Quote of the Week: "Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them." - Samuel Butler

For some reason I had Vamo alla Flamenco stuck in my head as I wrote this. And, in case you're looking for it, it's on the Final Fantasy 9 soundtrack.

I adore that game... Who needs an angsty reluctant hero when you have a party member that chucks weapons at the enemy?

"...Could've been much worse..."

"..But why in the world..? Everything was fine... earlier..."

"This says loads... Reputation's going down the drain..."

"--ey're both idiots!"

Voices floated in and around him, their meaning just out of reach for his groggy mind. Talking... he could recognize some people - Shikyo, for one. Even as he forced his eyes open, the action slow and distantly painful, as if he had been given an extra dose of aspirin, he could make out the slim figure supported by crutches.

Something moved to block his vision, and he realized that someone had sat down next to his infirmary bed. Jeebus... he awkwardly crinkled the hem of the starched cotton sheets in one hand, glancing up at the strangely expressionless face above him before his eyelids, feeling heavier than he had ever recalled before in his life, shut. Blood pounded through his temples, sending him into a wave of nausea when his head rolled back into the pillow.

He'd never been hurt this bad... or, at least he didn't think he had. Everything was so fuzzy.

"Chrysanthemum, you should really go back to the dorm. It's late. Get some sleep," said Shikyo, putting a hand on the girl's shoulder. She barely budged under his touch, then suddenly flung off his hand as she stood up, leaving faint scratch marks from his dull claws on her shoulder. Her tail hung lifelessly, nearly sweeping the ground, as she strode across the linoleum and the other full bed.

"Of course. I'll see you tomorrow, Shikyo-sensei."

Monotone and low, Chrysanthemum's voice barely reached the ears of the teachers gathered in the room. After the infirmary door clicked shut, all that could be heard were the crickets -- a comforting white noise to the horror of earlier that day.

And it had indeed been a horror... how in the world had an explosive made it onto school property. Not only that, but it had snuck it's way though the front office, the alarm wards, and even all of the teachers. Things like a simple, homemade bomb just didn't show up in the mail at an academy filled with spiritually powered students and faculty.

Ever.

To use such a simple weapon, one that even didn't make it past security of simple human public schools, and assault a student and innocent bystanders... It reeked of ignorance -- ignorance that could easily be considered genius on the part of the attacker.

Shikyo tugged the covers of Lyonell's bed up, and readjusted his crutches before waving off Rachel and Suzuki. He was exhausted -- too much so to even bother thinking about the day's events. "I should take my own advice," he mumbled, making his way to the door, only to pause and check over Aki's bed. The fairy had escaped fairly unscathed, besides her now charred wingtips and obvious shock. There had been shards of plastic embedded in her arms -- shrapnel of exploding mailboxes as she had tried to protect her face -- but they had been extracted and the skin hastened to grow over the wounds by the nurse, once the fairy had fallen asleep with aid of a painkiller drug.

"Shikyo... try not to worry too much about this," Suzuki began, ignoring the angry glare the cat demon gave him. The English teacher nearly hissed at the comment. "What? Some students - your students - were attacked by means of a bomb. A bomb!"

"Calm down. I'm sure he didn't mean to have it come out that way," Rachel warned, ready to shove the other teachers out if they started a particularly nasty argument.

"Not only were a bunch of kids put in danger, but it happened under our noses! We had completely no idea--"

By now, it seemed even the night insects had gone quiet.

"Something like this could ruin the school if parents start to panic, and instead of doing something we're leaving the probable source of all this for Reikai to deal with. It was this academy's responsibility to begin with..!"

"Enough." The inventor's face was blank, empty. There was nothing to be told, really, by now. "While you rushed these 'kids' to get medical help, did you ever think that maybe there might have been a motive to the mail bomb?"

Another silence, and, again, the crickets seemed to be hiding away.

"I can't blame you for worrying about the students first, but you do know that this might have been a diversion. As we all know, Lyonell isn't the type to make enemies of any kind."

Rachel sighed. "As much as you want to play Nancy Drew, sirs, I think that this topic has worn itself out," she paused to shush Shikyo before the younger teacher could even open his mouth. "There's nothing we can do, tonight. Now, will both of you leave before you wake the entire building up?"

There was also nothing the two teachers could do against the human headmistress, but Shikyo did make quite the display of slamming the door behind him, crutches and all. Suzuki only gave the sleeping students one last baleful look before gently shutting the door, leaving the headmistress alone in the white-walled room.

With her two employees gone, Rachel sighed in frustration and gently patted the sleeping cat boy's head, only to sharply recoil her had when he turned in his sleep. She gave one final look around the room, mouth frozen into a grim frown.

"This year just keeps getting better and better..." She flipped the light switch and closed the door behind her.

"Hey, hey, didja hear?" The girl slammed her tray down at the end of the picnic table, cutting him off as she scurried to be seated with her friends. As if they were of a hive mind, the gaggle of females leaned in to partake of the gossip.

Hanabi sighed, and veered off to the middle of the aisle, scanning the almost-too-small cafeteria for an empty seat. Normally, the room was nearly empty, since many students took to the outdoor picnic tables for lunch, but the winter snowfall had yet to slow down, and no one was particularly happy to eat their lunch out in the frigid cold.

An older student, a tall demon boy with mottled yellow and green skin, bumped into Hanabi, his face turning into the pure picture of shock and surprise as he lifted his ice cream high above the younger teen's head. As the clumsy upperclassman apologized, Hanabi merely brushed the nuts from the king cone treat out of his hair and decided to rethink the whole "too-cold-to-eat-outside" bit. He just wanted to find his friends and have lunch... Why was the world so against him?

It's bad kaarmaaa..!

Ergh... Now he had to go through this again. Every day since their return home, They had been unusually active. While one went on, nagging about karma and positive versus negative energy (and the constant theory that Hanabi was going to end up as a roach in his next life if he kept taking advice from Him), He had been hazing His host like no tomorrow.

Hanabi sighed and went back to looking through the tables, desperately wishing for a vacation. It figured that they had come back right after winter break had ended.

"I heard that some of the older students got caught in some accident!"

"Wasn't it an explosion, or some messed up project..? Then again, I could be wrong..."

"Who cares? I heard that one of the Aurata twins -- you know, those blond cats? -- well, one of them was involved. And so was Aki, the assistant teacher!"

At this, Hanabi nearly turned around to openly stare at the girls who had so callously shoved him off their table. But the warning comment of 'Don't you daaare... ' from the back of his mind made him think of another way he could eavesdrop - forget being a roach next time around the block. Ducking behind one of the pillars that supported the cafeteria roof, the timid boy focused all his energy into just hearing the gossip over the dull roar of lunchtime chatter.

"Where did you hear that?"

"Oh, I have a friend in their floriculture class!"

"...The boy twin does flower arranging?"

"Hey, it's a respectable position--"

"--SO much like your own brother, the gothic Lolita, right?"

The table exploded into giggles, accompanied by the higher-pitched "Shut up!" of the target girl. Hanabi sighed, and thoughtfully munched on his celery sticks. It was a pity he hadn't found out anything... especially since it was difficult to blend in with his stark-white hair.

Hey, don't give up yet, you twit! More nagging... lovely. There was a sharp twinge of pain in the back of his skull, and Hanabi suddenly found his body unable to move. Damn Them!

"All right, all right... sorry," the girl mumbled, drinking out of her milk carton so as to hide her wide smile.

"You better be."

"Anywho, guess what else I found out."

"Nah... come on, just tell us!"

"Yeah! You were practically bursting to tell us a bit earlier!"

"Okay! Jeebus!" More giggles, and Hanabi caught the cluster of younger girls lean in towards each other and whisper, the image reflected in the large glass of soda at the table opposite the column he hid behind. Finally ready to get on with his life, he started gnawing on another celery stick.

"There was another kid there, too. You know that Justin guy, from the website we found?"

"Oh, yeah, the prick who scared the crap out of us back in October." (The comment nearly made Hanabi choke on his celery -- he found the description of the moody boy true, and hoped that Justin never found out about it.)

"Yeah, well, he was in the middle of the explosion, too, and he didn't get a scratch on him. Nothing!"

The entire group fell silent, and Hanabi took that as his cue to hastily leave.

He carefully slipped the string around the spindly stems, tying the ends into a knot and tightening the loop so that the plant stood erect against the bamboo pole. He was nearly through with his assigned patch, and then he had to work on Lyonell's section afterwards, considering the cat demon had missed class again.

Kurama straightened, wiping the sweat from his forehead as he stared at the large fan that attempted to keep the air circulating in the greenhouse. Stealing a peek at the clock, the fox grimaced, and made a quick look-around of the other students' progress. That was when he first bothered to notice that something was wrong.

As usual, he was ahead of everyone else in his task, but Chrysanthemum, who matched his speed only through sheer tenacity, was lagging behind. That wasn't to say it was from lack of effort - she still lashed and tied the plants to their new supports as fast as she possibly could have; but her knots came undone, some of the more tender stalks snapped or were crushed, and the bamboo was close to falling out of the dirt-filled pots. Kurama just stared in surprise; he had never seen Chrys, who strove for perfection in anything she did, produce such a hack-job as this. That was usually Lyonell's role.

Before the cat demon could complain, Kurama was beside her and gently re-tying the plant to its bamboo stake. Pushing the rod deeper into the dirt, the fox asked, "Chrys, are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she snapped, then turned her attention to the next plant. The fragile wood snapped in her hands as she drove it into the soil, splinters lodging themselves in her palm.

"Ah..." He didn't want to push her, after all. Everyone was entitled to a bad day. So, as innocently as possible, he decided to change the subject. "How is your brother, anyways? He hasn't been to any classes for two days, now."

The redhead was shoved to the side as Chrysanthemum walked past, her tail lashing back and forth angrily as she tossed the broken bamboo over her shoulder. She paused on her way out the door, when questioned about what she was doing.

"I'm going to the infirmary."

And, leaving a very confused (and suspicious) Kurama behind, the cat girl left.

At the sight of the young girl seated cross-legged on the floor, her white hair deftly manipulated by the slender hands of the older man seated gracefully upon the couch, Yusuke snorted. Taking the remote in hand, the spirit detective flopped down on the couch, pressing the power button as he did so. Late afternoon, with nothing to do, what else but channel surf?

"You know, you could at least watch something educational for once," Victoria muttered, braiding Embyr's hair as if he were a professional. The fox girl, seated on the floor, only turned the page in her book and gave her fox pet a fond pat on the head. "You could read... but then the shock might cause the others to develop heart problems."

"Shove it, brat." The channel changed from infomercials to a rather loud action movie. Bullets beat out a high-paced tempo as badly portrayed Mexicans fell off of water towers while the main hero shot up everything in sight, a sawed-off shotgun in each hand. Besides the sheer illogical choice and use of weapons, it seemed that the Mexican enemies were also communists in cahoots with aliens plotting world domination. It didn't take long for the channel to change again.

"Here, an animal documentary. Enjoy." He got up again and placed the remote on the coffee table before pulling up a stool at the kitchen island and grabbing a plum. Victoria used his teeth to slide the elastic off of his wrist and tied up the fox girl's new French braid, then leaned back, arms stretching across the backrest of the couch.

"Now, now, Yusuke. What skillfully lodged itself up your rear, today?"

The spirit detective only gave the cross dresser a dirty leer. "Isn't any of your business."

"Oh, wait! The St.Pierre boy, he's a friend of yours, right? I heard about it in the office-" Victoria broke off his sentence, eyes on Holly, who seemed to be in a daze as she walked down the stairs. The witch clumsily swerved around Embyr, only to collapse on the couch cushion next to her brother. She squeaked and shifted her weight, pulling a leg bone out from under the cushion.

"Hey! Don't sleep in the couch," Holly yelped, scooting away from the spinal vertebrae and canine skull that was reconstructing itself in the crack between the cushions. Bones only gave the girl a firefly-eyes stare before grouchily clambering onto the floor. Ignoring the stares that the humans (and demon) had so tactfully employed, the dog skeleton yawned and flopped down on the rug before the hearth, stretching his legs and curving his back as if he were a cat instead of a dog. Paws sticking straight up in the air, Bones continued his nap.

Embyr was first to break contact with the dog, and was soon back to turning the pages of her book after glancing at the T.V. "You know," she murmured, " I doubt that's appropriate for younger viewers."

Holly looked baffled, asking "what?" before finally looking at the screen. She blanched and lunged for the remote, flipping the channel again so that a stand-up comedian dominated the screen. "Jeebus, Yusuke! Let the kid watch desert toad porn, why don't you!"

"Toad... porn?" Yusuke chucked the plum pit into the trash, and rinsed off his hands. "Do I want to ask?"

"No," was Victoria's reply. Holly, however, elaborated.

"You're banned from the remote until Embyr can move into another dorm."

Silence at first, interrupted only by the rustle of paper, but then it slowly dawned on Yusuke and Victoria both. "What!"

The spirit detective leaned on the kitchen island, muttering something about personal rights, while Victoria only looked at his younger sister and horror. "You can't be serious," the crossdresser said, placing a possessive hand on Embyr's head, right between her oversized fox ears. "There's no way she can leave! If I'm staying, then so does she!"

"... What?" Embyr looked up at the sound of her name, not quite certain she liked her role in this argument. But, while Yusuke could only stare in shock, Holly at least tried to make heads or tails of the situation. "What do you mean by staying? You have to go home, too, you know!"

"That's where you're wrong, dear sister! Why, not only have I landed a job here at the academy offices in the business and funding administrations, but guess what?" His green eyes practically sparkled in mischief, and the other inhabitants of the room (Bones excluded) could feel the blood drain from their faces. Apparently mistaking the lack of applause for sheer, overwhelming joy, Victoria jumped up. "Since Rachel is so busy as headmistress, I'm going to be one of your active supervisors!"

"A-ah..." Holly couldn't quite find anything to say at this surprise, and the thick book slid out of Embyr's lap with a thud. In fact, neither girl could've said anything if they wanted, for at that time Victoria had enveloped them in a crushing hug.

Good lord, things were just going to keep going downhill...

Chapter...late... school... started... must stop... typing...like I'm... Captain... Kirk. x.x

Review..? They make me happy. Oh, yes they dooo!