The next morning the girls all slept in except for Anju who had a hard time falling asleep. She had spent the night keeping a lookout just in the possibility that any more Hollows might decide they wanted a snack. Now she sat in the kitchen with Tatsu and Kayn, while Zahro was sleeping in with the girls.
"So, Tatsu, what are your plans with my brother?" Kayn teasingly asked Tatsu.
Tatsu's face turned ten different shades of red. "I-I, . . . what?"
"Heh." Kayn grinned, "Don't be shy, I know you like him, my brother is just dense when it comes to that, he's all serious that he's lost touch with his sense to see someone who likes him and is so blatantly obvious about it."
"I just figured he isn't into me. If I'm being honest, yesterday when I saw that beast, umm . . ." Tatsu sat and twiddled his fingers nervously, "I only jumped in for Zahro. I didn't care for Cordelia - well." His words became a jumbled mess, "She just isn't as important-" He quickly facepalmed himself, and nervously laughed. "Let me rephrase that. My body only took off to save them, because, I didn't want to see Zahro hurt. Cordelia is still important to me as a friend, but I think if that beast hadn't targetted Zahro, I don't think I would've leaped into action as I had."
Anju nodded, "I get it, we have an innate instinct to protect the ones we love or are infatuated with."
Kayn made a vague sound of approval, "Mm-hmm" Before adding his input, "I'm glad you care for Zahro that way, I can't always be by to protect my big brother, so it's nice that I know I can count on you. Sorry for running off yesterday, Zahro wanted me to make sure Grandpa knew we'd be out late and to lock the door."
Tatsu blushed yet again before looking at the pancakes in front of his face, "I, well. Thank you, Kayn." He looked over at Anju, "Hey Anju I know Cordelia might not accept you as much as the others, or be a bit hard to get along with, don't take it personally she is a bit protective of Hanabi."
Anju sighed, "Yes, I know. Actually, when everyone went to bed she had a stern talk with me."
Anju recited the conversation between her and Cordelia to Tatsu and Kayn.
-Last night-
"Anju, come here." Cordelia motioned for the black-haired woman to meet her outside the room.
Anju mumbled before, obediently meeting her in the hallway.
"Listen. I know you're new to Tatesunobi, but why are you using Hanabi?" Cordelia accused her of lying, "My father is the sheriff of the town and there is no record of you for hundreds of miles, there are not even any records of transport with your name as a passenger."
Anju gulped, as she stared the red-head in her tense amber-brown eyes. "I'm from a small village that isn't even on the maps."
Cordelia's gaze could cut steel. "What town."
Anju mumbled, "It's not your business."
Cordelia scoffed, "Fine! However, heed my warning, if you ever hurt Hanabi I will personally come after you myself."
Anju nodded,
-Present-
"Ow-ych." Tatsu sighed, "Typical Cordelia." Tatsu chuckled, "Well hey!" He grabbed her attention before asking her a question, "Want to know something that nobody in the group knows?"
Anju looked up from her glass of almond milk, "I would love that, thank you."
Tatsu smirked, "Tatsu isn't my full name. Tatsuki Rasui. My family isn't Asian-orientated, well Japanese. We're actually from America but apparently, my ancestors were, and we worshipped the dragons of the sky. However, my family got white-washed, to be honest, I probably have too many white-orientated races to even be considered Japanese."
Kayn made a noise to himself as he listened to Tatsu's explanation. "Hm?"
"So yea! You two are the only to know, I usually tell people my name is Tatsu, because, it's just easier on the ear you know? Plus I like to joke that my parents were huge fans of japan and that's why my name isn't something bland like John or Phil." He chuckled, "I hope you feel like I trust you like Hanabi, Anju. Because she's the reason why I'm even in this group. Cordelia actually hated me at first, and to be honest, I think it's cause she had a crush on Zahro when our group first started hanging out last year."
Anju gasped, "Really?" She smiled, amused. "How come she teases you nowadays?"
Tatsu pondered, "Hm-mmm. If I'm being honest." He tried to hold back a giggle, "We had a competition. Whoever Zahro's cake he liked best got to pursue him." He frowned, "Although, we can't play with love and stuff like that if he liked Cordelia I'd respect it and wouldn't be upset."
Kayn's eyebrow raised, "Well I can happily tell you Cordelia is not the one who has his eye."
Meanwhile, Cordelia walked into the kitchen, with a blank face.
"Goodmorning, Umbilical Cord!" Tatsu smiled.
Cordelia coldly ignored his greeting before hatefully stating, "I heard what you all were talking about." She gave the group the bird and walked off into the main entryway of the house, before slamming the door and yelling, "Fuck off."
Kayn rolled his eyes, "Is it bad that I can't stand her attitude?"
Anju sighed, "Thank you for sharing Tatsuki. I'll make sure to refer to you as the name you prefer in front of the others. I'll go check on Hanabi."
With that Anju had run upstairs to see if Hanabi was awake. On her way up she passed Zahro who smiled at her and patted her head.
"Good morning, I'll catch you later Anju. It was nice getting to know you I gotta get going. I hope Kayn didn't bother you too much this morning." Zahro then continued to walk past her.
Anju was a little flustered by his actions and nodded, "Same here, and he was fine."
As she walked into Hanabi's room she found it empty. Something was wrong, the room was a mess, and it looked like there was a struggle. She could sense the trail of something sinister, she hadn't quite gotten used to identifying the different Reiryoku, whatever was here had a decent amount of Reiatsu. It definitely wasn't human and if it was this wasn't an ordinary human, especially with the power behind their Reiatsu. This damned ring and necklace was making it much harder to identify the situation. It was almost similar to a WiFi Jammer.
Anju sat down and began to meditate as she focused on heightening her senses.
"Hnn-mm." She made a hum to herself as she centered on the evil Reiryoku.
She could feel that it wasn't anything from this world. What was this energy she was picking up on though? Hanabi? . . . No, but her Reiryoku seemed smaller than usual, which meant she was probably unconscious and beaten badly. Anju could sense that they were going towards the forest, this damned forest was going to be the death of her. She took off to run after her friend. The kidnapper- no the Hanabi-napper had much more Reiryoku than that Soul Reaper from yesterday.
What Anju didn't notice was that she was being followed by one of her newer friends from last night, Tatsu followed in pursuit. The two of them were both chasing someone else and trying to mask their presence from them. Anju was chasing the mysterious intruder, and Tatsu was chasing Anju. Just as it was looking like the world was going to accept her something had to go wrong, maybe Anju was just bad luck for anyone who tries to become close to her.