Chapter 7: let's go to sleep

She wasted her money. She wasted her money. Was all Shigure thought as he and Maiko are back at the park sitting at the bench. And all on my account. Why? Why? She knows she's poor and needs to save up for money. Hmm… I must sound like a worrying father by now…Maiko had an arm around Shigure as she looks through the dog book. "You don't look like a Doberman…" Doberman? Hmm, now that I think about, what kind of dog am I? Very questioning… "Hey Almighty Shigure, I'm just gonna call ya Shigure ok?" Aww… Shigure thought disappointedly.

"Bark." Maiko grins.

"Kay, hey, since you can write, can you read?" Shigure nods. "You're so smart. Here," From her bag, she pulls out one of Shigure's books. "This guy has the same name as you! Shigure! My uncle likes his stories a lot, but for some reason, he won't let me read it. He says I need to wait till I'm a little older. But you're old enough to read it. In dog years I guess." She places the book next to Shigure, watching in astonishment as he opens the book with his paws. "Write to me what it's about when your done ok?"

"Bark." Nope!

When it finally became nighttime, both lies down under the bench, cuddling next to one another. Shigure's trying to sleep, but for the amount of time he has been a dog, he can't help but worry. "Shigure…" Maiko mumbles with her eyes close. "You're very smart, but like me, you were alone." You are jumping to conclusions, but please, do continue. "I bet you had a reason you left your home too, huh? I left mine because my father was evil. He'll always hurt our feelings and make mom go crazy. But work makes mom crazy also. It's a good thing I left. They were in debt anyway and like dad said, I'm just a waste of money. YAWN… you promise not to tell? Each time I do, mom gets upset saying it's no ones business. I bet she's just jealous cause she's afraid to show her emotions. That's moms problem, she hides to many things and it's making her crazy…" There was a deep pause that caused Shigure to turn his head towards Maiko, but only to see her sound asleep. He grins, and licks her cheek.

"Nighty night." Shigure says with a yawn before he fell asleep.

Chapter 8: bad smell

"Fwoo!" Momiji sighs allowed as he and Hatsuharu takes a seat at a nearby bench. It's early in the morning during the time when the sun is barely up and also the time where Hatsuharu normally goes jogging. Momiji was up at the time so he decided to go with him. "This jogging stuff is very tiring! Did ya bring the water bottles Haru?"

"It's in your bag." Hatsuharu points out.

"Oh yea!" As Momiji rummages through his bag, Shigure, from underneath slowly wakes up.

"Try to hurry up alright? We need to get home before anyone realizes we're missing."

"Yes, yes, alright." As Momiji starts to take his drink, he felt something tapping against the backside of his leg. Curiously, he bends down, looking underneath the bench, ending up getting whack in the face by a tail. "ouch!" Momiji yells as he does a back flip to the ground while covering his face. "I'm hit! I'm hit!"

"That was kinda cool. I had no idea you can do back flips. Yet another mystery solved."

"No Haru! Look! A doggy!"

"HURRAY!" Shigure yells as he leaps out from underneath the bench. The site of dog form Shigure made the two boys go wide eyes. "Thank goodness! It really is you two! And Momiji, I'm very sorry for hitting you in the face." Both remained quiet till Hatsuharu spoke up.

"A dog in the form of Shigure sensei. How very odd."

"Haru! That is Shigure! Remember? Ayame kept yelling 'Shigure went missing! Shigure went missing!'" He says that while opening and closing his fist in the air. "Remember?"

"Oh… yea."

"Uh… you two…" Shigure tries to talk, but gets interrupted.

"Shigure sensei, if you remain in this form, a dog catcher might get you." From Momiji's backpack, Hatsuharu tries to look for something. When he found it, he puts the dog collar with Shigure's name on it around Shigure's neck. Shigure lifts a brow.

"What were you doing with this name collar?"

"That shall remain a secret."

"Hehe, So why'd you go missing Shigure?" Momiji asks.

"I couldn't find my way back."

"How'd ya manage to stay in dog form this whole time?"

"I was with Maiko the whole time."

"Who is… Maiko?" Hatsuharu asks.

"This girl here." Shigure says, pointing with his right paw towards the young 10-year-old sleeping. Since Maiko's back is facing them, Hatsuharu turns around on the bench and bends down to try to see her face, but instead sees the two books lying on the floor. He reaches out to grab them, and starts to flip through the pages.

"I'm guessing she was trying to find out what kind of dog you are?" Hatsuharu asks.

"Yes, she wasted her precious money on me when she should be using it to pay for a bath or something!"

"Hehe, that's kind of you Shigure… I think." Momiji says whispering the last part to himself.

"Why did she buy your porn novel book? Isn't she like 9 or 10 years old?" Hatsuharu asked another question.

"Heh heh, she bought that for her uncle. Luckily she hasn't even taken a glimpse inside it yet."

"Smart girl." As if it were on command, Shigure has finally transformed back into a human.

"Finally!" Shigure says stretching his arms out.

"Be glad the streets are empty at this time of day." In her sleep, Maiko starts to cough uneasily as if choking from the smoke of Shigure's transformation.

"Crap! When she wakes up-" Shigure stops himself from finishing the sentence since even him and Momiji and Hatsuharu knew what will happen. "Quick! Hug me!" Shigure throws his arms around Momiji randomly. "Dammit! You're no girl!"

"Plus, he's a zodiac member. So that hug would not effect either one of you." Hatsuharu states. Shigure lets go of Momiji and instead dives to hug Maiko causing more smoke from his transformation back into a dog. Finally awakening, Maiko tries to get up, but with the smoke blocking her site and causing her to cough, she ends up hitting her head on the bench making her cry from the pain.

"Ow…" She rolls out from under the bench away from the smoke, but continues to cough. While the smoke was disintegrating into the air, Hatsuharu, Momiji, and Shigure both run over to young Maiko.

"Bark bark." Momiji and Hatsuharu turned their attentions back to Shigure with the same thought in mind Whose gonna believe that fake bark? While still coughing, Maiko was able to mutter out the words "Shigure… I cough cough don't know what you did cough, but it smells coughbad cough cough cough." Hearing that, Hatsuharu and Momiji couldn't help but laugh.

Moments later, Maiko finds herself awake, lying on Hatsuharu's lap. The comfortable feeling it gave her, she didn't want to get up, but this man is a stranger to her, so she must. Maiko sits up, letting out a yawn.

"YAY! She's alive!" Momiji cheers. A vein shows from Shigure's head.

"Are you alright?" Hatsuharu asks in his calm voice. Maiko suspiciously looks around seeing the little girl—or whom she thinks is a girl—cheering with Shigure just playfully going along with it. She turns back to Hatsuharu. Seeing the green tattoo on his arm made her think, "gang member".

"Yes." She stands up, takes a bow "Thank you very much for… whatever has just happened." Walks in a fast pace patting Shigure's head, "Come on Shigure." And walks as far as possible, but still looking back to see if Shigure will follow. From her distance, she can see the green tattoo boy reaching into his pocket, and then sticking something into Shigure's mouth while also whispering to him. "Shigure! Come boy!"

"You better go Shigure." Momiji says.

"Okay." Shigure says through gritted teeth, still holding whatever in his mouth. "Thanks you two! I owe you both!" Shigure yells as he runs off towards Maiko.

"He owes me twenty. How much did you give him Momiji?" Hatsuharu asked curiously. Momiji whispered the amount in his ear. "He's never gonna pay us back now."

wow… my chapters are getting longer. Ey, I realize, posting it like this, it makes it easier on me when I start to download the documents! Instead of posting each one individually, all that time I'll spend will be cut in half!

Ok, please comment, thank you.