(7-11-05) Ha ha, 7-11... Ahem. Anyways... I have 967 reviews. And you all are probably gonna all review this chapter and the next one bitching about the length. Or more like the lack of. These two chapters are very short. If I'd bothered proofing chapter 31 already, I'd post it at the same time... But I just now remembered that I'd intended to do that. Maybe I'll post it tomorrow, once I've got some feedback on this chapter.
On to a different note... So many people felt bad for Karasu! I guess what I did was awful mean, but... what was I supposed to do? Have Kurama turn around and throw himself into Karasu's arms and start kissing him! Yeah, I can see the reviews for THAT chapter! "YOU BITCH! THAT WAS HORRIBLE AND DISGUSTING! HOW COULD YOU WRITE SOMETHING LIKE THAT ABOUT MY KURAMA!" Yep... That wouldn't fare well... Don't worry... No Kurama and Karasu make-out scenes in this story...
Believe it or not, I just now went back to a chapter earlier in the story and realized fanfiction was doing something really stupid. I know this thing they have automatically cuts out some spaces, asterisks, etc, extra exclamation points and the like, but when I put two dashes at the end of speech to show the speaker was cut off, it erased them. How damn stupid is that? I had dashes all over the place like that. You people probably got confused at some point by my "awful" puncuation. Damn fanfiction site.
Oh. You all get to meet Ryu's boyfriend in this chapter... And... That's all the spoiler I'm gonna give you. Except for the warning.
Warnings: Shounen ai! Omg! Like, o. m. g! What else... Blackmail, fighting, torment, cussing, instantaneous transportation, mentions of suicide... A short chapter can't have as wide a variety of things... There'salludes to possible slavery,questionable mentions ofadultery, discussion of sex, murdering, etc, that you would expect in a story written by a totally innocent and pure 15-year-old girl...
CHAPTER THIRTY
Religious Fanatic Bitch
The following day, Arisa was not in school. Shadow sought out Kurama when she discovered this.
"What'd you do with Arisa?"
"What?"
"I mean, you erased her memory, but did you like, give her severe head trauma too?"
"Maybe she's sick," Eclipse suggested.
"Shut up, you don't know what you're talking about!"
"Or maybe she's just so utterly traumatized by the fact that her life is about to spiral down the drain that she decided to stay home and end it," the girl continued.
"What? She's killing herself? OH MY GOD SHE'S KILLING HERSELF!" Shadow shrieked, looking horrified. Then she paused. "Oh well. WAIT! THAT IS AWFUL! I WON'T GET TO RUIN HER LIFE IF SHE DOESN'T HAVE ONE ANYMORE! I HAVE TO GO STOP HER!" She ran to the window and launched out it, rolling to her feet when she hit the ground and tearing down the street.
She was at Arisa's in record time, peering in the girl's bedroom window. Arisa was in there alright. Shadow whistled to get her attention. She looked up and instantly a look of horror appeared on her face. Getting up, she nearly ran to the window.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"Checking in on you. Somebody said you were killing yourself."
"Why the hell would I do that?"
"To keep me from showing your mother those pictures, so your life does not spiral into a pit of misery. Incidentally, is your mother home?"
"Yes- I mean no."
Shadow smiled and let herself fall backwards out of the tree. She landed on her hands, flipped to her feet, and strolled around to the front of the house. Ringing the doorbell, she met Arisa's mother for the first time face-to-face.
"Yes? Can I help you?" the lady said.
"My name is Shadow... I have something you might like to see. Concerning your daughter."
Arisa appeared behind her mother, looking horrified.
"Has she done something wrong?"
"You could say that," Shadow said coldly, glaring at Arisa.
"Well, come in!"
The lady seemed kind of... eager. Shadow tilted her head to the side slightly, following the lady inside. Pulling a large envelope out of her coat, the red-eyed girl sat down at the offered chair at the kitchen table. Arisa started to slink away, but her mother took a stern tone.
"Arisa, why don't you sit down with us?"
"I'm not feeling well, mother," she lied pathetically. "I really just feel like going to bed."
"Sit down."
She obeyed. Shadow had evil thoughts running through her head. Her mother was a bitch. That was wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. A religious fanatic bitch. Hardly what Shadow had expected, but good all the same.
"Now... What is this about?" Arisa's mother asked.
"Well, your daughter has been engaging in... unwholesome activities," Shadow said, sounding intelligent. "Look at these photos." She handed the lady the envelope.
Arisa's mother opened the envelope and removed the very good, clear, 8 x 12 pictures. Shadow watched with growing joy the rage boiling up on the woman's face. Arisa seemed to shrink into her chair.
"Thank you, Shadow-san," her mother finally said. "I'll deal with this. Thank you. Arisa, why don't you show her to the door."
"No, that's alright, I can find it myself," Shadow said. She briefly considered doing something stupid, like running into the doorframe, but that would ruin the intelligent facade she'd so brilliantly managed to play out. So, she got up and went to the door, pausing to cast a smirk and a wink back at Arisa before she let herself out. Turning, she scurried around the corner of the house and ducked down under the kitchen window to listen.
"What is this all about?"
"It's-"
"DID I SAY YOU COULD SPEAK?"
"Not dir-"
"THEN DON'T!"
Outside, Shadow suppressed a snicker.
"Now, I think I know exactly how to deal with this."
"Mother-"
"SHUTUP."
"Who are you calling!"
"GO TO YOUR ROOM!"
Again, Shadow suppressed a snicker, picking up on the sound of Arisa storming up the stairs. Above her head on the second floor, a window opened and Arisa's head popped out. Shadow looked up and smiled, waving. Then she scurried away on her hands and feet, around the side of the house, straight up the wall like a spider, and onto the roof, where she very nearly fell off when she found somebody already up there.
"Eclipse!"
The brown-haired girl grabbed her and pulled her up onto the roof, hugging her.
"You're a freakin' genius! I couldn't have done it any better myself!"
"Of course you couldn't have, because you're not as great as me." She dodged a punch.
"So who's she calling?"
"Not a clue." Shadow slunk over to the edge of the roof above Arisa's window and sat for a second, waiting, until she heard the anticipated door-flying-open-and-slamming-into-the-wall noise. "But we're about to find out."
"I called the Armed Forces!" came Arisa's mother's voice. "You're going to boot camp! You leave next week." Shadow nearly exploded with laughter.
"What? But Mother-"
"No arguing!"
The door slammed shut, signalling Arisa's mother's leaving. Shadow lay on her stomach on the roof and Eclipse held onto her wrists as the other girl lowered her down. Eclipse hung at the window until Arisa looked up.
"Hi!" she said cheerfully.
"What the hell are you doing here?" The girl's face was streaked where her make-up had run because of her tears.
"I heard what you've got to do. Boot camp is really tough. I bet they don't even let you wear make-up there, let alone have sex."
"Shut up!" She flung a vase out the window at Eclipse. It hit her and she screeched, pulling Shadow off the roof and they fell to their deaths, only to hit the ground in a heap and stay quite alive. They scurried to their feet and ran away laughing.
Shadow went straight to the gym.
"HIEIHIEIHIEIGUESSWHAT?"
He stared blankly.
"IDIDITIDIDIT!"
"Did what?"
"Ruined her life!"
"Now?"
"Yeah! She's goin' to BOOT CAMP! WOOHOO!" She started jumping around like a maniac, doing wild gymnastics and insane things like such.
"Boot camp? But I thought you said her mother was all psycho religious?"
"Yeah, well apparently she's not as psycho religious as I'd thought. She seems to be more of a bitch who's leeching off other peoples' misfortunes to live."
"Wow. Nice person."
"I know," Shadow said. "She'll even leech off her daughter's misery! I bet she'll get great joy from hearing about how her daughter dies because of sexual withdrawal!"
"Is that even possible?"
"Probably not!" Shadow cried joyfully. "But I don't care! As long as she suffers a lot!"
"So what does that leave us?" Hiei asked, catching her arm as she did a ballet jump past him.
"Leave us? Leave us? It leaves us free to live our lives!" She flung her arms around him and kissed him wetly on the lips.
"Okay," he managed, wiping her excessive slobber off his mouth with a disgusted look on his face, "and what does that entail?"
"Breathing, eating... reproducing." She grinned. Hiei couldn't help but chuckle at the look.
"You're certifiable," he muttered.
"I know... I know..."
The gym door flew open so that it banged against the wall. Shadow jumped and turned. None other than our dear friend Hiroshi Nakada was stamping towards the couple with rage boiling in his eyes.
"Uh-oh," Shadow said plainly, before the boy shoved her out of the way and punched Hiei. The fire demon turned his head with the hit, lessening what little pain resulted from the stupid human's punch, then grabbed the boy's wrist and twisted it up behind his back.
"You'll regret that," he stated coldly. He flung the boy forward. Nakada stumbled, then caught his balance and spun around, glaring.
"I really doubt it," he snapped. "That little bitch of a girlfriend of yours will pay."
Eclipse popped up by Shadow and whispered, "But if he was mad at you, why'd he punch Hiei?"
"I dunno," Shadow replied, like Eclipse appearing out of nowhere next to her wasn't odd. "Why don't you ask him?"
"Hey!" Eclipse called. "If you're pissed at Shadow, why'd you punch Hiei? Surely your eyesight isn't that bad?"
"You too, bitch! You're gonna pay!"
"What'd I do?"
"Shut up, Eclipse," Hiei snapped. Nakada grabbed Hiei's arm.
"Come on outside," he snarled. "Let me beat the shit out of you in front of your little girlfriend."
"I'm not little! I resent that!" Shadow snapped.
"And what makes you think that after countless tries, you're suddenly going to be able to beat me?" Hiei asked, pulling his arm out of the teen's (rather weak) grip.
"I just punched you, didn't I?"
"It didn't hurt," the little demon informed him with a slight smirk.
"Oh yeah? How's this for not hurting?" Nakada aimed a kick at Hiei's stomach. The fire demon caught his ankle and flipped him onto his face.
"Who wants to go report this to the office?" Hiei asked. Shadow jumped up and down screaming.
"I WILL!" She took off running. Nakada went after her. In the doorway, she jumped up and grasped the edge of the doorframe and from there, kicked Nakada in the face, then dropped down and took off running. Not to the office, but to the roof. She went straight for the nearest tree, jumped to it, scurried down, and went back to class. Nakada continued searching the hallways, as she had been way to fast for him to notice that she didn't go to the office.
In her normal gym class, Shadow puzzled over why exactly Nakada was flipping out all over them. Either because of Arisa, or because of the mob. She couldn't decide. But from her knowledge, Nakada didn't have mob connections. Arisa had, but she was 'toast' now, so it must have been because of her, Shadow finally decided.
Then she ran outside, jumped on her new motorcycle, and went twice the speed limit all the way home. Even so, Hiei beat her on foot. She cursed his unnaturally freaky speeds.
"So what now?" she asked, staring at him cluelessly.
"So maybe now we can go kill Nakada?"
"Are we really supposed to kill him?"
"True. I'm not allowed." Hiei sighed. "How are we supposed to get rid of him without killing him?"
Shadow shrugged. "Ship him out of the country? Take icky nasty surveilance of him? Um... Burn down his house and force him to become an orphan? Sell him on eBay!"
"Sell him on eBay? Isn't that illegal?"
"Yes. Oh, hell, let's just kill him!"
"Isn't that illegal too?" Hiei reminded.
"So?"
The fire demon sighed, shaking his head.
"Glad you agree with my plan," Shadow said. "Now how shall we go about it?"
"Drop an H-bomb on him," Eclipse suggested, appearing out of nowhere.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE!" Shadow screamed. "HIEI AND I COULD HAVE BEEN IN THE MIDDLE OF FUCKING!"
"You two aren't having sex," the other girl reminded. "You have your resolution and your immortality to think of. Plus it's illegal."
Shadow frowned. "Bitch."
Karasu, who'd been tiredly meandering into the room just then, stopped dead in the doorway. "What?"
The black-haired girl rushed to him, hugging him and speaking in a sweet, comforting voice. "Nothing, my sexy little bitch. I wasn't talking to you. Can I get you something to ease your misery?"
"I'm kinda hungry," the crow admitted. Shadow spun around, pointing.
"ECLIPSE! Partial causer of my Karasu's misery! Go make ramen!"
"Yes sir!" She saluted and marched off to the kitchen. Hiei and Shadow stared in awe.
"Since when does she obey you without question?" Hiei asked.
"I don't know. You'd better go watch to make sure she doesn't poison it."
"Why can't you?"
"Would you rather comfort Karasu? Come on. Come hug him and rub his back."
"Right. I'm gone." Hiei hurried off to the kitchen. Shadow stepped back, hands on her hips.
"Anything I can do?"
"Convince Kurama to break up with her."
"I hardly believe he'll do that," she replied. "I can convince him to tolerate your presence, if you can stand to be around him when he's kissing Eclipse..."
"Um..."
"Oh, but do promise me something, Karasu," Shadow said. "Promise me that no matter how depressed you may get, you will not try to force anything on him. Don't rape him, and don't kill him."
Karasu's eyes widened. "You don't trust me either?"
"That's not what I said! I'm just looking out for both of you!" She led him to the couch and sat down next to him. "Do you promise?"
"I promise," Karasu sighed.
"Thank you, dear crow." She hugged him. "Now... I'm gonna go make sure Hiei isn't cheating on me in the kitchen..."
Karasu watched her go with a raised eyebrow. The second she was out of sight, there was a knock at the door.
"Karasu! Be a dear and get the door, would you?" Shadow called from the kitchen. He sighed and got up from the couch, walking to the door and opening it. And there was Kurama.
"Oh," the fox said. "Hi."
"Hello, Kurama," Karasu managed. He stood aside. "Come in."
"Thanks."
'Shuuichi...' Youko threatened in the back of the redhead's mind.
'I'm being polite. Leave me alone. Shadow'd have my head if I was an ass to him.'
The fox sighed. 'Whatever.'
"Is Eclipse here?" Kurama asked, absently stroking Kokuei's head when she stuck it under his hand.
"In the kitchen," the crow answered. He wasn't mad at Kurama, really. He was just upset about how easily and outrightly he'd been shunned. It wasn't his fault he wanted Kurama. Everybody did. It was like a rule. Kurama was beautiful. If you didn't want him for his body or for his legend, you were probably asexual. After all... he was Youko Kurama.
The redhead wandered in that direction. Karasu watched him walk away, then followed once he was out of sight. After all, he could still be admired even though he loved someone else.
"Ramen's done!" Eclipse announced. Then she glanced at the door and squealed, ramen forgotten as she jumped on her new boyfriend. He nearly stumbled, taking a few steps back and running into Karasu. I'm ruthless, aren't I?
Shadow snickered as the three froze: Eclipse's arms around Kurama's neck, his hands on her hips, Karasu's eyes wide.
"Such a coincidence, no?" she muttered to Hiei as Eclipse stepped back and pulled Kurama away from the crow.
"Yes, a coincidence," Hiei replied sarcastically. "One I'm sure the authoress totally had no influence in, right?"
"Exactly. Let's have ramen."
Kurama and Eclipse stayed in the dining room while Hiei, Shadow, and Karasu went to the living room. Kokuei laid on the couch next to Karasu while the fire demons both sat in Shadow's sacred recliner.
"So-" Shadow started, and there was a knock at the door. "KURAMA! Get that, if you're not too busy!"
The redhead grumbled and got up, answering the door to find Ryu on the porch, smiling, hand-in-hand with another guy. He looked foreign: light-skinned with dyed white hair hanging over dirty green eyes. Nothing too far from average in looks, and only slightly taller than Ryu.
"Hello," Kurama said kindly.
"Hey Shuuichi. Can we come in?"
"Of course." He stood aside. Ryu led the other teen inside. The boy offered his hand to Kurama.
"Nice to meet you, Shuuichi. I'm Masaru. Ryu's boyfriend."
Shadow came flying into the room and threw her arms around the two boys. "YOU TWO ARE SUCH AN ADORABLE COUPLE!" She smiled, pinching Masaru's cheeks like an old grandma and making 'goochy goochy!' noises like you would to a baby.
"Shadow," Hiei said from the doorway. She stopped, looking at him, and he raised an eyebrow, pointing to Masaru's face. She looked at him and let go of his cheeks, laughing nervously and sidling over to Hiei.
"Sorry about that," Kurama muttered.
"No, it's alright," Masaru said. Then, to Ryu, "I see what you mean."
"About what?"
"About all of them."
Ryu chuckled. "They're great people though. They saved me a lot of humiliation."
"Thank you, thank you very much," Shadow said, bowing.
"Masaru wanted to meet you guys. I told him about how you helped me." He smiled. "That's so great that Arisa's going to boot camp."
"How'd you know!" Shadow asked suspiciously.
"You told me, Shadow."
She looked thoughtful, then grinned. "That I did."
"We just finished dinner, but I'm sure Shadow could get something for you two if you want it," Kurama offered.
"Nah, that's okay. We were just on our way to dinner."
"Awww..." Shadow cooed. Hiei hit her in the head and she yelped. "What!"
"Shut up."
"Oh, cut me a break. You don't think they're a cute couple?"
"Hn"
"That's the first monosyllable I've heard out of you in quite some time, Hiei! So what is it, a yes? A no?"
"I don't think of humans as cute."
"Oh. That's right. You don't think of anything as cute. You cold-hearted bastard."
Hiei just rolled his eyes. Masaru laughed a little. Shadow snapped her fingers.
"We all totally did not introduce ourselves. I'm Shadow, this is my boyfriend Hiei... he's a bit of a freak, you get used to it."
"Thanks, Shadow," Hiei muttered. She ignored him.
"That's Shuuichi, as I'm sure you already knew, and his girlfriend Eclipse..." She grabbed Karasu, who was lurking just outside the doorway of the room. "Karasu, my sexy bitch, and..." Glancing around, she found Kokuei and pointed to her. "And my dog, Kokuei."
"You're probably the only person who would feel a need to introduce your dog," Hiei sighed. Kokuei let out something of a husky woof at him and he gave her a funny look. "Then again, your dog is pretty damn close to being human."
"It's nice to meet you all," Masaru said. "Thank you for what you did."
"We were glad to help," Kurama said.
"Don't listen to him," Shadow hissed. "It was all me."
"Regardless, thank you," the boy said again. Shadow smiled.
"You're welcome." She bowed. Then she straightened, tapping her forefinger on her lower lip. "Y'know... No offense intended, but I've always wanted to see two guys kiss."
"You mean you haven't before?" Hiei asked incredulously. "You, with all your immense knowledge of... everything and nothing, have never seen two guys kiss?"
"Never in person," she replied dejectedly. Then she perked up and said hopefully to Ryu, "So would you mind?"
"Not at all," Masaru replied, smiling. Shadow watched with rapt attention as they kissed, leaning slightly on Hiei when they started getting really passionate. Eclipse, who was for some reason sitting on the dining table, had rather wide eyes, and was also watching raptly.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, Kurama cleared his throat. They pulled apart instantly, seeming slightly startled. There was silence for a moment, then Shadow (of course) spoke up.
"That... was hot."
"Yes it was," Ryu agreed breathlessly. He hit Masaru's arm. "Why don't you kiss me like that all the time! Jerk!"
The other boy shrugged, grinning. "If I kissed you like that all the time, it wouldn't be special, would it?"
Ryu crossed his arms and turned his back on his boyfriend. "Hmph."
"Oh, come on, don't get all pouty," Masaru pleaded, smiling as he wrapped his arms around the other boy's waist. He leaned close to his ear and whispered something that made Ryu smile.
"You two should probably get going, right?" Kurama said.
"Not to make you feel unwelcome or anything," Shadow added, kicking Kurama subtly. He flinched a bit, but otherwise didn't react.
"Yes, we should," Ryu said. "Bye, then."
"Nice meeting you," Masaru added.
"Yes, you too," Shadow said cheerfully. "Hope we see each other again! Bye!"
The two left and Shadow squealed and jumped on Hiei. "That was awesome!"
"You're certifiable," he muttered.
"You've told me this before... Hiei, I love you..."
"Yeah, yeah."
"Yeah, I do. That's not really the answer I expected."
"Love you too."
"Are you jealous?"
"No."
"Well that's- Hey! Karasu, where are you going?"
"My room," the crow answered.
"Awwww, I'm sorry! Did that upset you?" She started after the demon, totally ditching Hiei. He tossed his hands up in the air and went to the living room to plop down on the couch. Kokuei jumped up next to him and licked his face.
"Yuck," he grouched, wiping his cheek. The dog gave him a dejected look, jumped down, and followed Shadow. Kurama watched all this with a curious look.
"She's not ditching you for Karasu, is she?" Eclipse asked bluntly. Hiei said nothing as he got up, not even looking in their direction, and stomped up the stairs. The girl stared for a minute before looking to Kurama. "Did I say something wrong?" He just sighed and shook his head, starting for the stairs.
Yes. That was the 'questionable mention of adultery'. Anyways... Don't bitch at me for how short this chapter is! I was getting really damn tired of writing this story! Oh yeah, and if there's any little tiny typos, like 'gaurd' instead of 'guard' please don't point them out! -glares- I don't CARE! And I didn't kill a cat in the last chapter, Karasu kicked it and it ran away unharmed... Well, alive, at least...And I know I said there wouldn't be any more love confessions in this story, so pardon me for Youko having his hands in Kurama and Eclipse's relationship... Remember his New Year's Resolution?
Oh, I wrote this chapter, or part of it,shortly after watching the kamikaze watermelon thing SEKAH recommended to me... XD So, using the knowledge at hand... sometime in early June... And it's early July... So see? You're getting these chapters with only a little less than a month of delay...
-SJ