(5-6-05) Woot! 474 reviews! Let's try to reach 500 with this chapter! Get all your friends to review!
A few quick notes:
Ebbster: I've been writing this story for eight months. I know what I'm talking about. I've been posting since January, but writing since late August. Ah. Here. Properties. Document created: Wednesday, August 25, 2004, 4:17:28 PM. If you look at the author's note on chapter one, at the end, I'd already finished writing chapter eight by that point.
SEKAH: Of course Karasu isn't gone! We all love him too much for that. Nope. He's in this chapter.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The Trial of DOOM...
That night, Shadow did go to work with Hiei, video camera in hand. Kyouken was watching from his office, as he always did, to make sure Hiei was on time. When he saw Shadow stroll in behind the little demon, he instantly stormed out of his office, flinging the door open so hard that the glass nearly shattered when the knob hit the wall.
"What the hell is she doing here!" he snarled. Hanshin glanced up from a doughnut he was contentedly chewing on with a look of innocent curiosity. Hiei didn't even bother to acknowledge Kyouken that much.
"She only needs to be here for a little bit. Something for school."
"Konban wa, Kyouken-san," Shadow said politely, bowing slightly. "I have come so humbly to this place to research crime for a project for school, due next week."
"I don't give a shit why you're here--"
"Just let her do her work and she'll leave," Hiei snapped.
"Yeah, man, don't get your panties all in a bundle," Hanshin added. "What's so bad about having a pretty girl wandering around?"
"Exactly that, Satoya. She'll distract you."
"You won't even know I'm here!" Shadow snapped. "I'm silent as the ninja! I'm so totally much a ninja that I can blend into white while wearing black! I'm the God of Ninjutsu!"
"I'm warning you, girl--"
"Uh-huh," Shadow said, cleaning her camera lens. She turned it on and focused it on Kyouken. "So, Police Captain Kyouken, what would you say about the crime rate in Tokyo?"
"Wha-- Well..."
"Is it high or low? What are you doing about it? What do you do with the criminals you catch? Is the justice system fair?"
"Shadow, you're changing the subject on the poor man," Hanshin said. "Slow down."
"Sorry. Kyouken-san, what. do. you. think. of. the--"
"The crime rate is low. I have a good force, and any criminals are quickly apprehended. In the past few months, the crime rate has gone down dramatically. I think Tokyo is a very safe city."
"That's excellent. So how about the condition of your prisons and prisoners? Are they treated well?"
"Of course. As well as criminals deserve to be."
"That probably means they're treated like shit," Hanshin whispered. Kyouken glared at him, but Shadow kept the camera trained dead still on Kyouken's face, not moving it to look at Hanshin or Hiei, who were on either side of the police captain.
"And is the justice system efficient? Do they get sent to trial and all that quickly, or are they sitting in their cells for months at a time?"
"It depends on the crime," Kyouken said. "Really, miss, I'm a very busy man. If you don't mind, I should get back to work."
"Not at all. But you said crime rate was low. How much work could you have?"
The man just glared and returned to his office. Shadow snickered as she saw the cracked glass that Kyouken wouldn't notice until it shattered. He kept the blinds shut on the big glass front of his office and on the door's window.
She focused the camera on Hanshin. "Hanshin-san, would you give me a tour of the prison please?"
"Of course." He got up, brushed the donut crumbs off his uniform front, and picked up his coffee mug. "This way, miss."
He led her through the door in the back of the police station and they headed down the hall towards the cells. Hiei was behind Shadow, but she didn't turn the camera to look at him.
"As you can see, our cells are not crowded, nor are they dirty. The inmates are comfortable and safe, and there's no way they can escape."
Shadow panned the camera from side to side, looking in all the cells, and suddenly let out a yelp.
"Karasu? What the hell are you doing back in prison!"
Karasu glanced up from the corner he was sitting in. "Oh. Hi Shadow."
"That's not what I asked, moron."
He got up and dusted himself off.
"And don't feed me some shit about killing a dog. I did a bit of research, and it turns out that Kyouken never even had a dog."
"Want the truth? Remember how I was Hiei's informant for that wonderful case at the rave?"
"Yeah..."
"Well I was in here before that for harassment charges, but that's not the point. Afterwards, Kyouken and I decided that I would just kinda live here. It's better than that drafty pile of sticks back in the woods behind your house."
Shadow's eyes widened. "You're living in prison? For what reason? What about Kurama?"
Karasu went to the cell door and opened it. "I'm not really in prison."
The girl shrieked. "This is unspeakable! I'm recording this!"
"Edit it out," Hanshin suggested.
"Good plan," Shadow said. "Karasu, get back in your cell. I'm doing something for school. You can come back out when I'm done."
"Wait..." Hiei muttered. "How come I've never seen you here?"
"I usually sleep at night. Isn't that normal?"
"But... I've come through here..."
"Then I wasn't in here. I was probably out stalking Kurama or something."
"Uck. Lecher pervert stalker psycho..." Shadow muttered. "Back in your cell, asshole!"
Karasu obeyed with a sigh, and Shadow continued her filming with no further hitches. However, when she was finished, she handed the camera to Hiei and lunged on Karasu.
"WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO LIVE IN A NINGEN PRISON RATHER THAN BE SECLUDED FROM THEIR IDIOCY IN A WICKED-COOL FOREST BEHIND MY WICKED-COOL HOUSE?"
"That shack you had me living in really wasn't my cup of tea, you know?"
"No! That was a lovely shack! If you didn't like it, you could have built yourself a new one, you moron! Or are you too stupid to do that? I forbid you from living here!"
"You can't do that," Karasu snapped, pushing her off him and getting up. "Have you forgotten--" He glanced at Hanshin suddenly, expecting to be getting a 'are these people psycho' look. He was quite surprised that Hanshin was regarding him with an indifferent look and sipping his coffee.
"Why can't I do it and what have I forgotten?" Shadow snapped, uncaring whether half the prison was staring at her.
"You can't tell me what to do because I am far more powerful than you, and I do what I please."
"Yeah, maybe. But have you forgotten that you died once, you can die again, and this time, Koenma will soo die if he lets you bribe him with squid," Shadow threatened.
"What? You'll kill me because I want to live in a prison with ningens?"
"I'll brutally rape you!" she threatened. Hanshin snorted his coffee and nearly choked to death. Hiei stared at her. Karasu stared at her. Everyone within earshot stared at her. After a second, she frowned. "You'd probably enjoy that, wouldn't you. Gotta think of something better. Give me time. In that time, I expect you to be out of this nasty prison and back in your shack, you asshole. I'll make improvements to it. Come see."
She turned around and walked away. Hiei stared after her in utter horror before he took off after her.
"Wait a second, Shadow! You're telling him to live near us, you're offering to build him a house? Do you know--"
The rest of his sentence was cut off by the door to the station shutting. Hanshin looked at Karasu, confused, before he shrugged and followed Hiei. Rolling his eyes, Karasu did as well, and went straight through and left the station.
"Bye bye!" Shadow sang. "GO HOME!"
"FUCK YOU!" was heard through the door. Shadow shrugged.
"So do you think there'll be any crimes tonight that I can film?"
"Go follow Karasu. Stalking. Then we can come arrest you," Hanshin suggested.
"No thanks."
The night passed slowly, and Shadow ended up sleeping in Hiei's lap while he played poker with Hanshin. Kyouken was furious when he saw this, and ended up with Shadow's boot print on his face for waking her up. Hiei sent her home at this point, and she got there before Kyouken had even straightened up from the kick.
However, when there was a crime, sometime in the last hours of Hiei's shift, he was startled to find Shadow was standing not far away filming the entire time. He quickly replaced his startled look with a glare and crossed the street to her.
"What are you doing?"
"Filming crime."
Hiei sighed. "You got me on there."
"Yeah."
"After I've been trying to keep the general public from knowing I work two jobs?"
"Well, I figured that since Yamashita knows, and he's your boss, and he didn't do anything, then it couldn't get a whole lot worse."
"Still..."
Shadow shut off the camera. "Would you know where Eclipse and Kurama went after we went upstairs earlier?"
"How would I know? Maybe they went home." He grinned, remembering what exactly had happened when they'd gone upstairs.
"Why are you grinning like that?"
"Oh, nothing. I gotta get back to work. Go home and go to bed. You've got a trial to go to tomorrow."
"You're going too, moron. Why are you grinning?"
Hiei just waved her off, kissed her cheek, and returned to his job.
"Hiei!" she whined.
"Go away!" he replied, still grinning as he got in the car with Hanshin.
"Why are you grinning like that?" the young man asked, looking at Hiei. "You look like a moron."
Hiei just shook his head. "Nothing."
"Why was Shadow over there?"
"She doesn't give up. And she's stupid."
Hanshin nodded.
First thing in the morning in school, Kurama, Shadow, and Arisa (a.k.a Slut-face) were summoned to the office.
"Do you have your jury?"
"Yes, sir," Kurama said. "We have ours." He looked to Arisa.
"I've got mine," she huffed.
"Who?"
Yamashita was rather pissed off when he found that three teachers had agreed to be on the jury, but he summoned the seven students down to the office. Shadow leaned against the wall, whistling tunelessly until Yamashita yelled at her.
When all the students finally arrived in the office (Eclipse being the last, and she came running in panting like she'd just run a marathon), Yamashita started talking. He sounded very annoyed.
"I assume you all realize why you're here?"
Eclipse, who'd been doubled over panting, jumped up waving her hands. "I don't!"
"Moron!" Kurama snapped, grabbing her wrists. "Yes you do. Shut up."
Everyone looked a little astonished by his mannerisms towards the girl (everyone except Shadow, who was oblivious and building paper airplanes in the corner).
Yamashita's startled expression quickly returned to his usual sour expression as he continued, "You are the jury for Shuuichi Minamino versus Arisa Okawa on the subject of proper punishment for the... occurance yesterday. I've changed the time of the trial. It will be held today, during school."
"What!" Kurama cried.
"You can't do that!" Shadow snapped. "I'm calling my lawyer!"
"Yeah! Me too!" Eclipse snapped.
"Shut up Eclipse," she hissed, then continued in a loud and overdramatic voice, "I didn't sleep last night! I was looking forward to a good day's sleep in school, and now I'm gonna have to sleep through my trial!"
"No you won't," Kurama hissed. He turned to Yamashita, "May I ask you why, sir?"
"You may, Minamino, but I don't have to answer you." He picked up the intercom. "Who is defense and prosecution?"
"Yuu Kaito."
"Ryu Obake."
Yamashita called them down, and told them the same thing. Ryu looked appalled, but Kaito merely pushed his glasses up on his nose and looked indifferent.
"Any objections?" the principal asked.
"I HAVE AN OBJECTION!" Shadow and Eclipse snapped at the same time, and started speaking quickly and incoherently at the same time. Kurama put his hands over their mouths and shushed them as you would little children.
"Any objections we have won't change you're mind, sir, so we don't," the boy said with a little derisive smile.
"Good," Yamashita replied coldly. "The teachers should already know. I put it on the bulletin."
"I don't like you," Shadow said. "Just keep that in mind."
At that point, Hiei came into the office, rather angrily, and pushed past everyone to hold a paper up in Yamashita's face.
"What is this?" he demanded.
"The bulletin," Yamashita said plainly. "Get it out of my face."
"No. What is this," he snapped, pointing at the biggest font on the page.
"The trial is today. I'm aware you're on the jury. Why are you so upset?"
Hiei frowned, crumbling up the paper and crossing his arms. "Because you're an asshole. You can't just change it with no warning."
"I'm warning them. The trial doesn't begin until second period. They're all here, aren't they? I put it on the bulletin, didn't I? You've already got your way with this trial, I suggest you just shut up and listen to me, Jaganshi."
Hiei snarled, but Kurama gave him a warning glare and he stepped back. "Asshole," he hissed over his shoulder as he left the office.
"Where are you going!" Shadow snapped.
"Back to the gym, so that Yamashita doesn't go psycho about me being away from my class for too long." And he left.
Yamashita summoned several boys and sent them to the gym to set up for the trial, much to Hiei's annoyance. Second period came around, and all the students involved in the trial were escorted to the gym like prisoners. Shadow stopped dead when she saw the bleachers were folded out and the entire school was in the gym to watch.
"He can't really do this, can he?" she asked.
"Yes," Kurama sighed, "I think he can. He has, hasn't he? We can't very well stop him."
The overwhelming majority of the noise in the gym was a chant.
"Shuuichi is Innocent! Shuuichi is Innocent!" over one hundred female voices chanted. Kurama had a bit of a smile on his face.
"Well, even if I'm found 'guilty,' at least the entire female population of the school will hate Yamashita for it."
They took their seats, the jury took their seats, and Yamashita entered last. No one stood up for the 'honorable judge.'
"Does the defense have an opening statement?" Yamashita asked.
Kurama looked at Kaito, who sat beside him. Shadow had already settled back with her fingers interlocked behind her head, prepared to sleep through anything she was not needed for. Kaito stood.
"My clients, Shuuichi Minamino and Shadow Jaganshi, were involved in the incident purely in self defense, and I intend to prove their innocence."
The gym erupted in cheers from the girls. The chant started again. Kurama sighed.
"That's gonna have to stop," Shadow muttered.
"Prosecution?" Yamashita asked.
"Um." Ryu stood. "Um... School rules say anyone involved in a fight will be suspended, so I'm gonna try to uphold the rules and--"
Anything else was drowned out by the screaming angry girls. It took Kurama standing up to silence them.
"Please, ladies, we'll never get finished at this rate," he said. "Save your cheers for more appropriate times. Like, when Shadow and I are found innocent. Thank you."
Yamashita was glaring daggers, but the gym was silent. So silent you could hear a pin drop. Or, in this case, the beeps of a cell phone game, which were quickly traced to a very bored-looking Hiei. When he noticed all eyes were on him, he looked up with a clueless innocent look you'd expect of Shadow, and quickly tucked away his phone.
"Do continue," he said, gesturing. Kurama frowned a bit, but Shadow giggled.
"We won't be having such behavior in the court, Jaganshi," Yamashita said.
"I'm terribly sorry. It won't happen again," Hiei promised, managing to insult Yamashita merely with his tone. The principal/judge frowned as the general reaction in the audience was laughter, grins, and murmured praise. He cleared his throat in annoyance and the gym quieted.
"Defense. Call your first witness."
Kaito stood. "I call Shadow Jaganshi to the stand."
Shadow hissed at Kaito as she passed him. When she sat on the stand, a boy playing several roles in the court walked up and put a bible in front of her on the desk. His name was Aoitori, so I don't have to call him 'boy' all the time.
"Left hand on the Bible, right hand in the air."
Shadow groaned. "This isn't real court, do I really have to do this?"
"Yes."
"What if touching the Bible causes my skin to boil and fall off? What if the Bible catches on fire at my touch? A whole multitude of things could go wrong."
"The Bible has never done that."
"I'm not a Christian."
"Put your hand on the Bible, Shadow."
Shadow frowned and obeyed. For a second she considered screaming and faking that her hand was boiling off, but decided against it. Kurama was already pretty ticked at her and Hiei.
"Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?"
"What if I say 'yes' but I'm lying?" Shadow asked.
"That's what the Bible is for! You can't swear on the bible that you will and betray your word!"
"I can if I'm not Christian!"
"JUST SWEAR, DAMMIT!" Hiei snapped. Yamashita glared at him again and he sat down, apologizing again. Kurama sighed as he realized Hiei was just making trouble for fun, and would continue to do so through the whole trial.
"I SWEAR I WON'T LIE! DON'T HURT ME!" Shadow yelped, cowering with her hands shielding her face (effectively removing her hand from the Bible as she swore). Aoitori noticed, but he knew Shadow, and he knew that insisting she put her hand on the Bible again would be stupid. He walked off with slumped shoulders, thinking about how he should not have agreed to help out during this trial, because it would be the death of him.
"Very good," Kaito said, retaining his disposition through the whole scene. "Now, Shadow, what happened yesterday between first and second periods?"
"Let's see. I was getting my science book at my locker, and along came Slut-face and her gang of Slut Followers. She--"
"Jaganshi, use names," Yamashita growled.
"Fine. And along came Arisa Okawa, and about twenty of her friends: Hana Mitsuki, Mimi--"
"That's enough," Kaito interrupted. "Continue with the story."
"Well, so Arisa is like, 'What did you do over break?' and I told her I f-- um, fooled around... with Shuuichi. I was totally joking, but I said it seriously because I wanted to see her reaction. She wasn't too happy, to put it mildly. I elaborated a little bit on the 'fooling around' that didn't happen, and she got really angry and slapped me. So I shouted 'self defense' before I punched her. Now, according to the rules of my martial arts, if you declare Self Defense before you go whoop-ass on somebody, in self defense of course, then it's not wrong."
"What is your style of martial arts, Shadow-san?"
"I dunno what it's called. It's what Hiei taught me."
Kaito adjusted his glasses and nodded. "Very well. Continue."
"Okay, so, when pretty boy came along, Arisa went nuts on him and tried oh-so-hard to kiss him, but he avoided her. To defend him, I grabbed her hair and flung her on the floor, and-- Wait, I forgot that right after I punched her, all twenty of her loyal followers jumped on me. I got away, then all this happened. As I was saying, she jumped back up and slapped me and I think I punched her, then I sidestepped into Tayama's grip, and he was like, 'BLARGH!' and I was like, 'EEEK!' and then Arisa slapped me again and I knocked her on her butt and Tayama was like, 'BLARGH! OFFICE! BLARGH!' and I was like, 'MEEP!' and then pretty boy tried to drag me to the office and Arisa jumped on him and was flipping out all over the place and hitting him and stuff and then Hiei showed up and--"
"Wait, you said she was hitting Shuuichi?"
"Yeah. And pulling on his shirt and stuff. She was real mad. Trying to make him kiss her and stuff, and isn't that abuse? Couldn't she get more days of detention for that? CRIMINAL! CRIMINAL! ASSAULT! HARASSMENT! Anyway, so can I continue my story?"
"Yes, please."
"So then, Hiei showed up, and he managed to drag Arisa off Shuuichi, and Tayama yelled at him and he yelled at Tayama and--"
"What did they yell?"
"Tayama was like, 'I CAN HANDLE THIS!' and Hiei was like, 'NO YOU CAN'T CUZ IF YOU COULD THEN THEY WOULDN'T BE LIKE THIS!' and Tayama was like, all, fuming several feet away, but Hiei managed to get us all down to the office and Yamashita was just gonna give us detention right off the bat, without even knowing what had happened! Since I was involved, and he hates me with a passion that burns like the fires in the pits of HELL, then he was just gonna punish all people involved without knowing what had happened. Can you believe that? Can you believe what a prejudiced bastard he is?"
The gym erupted in cheers. Yamashita slammed the gavel down over and over until the gym silenced.
"That behavior is unacceptable," he snarled. "You are still in school, so anything you say is punishable."
"Asshole," Shadow muttered.
"Continue your story, please," Kaito said before Yamashita could retort.
"Oh yeah. So Shuuichi, being the genius he is, brought up something about school court that he'd read in the rulebook. I guess that's why you never get a genius in trouble. They can worm their way out of it."
"Is that all?"
"Yes, that's it."
"I believe it's very clear that what you did was purely in self defense."
"It was."
"The fight was initiated entirely by Miss Okawa."
"It was."
"Your... martial arts. How long have you been studying them?"
Shadow thought for a minute. If she included the time in Makai, "Swordplay has only been about four and a half years, but I've done martial arts since I was old enough to stand."
"So, you're very devoted to your code?"
"Yes I am."
Kaito adjusted his glasses. "And... your code says that you cannot be punished for defending yourself, as long as you announce it."
"It does. And I do expect society to accept my beliefs and ways because if they don't, they're all prejudiced assholes too."
"You stopped fighting when Tayama showed up."
"Yes. Again, Arisa hit me first after he showed up. I defended myself."
Kaito looked thoughtful. "No further questions." He returned to his seat and Ryu got up, a bit shaky.
"School rules say that in event of a fight, both parties are held responsible. Why do you think you should be exempt?"
"Because I was defending myself... We went through this just a minute ago with Kaito. Can I ask you something?"
"No," Yamashita said flatly. Shadow jumped up.
"WAS I ASKING YOU?"
"I'M IN CHARGE HERE."
"Oh yeah." She sat back down. "Continue."
"Why did you tell Arisa that you were... fooling around... with Shuuichi?"
"Because everyone in the school seems to think I'm a whore for some reason, so denying it wouldn't do any good. She wasn't expecting me to say that, and I am the opposite of expectations. I am... unexpectations."
Kurama sighed. Why did he associate with such an idiot?
"Okay," Ryu said after a second of staring. "Have you ever attended anger management classes or counseling of any sort?"
"Objection!" Kaito said. "Relevance?"
Ryu looked clueless.
"He wants to know if your question has any importance, or if you're just asking things to take up time," Hiei called. Yamashita glared daggers, and the demon held up his hands, shrugging. "Sorry."
"Yes it has importance!" Ryu snapped.
"Answer the question," Yamashita instructed Shadow.
"No, I've never attended professional counseling or anger management."
"Have you considered the possibility that you, perhaps, should?"
"ARE YOU INSINUATING THAT I CAN'T CONTROL MY ANGER? MY RAGE AND FURY? ARE YOU DARING TO INSINUATE THAT I, PERHAPS, HAVE PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS! YOU EVIL, EVIL MAN!" She blinked and sat down. "I've never considered it. Why?"
"Is it possible that you were lying about your entire version of the fight?"
Shadow looked insulted. "Why would I do that? I know what happened! I was there, after all. You weren't, so who the hell are you to accuse me of having no idea what I'm talking about?"
"STOP SWEARING," Yamashita ordered.
"YES MA'AM, YOU SON OF A MONKEY!" She turned to face Ryu. "RYU!" He jumped, and she settled back in her seat and said calmly, "Continue."
"I don't have any more questions."
"Go sit down, Jaganshi."
Shadow jumped out of her chair, over the desk, and ran back to her seat, throwing herself into the chair and tipping it over. Kurama made no attempt to help her up.
"Next witness," Yamashita ordered. Kurama was summoned to the seat and had to swear on the Bible. He made a much easier task of it than Shadow had, and Aoitori was relieved.
"Shuuichi, from what you saw of Shadow's fight, is she telling the truth?" Kaito asked.
"Yes," Kurama answered.
"And about your part in it, is she telling the truth?"
"Yes."
"Did Arisa try to kiss you?"
"Yes."
"What about Shadow's martial arts? You study the same style, correct?"
"Yes I do."
"And she's being honest about that, too?"
"Yes."
"Did you two... fool around?"
"No we did not. ...I have a girlfriend, and it's not Shadow."
At that point, the majority of the gym burst into tears at Kurama's lie. Arisa stood up in fury.
"WHAT! WHO?"
"That's not your business, Miss Okawa," Kurama replied sweetly.
"SIT DOWN, OKAWA!" Yamashita yelled.
Once the gym had settled down, Hiei had been yelled at again for playing games on his cell phone, and Eclipse was discovered to be fast asleep and unable to be woke up, Kaito continued.
Adjusting his glasses, he asked, "You've read the school rules, correct?"
"Naturally."
"By your interpretation, would you be punishable, considering that you were not involved in the actual fight?"
"No."
Kaito nodded. "Shadow said that Yamashita didn't even ask for a full account of what happened. Is that true?"
"Yes. He was ready to suspend us all solely because Shadow was involved and he happens to be tired of her."
"That is also against school rules. If the principal is thinks he is exempt from school rules, then why shouldn't you be?"
"Because he's JEALOUS!" Shadow cheered. Yamashita glared and she grinned and continued sitting on the table, instead of in her chair at the table.
"I should be," Kurama stated simply. Yamashita's fury grew at this. How dare this... child say he deserved to be exempt from rules, just because he was a genius? How dare he?
Hiei raised his hand. Yamashita glared at him.
"Just acknowledge me or I'll speak out and piss you off again," the little demon stated plainly.
"What do you want?" the principal snarled venomously. Hiei dropped his hand.
"You realize that this entire trial is based on our opinions, right? So shouldn't we be the ones to question the witnesses, so we can find out what we think is important to the standing of the participants?"
"No. Continue, Kaito."
"No further questions." He returned to his seat and Ryu got up.
"The school rules state that in the event of a fight, both parties will be suspended, correct?"
Kurama thought for a moment. "Yes, but I called for a trial. Now it's all resting on the jury."
Ryu glanced at the said group of people. Eclipse was asleep, Hiei was drawing on his arm with a permanent black marker, and everyone else was watching like a responsible jury should do.
"Where were you when the fight started?"
"Around the corner and halfway down the hall."
"So you really were in no way involved in the fight?"
"You're the prosecution, Ryu," Kurama reminded. "Think of questions that will get me suspended."
Ryu frowned. "I don't think there are any questions that I can ask to get you suspended. You didn't do anything."
"RYU!" Arisa yelled in fury. He cringed.
"No further questions," he said, and returned to his seat next to Arisa. Kurama got up and went to Shadow, picking her up and dropping her in a chair before he sat between her and Kaito. Arisa was the next up on the stand. She, too, had to swear on the Bible, but she did it in such a snotty, hateful manner, that if she hadn't already had her demise scheduled, a bolt of lightning would have flown from the heavens and struck her dead on the spot.
"Now, Miss Okawa... Why did you strike Shadow?"
"Because she was fooling around with my Shuuichi."
"Why did you feel the need to slap her because of that? He is not your property."
Arisa decided to change her approach. "I know... I just... Having sex in high school is a bad choice to start with, and to make it worse... she didn't use protection!"
Shadow's jaw dropped in disbelief and Kurama looked utterly horrified. Hiei stood up.
"You are full of crap, girl. Those two are both pure. Neither has ever had sex. Shadow lives with me. She was never alone with Minamino long enough to have sex. You're full of shit and you know it."
Eclipse stood up, "Really! You're so dumb! You're the one who started the rumor about Shadow having sex with Hiei! Why would she cheat on a great guy like him?"
"I'VE NEVER HAD SEX WITH ANYONE!" Shadow screamed. "I'M STILL PURE! I DON'T WANT TO HAVE SEX WITH HIEI AND I DON'T WANT TO HAVE SEX WITH SHUUICHI!" Nobody heard her add, "At least, not yet."
Yamashita slammed the gavel down. "Jaganshi! Both of you! Sit down and shut up before I have you both thrown out! You too, Shinomori!"
Silence fell over the gym and after a moment, Yamashita continued, "If there is one more outburst like this, the trial is off and everyone involved is suspended for a month. And if you are involved, Hiei Jaganshi, then you'll be fired. It's not like you need this job anyway."
Uh-huh, keep going asshole, and announce it to the whole school, Hiei thought bitterly, an indifferent look on his face. But Yamashita, for some unknown reason, did not keep going.
The remainder of Arisa's questioning went without incident. They questioned a few random audience members who had been around, just to be fair. Yamashita announced an hour-long recess, during which the jury would debate the case. Kurama and Shadow wandered around the school for half an hour before ending up on the roof to avoid more fan enounters (Shadow now had what could be called fanboys, I suppose, and between them and Kurama's fans, they may as well have had the entire population of the school following them around).
"I can't believe Hiei kept speaking out like that," Kurama muttered.
"He was just making trouble. I thought it was funny."
"Everyone but Yamashita seemed to think it was funny."
"D'ya reckon we'll be innocent?"
"Of course we will. Arisa got so pissed after all that shouting she totally lost it, remember? Only her friends would vote her innocent now, and I'm not so sure even they will. This is ME we're talking about, remember?"
"Oh yeah... Of course." Shadow sat against the wall and fell asleep in seconds, leaving Kurama to his thoughts.
A few minutes before their hour was up, Kurama woke her and they returned to the gymnasium. Most of the school had returned at the announcement five minutes prior, so they were greeted with a nice round of applause and cheers and shouts of names until they'd returned to their seat next to Kaito.
"If this trial accomplishes nothing else, at least you've got a fanclub now, Shadow," Kurama teased, listening to the amount of male voices shouting at her.
"Hiei's gonna be so pissed when they start hitting on me," she sighed.
The jury filed in just then, Hiei strolling in last, a considerable distance between him and the next person in front of him, and walking up to Yamashita's podium. He handed the man a slip of paper and said something, receiving a furious glare and harsh words in return, at which Hiei just grinned and strolled back to join the rest of the jury.
"Shuuichi Minamino, Shadow Jaganshi, the jury finds you... innocent... by an overwhelming majority."
"We all voted you innocent," Hiei announced with a grin and a wink. The gym burst into cheers and applause. Shadow jumped up on the table and started dancing. Kurama quickly had to restrain her as the volume of cheers increased. Everyone seemed to have forgotten his girlfriend remark earlier, and the girls were all cheering wildly, as always.
Yamashita waited a moment and slammed the gavel down until everyone quieted. "As for you, Arisa Okawa, you are sentenced to 10 days of suspension followed by as many days of detention, to be served after school scrubbing bathrooms."
Shadow jumped up on the table again and let out a whoop at this. Arisa fumed and stomped out, grabbing Ryu and dragging him with her. Shadow watched curiously until they were gone, then squatted in front of Kurama and said, "I think she's got him pussywhipped."
Kurama raised an eyebrow at her use of words.
"Oh, you know. He's her bitch."
Kurama cocked his head. "I know what you mean."
"I thought he was kinda cool, but then he was associating with her and I hated him, but now I realize maybe she's blackmailing him or has his favorite hamster as hostage or some shit like that." She grinned and stood. "This is a case for--" She spun a 720 circle and was wearing a tan trenchcoat with the collar turned up, black pants and shirt, sunglasses, and a black hat. "--P.I. Investigator, Shadow Jaganshi!" She jumped off the table and bounded silently to the door, peering both ways before running down the hall on tiptoes with exaggerated motions. Kurama sighed. The audience hadn't noticed her display. They'd already fallen to their own discussions.
Hiei wandered over to Kurama. "Where's she going now?"
"She's the P.I. Investigator Shadow Jaganshi. She wants to know if Ryu is being blackmailed by Arisa."
"Doesn't P.I. stand for 'Private Investigator'?"
"Yes it does."
"Then she's a Private Investigator Investigator?"
"That's what she said."
Hiei nodded. "You wanna go out and get some lunch? As far as I'm concerned, the school day's over, and I'm hungry."
Kurama stood up. "Sure. Where's Eclipse?"
His answer ran by a second later wearing black and shouting, "I WANNA BE A P.I. INVESTIGATOR TOO, MOMMY!"
"Okay, never mind! Where shall we go for lunch?"
I have to write an autobiography for English... I'm dedicating a few pages to Shadow. :grins: My teacher already thinks I'm nuts for all the papers I wrote... My voice shines through in those just as it does in this... I'm taking a CREATIVE WRITING CLASS next year. That spells DOOM! DOOM, DOOM, DOOM! Even though there isn't a single D, O, or M in the entire thing.
We're doing Romeo and Juliet in English as well. You'll see the effects of that around chapter 25... Which is what I'm currently working on... Yeah... I'm still 8 chapters ahead of you people...