusuke?"

Yuusuke replied, "I'll meet you tomorrow at six-thirty at Blue Haven. Kuwabara will be there, so will Botan and Genkai."

"Alright, see you tomorrow then."

"Bye."

"Bye."

Slowly putting down the phone, Kurama sighed and poured himself a cup of water, sipping the cool refreshing liquid. Although it had been a short trip from Mikazuki's house to his own home, the sun rays were penetrating and it had caused his throat to be slightly dry. He strode to the sofa and seated himself comfortably while placing his cup onto the glass table. The television was switched on and after flicking from several different channels, he managed to find one with the news on it. I wonder what Yuusuke has to tell us. It must be important to call the all of us. Somehow he felt… happy, not knowing why. Perhaps it was because he had fulfilled his curiosity to know exactly who she was, no that wasn't why. There was this other feeling alongside happiness, it was disappointment. Disappointment because there was something very personal she was hiding, one he could barely realise until he saw it, the second she showed it and hid it. She was very good at disguising emotions deep within herself, but he told himself, the curious part of himself that this was her secret for her alone and perhaps she didn't want to share it with him.

~*~*~*~

He noticed her at school, wearing that mask again, that mask which he for no reason despised ever since yesterday afternoon. But he brushed the thought away and approached her, hoping to hear her bouncy, chuckling voice again. "Morning Mikazuki," he greeted.

"Morning Shuuichi," she muttered in her monotone voice and walked to class, her books in one hand with her bag strapped around a shoulder. It was as if there wasn't any difference after revealing her real self, as if nothing happened at all. He watched her disappearing figure and turned away to search for his friends. Suddenly, a pointy object poked him on the head. Glancing around, he noticed a small paper aeroplane with neatly folded wings and fine words written inside. Unfolded, it read,

'Hey Shuuichi, you better hurry to class or else the Minamino Fan club will be here soon! See you at science, Mikazuki.' Quietly he laughed to himself, she had even draw a smiley-face with a tongue poking out. He quickly hurried to class, nearly tripping over someone's leg.

"Hey," he uttered in his annoyed but polite voice. The guilty person looked at him with pure innocence. "Mikazuki, I should've guessed it was you." The light-haired teenager merely smiled and led the way to their science class.

"Sorry about that," she apologised but couldn't avoid a grin as she placed her bag on the single desk she had been used to. Kurama chuckled, saying that it wasn't anything serious.

"Why don't you sit closer? You seem bored all the way over there," he stated and patted the empty desk next to his.

But she shook her head, rejecting his offer. "It's a better place over here, being able to aim your head and all." In the sling short position that the rubber band had formed, Mikazuki placed a folded piece of paper and aimed it at him. She let it lose and the 'bullet' zoomed right pass him, barely brushing his fringe. He glanced at her in admiration and gave her a thumbs-up.

"Great shot Mikazuki."

The door slammed open and Mikazuki swiftly fell onto her seat and opened her test book, as if she were doing last minute homework the entire time while Kurama leaned against the bookcase and stared out of the window pretending to look at the sky. Students started to file in, gossiping the entire time, ignoring both Kurama and Mikazuki. Muiro Teki stepped in with the usual two following behind him. The sound of his voice made her look up and recall the events that had happened several nights ago. Mikazuki merely looked back at her textbook which she jammed into her bag when the teacher walked up.

~*~*~*~

"I've got to finish off some biology work," Kurama explained to his friend as she sat on the table and swung her legs. "You better go first."

Mikazuki shrugged and asked, "What time do you finish Shuuichi?"

"Around six-fifteen but I'm going out tonight so you better go."

"Are you sure?" The red-haired bishounen nodded positively and shooed her out of the science lab so that she would hopefully head back home which she did with little reluctance. Now he realised how caring the real Mikazuki was, much unalike the first time they met. She had left and he was alone to work on the dying plants. With some youkai, the plants should be able to regain its lost strength and grow healthily again. But not only was youkai necessary, but some dust from Makai which he had brought back with him from the last time he returned which wasn't all that long ago. Sprinkling the dust over the yellow-leafed plants, Kurama carefully transferred some of his energy into the vegetation, being cautious as to not overfill the powerful energy. After attending them for about fifteen minutes, he was rather content and finished his report about them, taking as much detail as he could possibly write without exceeding his time limit.

Mikazuki had left the building and was strolling casually down the street. She glanced at the sun that continued glaring at her. Within her own body, she adjusted the water and let the pure liquid stream between the last layers of skin so that it kept her cooler and less distracted by the heat.  Abruptly, she felt this strong use of youkai and jerked her head towards the direction it came from, feeling its strong radiating waves. Whoever this youko was, he was definitely strong, much stronger than her and hopefully held no threat to the world. But nevertheless she urged herself to continue walking and after a while, the youkai disappeared altogether and she continued home pondering.

"Hello Mika…" Emi's voice had lowered from a happy, cheerful voice to an irritated tone. "Get that thing off your face this instant. You're not going to be a serving clown." The older woman walked up to Mikazuki and confiscated the mask by peeling it off and tucking it into her apron, without giving her employee any excuse to take it back. "You're staying out here serving and that's that." Once she felt better, Emi poured herself a cup of tea and seated herself at a table since there were few customers. She had instructed Mikazuki to help out at the kitchen and she had obliged without another word. That was the advantage of having a worker like her, she always followed instructions, well occasionally she might pull a face at Emi for annoying her and how she could change her personality so easily was strange to Emi.

Yuusuke stepped into the cafeteria, with his hair gelled like usual while wearing his new school uniform, not the old green uniform anymore even though it was the wrong colour. Beside him was an orange-red haired teenager, looking the same age as Yuusuke, wearing even the same uniform. Together they seated at a table and glanced down the menu for refreshment. Mikazuki stepped out and approached the pair. "Can I take your order, sirs?"

"Give me a cup of mocha," Yuusuke uttered while his friend continued scanning the menu. "Can you take any longer than you are doing now Kuwabara?"

The taller teen glared at him and mumbled, "I'll have a cappuccino."

"Is there anything else you'd like?" she asked after writing down the two orders. Both shook their heads, wondering silently about their wallets. Leaving the table, Mikazuki noticed a two female characters entering the cafeteria and as she was about to help them to a seat, the older woman grunted as Yuusuke called out to them. She looked up at that other girl who followed her, looking enthusiastic. I remember seeing her a few days ago. She was with Kurama but she doesn't come to our school and she wore our uniform. There's something suspicious about her. Just as she walked into the kitchen, she noticed a particular red-haired customer walking in and greeting the odd bunch she had just served. Shuuichi… She grabbed one of her colleagues who were serving and asked her to take that table's orders instead of her. Something was getting rather strange but she didn't know what. Emi walked into the kitchen and slapped Mikazuki gently on the head,

"Stop daydreaming." The slap had definitely caught Mikazuki's attention, bringing her back to reality.

"Sorry Emi."

"Serve this tray to table eight." She pushed the tray of drinks into her hand and ushered her out of the kitchen.

Mikazuki sighed with relief when she realised that Kurama was facing the window away from her and was rather involved in the discussion between him and his group. Somehow they all seemed to be tensed and frustrated at the conversation between them. She managed to manoeuvre around the tables without arousing much suspicion from those particular people but there was one who seemed cautious of her every move.

~*~*~*~

Genkai glanced around at the cafeteria, noticing something strange. When she had first worked in, the waitress showed slight differences just by looked at her face. The scar showed an abnormal stream of unusual energy emitting off the last layer of skin. It seemed as if it were energy left over from the attack that hadn't left even after so long, she had estimated it to be at least eleven years old. But the one who had caused the scar must've been a strong ki user, with overpowering force able to leave the energy for here for so long. "Obaasan, what's wrong?" Yuusuke asked, pondering for a while.

"Nothing," Genkai muttered and decided to keep the information to herself for a while, until at least when they were out of there.

Mikazuki gingerly placed the last glass onto the table and left the customers to dine in peace. She continuously passed Kurama, picking up their soft whispers with her keen ears which would've been even stronger if she were in her other form. Nevertheless she had been able to hear most of the words with little difficultly.

"Haven't you felt it?" Yuusuke questioned his friends, gaining some uncertain looks.

The light blue-haired bubbly girl spoke slightly louder than the rest, "Once I think, when I went to find Kurama."

"Was it the first day when I transferred it to my new school?" Kurama enquired, sending Botan a questioning glance.

Suddenly she realised it, it began to make sense to her but then it startled her to realise the truth. Rushing into the kitchen, she caught the attention of most of the customers although none realised what had exactly happened, but Genkai continued to keep her suspicions to herself. They resumed their conversation without further delay and tried to figure out who this youko was and how exactly it had come into the Ningenkai.

"Mika, what happened?" Emi asked worriedly and placed a comforting hand on Mikazuki's shoulder.

Merely shaking her head, Mikazuki smiled at Emi. "Nothing, I just got startled when I saw my friend here."

"Minamino Shuuichi?"

She nodded her head and continued to smile.

"Why don't you go say hello or something?"

"No point, he's with his friends and I don't really know them. Besides he may be talking about something important," she shrugged and readjusted her clothes slightly. He's discussing about me. So he is Youko Kurama. I should've realised and those with him are the famous tournament winners; Yuusuke, Genkai and that red-haired dude. Then there's the Rekai Ferry Girl, Botan. Then that means-

"Mika? Are you ok? Do you need a break?"

Snapping out of her thoughts, Mikazuki combed her hair with her fingers and shook her head. "I'll be fine."

"You sure?" Emi looked rather doubtful and pulled the reluctant girl outside to a table where they sat down in a quieter corner, away from the customers. "You stay here, I'm going to get us some tea, or hot chocolate which do you prefer?"

"Tea… Thanks Emi."

"No worries." She headed off to the kitchen again, leaving Mikazuki alone sitting staring at the counter. There seemed to be so many puzzle pieces that finally fitted together although she had been clueless the entire time, until not long ago. Minamino Shuuichi was actually Youko Kurama which meant that he was the key to…

"Hello miss, can I talk to you for a second?" Glancing around, she noticed a familiar face peering at her, startling her suddenly. "I'm sorry, but did I scare you?" She shook her head, unable to suppress some of her released nervousness quick enough. It was Muiro Teki, one of the biggest pain she had ever encountered this week. Basically everything had happened this week, she had crashed into him in the morning at school, he had seen her face last time without knowing her identity and this time he was right next to her trying to act… polite? At school he was more or the less laughing, not cruelly but irritatingly at the other students, sometimes showing off to the other girls. Truthfully he wasn't bad looking but ever since Kurama came he had thought of the bishounen as a rival, not that many girls liked Muiro. "I was just wondering if I could have a chat with you for a mo-"

Arriving back, Emi raised her eyebrows and placed the cups on the table. "Hey, did I disturb you?"

"No, no really," he murmured and left the table, leaving Mikazuki giving Emi at a grateful glance which he didn't witness. He bumped accidentally into Kurama's chair and apologised. "Huh? Minamino, you're here too?"

Kurama nodded and greeted his new classmate; luckily he had learnt most of the student's names already and was able to reply without embarrassment. "Muiro, it's great to see you here."

"Gotta go," the boy smiled and left the table, leaving the entire group speechless.

Kuwabara knitted his eyebrows and asked, "What's his problem?" Kurama shrugged and glanced around, smelling a familiar scent.

~*~*~*~

A/N: Slightly strange wasn't it - again… That's not the point but thanks to the reviewers I am dedicated to this YYH ficcie. I thought I'd just make fun of Muiro since he's an odd little character. Didn't edit again, I'm so lazy.

Disclaimer: I don't own YYH or its characters, I only own the plot and Mikazuki. No I don't own the mask, I 'borrowed' it. It belongs to 'em… those who created Saint Seiya.