Quote of the Week: "You are the bitchiest Santa Claus I have ever seen." – Mother-dearest, to Kevin.
Whooo… late again. Well, I hope you all had a good Christmas/Hannukkah/whatever. And a Happy New Year's to ya all.
Reviewer Replies!:
Embyrflame: No, the story was okay. Although, yeah, the ending was a tad rushed. But she was such a cute little fox, then! In any case, nice to know you like the fic. And Hanabi isn't nearly as scary as other characters I have coming out.
Pegacorn: o.o;; What, was your comp hitting on another comp or something? Er, sorry, just what I think when I hear gay. > >;; Good luck with the college-ness, and your fic is coolio. W00t! I feel loved!
AzureDragoness: Hey, I update as soon as I can. Really...> >;; Fine, sympathy aching shall work as well.
Ciardra: Well, they were encyclopedias (you know how big those are) and they kinda went everywhere. Let's just say there were many. Actually, if you read sometime before April vacation, Justin's accident wasn't much of a trauma. He just tried to skateboard in the house and fell down two flights of stairs while doing so. O o He just hates needles. In any case, twin-ness comes into play later. My lips are sealed about Hanabi.
Shikyo-buddy: w00t! I have come far, master. ::bows::
Ebbster: ::glares at kidlet:: He is so lucky I don't bite small children. Make him try to bite me again, and updates shall slow to a crawl.
"Hey, just because I said you could take a break didn't mean to break out the beer! Chuu! Put that back!" Yukimi lunged at the drunkard, but the youkai just put out one hand on her forehead and laughed as she struggled to get within striking distance. "Eh, what's the problem, shiela? It's not like you're a regular drinker. This stuff was just sitting in the closet, wasting away." Chuu took a long gulp from one bottle, and passed it to an oni-like student, who fumbled the bottle before staring wide-eyed up at the giant man and taking a small sip.
"And now you're giving it to under-age students! Chuu, you're horrible!"
"Naw, he's not under-age. Good ol' Mack here is in his early twenties!"
"No, he is twenty. Not twenty-one -- the legal drinking age." Yukimi plucked the half-empty bottle from the oni, and re-corked it. Chuu sighed and sat down on the front steps, running a hand through his blue mohawk. "You need to get out more, Yukimi."
"I will on Halloween. It's about a week away." Yukimi replied, and stared out over her front yard. The roof had been finished for a few days now, and even now, in her mind, the dragon researcher could see the hordes of little brats lining up at her (slightly less dangerous) front porch, asking for candy...
She was glad she had decided to stay home until later in the night, then go out partying. Yes, going to a full-out party wasn't how she usually spent her time, but with Touya there... well, someone had to have a good time.
Speaking of Touya, where was the ice master, anyways? She hadn't seen the shinobi for nearly two days now - and he lived with her.
He watched as his companion paced before him, red hair flying in all directions, blue eyes troubled. The elf-like demon had been doing this for how long? Ten, fifteen minutes? Already the ground below Jin's feet had worn down, and the ice master only sighed and waited for the wind master to speak.
"I just don' get it, though. One minute, the guy is perfectly normal. Then, as soon as you turn your back, he's gone into "doom" mode."
"He's probably bi-polar, Jin. Nothing special among humans." Touya stated, turning his gaze from his longtime friend to the skies above them.
"…Or possessed." Jin muttered, and Touya raised an eyebrow at the youkai. "What? You haven't seen this kid! He's pissed as all hell, and at me, too!"
Touya shrugged and looked back towards the deep blue of the sky. "Well, possession is a new one, coming from you."
"I'm not trying to joke around, Touya."
"For once..." One pupiless blue eye focused on Jin, who was actually looking pretty upset, and the ice master felt his cold exterior crack. He was never good at giving advice on personal problems; in fact, there were few people, if any, that could even get him to laugh.
Jin was one of those lucky few.
"I'll see if I can find out anything around town. This Hanabi's main files are kept under lock and key by the faculty, as is everyone else's information. Tough luck trying to get your hands on those."
"That's all?"
"Just because I'm a higher-ranking shinobi than you doesn't mean that I can move mountains so you don't have to look over your shoulder constantly. You know that."
Jin snorted, but kicked off from the ground and floated cross-legged in the air. "Anyways, I'll see you later." Touya waved in reply, back to his cloudgazing. The weather was perfect for some meditation... when was the last time he had relaxed, anyways? Although there was no actual danger at Yukimi's house, there was also no peace and quiet.
"Oh, and how's that porch?"
With deep breaths, Touya counted to ten. Enough time for his slight irritation to subside and for Jin to get out of range of his Shards of Winter.
So, how's life, boy?
Hanabi squeezed his eyes shut even more, burying his face in the pillow. Every flipping night, He had to chime in. Bad enough to live out each day of his life, but He always re-played every waking moment to him in his dreams. Often with snarky commentary.
Hm... You're rather fond of this Holly, aren't you? I've seen her with my own eyes, you know... Cute, but there are much better out there.
Snarky, annoying commentary... and although it was rather nice to have the vision of the wind witch floating about in his head, it would have been better if the thought hadn't been pried from his memory by someone else.
Another vision, this time of a young man with wild red hair and vivid eyes.
And behold! Hanabi's downfall! You know, I could help you rid yourself of this "Jin".
You twit! Let Hanabi-kun sleep for once!
Voice number two... tonight was just turning into a full-on party, wasn't it? Although good ol' two was a bit moody today.
Ah, a party. Nice thought, boy-o. Speaking of which, All Hallow's eve is coming up...
Trying to turn him down the path of evil again? I swear, if I had my physical body back I would kill you!
It's not evil. It's life. We aren't all holding up the glowing crown of absolute good and justice such as yourself.
If He had shoulders, He would have shrugged. But Holly's picture dominated in Hanabi's head, while Jin's shrunk. Picture-in-a-picture... either he himself was getting more creative, or He was just showing off. Rarely did He pull off the picture-in-a-picture train of thought.
All I'm saying is that boy wonder here never wins when you take over. Passive resistance... bah.
You brute.
The one and only.
Well, for starters, He was right; when was the last time he had ever gotten anywhere in life with the other one preaching to him along the way?
Not you, too! Hanabi-kun!
"Hanabi-kun" nuthin'! Take the back seat for once, toots. I'm driving.
You... you're incorrigible! Horrible! Corrupting!
Yeah, okay, whatever...
Why wouldn't they just stop talking? Hanabi's collective unconsciousness was starting to get quite a headache at the moment.
And for the last time, don't call me "toots"!
It were times like this that made him wish he had died that one time before...
"And more news on the latest spree of art theft later on at eleven. Back to you, Kujiro..."
Yusuke just stared at the screen. Déjà vu? Perhaps. But, although there was no security tapes to prove his hypothesis, the spirit detective suddenly turned his brown eyes to the basement door. As if getting the thief out of trouble once was too much to ask, now the little bastard was still out at night and hiding out in the dorm as well...
It was only the fact that it was nearly six fifteen am on a Saturday morning that Yusuke didn't charge over to said door, shoot it down, storm down the steps, and drag the sleeping Rogerik out for a morning beating. Jin could get testy if woken up early, and there was always that age-old question as to where to hide the body when he was through. Sure enough, though, there would be hell to pay later.
"Hey, can I ask why you're trying to use heat slash laser death beams on the door?"
"No." He didn't even look up as he replied. From the corner of his eye, he could see Lark sigh and slump over the stair banister, black hair falling in her face.
"Good morning to you, too, Yusuke."
Lark wandered down the staircase and across the living room floor, falling with an ungraceful thwumph on the couch. Eyeing the remote, she reached out her arm, found it too short to reach across to the coffee table, and let it fall limply. Too tired to do much else, she lanquidly watched the TV.
"You know, that's the fourth time I've seen a report on that art thief since we got back to school..."
Well, this was news to Yusuke. Even though he wasn't a total TV junkie, there should still have been some talk around campus, or at least mere mention on the radio.
"Why the hell didn't you tell me, then?!"
One burst of clear water, and Yusuke was sufficiently cooled down enough to ponder the idea of screaming at the younger girl. Although not exactly angry, he could see her aura faintly simmering around her – all kudos to the fact she would much rather be sleeping.
"Since when do you have any interest in art whatsoever? If I recall, you can't even draw a straight line."
"That's not the point. El Bandito over yonder has been suffering from a recent case of kleptomania."
Lark raised an eyebrow at the poor use of a Spanish nickname, but he could see the gears turning in her head. Although Rogerik took classes on breaking and entering, and all other sorts of delightfully deviant activities, that didn't mean he was excused whenever he swiped something. The fact that he did so meant that he was usually kept under constant surveillance whenever the thief went out of the house; if not by a teacher, than by a roommate or student.
Light shone upon her dazed musing, and the water manipulator was on her feet and storming across the room in a second.
"Oh, I am going to kill him!"
"Hey, hey! Don't!" Yusuke grabbed her by her slender arms, and pinned her wrists behind her back, one hand firmly pressing on her collarbone. "If I can't kill him, neither can you."
"Watch me." Yusuke could only stare as she dropped to the floor, freeing her wrists and kicking upwards. In any normal circumstance, he wouldn't have let go of her, except the girl had aimed a bit too high. He grabbed a fistful of her hair, not really caring if this was a childish fight or not, but was suddenly lifted and separated from Lark, who was now staring up rather angrily at her "savior" as he firmly grasped her wrist.
"Kuwabara, get out of this."
"Hey, it's waaay too early to be arguing. And you two were acting like a pair of squabbling kids."
"Look, you'll get yours. Just let me kill Yusuke," Lark said, with something between utter sweetness and rage. Sweetly enraged... now that was an oxymoron if Yusuke had ever heard one.
The spirit detective let his body go limp, and Kuwabara, sensing that his friend wasn't going to blast a hole through the wall, let him drop on the floor gently.
"Now what are you two bickering about?"
Yusuke could see Lark's stormy eyes darken, and her mouth twisted in a wry grin. "Genius-boy here," she jerked her head at Yusuke when she spat it out. " He wanted to beat the snot out of Rogerik because our favorite little thief has been stealing some pretty expensive stuff lately. Then he went off on me, and now I want to kill them both."
Kuwabara blinked. "That's all?"
"What do you mean, 'that's all'?! You idiot!" Yusuke shot out at his friend, who ignored the comment. In fact, even Yusuke had lost interest in what he had said, because at that moment, the knob to the basement door was turning. As Kuwabara stepped out of the doorway and the door flung open, they were not met by either of the room's inhabitants but a rather strong gale.
Yusuke and Kuwabara both slammed their weight against the door, and it thankfully stayed shut as the wind died down.
"Maybe we should take this outside."
"Look, I say we just keep an eye on him. We don't have any proof." Kuwabara sat back, for once exceptionally proud of himself for his deductive reasoning skills. And Sis had always said he wasn't the brightest bulb...
"Stupid! Five reports in two months! Who's the only one who studies theft here? Rogerik. Who can open any lock? Again, Rogerik. And who dropped in at my house, sick as a dog and with a stolen -- mind you, -- stolen art-scroll-thingy? All signs point to... Rogerik!"
"Give the man a cookie." Lark muttered, staring at the October sky. "I'm just surprised he didn't tell anyone. Rogerik isn't the type to hide much."
Yusuke sighed, and uncrossed his legs, letting the blood flow to his ankles. "Except his problems at home."
"An over-protective sister isn't a problem, Urameshi. You make it sound like she shackles him to the wall like some pet and hand-feeds him." Kuwabara stated. Nodding in agreement to the redhead, Lark continued, "And those sort of issues aren't our problem. He has to deal with it himself. Like with the three stooges."
"Oh, Gomo and Co.? They're still around more often than I'd prefer. Like they're wolves and Rogerik's the horse with a broken leg. In either case, he's screwed. Get eaten, or get shot by the human."
"I take it you're the human? That's a new development," Lark said. She toyed with a few strands of black hair, and moved onto the collar of her pajama tanktop. Yusuke raised an eyebrow.
"So he hasn't told you about his fighting training?"
"Uh, no, he didn't. We, uh, don't talk much..." Lark looked over to the side, much to the confusion of the two boys, but recovered quickly (although her cheeks were slightly red, and Yusuke was guessing it wasn't from the non-existent chill in the air). "But I was wondering why he looked so beat up all the time... You did all that?"
"He needs to learn how to block." Was her only answer from the spirit detective.
Kuwabara, great negotiator he was trying to be, cut them off. "Give him a week. If he leaves the house, we follow. Deal?"
Both black-haired teens gave him identical looks (ones that spoke of annoyance at the whole idea and the fact they wished to just take care of it now), but nodded.
A week... surely Rogerik could prove them wrong by then.
When history had let out, Justin already felt as if he wanted to just curl up in a corner somewhere and die. Already he had been sentenced to the mysteriously-appearing-from-nowhere-pitfall/trapdoor that Suzuki had set up, and earlier a detention from Rachel.
"Come on, Justin... Cheer up! It's not that bad."
And, to make things worse, Aki had decided to be his "buddy-for-a-day" (in her own words, no less). To the human, this only proved the foliage fairy had more free time than was good for her.
"Hey, how 'bout I treat you to lunch, eh? Whaddaya say?"
"I say you should just find another "buddy"."
"But you're so unhappy!" She flitted over, a bit off his shoulder, and Justin's eye twitched in irritation. Clenching onto his bag's strap more tightly, the brunette sneered. "And I have no idea why, seeing as I'm only halfway through this hellish day and now I have you."
"Justiiinn..." Aki whined, hugging his arm. "It couldn't possibly get any worse, right?"
"No, not really," He admitted, trying to pry the fairy off of him. For such a petite woman, though, Aki was unusually strong and he eventually gave up. "Will you just stop clinging?" With a small pout, the fairy did so, and took to the ground, her wings folding down against her back.
"In any case, at least you only have about two hours of class left, then you're free from me."
Justin gave her a look. "...But we live in the same dorm."
"Uh, we do, don't we?" Aki sweatdropped, and chuckled. Justin was about to come up with some scathingly witty remark, but was shoved to the side as a stray student rushed over to join her circle of friends. He watched as a mess of papers were taken out of the girl's bag, and the entire group clustered around them, then burst out in either giggles or blushed like crazy. Justin merely blinked at the behavior of the younger students, then met the eyes of one of them.
The young girl, whose fingers ended in sharp talons, did a double take from Justin to the papers, then whispered something to her friends. All six or so girls scrambled to hide the papers in their bags, and innocently faced the brown-haired human. Justin raised an eyebrow. Now this was an interesting development, and it couldn't hurt to check it out.
"So, what were you looking at?"
The girls blanched, and most of them averted direct eye contact. One or two tried to come up with some excuse, but faded off into mumbling. Okay, now his curiosity was piqued. He stepped a bit over to their right, then wavered to the left, aware of the girls' eyes following his every move. Standing perfectly still and staring at the younger students with an unblinking gaze, he could feel the tension building.
A sudden dash to the left turned into a fake, and he slipped between them from the right, snagging a few sheets as he exited the group. All energy seemed to drain from him, however, as he stared at what was in his hands.
"W-where did you get this?" Aki cocked her head, then turned to the girls, who were now looking a bit ashamed of themselves. One girl, the same talon-nailed girl who had first noticed Justin, was shoved up to the front of the group, and she nervously looked at the ground. "Well, there's a website, you see..."
Ridiculous... but plausible all at the same time. "A website? Who's the webmaster?"
"Well, um... it doesn't the exact name, but the webmaster goes by the alias GolLion..."
Oh, he knew that fake name, for sure. It was Lyonell's screenname, as well as the cat demon's character name on Dungeons & Dragons. "I am going to skin that cat alive," he hissed, and stormed away, one or two papers floating from his grasp. Aki, who had been silent until now, bent down and picked up the paper, then looked at the picture on it.
Even halfway across campus in his search from the cat demon twin, Justin could hear Aki's laughter follow him.
Welp, there ya go. I'll try to update sooner and all... ;; But in any case!
Next chapter:
-Justin takes his photo battle with Lyonell on personal ground! Ouch...
-Rogerik is caught in the act! Yusuke screws up (again)! And just who is his employer?
-And just how does this new girl know Hanabi?