Quote of the Week: "The first human being who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization." -Sigmund Freud
::hands over piece of figurative cake to Shikyo-buddy:: just wanna have your cake, and eat it too, doncha? ::grumbles:: Oh, yeah, bad things do happen when Hanabi blacks out; an interesting plot twist for later.
Oh, Embyrflame, Ebbster, thanks. Can't wait to read your stuff when you guys post it. And thanks to Yusukefan07. I'll try.
Yes, I am well aware of strange hair coloring in anime; at least I'm not to the point whee green is considered normal. O o Also, there isn't a plot hole just yet. Patience, my friend, patience.
Azuredragoness, I can just think what's going through your head. I'll save that idea for next WoT.
::stares at Pegacorn's WoT suggestion, and an evil grin slowly spreads over face:: Oh, Yusuke!
Yusuke: o o;; ::hides under figurative table:: The things you writers come up with these days...
Grimoire: Be brave, Yusuke. How bad could it be?
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He looked up, at the three demons blocking the doorway, and his spirits sank. One of them, with wildly wind-blown hair and red-brown eyes, sauntered up the row between the books and casually leaned against the bookshelf. Rogerik pretended not to notice, and busied himself with a rather large tome about kekkai barriers, but even the merest pulse from the demon that was sneering over his shoulder was enough to frazzle his nerves -- it was surely enough tension to make the thief jump when the demon calmly asked, "So, how long has it been since our last little run-in?"
Not long enough...
But he couldn't say that, not with Suichirio and Satoshi watching from just a few meters away. Better play like he always did; back down and show the white flag, then hope Gomo was feeling merciful. "Not since last December, I think."
He could have added more, much more; about how Yusuke and Kurama had sent Gomo and his two buddies flying, the fact that the trio had never popped up again ever since Hiei had taken them on... actually, last he heard, weren't the three of them missing from school? They might've not have been the worst bunch at the academy, but the three demons definitely weren't on the honors list.
"Uh-huh... well, isn't this a surprise then?" Gomo's face took on the semblance of a smirk, and Rogerik could sense the magnification of auras - the demon was checking the library for any allies that Rogerik might have hidden away - and then the smirk became nearly gleeful. "Tell me, ol' buddy," Rogerik felt the rough hands grab the back of his collar, drag him to his feet, and the claws barely pressing down against the back of his neck. Any more pressure, and there would be blood.
"How is it in the freak house? They treating you well there? I would hate for anything horrible to happen." Sarcasm, no doubt. When he didn't answer, he felt his neck twisting - but surely Gomo wouldn't be stupid enough to attempt to attack in the middle of a student-filled library, would he? Better not put anything past him.
No, the demon was just making sure that Rogerik could see every last shred of hate and wickedness in those brown-red eyes. Clearing his throat, the thief looked back with his own, irises the same color and feeling of cool moss, and managed to smile a little. "Just a little jealous, Gomo-chan?"
The demon's eyes narrowed, a confused and angry scowl appeared on his face, and Rogerik felt something heavy connect with his head as the world spun around in a blur.
Hm... hardcover wasn't so much of an exaggeration when it came to the older novels...
"Still have that mouth, eh?" The throbbing in his head increased as he was roughly seized by the collar again and lifted up; he tasted something bitter and metallic in his mouth. Great, he had probably gotten his lip split...
It was funny how others thought he had helped chase away that menace from last summer, how some thought he was some sort of hero who fought away monsters. Not in the least, he wasn't. Where had he been when Cecilia had appeared? In a cozy little office looking at a painting like he was in some stupid art gallery. Mind you, that was before the butler-from-hell and Givanni's ingenious unveiling, but he hadn't done anything...
From over Gomo's shoulder, he saw Suichiro gain the sudden expression that death was coming his way and nothing could be done to stop it, then a fist connected with the demon's face and he went sprawling on the floor. Another punch, and Satoshi met the same fate, and standing in the aisle, behind Gomo, was a very angry Yusuke.
Well, angry was a gentle way to put it -- in truth, the spirit detective looked pretty pissed.
"Well, if things just don't get better and better. First Ryo piles me with ten pages of Latin verbs, then I get stuck with Chrysanthemum for a study partner, and now I have to beat your demonic little rears again."
Gomo didn't even have the chance to unlatch his grip on Rogerik's collar before the demon was grabbed roughly by the neck and collarbone, and then thrown over Yusuke's shoulder and into another bookshelf. Gomo seemed a bit bruised and stunned, but otherwise unhurt, until the shelf groaned and the books that were precariously balanced upon it avalanched onto the demon.
Rogerik stood up from where he had slipped on the library's tile floor, and stared at the collar of his button-down shirt in mild disgust. The demon's claws had left a few tiny tears in the fabric, and the collar button had been torn off. Lovely.
With one look at the simmering Yusuke, however, the thief forgot about the shirt entirely and his green eyes took on a meek look. "Uh..."
"Look, how many times are you going to let that goon walk all over you?"
"Well, I-" Rogerik ran a hand through his hair, trying to keep the bangs out of his eyes, but Yusuke whapped him upside the head. It didn't quite hurt, persay, but it did catch him off guard. "Hey!"
"Look, you're going to learn how to kick that guy's ass-" Yusuke pointed over at the pile of books ten feet behind him. "-Even if it kills me. You got that?"
"Y-yes, Yusuke."
"Excuse me?" The brown eyes glinted, and Rogerik hastily (and jokingly) corrected himself.
"Yes sir, oh great Yusuke-sensei?" The spirit detective lazily gave Rogerik a one-eyed glare, but let it slide and gave him a punch on the arm. Turning and bending down to get his bag from the tile floor, he waved his hand at the thief. "C'mon you."
Rogerik hurried after Yusuke, the book he had been reading before forgotten, and matched step with his roommate.
The pawn was in play, and only a few weeks left to get everything set. Guilt had its place, but he supposed apologies could wait until later. Most importantly, was the fact that he learned how to fight so that his self-proclaimed teacher didn't get in his way later.
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"Well, I'll admit she's fairly healthy, Hiei." Yukimi patted Mara on her head, ruffling the dragonling's feathery mane in the process. The researcher flipped through a small notebook, the one she had kept track in since Mara had hatched, and pursed her lips, chewing thoughtfully on the end of her pen. "There is one thing that bothers me, though; she hasn't grown much - if at all - from when you left for the human world in June."
"So you're thinking the human world halted her growth rate?" The fire demon stood in the living room doorway. An understandable position, really, considering the thickness of the dust clouds that were beginning to filter into the room; Yukimi sighed, and closed the living room door. The working group she had assembled had specifically told her that re-shingling the roof would be a strictly dust-free project. Unless maybe one of the worn-out chimneys had collapsed again -- if so, she hoped that the destruction hadn't been too bad.
"No, that's not quite it." She came back to the couch and sat down, feeling the smooth skin of the young dragon as Mara perched on her bare arm and wrapped her tail around Yukimi's wrist and fingers. "I think it's more like an adaptation, really. She knows you can't be seen in the human world, so she tries to stay as inconspicuous as possible. You should thank her."
"Maaa!" Mara nodded her head at her 'mother' and searched in the bag by Yukimi's side for any possible treats. Hiei sullenly looked on from his spot on the opposite side of the room and shrugged. "Well, if that's all..."
"Uh-huh... but I think her growth will spike up again soon, just start growing that flower garden of yours for the winter." The dragon researcher managed a grin; despite the dark scowl Hiei gave her. Yukimi coughed, and quickly tried to change the subject. "In any case, tell me if she's starting to look sickly or malnourished. And I want to keep on with her weekly appointments." She gave Mara a small kiss on the nose, hugging the slender neck quickly, then tossed the white dragonling into the air, where Mara took wing and made her way to Hiei's shock of black hair.
The youkai looked thoroughly disgusted at the display of affection for his charge, and glared, then disappeared into the shadows. No doubt he was outside the house by now, and Yukimi hurried to the window to yell out at him.
"Stop doing that Star Trek phase-thingy! You'll probably damage her brain with all that jerking around- ack!" Another cloud of reddish-dust floated down, and the researcher ducked back inside to try and rid her mouth of the stone and soot flavor.
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Embyr timidly stepped out of her charms and enchantments class, trying her best to shrink away so her older classmates wouldn't notice her. To tell the truth, most of the older students didn't mind so much; some thought it cute she was so smart, others just blandly accepted the fact that she was good at what she did. But there was one girl... she had been plain nasty to Embyr, not that the young kitsune knew why.
There she was now, lounging against the wall, idly chatting with some other girls, demon and human alike -- and she was in the direct path to Embyr's next class. Embyr didn't really want to be late, but she had heard some pretty nasty things about this girl, and didn't want to be on the receiving end of her malice. With a sigh, the white-haired fox looked out the glass doors, and trudged outside; she could always go around, she supposed. Luckily, her next class was her last for the day, and then she could go back to her dorm; she had an interesting book she had hidden underneath her pillow, loath to bring it to class because she knew it would distract her enough for her to pull it out and read it in the middle of class.
She had just about gotten halfway to the tower for her beginner's Latin class with Ryo-sensei when she heard a twig crack behind her. Just a second later, a slender hand was clutched onto her shoulder, the manicured nails digging into her collarbone most unpleasantly. "Well, it isn't the little rat?"
Embyr was about to correct the much older girl, but decided it would be in the better interest of her own health to stay as meek as possible. It wouldn't be hard to slap a paralyzation spell on the girl, since her guard was down, but it would take a few seconds to build up power in the blank slip of paper, and her best bet to buy time was to play the victim.
"Helen, what do you think you're doing?"
"Ah-uh..." Helen spun around, and faked a smile. "Just making sure little Embyr-chan knew how to get to her next class, Kurama-kun."
Embyr-chan... Sickening how the wench called her that...
Embyr looked up at her savior, a noticeably handsome boy with crimson-colored hair and soft green eyes. Right now, though, those eyes were expressing something between pity and annoyance. "I'm sure I can take it from here. You should get to class, Helen."
"Of course, Kurama! See you later!" Helen flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder and ran off, Embyr watching her retreat balefully. When she looked back, Kurama was kneeling down next to her. "Are you okay? Helen can be quite vicious if given the chance."
"I'm fine." Embyr held onto her bag a little more tightly, eyes narrowed slightly. There was a strange aura around this boy; not necessarily bad, but... different.
"Kurama, was that Helen just now?" Kurama looked over to the speaker, and Embyr followed his gaze. Another girl, shorter than Kurama by about four or five inches, and her long black hair tied back in a braid, looked back questioningly at the running blonde, and Kurama shrugged. "She was just being herself, I suppose."
Embyr took a good look at the new girl, who was fairly okay looking. Besides the black hair, she had dark blue eyes and was wearing a long-sleeved blouse and a long gray skirt made out of some material that looked like flowing water. The new girl kneeled down, the skirt rippling around her legs and ankles, and smiled serenely at the kitsune.
"Hi, I'm Lyra."
"I'm, uh, Embyr." Embyr nervously waved, and Kurama gave the two an approving smile. "I'm Kurama, as I'm sure you've heard. Now that introductions are out of the way, which class are you going to?"
"Latin, taught by Ryo-sensei. I already know where the class is, though." She looked down at her feet while under Lyra's calm expression, and scuffed the dirt. "Well, I hope you don't mind if we tag along, Embyr." The white-haired kitsune shook her head no, and walked between Lyra and Kurama down the brick pathway. Ancient trees, still clothes in their emerald-green leaves, lined and shaded the pathway. From up ahead, Embyr could see a flash of red above the treetops, and then the far away sounds of an argument and someone laughing in return. The red blur halted enough for Embyr to make out the shape of a young woman with auburn hair and ruby-colored wings, and she heard Kurama sigh next to her.
"Aki... just lovely." The fox seemed to brace himself for impact, eyes on the fairy hovering nearly forty feet above the ground, and Lyra sweatdropped. "With luck, she might not notice you..."
Embyr listened in silence, and instead looked up towards the trees. The fairy did a complex loop-de-loop and made some sort of hand gesture to a group of boys on the ground below her, then buzzed over the trees. Kurama's terse stature quickly went slack, and all three stared up at the scene before them.
As the fairy, Aki, Embyr presumed, flew over the trees, the green leaves slowly lost color and turned to gold, then orange and those nearest her wings a fiery red. The color rolled in like a wave, and they craned their heads upwards as the foliage fairy flew down the row, then hooked a right at the end of the pathway, her wings still as vibrant a red as the leaves of the outermost branches.
A golden orange leaf softly floated down, bonked into Embyr's nose, and the young fox caught it by its stem. Just seconds before, the leaf had been as green as Kurama's eyes, but now...
Perhaps this school wasn't as bad as she had at first thought.
Ah, yes, I kept on picturing that last scene in my head repeatedly. Tot ell the truth, I'm a sucker for pretty things such as that. ::points up:: And it only made sense to have Aki bring the autumn colors; something Stephanie and I had talked about.
If I ever get a website up and my scanner running, you can be sure to find a picture of Aki and the leaf-change scene on there. However, that's a big if. ;;
Now, onto WoT!
Fangirlitis & Pegacorn: ::come back inside, minus two containers of sidewalk chalk::
Pegacorn: When I gave you suggestion, I didn't think I would be doing the actual work.
KKC: Hey, I was typing. Besides, Grim needed help rounding up Yusuke.
Yusuke: ::bound and gagged to a chair:: Mrmf! Mmphmn!
Fangirlitis: ::pokes Yusuke with stick:: I can't hear youuuu! What was that, boy? Keiko fell down a mineshaft? You want pizza? You want to play hopscotch?
Yusuke: O O;; MMmrrrrph! ::struggles even more, and nearly tips over chair::
Pegacorn: - .- How'd you catch him?
KKC: ::holds up lasso:: They taught us well at school.
Pegacorn: ...
Fangirlitis: ::drags Yusuke and chair outside, where a hopscotch board is drawn on the street in chalk.:: Well, here you go, Yusuke!
Yusuke: ::looks down street, and notices hopscotch board continues to go down street for well over a mile:: ;.; Mmod...mnyelp mne...
Pegacorn: ::unties Yusuke:: Erm, when I gave you the idea, I don't think I included a busy highway... ::looks down street as cars drive past::
KKC: It adds excitement. And so does the black ice.
Yusuke. x.x
Fangirlitis: ::throws Frisbee down street, and it lands on square 28,463:: ooh... that's a good one. Have fun, Yusuke.
Yusuke: ::gives baleful look at street, then at girls. KKC pulls out small tazer and lets the electricity play along the tazer's prongs.:: o o;;
KKC: Well, what's keeping you? Git going!
Yusuke: ::gives girls dirty glare, but tromps on hopscotch board, his hands still tied behind his back, but his legs, thankfully, free:: Mmupidph phwomen... ::begins hopping down board, cursing all the way::
Car: ::roars down street::
Yusuke: O O;;! ::tries to hop out of way::
Pegacorn, KKC, & Fangirlitis: ::cringe as Yusuke is hit by car and sent flying back to square one::
Fangirlitis: Tough luck, dude! Start over!
Yusuke: X X ::dies::
KKC: That did NOT happen... you saw nothing.
Pegacorn: O O I killed him! Gah, Yusuke, I'm sorry!
Fangirlitis: ::pokes Yusuke with stick:: Uh, he's still breathing. ...Kinda.
KKC: ::calms down:: Oh, okay. I promised Keiko we wouldn't let him die again.
Pegacorn: ::stares at KKC and Fangirlitis:: ...You guys are sick...
Fangirlitis: Oh, that. Yeah, we know. ::pokes Yusuke again:: Hey, dude, ready for another round?
Yusuke: ::dies again::
KKC: ...Now we may have a problem.
Grimoire: Yes, well, while my incompetent authoress tries to sort out this mess, any donations to the "Save Yusuke (again!) Fund" can be sent to . That is all, and thank you. Stay tuned for next chapter. ::looks at Yusuke-corpse:: Ooh... that IS nasty, isn't it?