Disclaimer: I have finally seen the light. I will never own Fruits Basket. Or Buffy.
Warning: There is an OC in this chapter, and the next, and possibly the one after that. I put him in there mostly for fun and some slight plot development. I couldn't find a canon character to fill his shoes. Just thought you guys should know.
Chapter 10: Searching for Demons.
Uo, Hana, and Tohru had been searching the top floors for the past 20 minutes and had nothing to show for it, no sign that a demon had been there. Neither Hana nor Tohru had sensed anything at all. Uo was becoming frustrated.
"Come on! How hard can it be to find a demon? So what if this building has, like, 20 floors!"
"Tohru, did Matoko or Mai tell you how big this demon was?" Hana asked calmly.
"Oh! Um…let me think…they said it was about…our size!" Tohru said brightly.
"It could be hiding in the ventilation systems, or…or…it could be anywhere! How are we supposed to find it?" Uo growled in annoyance.
Hana looked into the closet they were standing in front of. "If I remember correctly, Uo, you were excited at the prospect and couldn't wait to get started. You also acted as if it would be an easy matter to find this demon."
"That's because I thought that it would just jump out and attack us! I didn't really think we would have to search for it!"
"Hey, guys, what if it went home?" Tohru asked.
"Go home? Why would it go home? I thought this was its home."
"It would be a perfectly logical explanation if we can't find it, but remember, we still have quite a bit of space to cover before we go home," Hana said as she looked through a nearby desk.
"Come on, Hana, we don't have time to look through other people's stuff. Why are you looking, anyway? There can't be anything good in there, right?" Uo asked.
"My pencils and pens have all disappeared. I am merely looking for a desk with pencils in abundance so I can…exchange… possessions," she answered.
"You're stealing? Okay, I'll help." Uo moved to the desk next to the one Hana was at. "Any particular type you're looking for?"
"Any will be fine, as long as it works." Hana moved on to an adjacent desk.
Tohru looked around nervously, "Um, I don't think we're supposed to be doing that. It's illegal, right?"
"Tohru, if we were taking something other than pens and pencils, like a computer or a chair, it would be stealing, but pens and pencils were made to change hands." Uo started rummaging through another desk. "Why do none of these desks have pens or pencils! This is an office. You have to have something to write with if you want to work! There are no highlighters, no markers, no nothing that writes!"
"I am coming across the same problem, and I must admit, it perplexes me as to why there are no writing utensils. I had not thought that so many other people have the same problem with losing pens as I do," Hana replied as she went from drawer to drawer.
A few minutes passed as Hana and Uo continued to poke around the desks. Finally Uo sighed. "We're not going to find any pens here. We'll look through the next desks we find."
Hana nodded her agreement and the three moved to the next floor. Uo and Hana made a beeline towards the desks, now curious to see if any of the desks had pencils. Tohru started looking around for any demons.
When Tohru was done she returned to where she had left Uo and Hana.
"It's the same thing here, too! Nothing that writes. I don't get it!" Uo cried.
"There's no demon, either, and no people staying late, which is strange because there's almost always someone who works late. I haven't seen any security guards, either. Have you?" Tohru asked.
"No, we have not. There is definitely something malevolent going on in this building," Hana replied.
"To the next floor we go! And there had better be some pencils there." Uo led the way to the stairs.
It was much the same on the next floor. There was nothing to write with.
"I just don't get it! What, does this demon have a fetish for writing tools?" Uo's curiosity had been ignited and nothing would stop her from uncovering the truth.
All three of them were so wrapped up that none of them noticed someone approaching them.
"Hey! You kids there! You the pranksters that have been stealing everything?" an unknown male voice shouted from directly behind them.
The three turned around to find a very angry security guard. He was short, standing a few inches taller than Tohru, but was thin and well muscled. His black hair was crew-cut, unlike the men that Tohru hung around with, and he appeared to be around the age of the Mabudachi Trio. He was currently frowning and fiercely glaring, but Tohru sensed that he was normally a nice person. Even if she weren't a Slayer, she probably wouldn't have felt particularly threatened.
"Uh…who are you?" Uo asked.
…
"This is as boring as hell. There's been nothing for the past half-hour!" Kyo yelled in annoyance.
"Kyo. Keep your voice down," Haru commanded.
Kyo sighed and started looking at the desks for amusement. After a few minutes he started seeing a strange trend.
"That's weird. There isn't anything to write with on the desk, and no office building has this many people who don't leave their junk lying around…" Kyo started digging through the desks. "There isn't anything to write with in here! That's just weird."
Kyo stopped looking at the desks and ran to catch up with Haru and Rin. "So, I wonder if there's going to be anything tonight, or if this is just going to be a waste of our time."
"Hey! The computer there is logged on! Come on." Rin lunged at her one hope of sanity. "Oh, thank God! There's internet connection that doesn't need a password!"
Haru and Kyo sighed in relief and jogged over to join her.
…
"I'm the security guard! Now, tell me what you're doing here," the angry security guard asked them.
Hana replied. "We are searching for a paralyzing demon that's been killing people in this building. Have you seen it?"
Uo flinched at the lack of tact.
The guard looked at them strangely. "I should be more worried about your mental health then I am right now. If you want to find "demons" go to a club, or a graveyard."
Uo stared in shock at him, then noticeably brightened . "Clubs…full of demons? Cool! That would be great demon hunting grounds." Her eyes widened, then narrowed, as she seemed to realize something, muttering, "That explains last year."
"Yes…a club would be far more enjoyable to this now needless excursion into a demon's nest," Hana deadpanned.
"Huh?" Tohru and Uo asked.
"Wait…are you saying he's the demon?" Uo pointed at the man.
"To a point. I have analyzed his electro waves, and have realized that it does not correspond with a human or the Sohma's, mostly."
Something flickered over the guards face.
"Finally!" Uo exclaimed, and got into an offensive position, while Tohru asked Hana, "Mostly? What do you mean by that?"
"I mean, that while he is demon, partly, really, he is not the one we are looking for."
"Ah man." Uo groaned. "This is not a good night."
Hana continued speaking, "And by reading his waves during this meeting, and sensing that he knew what we were talking about at the beginning, and from other subsequent emotions, I have also deduced that he has killed the demon."
The guard looked stunned.
"You can do that?" Tohru asked Hana.
"OH, COME ON!" Uo raged, "That is SO ANTICLIMATIC! This has to be the MOST ANTICLIMATIC night of my LIFE! We wasted a DAY on this, and THEN it turns out that the security guards, who are usually incompetent and ALWAYS killed at the beginning of a movie, book, or TV show to show that something EVIL lurks in the building, ACTUALLY defeated and KILLED the demon!"
The guard looked scared. "It was asleep?" he offered.
"Uo! Calm down! This is good for us! We don't have to spend any longer here looking for it!" Tohru offered.
"But I wanted to kill it!"
"Unlikely that you could, considering that you are ill equipped to deal with it anyways."
They all glared at him. He gulped.
"Uh… what was your interest, anyways? Please tell me you're not another rag-tag group of demon slayers living in the down-trodden, oppressed section of town that's ruled by demons."
They all stared at him. He swallowed.
"Not…really." Tohru answered.
"Because she's a Slayer." Hana pointed to Tohru.
"Um…Hana, do you think it's smart to tell him that?" Tohru whispered to her.
"Really? A Slayer? That's much better. You were more likely to win," he said.
"Er…I'm still a little confused. Are you human, or demon?" Uo demanded.
"Half-demon." They all answered.
"Oh."
The man smiled a little at Tohru, evidently afraid that Slayers were allowed to kill half-demons, "Quarter-demon, really, or whatever's between quarter and half. Never really bothered to find out, and it's much more easier just to say half and not correct people, and makes me seem like I'm stronger then I am."
Tohru smiled back. The man looked relieved.
"Whatever, and I still am a little confused about something," Uo said. "Security Guard Man, what is up with the missing pencils and pens! It's been bugging me so much!"
Now that he knew the reasons for the teens to be in the building, his face relaxed into a much more natural expression, an open-faced one ideal for putting people at ease. He launched into a rather long answer, probably for the benefit of the Slayer.
"I'm not quite sure. A few weeks ago they all started disappearing. I've tried to catch the culprit, but I can't. I'm positive it's a demon that's doing this, because the office stinks of it after the writing stuff goes missing. I can't imagine what a demon would want with it. It's gotten so bad that pencils are worth more than gold here, and anything that's brought in has to go home at night or get stolen. Employees have tried using the computers for everything, like notes and whatnot, but now we have a paper shortage. I wonder if you can help me," he pondered aloud as he sat down in a nearby chair.
"Of course we will! But what do you want us to do?" Tohru answered.
He was about to answer when he saw the walkie-talkie Tohru was carrying. "So that's where those went to! I put 'em on my desk, left the room, and came back to see that they were gone!" He noticed that there was only one. "Are there more of you here, then?"
"Yeah, you can't miss 'em," Uo commented. "They're loud and probably playing on a computer or something."
"I see. By the way, what are your names?" he asked.
"I'm Tohru! That's Uo and she's Hana."
"I'm Hisoka." Hisoka got up and headed towards the elevator. "Come on, we're going to find your friends."
The three followed him and got onto the elevator.
"So. You said you took care of the paralyzing demon?" Tohru directed the question to Hisoka.
"Yeah, I beheaded it," he answered.
"Half-demon, you said?" Uo asked. "So, do you have, like, special powers or a demon form or something?"
"I don't really have special powers and…I don't really like to talk about my demon form… you're really not bothered that I'm half-demon?"
"Why would we? I mean, we're not bothered by full demons or full humans, so why would someone who is half be bothersome?" Tohru inquired curiously.
Hisoka looked at them strangely, something that he was a master at, and sort of smiled when the elevator doors opened and they found themselves standing on the ground floor.
"Follow me," he instructed, and led them to the far room labeled Security. He unlocked and opened the door and followed them in. He went straight towards the security monitors on the far end of the room, sat in the chair with a sigh, picked up the coffee cup that was on the console, waved the girls over, and started looking at the TV's that showed the entire building.
"Where would they be, approximately?" he asked as he searched for people who shouldn't be in the building.
"Somewhere on the bottom floors." Hana answered. "I have been wondering— where are the other security guards? A building this big should have quite a few."
"Yeah, and why couldn't we have just used the walkie-talkies to ask Kyo where they are?" Uo questioned.
"Because those walkie-talkies don't work." Hisoka noticed their looks. "You mean you split up in a demon infested building using walkie-talkies and you didn't even check to see if they worked? I meant to put new batteries in them, but some people went and took them before I got the chance." Hisoka chuckled and shook his head.
"What about the other guards?" Uo prompted.
"Yeah, about them, there used to be nine other guards, but the demon went after us first. We're down five guards permanently and three more are in the hospital, paralyzed. The doctors say that they'll be fine, once the toxin finishes filtering through their bodies. That leaves me and that guy." Hisoka pointed to one of the screens and the others saw a young man walking down a hallway. "Management is working on hiring more guards."
Uo looked somewhat satisfied at that. It helped make her rant look less silly. Of course she felt sorry for the dead guards, but really! The security guards were supposed to be food fodder, not competent people who could take care of the problem without the heroes. Otherwise, what was the point of having a Slayer?
"Hey! I know that him! I talk to him every other night when I'm cleaning." Tohru cried.
Hisoka's eyes widened in surprise. "You work here? I didn't think that a Slayer would work here, but this is a Sohma Building, and the supernatural are attracted to anything Sohma like demons to a Hell-mouth." He turned his attention back to the monitors.
"Why are we trying to find the others?"
"Because this building is dangerous at night, and the more heads working on this problem the better…besides, it's my job to keep kids like you out of here at night, and I wouldn't be doing a very good job if I let them wander around."
There was some silence until Tohru thought of something. "Do you know anything about vengeance demons?"
"Vengeance demons are bad news if you're in their way. Actually, they're always bad news. Very, very dangerous, and most of them have attitudes to boot. Why, exactly, do you ask?"
"Because there is a vengeance demon around here, patron of…insanity? Was it? And she has some kind of grudge against us. She kidnapped one of our friends."
"There's a new vengeance demon around? That's awful news. I wonder why I didn't know that…Ah! There they are! Floor 3, North Hallway." He pointed again to another screen.
"Yep. That's them, and guess what! They're goofing off. A demon could walk right up to them and kill them and they probably wouldn't notice until they were dead!" Uo was slightly angry with them.
"Let's go, then." The four got up and headed for the door.
…
Rin, Kyo, and Haru were currently engaged in a chair race. Kyo was winning.
"Do you think the others are going to find us?" Rin asked as she cleared one of the obstacles they had created to come in second.
"Does it matter? They'll find us if they do," Kyo stated somewhat philosophically, starting on a victory lap in his chair.
"Hey, Kyo, I bet I can beat you to that vending machine," Haru challenged.
"You're on!"
With Rin cheering them on, Kyo and Haru started on a new race. 5 minutes later they were still tied and nearing the end.
"So, Kyo, when are you going to ask Tohru out on a date?" Rin asked as she watched.
"Shut up!" Kyo was blushing.
"You really should Kyo. You two would be perfect together."
"I agree. You should. You both like each other." Haru joined the conversation.
"I said shut up!" Kyo was about to say something further when—
"Good God! Is that your natural hair-color?" A voice directly behind Kyo and Haru stopped them mid-roll. They slowly swiveled their chairs to face the security man behind them.
"Oh…Hi. Where did you come from?" Kyo asked nervously.
The security guard seemed fascinated with their abnormal hair. "It's a great dye-job if it's not. Is it natural?"
"Yes."
"Uh-huh. And I suppose those eyes aren't contacts?"
"Uh…not to our knowledge. Why do you ask?"
The man smiled brilliantly. "Just wondering. Not everyday you come across someone with your coloring." He turned around. "I guess you should get going now."
Kyo and Haru craned their necks around the man and saw that he was flanked by Tohru, Hana, and Uo.
"What are you guys waiting for? Come on," Uo urged as she, Hana, and Tohru walked to the elevator. "By the way, this is Hisoka. He's half demon." The guard waved hello.
A confused Rin, Haru, and Kyo followed them.
Uo stopped, and turned to look at Hisoka. "Aren't you coming?"
"What? Why?" He looked alarmed.
"Because, since you're a half-demon, you'll have demon knowledge, and you've proved yourself a competent security guard, and we need another decent fighter in our rag-tag group of demon fighters, and this is how they usually get new cast members and characters in books and shows."
"You're a little obsessed with that, aren't you?" Hisoka asked critically. "I'm sorry that I have to decline, but I have a job."
Uo came forward and grabbed his arm and forcefully started pulling him towards the elevator.
"NOOOO!"
…
Motoko was roused from her slumber by the racket of a paper door slamming shut. She ignored it and tried to go back to sleep when voices, conversing loudly, awakened her further. Annoyed and still heavy-eyed, but unable to return to her nap, she lifted her head from the kitchen table, wiped at her mouth, and stood woozily.
"Hello there! Who is this fine woman sleeping at my table? Wait…Hatori! Why is the table in the kitchen?" A man's voice Motoko didn't recognize came from behind her.
She turned slowly, still thinking incoherent thoughts, and tried to blink the swimming dual images of a man into focus.
"Wh…who are you?" she asked groggily.
"I'm still confused as to why the table is in the kitchen. Oh! Sorry, I'm Shigure. Who are you?"
Motoko was bolted into a more awakened state. "Shigure, you say?" When the man nodded, Matoko grabbed his arm, pulled him into his study, and sat him down in front of the computer. "I'm Motoko, and you're going to finish Soul-Devastating Decisions."
"Liked my work, did you?" Shigure smiled as he turned to his computer, stopped, and turned back. "Are you related to Mit-chan by any chance? Did she hire you?" he asked suspiciously.
"Never met her in my life. By the way, is she really out to kill you?"
"Oh, no! That's just her way of showing she cares and that I had better finish my story." Shigure smiled at her. Motoko was a little disconcerted when he did that.
"Sure. Just get writing."
…
Hatori stared after the retreating forms of Motoko and Shigure until they got to the office door. Then he turned to Yuki, who was sitting beside him.
"Do you, by chance, have any idea what that was about?" he asked Yuki.
"Not a clue, but at least with the curse we don't have to worry about Shigure trying anything."
"True, and I'm sure Motoko won't, either, since she's so infatuated with you."
Yuki caught something in his voice and turned to look at Hatori better. "Hatori, are you…jealous?"
"No. Of course not." Hatori took a gigantic swig of the water he was holding and walked out of the room to prevent the conversation from continuing.
A minute later Mai flounced into the kitchen, fully awake and aware, and smiled at Yuki. "Hi! Do you know where the scissors are? There's this puzzle in one of the books I'm researching and I need to cut out a heart to complete it."
"The scissors are in that cabinet over there, the one labeled 'S'. There're bins inside it. Um…do you know if you need to cut out a paper heart or…a real heart?"
Mai skipped to the said cabinet and opened it. "The book said to cut out a clean red heart. I think it means a heart cut out of red paper, those old books can be so hard to decipher…hey, is that sake?"
Yuki shook his head. "Mai, the book means to cut out a real heart. That book is probably centuries old, from before they even dyed paper red … did you say sake?" Yuki moved closer to the cabinet to see if it was true.
The kitchen door opened and someone walked in. Mai and Yuki looked around the open cabinet door to see who it was, Yuki just barely avoiding torso contact. Tohru was at the door, grinning.
"Hello! We're back, and we met someone at the building who killed the demon before we got there." She moved aside to allow entrance to the rest of her Slaughter Squad, as well as one unfamiliar man, who, Yuki assumed, was their demon slayer. He looked disgruntled being here.
"That's great, Miss Honda," Yuki said as he shut the cabinet, carefully attempting to shield the bottles of sake from view. He was unsuccessful.
"What are you doing with Shigure's sake?" Tohru asked, eyes wide with confusion.
Uo snickered. "Isn't it obvious? He's looking to get a little liquored up."
"I was not going to get 'liquored up.' I was merely helping Mai get some scissors."
As if on cue, Mai, who had opened the cabinet after Yuki shut it to continue to look for scissors, jerked her head back out of the cabinet, a triumphant grin on her face. "Scissors! I found the scissors."
Mai then turned to bounce out of the room and nearly ran into the demon slayer, who was looking at her quizzically. "Is that a frog on your head?"
Mai nodded cheerfully, adjusted her frog hat, and made her exit. Yuki turned to Tohru. "Miss Honda, why is the sake in this cabinet?"
"I couldn't find any other place to put it, so that's where it ended up."
Hatori walked back into the kitchen, glass empty, after the Slaughter Squad had seated themselves around the table and Yuki started to shut the cabinet door again. Hatori appeared to be rather disconcerted.
"Yuki, why is Mai running with scissors? She nearly impaled me…is that sake?" Hatori leaned forward to see into the cabinet better.
"Yes, it's sake." Yuki sighed woefully as he opened the cabinet wider for Hatori.
Hatori pulled out a bottle and inspected it. "This seems to be a component of Shigure's alcohol hoard." He opened it, sniffed cautiously, and poured a little into his empty glass.
Before any of the group could comment, a wail of despair echoed through the house.
"That sounded like Shigure's editor. Is she here?" Kyo asked warily.
"No. That would be Motoko." Hatori looked up, brow knotted in worry. He looked like he was about to get up, when the sound of feet pounding down the hallway became audible.
"I'm going out!" Motoko screamed, and the Slaughter Squad could hear her stomp through the house and slam the door.
The group numbly stared in the direction of Motoko's dramatic exit. Seconds later, Shigure came downstairs. "You know, she's just not as fun as Mii-chan to play with. Perhaps I should go finish the chapter…Oh, there's my sake!"
The staring still hadn't abated. The demon slayer looked a little scared.
"Shigure…what did you do?" Hatori asked, clearly not amused with Shigure's antics.
…
"I just can't believe it!" Motoko steamed, as she walked…stormed…out to the path leading to a bar she knew. "All I asked was he write a couple chapters, is that TOO MUCH TO ASK?" she cried to the heavens.
"Ahh…forget it. He's never going to do it. Good thing I'm not his editor. She must be insane by now. Having to put up with that…monster, " she muttered.
"I think I'm just going to go to a bar and get drunk. Maybe when I wake up this will be all a dream." She paused. "But then I still won't know who I'm going to pick!"
She paced in circles for a few minutes before she finally made up her mind. "Oh, screw this! I'm going to go get some drinks!"
Motoko walked up to the bar ten minutes later, still not calmed down, and nodded to the barkeeper and gave her order. "Raspberry schnapps, no blood, entrails, or organs."
Since it was a demon bar the barkeeper didn't press her age and promptly served Motoko her drink, just as she had requested. She sipped at her beverage, choking every time she swallowed, but enjoying the buzz nonetheless.
A woman with short blond hair, dressed in a crisp business suit, sat down on the stool beside her.
"Guy trouble?" the woman asked casually. Motoko nodded absently and continued to nurse her drink. "That's too bad. Want to talk about it?"
Motoko shrugged and replied, "I'm extremely frustrated with an acquaintance at the moment. There's not much else to say."
"Let me guess—its Shigure, isn't it?"
Motoko spewed her drink back into the glass. "How the hell did you know that?"
"I followed you from his house."
"You were stalking me? Who are you?"
"Mii, Shigure's editor. I wish he would die, painfully. Don't you?"
Motoko wasn't sure how she should answer such a question. If she agreed, the insane woman at her side might try to convince her to take part in some sort of fiendish scheme. If she disagreed, Mii was presumably capable of killing her. Neither outcome was desirable.
"I…don't exactly…wish…for him to die. It might be…nice…if he turned up dead, I guess, but I'm not really in the habit of wishing people to die."
Mii pouted. "Are you sure?" Motoko nodded and Mii continued, "But… you hate him terribly, right?"
"Beyond annoyed at him at the moment, yes. Why?"
"Well, don't you think it might be nice to…get back…at him?"
"…Yeah. It would be nice."
Mii turned her head away, so Motoko could barely see Mii's satisfied smirk. "Would you help me?"
"How?" Motoko asked, interested, before she could stop herself.
"I've been slowly tormenting the family and friends around him, to get revenge, but that doesn't seem to be getting through to him very well. But with you as my inside link and helper, then Shigure will get the divine justice he deserves!"
Strangely, in Motoko's alcohol and Shigure-hating induced haze, she didn't really perceive this conversation as absurd, or a bit evil. Otherwise, she would be on her guard.
"Well, su—" Sure, she was about to say, when suddenly it struck her: If Shigure is injured in any way, then my choice can never be made! she thought in horror. Shigure, I will put my hate for you aside, to protect you and your writing from this madwoman! I swear! Motoko abruptly stood up. But you had better finish that book.
"Never, monster! I will protect him until his writing is complete! I will stop your every move!" she declared, then stormed out of the bar, after throwing down a handful of change.
When she was outside, Motoko suddenly felt much tipsier and she stumbled against the building as the world spun crazily around her, "Heh heh, I'm thinking I had a little too much to drink."
She continued on, nearly falling with every step, and was glad that Shigure's house was close. She arrived laughing insanely at random things, such as the gigantic bag of pens and pencils that was perched on the edge of the walkway next to the door of Shigure's house.
"Will you look at that! Hahahahahahah—AHHH!" Motoko tripped as she tried to get into the house, and then crawled through the door.
She grinned stupidly at the sight of Shigure and Hatori throwing back gigantic gulps of sake.
"Hi, guys! What's up?" she asked in a voice that was normally reserved for conversation in crowded stadiums and sawmills.
Shigure's eyes narrowed. "Motoko, how much did you drink? You weren't gone very long."
She held up two fingers. "One glassh!" she slurred as she pulled herself over to the table and grabbed Shigure's bottle of sake. Shigure tried to pry it out of her fingers, but she clutched the bottle with an iron grip.
"Dear, if you're this smashed from one drink, I don't think you should have any more."
Hatori laughed. "Don't be such a hard-ass, 'Gure! Let her have shome." Apparently, Motoko noted with glee, Hatori was drunk, too.
"Something is amiss—there's no way she could get this wasted after one drink!"
Shigure's worries were ignored, however, as Motoko began to drain the bottle of sake.
…
The rest of the group was upstairs hiding from the now very scary and very drunk Hatori and from the less drunk, but just as scary, Shigure. Now Motoko's drunken voice joined the other booming voices from below.
"Oh, that just sucks, now Motoko's with them, too! This just keeps getting better and better!" Kyo said angrily as he stood up from the card game the group was playing, "I'm going to my room!"
The three downstairs launched into a very out of tune and raucous song.
AND WE FIND OURSSHELVES IN THE SHHAME OL' MESSHH
SSHINGING DRUNKEN LULLABIESHH!
The drunken trio had apparently decided that they liked that part of the song and kept repeating it over and over. Hisoka jumped when Kyo's anguished yell came from his room. Tohru, Hisoka, Uo, and Yuki leaped up from Tohru's outrageously over-sized pink bed and ran towards Kyo's room.
They arrived to see a disbelieving Kyo staring into his room, looking at the pages of his books flapping around the room, "My books! My books! What kind of thing would do this!"
Kyo's books were ruined. All of them were pulled from their shelves and were ripped up and shredded beyond repair; it didn't look like any had been missed.
"Maybe some are okay? Maybe not all of them are destroyed?" Tohru said hopefully, but didn't really look like she believed herself.
The five started to look for survivors in silence, but hope for any was growing dim as they searched through the destroyed books. After they had gone through the room a couple of times they gave up and returned to Tohru's, where Hana and Mai were waiting for them. They had somewhere found cookies and milk, which they gave to the shell-shocked Kyo, who took them numbly.
Uo looked at the clock and her face showed obvious relief.
"Hey guys, I have work tomorrow, so I have to go. This was a blast, though. See ya!" Uo hugged Tohru and waved good-bye to the others.
Hisoka muttered something unpleasant under his breath about how she can leave for home freely and that he was forcibly removed from his very important job.
The Slaughter squad waved good-bye and continued concentrating on the game and tuning out the noise from downstairs, until Tohru finally noticed something.
"Where are Rin and Haru?"
The rest of the group shrugged, and turned their attention back to their game.
"Crazy eights!" Mai cried.
Hisoka looked at her, "I thought we were playing Gin Rummy."
"No, we were playing Hearts." Hana stated.
"Are you sure?" Tohru asked.
Everyone stared at their cards for a moment, and then set them down and combined them into one deck just as Uo burst into the room, "Hey guys! Guess what! I think the pens and stuff from the office are outside!"
Hisoka got up, hollered, "Where?" and followed Uo outside.
Hana glanced at the clock and then told the rest of the group, "I have to escort Megumi to a…football…practice."
"In the middle of the night?" Kyo whispered to Tohru, "I don't believe her."
Tohru didn't seem to hear what Kyo had said and smiled brilliantly at Hana, "Have fun! Good-bye!"
Hana rose from the bed to take her leave as Hisoka arrived again. "It's the stuff. I'm going to one of my contacts to see if he can use any left over scent to trace the demon, later!" he proclaimed, and ran out.
It was down to Tohru, Mai, Kyo, and Yuki…and Rin and Haru, wherever they were. The four sat in silence listening to the trio downstairs, "Hey guys, why did Hatori get drunk, anyways?" Kyo asked.
"He's really stressed out, and he probably hasn't had anything alcoholic in years," Mai said. "Sometimes you just have to kick back and get really plastered."
"YOU KNOW WHAT WOULD BE REALLY FUNNY? WHAT IF MII ISH THE VENGEANCE DEMON!" Matoko's voice boomed from downstairs.
"THAT WOULD BE FUNNY! HAHAHAHA!" Hatori replied.
"WHATSH A VENGEANCE DEMON?" Shigure asked.
"UH…I DON'T KNOW! HAHAHAHAH!"
Yuki and Kyo stared at each other in horror, and Yuki whispered, "It couldn't be!"
"What?" Mai questioned innocently.
"Mii is the vengeance demon! It makes perfect sense!"
"AND SSHHE PUT A SHPELL ON ME, THATSH WHAT SSHE DID! WHY ELSH WOULD I BE SHO…SHO…sho…" A loud thunk followed this, presumably Motoko finally falling unconscious. Two other thunks followed, hopefully of Shigure and Hatori also passing out.
"Maybe that's why Hatori got drunk! Maybe Mii put some spell on both of them!" Kyo looked relieved at his reason for Hatori's intoxication.
Tohru was confused. "Why would Mii want to kidnap Yuki?".
"Because she wants to get back at Shigure! My kidnapping and the pens and pencils were probably her doing. Same with Kyo's books." Yuki exclaimed.
"I don't think she wants to 'get back at Shigure', she probably wants to kill him. That's what I would do if I was Mii, and an insane demon," Kyo added glumly.
"But why would she steal pens and pencils? And rip up Kyo's books? It doesn't make any sense." Tohru was still confused.
"Tohru, she's insane."
"Oh, okay."
After a short silence Mai piped up, "Do you think it's safe to go downstairs now?"
The four got up and stealthily padded their way to the stairs and, as quietly as they could, descended, and poked their heads around the door to the living room where, thankfully, the three drunks were passed out, snoring loudly into the carpet.
The group sighed simultaneously with relief.
"Do you think we should move them so they're more comfortable?" Tohru asked worriedly.
"No," was the instant response from Tohru's sober companions.
They walked to the kitchen where they found Rin and Haru eating what appeared to be cookies and donuts from a nearby bakery. Rin swallowed the rest of her donut and pushed a bag full of goodies towards the four at the door and beckoned them over.
Kyo was spluttering as he sat down, "When did you buy this!"
"About 20 minutes ago. We then took a quick detour through the graveyard and staked a few vamps," Haru replied calmly, and then gulped down some milk.
"We. Are. So. Dumb." Kyo stated, "We could have been outside doing something like that, but no, we had to stay and make sure those idiots in there didn't kill themselves!"
Kyo then took a big handful of cookies and began chomping on them as he glowered.
"So, Shigure's editor finally snapped. Can't say I'm surprised, the way Shigure tortured her, but the vengeance demon part, who knew she had it in her," Rin commented.
"How did you know that?" Tohru asked.
"We were here to hear Motoko blare the truth to the world. I hope they have some really bad hang-overs. I think they made me temporarily deaf. I didn't know that Hatori could yell so loud, not to mention even get drunk."
Rin and Haru then glanced conspiratorially at each other, and Haru spoke up again, "Tohru, Kyo, you should go to a demon bar or something and see if Mii approaches you. Then you could see if you can find out where she lairs so we can stop her, maybe even see if you can get her to grant a wish to lift a certain curse."
"Why do we want to stop Mii?" Mai asked around a big mouthful of donut.
Yuki sighed. "Because, Mai, she's a danger: she's kidnapped, stolen, vandalized, and is probably going to attempt the murder of someone we know."
Tohru had been thinking hard since Haru had spoken and now realized the flaw in Haru's plan. "But I'm not insane. Why would she grant a wish of mine?"
"We were hoping that since she's insane she won't notice that you are not, and we think she would grant it anyways if you could convince her that it would cause Shigure great pain and sorrow if she did. Now, off with you two. Go, go!" Haru waved them towards the door.
Kyo started complaining when Rin pulled him up off the ground and towards the door, "Why do we have go to a demon bar? And why just us? What if we get into trouble with demons since Tohru's a Slayer? Isn't there some spell or something we could cast to call Mii?"
"If there is we don't know it. Now. Go!" Rin pushed Kyo towards the door.
"Actually, I know the spell. It was in one of those books. It's that one I need the paper heart for." Mai said cheerily.
Everyone stopped and stared at Mai. "And you didn't say anything? Why?" Kyo asked harshly
"I didn't realize we needed it 'til now."
Kyo sighed. "Where's the spell?"
Mai bounced up, grabbed the last cookie, and turned towards the study. "This way!" she directed, and sashayed towards said room.
She returned a few minutes with the book, opened to the relevant page. The Slaughter Squad crowded around to look at it.
A few minutes later they had closed the book, expressions of disgust on their faces, and Kyo and Tohru headed for the door. "I think waiting for Mii would be a better course of action," Kyo called over his shoulder.
"What's wrong with the spell?" Mai asked.
…
The demon bar was empty but for a few Chaos demons. Cautiously, Kyo and Tohru sat in the booth farthest from them.
"So… how are you doing with math?" Kyo inquired after a moment of awkward silence.
"Okay. Yuki's been helping me with it, but I'm still not really sure I'll pass the test."
"You'll do fine."
Tohru watched the bubbles in her soda pop and fizz, and then said, "Do you think Mii is actually going to show up?"
"No. Rin and Haru set us up on a date."
She blushed crimson. "A… date? But—they said we were going to make a wish!"
"They lied, obviously. They've been really weird about this kind of stuff lately."
"Oh. This is our first real date, then?"
"I guess so. Sorry I didn't take you somewhere nicer than a crappy demon bar."
"Oh! No, this is fine! I like it here, really."
Kyo grinned. "I guess this is sort of your element now."
Before Tohru could respond, the bar door opened and a girl with long, wavy black hair and a black cloak stormed in.
"Is that Hana?" Kyo asked incredulously.
Tohru turned and craned her head to see, "That is Hana! I wonder what she's doing in a place like this? Hana! Hana!"
Hana appeared rather taken aback to see Tohru and Kyo there. She approached them slowly and, when she was within earshot, started talking. "Tohru. Kyo. What are you two doing here?"
"We're here to see if Mii will come." Kyo added hastily, "What are you doing here?"
"Did you drop off Megumi without any trouble?" Tohru asked worriedly.
"…Yes…Yes, I did."
Kyo glared at Hana and cleared his throat. "The truth, please."
Hana sighed dramatically and sat down beside Tohru. "You see, my mother is a witch, and I have started…gathering…ingredients for her, now that I know about demons and such, and I need to…retrieve…some rare ingredients for her in…" Hana looked at the dirty, almost illegible clock hanging on the wall. "…7 minutes."
"Oh! You buy stuff for your mom's spells?" Tohru said.
"Yes."
"Why didn't you just say that in the first place!...How much does it cost?" Kyo asked curiously.
Hana stated the typical price, which elicited a gasp from Tohru.
"That's a lot…hey, what about Megumi? Why did you say you had to drop him off if you were just going to come here?"
"Oh I just felt like saying that…so…how's your date going?"
Tohru choked on the soda she was drinking and Kyo started spluttering, "Wha…how…but..."
"Look at the time. I need to be going now, but I will see you later." Hana rose gracefully and walked towards a demon that had recently arrived.
Tohru and Kyo watched her talk and exchange something with the demon and walk out of the bar before saying anything.
"Hanajima sure is an…interesting girl." Kyo stated.
"Isn't she wonderful?" Tohru said after she had finished slurping the last of her drink.
"You could say that. I really don't think Mii is going to show up. Wanna go somewhere else?"
"Like where?"
Kyo shrugged, stood, and held out his hand to Tohru, and helped her up when she took it. It was reasonably warm outside, even though it was, according to the bar's clock, ten minutes before two in the morning.
"Good thing it's a three-day weekend, don't you think, Kyo?" Tohru asked as they walked towards the more decent part of town.
"Yeah."
"This place looks fun," Tohru said after a while.
It was a park, and a fairly good one at that, in a nice section of the town, surrounded by trees and houses with expensive cars parked in front of them. Kyo walked towards the swing and sat on it. Tohru sat in the one next to him.
They sat there in a comfortable silence, soon broken by some conversation. Tohru found it easy to relax by just talking to Kyo about normal things, like food and movies, as opposed to apocalypses and creatures of the night. Eventually they started to play around on the playground equipment, just having fun. They stopped, and sat together in silence to watch when the sun began to rise.
…
Motoko groaned. Her head HURT. She slowly came to full consciousness and instantly regretted it. Carefully opening her eyes, they were quickly blinded by the kitchen lights. She was laying face down, she realized after a moment of confusion. Her eyes still hurt, nonetheless. It was then she came aware of something warm underneath her.
Befuddled, she looked askance and saw that it was Hatori's sleeping body.
Motoko's scream of terror woke Hatori. He winced at the shrill noise and the light, and tried to sit up, but Motoko was pinning him to the floor.
Motoko was much too shocked to consider rolling off of the doctor, or apologizing. Instead, Hatori's eyes widened comically.
"How…how come I'm not a seahorse?" he asked, seemingly to the empty air.
"What?" Motoko stared at him. "Did we take any drugs last night?"
Hatori just looked back. Suddenly, his eyes narrowed. Then, quite unexpectedly, his arms flew up around her, and she found herself in Hatori's embrace.
"Hatori?" she squeaked, worst hangover of her life forgotten. Hatori let her go, and looking at his face, she saw him frown. "How strange," he murmured.
"And my new desktop picture!" a singsong voice announced.
Both of them looked over and saw Shigure standing there, camera in hand, hair freshly washed, and seemingly completely unaffected by last night's drink-athon. He smiled widely.
"I already have some pictures I took earlier of you sleeping printed out and on my desktop, but I think this one takes the cake! Wait till the rest of the family sees it! The dragon curse seems to have been broken!"
Motoko was dumbfounded. "Huh?" she questioned.
"Pictures?" Hatori asked.
They looked at each other. "SHIGURE!"
(End Chapter 10)
(And Starting Now: Super Long AN That Could Be A Chapter On Its Own.)
So, I threw an OC in there to take care of the demon in a cheap way, but so what? I didn't want to take him out because, even though OC's generally degrade the story, I got a few cute jokes from him. So everything's ok, right? And I realized that there could have been some rather funny moments if they had found the demon and realized that the walkie talkies didn't work, and they didn't have the right demon slaying equipment. And I could have introduced him in a different way. Ah, well, perhaps it's best if I didn't, because then I would have the clichéd way of having Hisoka catch the battle on the security monitors, or be talking with one of the groups when the demon appeared and come to the rescue with a proper bladed weapon, either killing it himself, or having Tohru do. See? It's totally clichéd to do it that way. Kind of.
He also doesn't really have much plot point, but I really couldn't resist. He has a part later that I just think is just too funny to cut and it wouldn't work without him.
And in case you're wondering, Hisoka looks like an average Japanese man, and no 'special' demon marks. Perhaps that's why he was so fascinated with the Sohma's hair and eye color.
And now I suppose I have to classify Matoko/Hatori as an alternative paring, what with the latest manga volume and all. I'm kind of sad to do that, you know, but I wrote this story before volume 10 was translated into English.
Evilalternativeendingstorywriter- No, it's not D'Hoffryn (Anya's boss), and very good guess on who the demon was. Or was it a guess? I'm not sure… But cookies for you
And for why Matoko would let a story, and one written by Shigure, choose whom she would try to start a relationship with… Well, partly because that's how her personality would react, and she's choosing between her obsession of many years, and the tragic, angsty doctor…wait… ¬¬ …okay, perhaps it isn't that big of choice, but it also is plot development! And we all love that! .
And this is the longest chapter I've ever written. Yay! And the longest, I think, of the story. It starts off with rather short chapters, but consistently grows longer. I feel so proud of myself. But I think there are only a few chapters left, though.
Kyo and Tohru's first date! Aww…young love. So sweet and, unless I've totally missed out on something, innocent.
Oh, and I hate to say it, but there won't be another update for maybe a week, because Harry Potter came out and I need to read it. Since I'm feeling a little guilty I made an extra long chapter just for you guys. So…enjoy!