I was inspired when I wrote this. Hopefully, things will pick up at some point.

Chapter 6 - So How Many Guys Are You Datin!

"You know, we haven't seen the others in a while," said Shu. He was sitting on a rock, spending the rare half an hour of lunchtime he had with his buddy Ryo.

Ryo, who was throwing bird feed to the ducks at the school pond, disagreed. "We just saw them two days ago."

Shu shook his head and absently chewed on his rice. What Ryo said was true. They saw Seiji, Shin and Touma in their last hunt, but that was not what Shu wanted to say. "I mean out together as a group friends," Shu clarified, "doing what normal teenagers do, not patrol duties in Youkai, not just passing by."

Ryo sat down next to Shu. "Are we even normal teenagers?" he asked.

The heavier set boy scowled. "Let's not start on that conversation again."

Ryo raked his long scruffy black hair with his right hand, thinking. Lately, it had been soccer practice, keeping demons in the spirit world, and school. On Friday nights, when most of their peers were out downtown having fun, he would be bogged down with homework. When his classmates were discussing the best method to catch a girlfriend or boyfriend, he would be thinking of ways to catch Urasai. He did not mind too much. It was his destiny, and he was happy to be gifted with four lifetime friends, even if he did not see them often.

Shu was different. Unlike Ryo, who preferred to be alone most of the time, Shu would rather be with other people. Shu was social, and he had many other friends outside just their special five-member group. He believed that being there for a friend was much more important than defending a Youkai takeover. Sadly, Shu realized that he had not, could not have been there for his childhood friend when she needed someone the most.

"You know, Touma's birthday is coming up," said Shu suddenly.

"Oh yeah? When is that?" asked Ryo. He was not very good with personal details. He could only remember that she was born later in the year and younger than him by a year.

"October tenth. We should do something nice for her..." Shu put strong emphasis on the word nice.

"And it would be a good day for all of us to be together." Ryo nodded with understanding. "But we have our College Entrance Exam Review that day."

"Oh yeah..." Shu took another bite of the food in his lunch box.

Ryo was equally thoughtful. He wanted to do something nice for Touma also. He felt kind of sorry for her. Out of all of them, she had the most unconventional life, mostly brought upon herself by her inhuman preciousness. Most girls with her looks, at her age, should have been laughing at all the boys chasing her, enjoying their youth. Instead, Touma spent nearly all her time as the priestess of her grandfather's shrine or caring for her ill father, skipping many days of school. Even in Youkai, he could tell that Touma was pressed for time by her unusual aggressiveness and expediency. It worried Ryo, as his friend was too serious for her own good.

"We'll do something good," said Ryo with finality in his voice. He threw the rest of the birdfeed into the pond, causing a flock of ducks to gather. "But it'll have to be a surprise."

"Sounds like a command," said Shu with amusement. Ryo was their undisputed leader who hated ordering them around.

"It is," said Ryo simply. "You call up Shin. I'll get Seiji. We need to start planning, now."

ooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooo

It was nighttime at the Date Dojo. Every single light was out except the one in the upper right corner on the second floor. There was shadow silhouette of a young man, hunched lightly over a desk, writing. Everything was silent, except for the chirping of crickets outside and the scribbling of a pen.

Seiji sighed as he stopped to rub his eyes. He had zero sleep in the last two days due to school and his duties as a trooper. His current school assignment was due tomorrow and there was a very good chance a test was planned too.

Another all-nighter thought Seiji, fighting the urge to drop dead from sleepiness. "School comes first," as Seiji's mother had always preached, despite her knowledge of her son as a Trooper.

He then took a look at two pictures on his desk.

One picture was of all of them together at a Chinese restaurant three years ago. Ryo smiled faintly in all his simple seriousness. Shin trying to choke Shu while Shu held two forks to Shin's head. He himself had an embarrassed look on his face, looking as if he wished no one in the five-hundred-seat restaurant had seen this. Touma was wide eyed, trying to pry Shu and Shin apart.

Seiji had to chuckle. He did not remember why the two were fighting in the first place. It was most likely over food as Shu really liked seafood dinners and Shin hated harm to anything marine. They caused quite a stir during the middle of dinnertime, in the middle of Shu's family restaurant, by flinging some food around, causing a few bystander casualties. Mama Faung, Shu's mother, was really miffed and sentenced Shu, and eventually all of them, to a week of dishwashing hell.

The other picture had been placed flat down. With a heavy heart, Seiji reached to set the picture back on display. It was a photo of Touma, standing there alone in middle of Ama no Hashidate plain in her priestess clothes, looking to a baby blue sky. He remembered how a camera-shy Touma had refused to let him take even one picture. When he finally tricked her by taking the picture during one of her deep thought moments, when she was completely oblivious to everything else except to all the songs and calls in the wind. Touma swore she would get him back for that. Seiji was bruised a bit from that encounter, but he was really glad that he had captured the picture.

Seiji traced the outlines of her cheek in the picture, imagining it was really her. He missed her terribly, more than anyone else. However, she was a day's train ride away, busy with her father's problems and probably still angrier with him than anyone else. When Touma held a grudge, she would hold onto it like one would hold on for dear life.

Seiji! A voice called from nowhere. It took Seiji only a second to realize that it was Ryo, talking to him telepathically.

For a moment, Seiji thought of just blocking him out, but only for a moment. What do you want?

You're awfully curt.

Sleep deprivation does that to you.

Are you free on October ninth?

I might be.

Well, we want to surprise Touma. You know, take her out and stuff.

What for?

Her birthday, Stupid.

Oh.

You will be free then. It wasn't a question.

I'll arrange something.. How is she? I haven't seen her in...

She's managing. She got the apartment fixed and her father seems to have stabilized.

Meaning he isn't dead yet?

Seiji!

He is putting unnecessary burdens on her. Come on, the man has never been a father to her, but she's doing everything a good dutiful daughter would do.

He's her father, Seiji. Ryo said it as if it explained everything.

Then Genichiru doesn't deserve the title of father. He's even affecting her performance in Youkai by his moans.

...Seiji, I think you better get some sleep.

Why?

Because you're criticizing Touma.

What does that have to do with sleep?

Grams is coming. Night

Like a telephone, their telepathic link was broken with a click.

Seiji frowned to himself. What was wrong with criticizing Touma? He disapproved of how she constantly had to see her father, had to care for her aging grandparents. Why care for the people who had pretty much neglected her since she was old enough to attend school? The letters he retained since they first met as children were often riddled with grievances of being left alone for weeks at a time, even during important holidays like New Year's. Her father was always working. Her mother was always traveling. Her grandparents were already sixty, with little patience for Touma's many questions. A child who, perfect in the complete sense of the word, was masochistic in Seiji's eye.

"Filial piety obligates me to them, no matter the circumstances," she would always say when Seiji mentioned her devotion to her parents despite their previous neglect.

"And love does not oblige them to you?" would be Seiji's returning words.

Usually that would start a fight between them. They swore to be best friends to each other, yet Seiji never had such a verbal onslaught flung at him. As perfect as Touma was, she also had one nasty vocabulary. Seiji would return in kind, resulting in one of their extended shouting wars.

I should apologize, thought Seiji. Normally, he would wait for the other person to say sorry. His high morals, confidence and stubbornness usually had others begging for forgiveness. But this was Touma, his childhood friend, and the one person who, now more than ever, needed some kindness. That and Touma had been completely silent to him. Even in Youkai, her faceplate would be completely down. Besides, he did not want to test his will against Touma. He did not want to risk a decade of malice. I'll do that now. A letter will do. Sleep can wait.

ooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooo

It was dusk at Getsukin High School. In the classroom of Junior Class A, two students had stayed behind after everyone had left. It was another Wednesday, a day that Shingo was supposed to have a short kendo practice at Meisi's then go home. Not so today, since Shingo was asked to stay behind to do some math problems by Mr. Setshin after practice.

Shingo supposed that he could refuse, and he had thought of just sneaking out and avoiding math all together. He never liked numbers anyways and found that the four basic operations would do him just fine in real life. That and he really had to finish writing a letter to the Date kid. All that changed when he saw his bloodied test score. Mr. Setshin, showing a rare moment of direct disapproval, even drew a frowning face on the top of the paper. What made it worse was that Akira had overseen the paper and decided to steal it and show everyone the frownie. Shingo swore that he would give Akira a beating during their next practice.

So, after he called his parents about staying at school longer for academic reasons (which resulted in a ten minute lecture from his mother), he went back to his classroom. He expected the room to be empty, but there was another person still in there.

Touma.

The girl was sitting in her assigned seat, quietly scribbling away on a piece of essay paper. She wore the black Getsukin High Uniform, just as he did. Her presence was unexpected as she was absent the entire day.

Shingo's mood strangely elevated, and he spoke up. "Hey! Long time no see."

Touma looked up from her writing. Seeing that it was Shingo, she smiled faintly. "Hi."

"How are you doing? We don't see you a lot here," said Shingo, commenting on the obvious. Touma had not been to school for days, something that had been concerning Shingo for a while.

"No. You don't see me a lot, do you?" said Touma from her chair, completely avoiding Shingo's question.

Shingo paused; he knew a warning tone when he heard it. He decided to back off. He went to his seat and with a hop, slid onto the desk. "What are you doing here anyways? School's out."

"Well, I can ask you the same thing," she returned. "What are YOU doing here? Don't you have kendo practice?"

Shingo made a face. "Setshin wants me to do some more math problems."

Touma chuckled. "Math isn't your strong point?"

Feeling slightly insulted, Shingo dared, "And math is yours?"

"Better than everyone at this school," she declared with complete confidence.

Shingo snorted. "I doubt it. You don't know how smart Houin is."

"Houin? That thick black-rimmed four-eyed short guy with greasy hair?" asked Touma.

Shingo thought about it. He never noticed Houin much until exam times when his name was on top of the Results Lists. "Yes. He is a freakin' genius."

Touma looked as if she was about to rebut that. She opened her mouth but no words came out. Shingo noticed that her hand had suddenly clenched into a fist and her face took on a solemn look he had never seen.

"Hey. You alright?" he asked, concerned.

As if pulled out of the twilight zone, Touma blinked. She shrugged. "I'm alright. I am just not happy that I am not making the grades. People used to call me a genius too."

Speaking of grades reminded Shingo of what Yumi had been saying. Even after learning that Touma was of no danger to her crown as the school beauty by the mere fact that Touma never came to school, Yumi still spoke of shameful things about Touma. As much as Shingo liked Yumi, he was much near the point of shaking her.

"Well, if you wanna made the grades, you gotta come to school," said Shingo. "I know it sounds very uncool and all, but you need high school to go to college."

Touma stared at him. A lecture, from him? "Who are you, my father?"

"No. I'm your older brother, remember? I'm suppose to say these things."

Suddenly, Touma laughed. Shingo found her laughter soothing to the ears, and a pleasant wonder to the eyes.

"How is it that you know exactly what to say?" she asked.

Shingo smirked. "Because I am just so cool."

Touma's eyes narrowed into half moons of pleasure. "You make me smile more than anyone else."

"Well, you do look very pretty when you smile," said Shingo. On a sudden impulse, he leaned close to her until they were a mere couple inches from each other. Hoping that no one else alive could hear him, he said quietly, "I want to make you smile more."

Touma looked down shyly, not knowing what to say. Shingo was obviously flirting, but she could tell he was also sincere with his words. Her heart was skipping beats and her cheeks had never felt so hot. He was so close too, so close that she could feel his breath on her cheeks. Unconsciously, Touma's lips parted slightly.

"Kazamatsuri!" came the stern voice of Mr. Setshin from the doorway.

Touma looked away and Shingo shrank back, sliding back to his seat in the process.

Mr. Setshin looked at the two through his brown-rimmed spectacles. The two had strangely red cheeks. Crossing his arms, Mr. Setshin said "Mr. Kazamatsuri. As I recall, disturbing Miss Hashiba isn't part of doing math problems."

"It's alright Setshin," said Touma, dismissing the old man with a wave of her hand. "He isn't disturbing me."

Shingo tilted his head as he looked back to Touma. Shingo recalled that even the teachers gave extra consideration to Setshin, but Touma was treating Setshin as an equal.

Mr. Setshin raised his eyebrows at Touma. "Have you completed your assignments, Miss Hashiba?"

Touma pointed to one of two neatly stacked papers in front of the classroom on the teacher's desk. "Completed, in order from the earliest to the latest."

"And exams?"

Touma pointed to the other pile. "Also completed, in order, from earliest to latest."

Setshin looked like he did not believe the girl's words, but he did pick up the stacks of paper, giving them a cursory glance. He begrudgingly nodded in satisfaction. He took the two stacks of paper, ready to leave with them.

"You will have to grade them," reminded Touma. "Formality reasons, you understand."

"Of course Miss Hashiba," said Setshin with a cordiality he had never used with students. "Get back to work, Kazamatsuri. Have Miss Hashiba check them at the end and you won't have to come see me."

Shingo nodded dumbly.

Setshin gave the two another meaningful glare and left.

This time, it was Touma's turn to smirk. "You should get back to work, as I should be doing too."

Shingo took a moment to regain his composure. "Since when did you become his pet? I thought Setshin only liked Houin since Houin is so good at math."

"No. Dr. Setshin considers me as a colleague, not a pet," corrected Touma. Seeing the skepticism in Shingo's eyes, she further explained. "I was NOT kidding when I said I am better at math than EVERYONE in this school."

Still dubious, Shingo just shrugged. "Whatever you say." It was very hard for him to believe that anyone was as good at math as Houin, at least around their age. Still he did need help in math, and he would rather not have Yumi, Akira, Aoi or even Houin teach him. Yumi was too scattered brained. Akira was almost as bad at math as him. Aoi sucked at teaching and Houin just got on his nerves.

"I'll be here to finish my other homework," said Touma, returning to her furious scribbling.

Seeing that her attention was concentrated elsewhere, he began on his problem sets also.

oooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooo

The two children worked until the moon rose high up in the sky. The fluorescent lights were turned on at some point by a passing teacher. Every so often, Shingo would look up from his math to stare at the growing pile of paper on Touma's desk. From a glance, Shingo could tell that she was working on nearly all the homework that had been assigned to Class A since the start of school. Sometimes, Shingo would ask Touma a math question, which she would answer with all the patience of an eternal star.

Finally, at ten o' clock at night, Shingo was finished. He sighed happily and turned toward Touma. Something about her was very comely to the eyes. Her briskness to complete each assignment was a little disturbing, but that was lost to Shingo; he was more interested in Touma's expression. She was absorbed in her work. The aura that surrounded her was serene. She leaned on the desk, slightly hunched over. Right hand moved a pencil tirelessly while left hand held the paper in place. Fomr time to time, she would pause to wipe away the long bangs and stray hair.

A phrase that Shingo's father said popped into his head.

"A woman is most beautiful when hard at work." It was a phrase father used when telling his children about the reason why he married mother. Shingo had always thought that was pure nonsense. Miss. Yun was always hard at work, torturing students with impossible perplexities of physics. Given work, Yumi always looked like someone had just asked her to pose nude. Aoi was about the same, except she always looked like she was about to cry. The other girls...well they all moan and groan, complaining about this and that. The only time they would look pretty was on the no-uniform day, when each girl would wear clothes that barely conformed to the school dress code. With Touma, it was...different.

Somehow, Shingo just understood what his father meant.

"Um...Are you alright?" asked Touma, finally noticing Shingo's staring.

Shingo blinked out of his thoughts. "Yeah. Yes. I am...I'm done. Here." He handed her his problem sets.

"Thank you." Touma took the sloppy work, flipping through the numerous eraser marks and pencil scribbles. She had looked at them before, and found Shingo to be decent with methods but terrible with accuracy. "I'll keep this and turn it in," she said. Suddenly, she yawned.

Shingo laughed. "It's getting pretty late. Aren't your parents worried?"

"No," answered Touma while stretching, getting last of the yawn out of herself. "I live by myself."

That was surprising information and it showed on Shingo's face. However, he quickly recovered, saying, "Well, I am going to go." He quickly shoved his pencils, paper, and textbook into his pack. "Would you like me to walk you home?"

Touma tapped her stack of papers. "Thanks, but no. I have another half to finish."

"Won't the custodians come and kick you out?"

"They won't. I have special permission from Setshin."

"I see. Well I have to go before my father grills my little siblings on how terrible a son their older brother is."

"Okay," muttered Touma. She sounded content, but Shingo could have sworn that he saw a glimmer of envy. Quietly, almost resolutely, Touma forced her expression back to neutral and started back on the ever-growing pile of paper. It was a sad look, and Shingo wondered what he could do to put a smile back on her face.

A plan germinated in Shingo's mind. "Hey," he called, right at the doorway.

"Yes?"

"There's a little festival this weekend at Town Square," informed Shingo. "I'll be there for a kendo demonstration. You should come."

"I'll..think about it."

"Please do!" said Shingo, leaving with a lot of hopes and prayers to every god known to men.

"Now I just have to get into that kendo demonstration," he said to himself.

oooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooo

Phew...probably long and kinda boring, but it's gonna be one very sugary and sweet relationship. Next part will take a while since...well..I'm stuck...Anyways, review if you feel like it. You can flame, if the reasons are legit..And remember, I'm still trying to improve on the writing, so be gentle.

Thanks for Reading

Suikorin.