He was reading a note that appeared in his textbook somehow when his back was turned. At first, he thought it was from one of his stalkers, but then noticed it to be black paper, and not drenched in foul smelling perfume.
'Yuki-san
Come meet us at the park tomorrow after school. We must discuss something. Do not bring Tohru-kun.
Hanajima Saki'
Yuki sweatdropped. To the point, as always. He sighed and shook his head. This probably had something to do with Hanajima and Uotani scaring him while subtly questioning his relationship with Miss Honda.
Not that he didn't care for Miss Honda, never let that be the case. He just didn't think of her as a romantic interest. He used to, yes, but things change over time, as everything but Shigure's pervertedness and Ayame's stupidity tends to do.
Miss Honda didn't love him as a romantic interest, and that was fine with him. But he would be her older brother and guard her against males until she found someone to love.
Haru watched Lenne wave goodbye to Momiji. 'This relationship between them...it can be for better or worse. If Lenne only knew about our curse, or at least about Akito, she might not of gotten Momiji in trouble.'
He was startled as she sat next to him. "Hello, Haru-san."
"...Lenne."
"Nope. I am Nanashi Arimaki, Private P.I." She looked over her shoulder, and glanced at everybody suspiciously, as if daring them to overhear her.
"Private Private Investigator?" Haru asked with a raised eyebrow. 'Is she as crazy as she acts?' 'Nanashi' laughed.
"Private Persona Ideal! Nanashi is my very own identity, so I may sneak about and be sneaky, and generally do activities sneaky personas such as myself may do." She struck a pose with sparkling eyes and an Ayame-like smile. Haru looked at her with his same bland expression. "Huh. You act stranger and stranger everyday."
"You think that's strange?" She asked, giving him a 'you poor, poor naive boy you, you really have no clue to the extent of my stupidity and weirdness' smile. Amazing what one gesture can convey. "This is strange." She suddenly stiffened and stood ram-rod straight. Her eyes were blank as a breeze knocked her over. Still with a straight back, she rolled down the hall, mowing down innocent students, rammed into the wall, and turned the corner.
Haru continued looking down the hall, idily wondering if Lenne or Nanashi was going to come back, when a mini tornado came from the same hallway Lenne turned down and stopped suddenly revealing a girl in a school unifrom with a black trenchcoat and hat. She seemed not to notice the looks she was getting.
Of course, the girl couldn't leave it there, so she ran down the hall and stopped an inch from crashing into Haru. "That, my dear Haru-san, is strange. Would you rather I act like that? Huh? I can, yes yes indeed. I'd probably get more detentions and exasperated sighs, but since when do I care?"
"I'm guessing you started talking to me for a reason?" Lenne sat next to him as the students started gathering their scattered belongings.
"Why yes indeedy I did." She paused, seeming to think about how to phrase whatever she was going to say. "Is someone hurting Momiji?" Haru looked at her startled. "I don't believe him when he insists he fell down the stairs. No one gets that many cuts on their arm unless they fell down stairs covered in glass."
Haru was torn between decision. Lenne was worried about her friend, and she needed to know so she could prevent herself from doing something that would get Momiji or one of the other Sohma's hurt. But, that would lead to questions, then Lenne might accidentally figure something out. Then her memory would need to be erased, and she wouldn't even remember meeting Momiji.
"I can't tell you. Sorry. It's his decision, and his problem. He'll tell you when he's ready." 'Of course, he's already ready to tell you, he just can't.' "Just... some actions lead to others getting hurt."
Lenne sighed. "I guess I understand a little. I shouldn't be nosy. I'm sorry." She smiled at him. "You are a cryptic bastard, you know that?"
"Yup."
"Oh well, guess that insult doesn't work." She got up and grinned down at him. "But unluckily for you, now I'm gonna hang around you more often. I met you and Momiji first, yet I hardly hang out with you. See ya." 'Dammit. I guess none of the Sohma's can tell me anything, and Tohru's living with them. I should just ignore it...'
Turning down an empty hallway, she jumped slightly as her mini-computer, which she fondly named Stupid Piece Of Junk after it alerted some demons to her position once (Spoj for short), played its little jingle. Sometimes she referred to it as her personal little singing minion, when she wasn't cursing at it. "I need to change that. It sounds like an ice cream jingle. Doodoodoo do do do-do-do-do-do-do-dooo..." She continued humming as she opened the screen and clicked the flashing icon.
"Lenne, I need you to... Stop humming that god-forsaken jingle!" Annoyance flashed across Artemis' face.
"Don't you mean goddess forsaken, because you have forsaken it? No wait, Apollo is represented as the god of medicine and music, since doesn't he own the Muses or something. But then again, Pan is like the mini-god of music, but he doesn't have his own singing minions--"
"Lenne! We can discuss who is god over what later!" Lenne must of sensed something was wrong, or else she got tired of being annoying, because she shut her mouth immediatly. "Thank you. Now, congratualations on the capture of the escaped demons last night. He was a low A-class demon, but you defeated him after a couple minutes." Lenne batted her eyelashes playfully. "T'weren't nothing but my duty, missus."
"Uh-huh. The innocent look works for you, but since I know you so well, it's creepy. Come to my garden after school, you have the day off, I checked, and we need to discuss that subject a little more."
"That's just code for you want to pound my ass into the ground and call it training, like you always do." Artemis copied Lenne's earlier playful look and voice. "T'isn't nuthin' but my duty, lil' missy."
"Just now I realize how annoying that is. Doesn't mean I'm going to stop."
"Yes, well, I called you not just to congratulate you and act like an idiot."
"Isn't that how you usually act?" Lenne slipped into a dark, empty classroom, not noticing a pile of clothing stacked in a back corner. Neither did she notice the orange cat that looked up startled, or the way it seemed to notice who she was. She sat on top of a desk, idily tracing 'Makoto heart Yuki'. "So, what do you want."
"Hera's coming to visit you." Lenne looked at her questioningly. "Hera, the woman who makes you get an assistant? Why would she want to see me?"
"She doesn't believe you're right for the job, due to your playful mannerisms."
"WHAT!" Lenne finally noticed the cat when it jumped from the loudness of her voice and hit its head on a desk. "Oh, you poor thing." She walked over to it, and cradled it in her arms as it tried to stop the world from spinning. "What are you doing in here kitty?" She sat back down and set the feline in her lap before picking Spoj back up. "Yes, dogo on." She saw Artemis sweatdrop.
"My my, you're calm now. Well, Hera's going to pick a human disguise, and go down to Earth. I don't know when, she banished me to my garden for an indefinite amount of time." She ignored Lenne snickering, "You got grounded".
"She can choose any disguise she wants, and may watch you from afar, or approach you. She may tell you who she is, or stay in her false persona. Just act like you normally do, but do your job."
"Well, shouldn't I be able to sense her goddess energy? I've been training that."
"Hera is indeterminably powerful. She's been alive since almost the beginning of time. You're still a novice when it comes to your spirit energy. After three and a half months since you first became my assistant, you can sense B-class demons, humans to a certain degree, and you can only detect divine beings energy if they're not disguising it or sloppily covering it. That's a lot of progress from where you first started, barely being able to sense the lowest class demon, but you still need more training."
"And of course she's going to disguise it, and most likely berate me for not being able to tell, or you for not training me more."
"Yup. None of my assistants have ever been good enough for her, so don't feel insulted. Feel happy she put you on level with all the others and not a lower one."
"If you insist," Lenne said, rubbing the cats belly when it tried to get away. It immediatly stopped wriggling, and started purring, snuggling closer to her hand. She giggled. "Silly little kitty. First you act so tempermental, then your putty as soon as someone gives you a good belly rub. Huh, you act like Orangey, though I don't know how he'd react to have his stomach scratched." She amused herself to imagining Kyo's face, then moved on to her other friends.
"Lenne. Leeee-eeenne. LENNE!" Artemis yelled in exasperation. Lenne and the cat jumped. "WHAT?"
"Oh, never mind! Just be at my garden after school. Now hurry up, lunch is ending and homeroom's going to start in a couple minutes." Her face disappeared with a little >beee-oop as the computer screen blacked out.
"Goodbye Artemis, it was nice talking to you. Oh, I'll see you later. Okay, I'll say hi to Ryoko for you," Lenne muttered, pocketing Spoj in her. She eased the kitty off her lap. "See you later, kitty."
The cat hardly seemed to notice her absence as it lamented the warmth, before a cloud of smoke surrounded it and the cat turned into a naked sixteen year old orange haired boy. "Why the hell did I let her scratch my stomach?" Kyo questioned aloud as he got dressed. 'Stupid clumsy first year, if she hadn't tripped, I wouldn't of turned into a cat. Then Lenne had to discover my hiding place, and act like every other teenage girl. Who knew she liked cats?' His thoughts turned to Lenne's conversation on a ... a mirror. 'I knew that girl was weird.' His fiery eyes narrowed. 'If that doesn't scream secret, then I'm a disciple of Shigure.' He shuddered at the thought. "That's creepy."
He didn't notice the mechanical bug on the wall, even though it had a flashing red light on its back, or hear the whirr of it flying off to report to its master.
Yuki walked through the park, looking for the spot Hana told him about. As he finally turned around a maple tree and stepped into the clearing, he was surprised to see not only Hanajima and Arisa, but Haru and Kyo as well.
"Yuki," Haru greeted him, latching himself to the older boys' side. "Hello, Haru," he said back distractedly.
"We called you here to discuss Lenne," Hana said, with her usual absence of pre-amble.
"Yeah. She's a nice kid and everything, but you get the feeling she's hiding something, ya know?" Arisa sat lounged against a tree, painting her nails a vivid crimson.
"Of course the kid's suspicious! She was talking through a damn mirror!" Kyo exclaimed, ignoring the 'you are totally loony' looks he got, and somehow even ignored the 'you stupid cat' look Yuki gave him. He told them about Lenne's conversation, extracting the part about him being a cat.
"Whoa. That is strange," Arisa said, absently putting a fourth coat on her nails.
"Arisa, three coats should be enough," Hana pointed out. "Her energy has been mildly fluctuating for the past half-month. I should of guessed something suspicious was going on. The only question now is if she is a danger to Tohru-kun." She looked to the side pointedly. "Right now she's over there. It seems the talking to the mirror part is true."
Lenne was indeed standing about fifty feet away, talking to a mirror. She lowered it slightly and looked around, like she knew someone was watching her. She looked startled as a loud noise came from her mirror, and she just waved her hand at it like a dismissal and said something. Then a small silver ball floated down from the sky, and Lenne held out her hand to it. As soon as she touched it, she disappeared. No slowly fading, no flashy lights, just gone. If you blinked, you would miss it.
The group was silent. "Well... now that is definately strange."
Artemis was lounging on a rock as Lenne appeared in her garden. She watched her assistant shake her head and stumble a little. "I don't think I could ever get used to that. It would make a good carnical ride though."
"Lenne, dahling, so good to see you," Artemis drawled, in a false accent.
"Oh, reeeeally Artemis, you flatterer you," Lenne responded, using the same accent, softening her 'r's. "Is this the greeting I get after you're rather abrupt goodbye? You certainly know how to make it up to a girl."
Artemis laughed as Lenne did an overly exaggerated swagger, miming holding a cigarette and champagne glass. "Jeez, if I didn't know better, I'd say you were experianced. You aren't, are you?"
"Oh, I don't know. My mind is clouded by the enormous volumes of alcohol I inhale every night at the night clubs I go to in the red light district. Oh dear, whatever shall I do?"
"Just sit down." Lenne sprawled by Artemis' rock. "Tea?"
"Nah, I'm okay. So what do you want?"
"Just a minute. Sadi, could you get me some tea? The special type they make specially at that one shop in Ningenkai?" The girl bowed, and disappeared.
"Jeez, I didn't think you were one of those 'I must have whatever that is from one specific place or else' types."
"I'm not. But you can only get that specific tea from that shop if you want it to taste good."
"Riiiight. Like it's not drugged or anything."
"Right. New subject. About the demon fighting escapades. Remember when I first told you about there being other gods, not just the Greek ones?"
"Um, yeah. I think that was when you first said I was to be your assistant?"
"Yes. Well, as you know, someone always is the boss of someone else. My uncle Hades is ruler of the dead. But the realm of the dead is quite big, since all dead souls since the beginning of humans and demons are sent there after they die. Even with re-incarnated souls, there are still millions." She shifted her weight to lounge more comfortably.
"The realm of the dead, also known as Reikai, is a large and complex operation. Hades is the big boss, and all ultimate decisions come to him. Now, off course there are going to be smaller problems. These go to his underlings. Enma is one of Hades sons. He rules over the Japanese Spirit Division and the Reikai Vault. The vault is one of the most guarded places anywhere. It's only been broken into once, by two of the best thieves ever.
"The Japanese Spirit Division consists of the judgement and placement of souls. King Enma's son, Koenma, does most of the paper work for that. Koenma has been placed in charge of a small division devoted to the capture and living regulations for dangerous creatures that come to Ningenkai. If there is a soul floating around causing damage that hasn't been caught by one of the ferry girls, or a demon, Koenma is in charge of apprehending them. He also is the one that gives permission for demons or half-demons to reside anywhere but the Makai."
"Um, ferry girls? Please tell me this Koenma dude doesn't have his own personal harem."
"No no, nothing like that! The ferry girls are daughters, grand-daughters, cousins, nieces, nephews, sons, and basically any relation of Hermes that wants to be a ferrier. Charons relatives are ferriers too. He's taking a millenium long vacation currently." Sadi reappeared with the tea. "Ah, thank you Sadi." The girl bowed and left.
"So, these ferriers could be gods or goddesses instead of ferriers?" Lenne asked, looking at her increadiously.
"Well, not gods exactly, more like inhabitants of Olympus and Reikai. They could be police forces in Reikai, keeping the souls under control, or followers of any god or goddess they wish. Hermes favorite great-great-great-grandniece, Botan, is in charge of all the ferriers in the Japanese division of the Spirit World.
"Now, getting back to Koenma. Since he deals with the dangerous creatures that come out of Makai or Reikai into Ningenkai, and has all that paper work to do, he doesn't have time to capture the criminals himself." She sipped her tea, and cleared her throat before continuing. "The ferriers and the ogres under his command wouldn't be able to catch them, so he has been allowed a Spirit Detective, like you're my assistant. Hera stole the idea from Hades.
"Now, Koenma's spirit team has evolved from one human, to the original human, who we discovered was a half-demon, a human, and the two demon thieves who were the only ones to break into the Reikai vault. The Reikai Tantei."
Lenne blinked. "Well damn. I don't have a team." She sighed and waved it off. "No no, it doesn't really matter. I'll live without one, possibly. But really, I thought you guys knew everything, and here it is that you didn't know that Koenma's detective was a half-demon until recently."
Artemis blushed. "It wasn't like it was common knowledge!" She protested. "We know now and that's what matters. But really, Koenma's just pig-headed. After he found his detective was half-demon, he wanted to arrest him for being dangerous! Jeez, it's not like he's ever done anyhting to conciously destroy Reikai, Makai, or Ningenkai." She rubbed her temples and took a deep breath. "But now he's back with the Reikai Tantei, though he's still being monitored. The reason I relied so heavily on you to apprehend these demons was because between the time the detective found out about his heritage to the time he was finally allowed to continue with his normal everyday life, the demons and wayward spirits decided to take advantage in the lull of security. Now that the Reikai Tantei has been re-instated, your workload should lighten considerably."
Lenne made a whining noise. "But that means I have to do more emotional cases." Artemis grinned at the pouting girl.
"Aww, poor baby." She patted her assistants head fondly. Lenne irratibly shook it off. "How's the Sohma case going?"
"Still confusing! I keep finding all these little hints that confuse me more." She pulled out Spoj and opened the file marked 'Sohma family secret'. "It has something to do with hugging. Many of the Sohma's are oblivious to the family secret. It only affects certain members. It seems these certain members usually go to an all-girl or -boy school, depending on their gender, which means that it has something to do with the avoidance of the opposite sex. They seem to regard this as some sort of curse. Maybe I should change the file name to 'Sohma family curse'? But of course..."
"Lenne, concentrate on the matter at hand."
"Yeah yeah. There's not much about this curse in general. I only know a few of the cursed members. Sohma's Yuki, Kyo, Ayame, Shigure, Kisa, and Haru. I think Momiji might be one, but I'm not sure. Honda Tohru seems to know their secret." She sighed. "This is all equaling one major headache. Why do I even need to find out their secret? It's there own personal buisness."
"I recently spoke with Cassandra's spirit."
"Who are you talking about?"
"Cassandra. She was a prophet in early Greece. Apollo gifted her with the power of the sight, but when she refused to love him, he cursed her so no one would believe her."
"Okay, so you went to see Cassandra's spirit, and you believe her too?"
"Well, she was cursed that no one would ever believe her as long as she lived, and she's no longer living. But she was blessed to always have the sight. She told me that you need to find out the Sohma's secret because it would be important later on."
"And that importance would include?"
"Sorry, can't tell you. You're supposed to figure it out yourself." She laughed at Lenne's sour expression. "Fate works in mysterious ways."
"Fate works to confuse and irritate people." Lenne stood up and stretched the kinks out of her back. Artemis winced at a particularly loud pop. "Oh, come on. It doesn't hurt as bad as it sounds. You of all people should know that."
"I still don't like listening to it." She shook her head as Lenne's laughter faded into the distance as she disappeared back to Ningenkai. "I wonder how she'd react if she knew how everyone was going to find out her secret."
Momiji wandered through the halls of the school, looking for Lenne. It had been three days since Lenne had asked Haru what had happened. He remembered Haru coming back to the main house with a strange expression and more silent than usual.
'I wonder what's wrong with him. It's like something happened when he went out earlier. Yuki and Kyo had the same expressions on their face.'
He continued on his way after a group of first years squealed over how adorable he was 'with his little hat', and 'how cute he looked in the girls uniform', and 'his soft looking golden hair and could he tell them how he got it like that?'
He was distracted when there was a 'Doodoodoo do do do-do-do-do-do-do-dooo...' coming from an empty classroom, and some grumbling. Curious, he opened the door a little. Unfortunately, at the same time, the inhabitant of the classroom opened the door, and Momiji fell on them. "Momiji-chan?" He heard Lenne's voice as the usual cloud popped up. When the smoke cleared, he saw Lenne, looking surprised, with hair hanging in her face, holding him up.
Before either of them could speak, a noise from Lenne's backpack distracted them. 'Ding-ding-ding Congratulations, you've discovered 'Sohma Momiji's' secret.'
Ooh, cliffie! You'll all have to wait to figure out what happens next! bursts into hysterical laughter
Gil: Well yes, that's typically what a cliffie imply's.
Lynx: Shut up, or we find out how much you and Kyo are alike.
Kyo: I still can't believe you were rubbing my stomach...
Lynx: Ya know you liked it. pounces on Kyo and proceeds to rub his stomach
Gil: -sweatdrops- Uhm, aren't you supposed to thank the reviewers?
Lynx: You're a big boy. -turns to Kyo- Yes you are, huh, you're a big boy...
Gil: Damn her.
Matron Raenee: That's because the authoress is a moron. But at least she's written at least a third of chapter five already.
phantomess13: Thank you for reviewing her story, even though she is a moron and-- Lynx pounces on him and finishes the thanking And I'm grateful for the singing minion idea! We're all insane, some of us are just more open about it than others. Me for instance.
Lynx: By the way, do you guys think you can help me with the genre? I'm horrible at that type of thing. See if you can guess what this is a crossover with yet. It's sorta obvious if you watch the show or read the manga...