Quote of the week: "Now, kids, don't ever let your parents get away with telling you that radiation is bad. Just look at me!" - Mr. Grace (this is right before he had the spasm/fit, mind you.)

Grim: ... ::looks around:: ...crap. I thought I escaped from that girl...

KKC: pops up Oh, no, no... Grimmy, the readers missed you.

Grim: ::sighs:: You had writer's block again, didn't you?

KKC: - -;; shaddap.

Sunlight; damn... any minute now, Shizuru was going to rip off the sheets, tell him to make himself useful, and kick him out of the apartment.

Yep... any second now; you just had to wait.

Aaaaannnyyyy second...

"Hm?" He cocked one eye open, and almost yelped as bright sunlight assaulted his vision. Kuwabara whipped his head around, sending empty soda cans and snack food wrappers flying, and almost fell out onto the tie-dye-colored rug that ran down the bus aisle. There was a slight rustle above his head, somewhere on the seat between Jin and Holly, and a small cat landed on his head, staring into Kuwabara's eyes with his own green ones.

"Mornin', bucko."

"Ergh..." The redhead rolled his eyes, but was hoping no one else had been awake to notice what had just happened.

(Of course, all the while, Hiei was sitting quietly in his seat, hearing everything and snickering silently to himself in his mind.)

"So, Kuwabara, where's that bone-head of a dog of yours, eh? I haven't seen him around the entire trip up here."

"He's sleeping. What's it to you?" With a grunt, Kuwabara grabbed hold of his chair's armrest and yanked himself to his feet; the blue blanket was tangled around his ankles, and he irritatedly unwound them. The canine skeleton was tucked away in the overhead compartment, sleeping inside his backpack, next to his CD player. If anything, the tiny kitten had plans to torment poor Bones (after all, the skeleton wasn't the brightest of the bunch); it would be a waste of time to let the two go at it again.

Grabbing the kitten by the scruff of the neck, Kuwabara plopped back down in his seat and stared out the window. The empty void had changed to country scenery sometime during the night, and he couldn't make heads or tails of where he was. No familiar landmarks, no signs... he hoped the driver knew where they were going.

Crap... the driver! He was awake, right? Right?!

"Kyuro, go see if the driver's awake, now!"

The cat gave him a look that plainly said that "The Great" Kyuro didn't have to do anything Kuwabara "the Oaf" told him to. "It's obvious he's awake, numbskull," the cat drawled, letting his voice almost drop to a hiss on 'numbskull'. "If he wasn't, we wouldn't have seen the sun rise."

Okay, now the kitten was getting annoying. And he thought he liked cats...

"Yeah, whatever. I'm gonna go back to sleep." With a mumble, Kuwabara reclined his seat back and dozed off. Kyuro's furry face twisted into a sneer, and the cat trotted down the bus aisle; perhaps Mara would be an entertaining target...

Looking out the window, seeing all the other buses pull up, Yusuke couldn't help but laugh. Although his own bus was irritating to the eyes on the inside, the flaming skulls and black color weren't as totally ridiculous as some of the other vehicles; in front of their bus was a bright pink one, with (but, no, it couldn't be) dancing penguins painted on the sides; behind them was a silver one with see-through panels that showed the gears and machinations of the bus. A dark blue coach bus with a mural of what Yusuke supposed was a Sealord (a giant whale with eight sets of fins and six eyes) pulled up next to his bus, and he barely managed to make out the muted shadows moving behind the blue-tinted windows.

These guys had way too much time on their hands.

The drive in front of the main office was crowded, if not with vehicles and teachers, then with the steady flow of incoming students. The doors opened, accompanied by a whoosh of fresh air, air that had no taste of pollutants to it. Everyone was suddenly in a rush; bags that were strewn in the above compartments were hastily collected; all the passengers seemed to be up and moving at the same time; the bus was rapidly emptying. He was drawn out into the front drive, his muscles sore and joints stiff, and grabbed his bag when someone tossed it out to him from the open storage compartment beneath the bus.

Someone tapped his shoulder, and the spirit detective nearly turned around in a full circle before he caught sight of a passing Kurama, and he ran over to the fox. Kurama had managed to worm his way into a fairly empty pocket in the crowd; Hiei, Rogerik, and Kuwabara were already waiting among the numerous humans, youkai, and spirits. Mara circled overhead, chirping and mewing, while Holly and Jin floated above their heads.

"So... anyone have any idea what's going on?" Holly dipped her broom lower, to eye-level with the tantei and Rogerik. "I mean, I doubt there's going to be a clear and set schedule after what happened last year..."

"I say we find a teacher." Kyuro piped up, poking his furry mug out from Holly's messenger bag, and Jin nodded in agreement. "Good luck, then. I can't see anyone I recognize... eh?"

Rogerik looked up as Jin stared over the crowd, watching the shinobi's ears twitch. "What is it?"

"Well, I'll be..."

"What?"

The wind youkai didn't answer, and, instead, zoomed off, avoiding collision with many a winged student. The earth-bound roommates shared exasperated glances, and fought their way through the crowd, careful to keep the demon's brilliant red hair in view.

Finally, it looked as though they had nearly reached Jin, as the wind master was just floating in the air just beyond a large oak tree, when a blur of crimson shot out from nowhere and tackled Kurama, sending the fox sprawling on the cobblestones.

"Kurama-kun! Where've you been, buddy-o-mine?" The blur righted itself, and floated a few inches off the ground, auburn hair flying and two ruby-red blurs protruding from her back; a fairy. To be more precise: Aki.

"Ah, Aki... please, don't tackle me next time..." Kurama forced a smile, and got to his feet, only to have the foliage fairy cling onto his waist (much to the sweat-dropping amusement to the others). She hadn't changed much during the summer, although her once translucent wings, whose shape resembled that of a dragonfly's, were a deep scarlet.

"But I missed you soooooo much!"

"Oi, did I miss something?" the familiar accent was hoarsely whispered into his ear, and Yusuke grinned. "Not a thing. But, hey, where'd you go?"

Jin leaned back a bit, and cracked his knuckles, then sat in his usual cross-legged manner. "Thought I saw something weird... but Shikyo-sensei told us to hurry onto our dorms; classes start tomorrow, you know."

"So soon? Whatta pain..." Yusuke grumbled. Kurama, meanwhile, had been released from Aki's bear hug. Already, you could hear the shriek of another girl as the fairy tackled her.

Hiei, no doubt annoyed by the interlude, grumbled out, "No use wasting our time here. Let's go." From up above, the white dragonling alighted upon Hiei's shock of black hair, and whistled in agreement.

It was as if they had never left.

The house and shutters were still as purple as ever, and the same violet pansies that were growing in May were still in the window planters. Out front, the plum tree cast shade upon the dark green lawn, that plums in its boughs riper than when they had left, but that was perhaps the only change.

Again, just as if no time had passed, Lark had bounded down the stairs, her black hair wildly flying behind her, stormy eyes bright; Koryu had stuck his rat-like muzzle through the kitchen window, and him and Yusuke had begun their usual glaring match. Kyuro, wasting none of his precious time, had already curled up on the headrest of Kurama's unofficial armchair, and Bones (who had burst out of Kuwabara's bag and reassembled himself as soon as the house was in view) was now sprawled in front of the lifeless fireplace. Erika had encompassed each of them in a rib-crushing hug, even Hiei, and offered to take their bags, to which each of them declined.

And then, in the tantei's room, Yusuke had immediately acted upon the four's unspoken truce and got out the roll of duct tape, separating the room into four equal sections. Kuwabara and Yusuke took only enough time to assemble the duct tape and toss their bags on their respective beds (Hiei hadn't even bothered to go upstairs, seeing as he had no luggage) before running back downstairs, but Kurama hung back. There were bags to be unpacked and such.

"Kurama?" Ah, how could he ever forget her voice? It was so questioning, yet light and flowing, much like the very element she controlled. Feigning surprise, the redhead turned from the bureau and, with just one look into her dark blue eyes, a genuine smile came across his face. "Lyra, you look well."

An understatement, in his humble opinion; the girl had apparently just gotten out of the shower, since her long black braid was dripping water onto the carpet. The Admarant sister was dressed plainly in baggy jeans and a tie-dye T-shirt that was a few sizes too big for her (and reminded the fox of the bus' eye-straining interior). It was true, that saying about even the plainest things could be beautiful.

"Kurama!" Lyra ran forwards, expecting to hug the teen tightly around the waist in welcome, but a bright green flash of feathers appeared between the two and darted into the Kurama's hair. The fox yelped, anxiously untangling the small parrot from his crimson locks, and manage to catch the apologetic look on Lyra's face from between his bangs and the lovebird's furiously beating wings. The moment dreadfully ruined, Kurama stopped struggling with Salvatore and patiently waited as Lyra unclenched the last footholds of hair from her pet's grasp.

"I'm so sorry, Kurama. Salvatore's been a brat lately." The fox's green eyes were shadowed underneath his hair, and for a moment she stared at him awkwardly as he just stood there in silence. Then, a few small chuckles were heard, and soon both of them were laughing out loud.

"HEY! LOLLYGAGGERS! GIT DOWN HERE!" The shout reverberated throughout the house, startling both Lyra and Kurama out of their seemingly never-ending laughter. With a screech of protest, Salvatore took position on top of Lyra's head and flared out his wings. The water manipulator sighed and both her and Kurama trudged down the stairs.

In the kitchen, Erika had mysteriously produced a rather large cake, big enough to serve the entire household. And, of course, who should holler up the stairs at the top of her lungs, than Rachel. Things were never going to change around here; even amid the living hell the new headmistress' job had become with the new school year, she would always find some way to incorporate herself into their home life. No matter how much screaming and yelling it would take.

"Oi, fox-boy, do you want chocolate or vanilla?" Jin lifted a plate with a slice of cake on it above his head, and nearly jumped as a small bird flitted in through the kitchen window and landed on the plate, pecking nimbly away at the slice of cake balanced over the demon's head.

"Eh, oh, just you..." The wind master's grin slowly drooped as another sparrow flew in through the window... then another... and another... until, all in all, there were seven of them perched upon Jin's head and outstretched arm. The first one, now full with cake, hopped down and peered into Jin's sky-blue eyes, then gave the demon a peck on the nose and flew outside, followed by his entourage.

"Well, looks like someone's been busy over the summer..." Kyuro dryly commented, and jumped onto the kitchen island, trotting confidently across towards the cake. The cat had crouched down, back quarters wiggling in anticipation of a lengthy leap to his witch's shoulder, when a dull thunk sounded from somewhere behind him. All the cat could see was a glint of golden-orange scales before an eel-like animal clamped its sharp little jaws onto his tail; the yowl was enough to echo throughout the house, and it took both Lark and Holly to set the kitten to rights. Lark had pried the viciously carnivorous fish back into it's little two-gallon tank and leaned over the tank cover, trying to keep it from escaping its watery prison yet again; meanwhile, Holly was busy soothing her familiar's abused tail.

"Jumped right out and grabbed me... I could have died..."

"Calm down, Kyuro; you're being a cry baby..." The witch winced as Kyuro yowled again, and she nearly dropped the ice pack Lyra had fetched for her from the freezer. The cat looked at her balefully, and she stubbornly applied the ice again, ignoring the hissed curses.

Lark took the time to latch the cover down, then thought better of it and fetched a roll of tape from the counter drawer. After taping it down considerably, the younger girl managed to keep the smile on her face.

"Don't mind that; viciously fanged goldfish and all that." The fish bared its sharp fangs at her, and she blatantly ignored it, instead offering a plate of cake to her sister and the fox.

"So... want some cake?"

Next chapter will be longer, I promise. sighs and flips through calendar I'm soooo behind... x.x

Preview-thingy!

Finally, classes begin! Let's relish the return of Suzuki and Shikyo!

You can run from Aki, but you can never hide. o o;;

And who's this strange new kid?

Now, review, and you shall receive cake!