Here's chapter 2.
Ch2
A year had past for the Takasu family and they had slowly gotten used to life back in Ohashi, well for Taiga and Ryuuji. Kori was trying to get used to life in a new town all together. She felt as though she was back at square one with trying to make people not see her as a thug.
At school Kori was able to make one friend and that was Miyo Kushieda. Kori actually found out that the red haired girl WAS the daughter of their homeroom teacher.
The girl was also a, what's the word for it, oh yeah she's a Genki girl. The girl was really energetic always running to get from one place to another. She's basically a ball of sunshine, which is a complete contrast to Kori's personality.
In her school many of the student body had gave her the nickname The Ice Princess of Ohashi. Apparently there was someone else in the school that also had a well-known nickname. That person was called the Fire Demon and everyone always says that he'd beat up anyone who talked back to him. Besides knowing that the Demon was a boy she knew next to nothing.
Moving on from that, everybody kept their distance from Kori, not that she bothered to change their minds about her. If they wanted to remain like that, then let them.
"Kori!" Taiga called as she opened the door to her daughter's room "come on time to get up!"
Kori just groaned as her mother opened the curtains of her room. The light of morning shone into the face of the younger Takasu female. The older female picked up some clothing on the floor of the girl's room. It appeared as though Kori picked up Taiga's messy habits, although she also had Ryuuji knack for cleaning. It was funny seeing the girl switch between the two.
"Come on young lady, get up" Taiga gave the bed a small kick making the occupant of the bed groan louder "seriously you're gonna miss school"
"Maybe I should" Kori grumbled as she sat up. Taiga placed the clothes in a basket by the door of the room.
"What was that?" Taiga turned around with a raised eyebrow.
"Nothing" Kori threw her legs over the side of the bed, letting her bare feet touch the wooden floor.
"Come on your dad made breakfast and it almost be a sin to waist the food" the orange haired woman almost drooled at the thought of her husband's food.
"Yeah, yeah" Kori gave her a dismissive hand wave as her mother walked out of the room "great…school" the young girl sighed tiredly falling back onto her bed.
"Morning champ" Ryuuji looked over his newspaper as his daughter walked into the room. His wife sat beside him eating her food, contrasting her younger self the older Taiga had more poise…she still ate as much though (which was still mostly meat) "ready for your second year of school"
"You mean hell" Kori grumbled taking a seat across from her parents. After saying a quick 'thanks for the food' the girl began eating her breakfast.
"Come on it's not so bad…right?" Kori looked up at her father with a 'seriously?' look.
"Just show them that you're not who they think you are" Taiga put her chopsticks on her, now, empty plate "that's how your dad and I made more friends" the parents grinned at each other.
'Easier said than done' the orange haired girl poked her food well looking out the sliding door at the backyard.
"Oh, look at the time" Ryuuji stood up after putting the paper on the table "if I don't leave soon I'm gonna be late for work" the man dusted his clothes off before leaning down and giving his wife a kiss.
Kori put her fingers by her head as if she was holding a gun and pretended to shoot herself.
"See you when I get home" the two leaned in again and gave each other a quick peck.
"One more kiss and I'm gonna hurl" their daughter rolled her eyes.
"Just you wait, one day you're going to get a boyfriend and I'm SO gonna hold it over your head" Taiga smirked at her daughter.
"Not happening any time soon" Kori finished her breakfast and stood up "I better go before Miyo comes bashing our door down, again"
"Have a good day at school and Ryuuji, pick up some groceries on your way home" Taiga said as she gathered the dishes from the table. The father and daughter nodded their heads before leaving their home.
"KORI!" said girl turned around and caught the person who was trying to fly tackle/aggressively hug the youngest Takasu. Having been in this situation before, a lot of times, the girl put one foot back to keep from falling.
"Morning Miyo" the girl who normally had an ice like look in her eyes smiled at her friend. Miyo grinned at her best friend and stepped back well hoping from one foot to the other "you're kinda late this morning"
"Sorry, sorry" the red head gave a sheepish grin "I was getting done, when the radio in my alarm clock started playing my favourite song. So I started singing along and tried to get done as well, but it was difficult to get my panties on well I was dance so what I did was-" Kori placed a hand over her friend's mouth, that didn't stop her from talking behind the hand.
"Miyo, if we stand here listening to you ramble on about even 5 minutes of your morning we will be late for school" that made the red head pause well looking up at the sky in thought. It took her a half a second to look back at her friend and nod her head rapidly "good, let's go then" after taking her hand away the two made their way to school.
"We're in the same class Kori!" Miyo cheered loudly making some of the people around her groan tiredly; half of those people were in their class.
Currently the two were standing in front of the placement list that explains who was in which class and the nicknamed Ice Princess was thankful that her best friend was in the same class as her. That fact made her smirk in approval.
"Do you see that look on her face?"
"Scary"
"L-Let's go before she turns that look on us"
Kori was broken from her musings when the area around her became vacant, well besides an energetic Miyo hopping about, cheering about how she and her best friend were in the same class.
"Let's go Miyo" said Kori crossing her arms and walking away with a huff. All the students parted as the girl walked towards her class.
"Sure!" Miyo skipped alongside the girl, sometimes skipping around Kori.
The two walked in silence, oddly enough, for majority of their trip to their new class. The minute they made it to the top of the stairs Miyo skipped ahead of Kori and turned around well swaying this way and that way.
"Hey Kori…" she said with sly smile, a smile that did not sit well with the orange haired girl.
"Yes?" Kori said wearily.
"RACE YA!" with that said the girl took off down the hall with a, what Miyo thought was, maniacal cackle. It actually sounded like a chipmunk on meth.
"Miyo!" Kori shouted after the speeding red bullet, but said bullet was too far down the hall to hear her "annnnd she's gone" she rolled her eyes.
Kori felt someone bump into her, which made her blink in surprise. No one, and she meant NO ONE, bumped into her and got away with it. Spinning on her heel the Ice Princess of Ohashi prepared to deal out harsh punishment on the soon to be dead person.
Not even thinking about seeing who it was first Kori threw a punch but hit air. Something, or someone, grabbed her by the wrist. In her shock the orange haired girl took note of the blond hair with black on the bottom.
She knew this guy; he used to sit behind her in class, what was his name again? Oh yeah! It was Kasai. The look in his eyes seemed like it wanted to roast her alive.
"What do you think you're doing?" he said with a frown on his face, his glare intensifying. This made Kori up her icy glare.
"I could ask you the same thing. Who gave you the right to bump into me?" all around them the students started whispering in both excitement and fear.
"Oh my god!" whisper exclaimed one student "its Kori the Ice Princess versus Kasai the Fire demon!"
'So He was the Fire Demon all along huh?' Kori idly thought well she listened in on the other whispers.
"It's a fight for top dog"
"I was wondering when these two would finally trade blows"
"Where's my phone, I gotta catch this on tape!" as the whispers continued the others became more excited.
"Wow there" someone got between the two and pushed them apart. This person had a grey hoodie on with a lollipop in her mouth. She forced the boy to take his hand off of Kori's wrist "let's not get in a fight on a new day of the second year alright?" the girl grinned at them.
Kori knew this girl as well; she was also in her class last year. What was her name again?
"Move it Rin" the boy turned his glare on the girl, who just rolled her eyes and popped the lollipop out of her mouth.
"You should know that those looks don't work me" she reached up and pinched the boy's cheek "you look so cute when you're trying to be intimidating" she cooed. Kasai gently slapped her hand away with a huff of annoyance.
"Did you see that?"
"I know. I thought it was all a legend but there is someone who has tamed the Fire Demon"
"What did you say?!" Kasai turned his fiery glare on the people around him making the students disperse in fear of being on the receiving ending of the Demon's wrath "Vultures"
"I like that they think I tamed you" Rin laughed as she popped the lollipop back in her mouth. Kasai just grumbled with a twitching eyebrow, this made Rin laugh louder.
"Excuse me" the two turned to Kori, who had been standing quietly behind Rin "can you tell me what the hell just happened?" she crossed her arms with a frown on her face.
"I could ask you the same question Miss Ice Princess of Ohashi" Rin giggled, this only caused Kori to deepen her frown.
"Alright sorry, sorry" Rin grinned "I don't think we've been properly introduced, my names Rin Noto" she stuck her hand out for a handshake but only got an impatient look "not one for handshake huh? Don't worry I know a couple of other germaphobes. All of them act the same"
"I'm not a germaphobe"
"Coulda fooled me" Rin shrugged putting her hands in her pockets "I noticed all three of us are in the same class again. So let's make this year awesome aight?" the girl grinned.
Kaori and Kasai glared at each other. Kori took this time to actually take notice of how the boy dressed. The school jacket sat open showing a red top underneath. He had a pendent that was shaped in the form of a flame with a face in it, the kind of face one would see on a Jack-o-lantern. The sleeves of the jacket were also rolled up. Besides the jacket the boy's clothes were relatively normal and neat.
Besides that she noticed that his eyes were charcoal black, unlike the first time she saw them…
"Did you dye your hair?" she asked the first thing that came to mind, making the two in front of her blink in surprise. Kori blushed at the fact she said what she was thinking but didn't take it back.
"What kind of question-" Kasai felt someone throw an arm around his neck and turned his glare on Rin, who chuckled.
"Him? Hair dye? *PFFT* don't be crazy, this idiot is already in trouble as it is for how he dresses" the orange haired girl grabbed a bit of the hair "nah, this is his natural hair colour"
"Get off me Rin!" the boy raged but didn't do anything to get the girl's arm off of him.
"Hmmm, nope" Rin began to grind her fist on top of Kasai's head "I think I'll noogie your hair one colour!" she laughed as the boy in her grasp began struggling to get out of the hold, oddly enough since he was bigger than the jacket wearing girl.
Kori watched the two interact with each other with a raised brow. After noticing that the two weren't going to say anything else she turned on her heel and walked towards her class.
'Idiots' she thought looking back at them over her shoulder. Kasai had broken out of the lock and had begun to shout at Rin, who wasn't paying any attention in the slightest.
'Why were his eyes so dull the first time we met…?' Kori thought turning her head forward again.
"It's not my business anyway" she said.
"I'm so happy to have the honour of teaching you guys again" said a happy Minori clapping her hands with a smile on her face. The class was equally as happy, well most of them were, some hadn't been in the red haired teacher's class last year but they heard of the Awesome Miss Kushieda.
"So without further ado let's get into…" Minori lost her enthusiasm when she looked around and noticed that the class was suddenly frozen. Half the class was frozen and the other side started squirming as if heat from the desert was beating down on them. The red haired teacher looked around to see what was causing this. Said reasons were glaring daggers at each other from either side of the class.
Kasai was slumped forward in his seat with his forearms resting on the table. He was glaring at Kori from the corner of his eyes with a snarl like look on his face. The girl on the receiving end of this look had her hands folded in front of her face and directing an equally violent glare at Kasai.
"Um…am I missing something?" Minori asked with a sweat drop.
"No" Kasai and Kori answered at the same time. Obviously their earlier altercation was still on their minds.
Rin glanced at the boy next to her well her feet were propped up on the table. She grinned, not the least bit affected by the glare going past her. She reached into her pocket and withdrew a lollipop, which she proceeded to unwrap and pop in her mouth.
'So starts the story of the Demon and the Princess' she thought, her grin changing into a smirk.
"Stupid asshole" grumbled Kori as she walked home with Miyo leading the charge. The genki girl skipped ahead of her best friend well chewing on dango "who does he think he is to bump into me like that"
"Hey Kori!" the orange haired girl stopped in her tracks when she heard someone call her name. Looking over her shoulder revealed a grinning Rin, who was close…to close in fact "mind if I walk with you?"
Kori took a step back in surprise and to create some distance between her and the crazy girl.
"No? Thanks" Rin walked past Kori and fell in step with Miyo, who shared her haul of Dango with her classmate; of course the red haired girl was friendly with anyone.
"Wha? Oi! Who invited you along?!" Kori fumed stomping over to the hoodie wearing girl and grabbing her wrist, which was attached to the hand that had the dango stick in it.
"Why you did of course" Rin tilted her head to the side with an innocent look on her face, a look that made Kori angrier.
"I did no such thing!"
"Hey Kori!" the orange haired girl's friend tried to get her attention by poking her cheek "let's go to Rin's house"
"Huh?! Where'd this idea come from?" Miyo pointed to Rin, who suddenly found the stick of her dango very interesting.
"Come on Kori!" Miyo used the one thing that always melted Kori's ice heart. She stuck her bottom lip out and widened her eyes with some unshed tears in the corner of said eyes "Pwease?"
"No" Kori looked away from the face so as not to get tempted.
"Pweeeeeeease?" Miyo moved to where her friend was looking. Kori turned away quickly to avoid her look.
"I said no, Miyo!" the orange haired girl stated firmly. Thus began the mini tornado of Pleases and Nos.
"Mom! I'm home!" Rin called as she opened the door to her home "and I got company!" Kori and Miyo walked in after the girl, Miyo skipping inside with a happy look and Kori slowly entering the house, looking every which way for trouble.
"Is it Narumi?" the two guests heard someone call further in the house.
"Nope" the three took off their shoes and put them by the door.
"Is it Kasai?" the voice got closer. When she said the boy's name Kori's head whipped towards her dark orange haired counterpart, who showed no reaction to the second guess.
"Nah, he's busy" Kori and Miyo saw an orange haired woman turn a corner. She was quite beautiful with her long orange hair and brown eyes. Kori knew, since most often than not this comparison was made either by her or other people, this woman was taller than her mother. She had on a peach coloured turtle neck top and a white skirt that stopped before her ankles. On her feet were normal sandals and to top the outfit off she had an apron on.
"Oh, hello there" the woman greeted the two that walked in with her daughter. The mother turned to said daughter "Rin, when did you make new friends?"
"Today" the girl walked past her mother with her hands behind her head "where's dad?"
The mother got a tick mark as her daughter walked past her with little regard of her presence. Curse her husband and his attitude! Curse it!-she thought.
"He's still at work" Rin felt someone pull her by the back of her hoodie causing the girl to stumble back in surprise "and where the hell is your manners!"
"I forgot em in my other pants" was Rin's quick response, a response that got her a chop on the head from the mother.
"Attitude young lady!" the mother and daughter started glaring at each other.
Over by the door Kori was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable. No matter how hot headed her mother was, the two Takasu females always got along. Either there really was tension in this household or this is a daily occurrence.
"Hey Miyo, is this wei-" the Ice Princess looked over at her best friend but saw no one there.
"Hey Kori! Come check this T.V out!" Miyo called from somewhere in the house "It's huge!"
"Miyo! Get back here!" Kori shouted. The shout broke the glaring contest between mother and daughter. The two looked over at Kori, who stomped into the house. As she rounded the corner they heard a bunch of screaming taking place.
"But I don't wanna!" cried Miyo.
"Damnit Miyo this is extremely rude!" they heard Kori shout, after the shout there was quite a bit of grunting, screaming and wailing. From around the corner came the orange haired girl dragging a clawing Miyo behind her.
"No! MASTER!" wailed Miyo as if she was being taken away from her only life line.
"Shut-it!" shouted Kori as she kept dragging her friend by her feet, Miyo had opted to waving her arms around as if she were in distress.
"…They're…unique?" said the mother of the household with a sweat drop.
"Mom, you don't know the half of it" said Rin with a weak chuckle.
"Sorry for the intrusion" said Kori bowing her head slightly. All three girls sat in the T.V room of Rin's home. Said girl sat on one of the single couches well Kori and Miyo sat on one of the two three seater couches.
"And the disrespect" Kori glared at the girl next to her, who was too absorbed in her cake to care.
"Oh no it's alright" Rin's mom, Maya Noto as Kori found out, waved off the apology with a disarming smile "if I know anything about Minori it's that she was also a bit energetic, seems as though her daughter got most of that energy, if not more"
"How do you know Miss Kushieda?" the orange haired girl was interested to know, Maya made it sound like she knew Minori WAY back in the day.
"Minori and I used to be classmates" Maya said sitting on the second three seater couch "in fact I was friends with your parents as well"
"You knew my parents?" Kori blinked in surprise.
"Well, not as deeply as Kushieda or Kitamaru though" the orange haired woman gave a sad smile "I would have loved to but after they finished High School they left"
"Do you know why they moved?" the reason why her parents moved was never shared with Kori and it baffled her.
From what her parents told her, they had a fairly good life, aside from people picking on her mother for her height and people running for the hills when her father looked at them.
"I'm sorry but they never told us why" Maya sighed "they just packed up their things and left"
"Maybe they just wanted to widen their view on the world" Rin chimed in with a yawn "that's what I wanna do when I'm older. I'm gonna travel the world to see lots of people and places" the girl grinned with a thumbs up.
"Over my dead body" said Rin's mother, making the girl face fault "the minute I let my daughter leave this house to go, God knows where, on her own is the day you bury me"
"Well clocks ticking old woman" Rin gave her mother a challenging smirk.
"What did you call me?!" shouted Maya jumping to her feet "I am a beautiful and youthful 36 year old woman"
"Olllllllllllllld!" sang the orange haired daughter standing up and cupping her hands over her mouth "Ollllllllllld Woman!"
"That's it! Get over here young lady so I can beat your ass!" it was weird to see a 36 year old mother chasing a 16 year old high school girl.
"Thank you for having us over" said Kori bowing next to Miyo "I will tell my parents you said hello" both girls straightened up again and looked at the Noto females.
"Please tell them that they are welcome to come over any time okay?" Maya gave them a sweet smile. It would have been sweet had she not had her daughter's head locked under her arm.
"Yes ma'am" Kori gave the woman another bow before heading off, dragging a fascinated Miyo behind her.
"Your pits smell you old hag!" shouted Rin as Maya closed the door.
"Say that again and I'll crack a cane over your ass young lady!" they heard Maya shout.
"You mean your walking stick?!" they heard Maya shout back.
After parting with Miyo at the intersection where the roads that led to their respective houses intersected Kori decided to take her walk a bit faster. It had gotten kinda dark out and the air was a bit nippy.
Clank
Kori froze when she heard something metal being kicked. She carefully looked over her shoulder and saw someone walking behind her. The person was too far to make out anything but they looked like they were in their own world with their head down, so the orange haired girl decided to ignore them.
Instead she sped up her walking to get home quicker and get away from the creep.
As Kori got close to another cross roads the girl prayed the person would go the other way. This was proven to be false hope when the guy, if she had to go by the heavy foot-steps and build, followed her down her street.
Now the girl was getting worried so she sped up a bit more, almost jogging now, to round the corner. She stood up against the wall and waited for the foot-steps of the stalker, as she now dubbed him, to get closer.
When the person got close to the corner Kori leapt out and tackled the person to the ground, both went down with a shout, one of anger and the other of surprise. Two school bags went flying and hit the opposite wall of the street.
"What the hell?!" the guy shouted. Kori took note of the blond hair the guy had and the black eyes. The thing that gave away identity was the black tips and the fire pendent around his neck.
"Kasai?" Kori furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, why was he out so late?
"Yes. Now can you get off of me please?" Kasai grunted out with a one eyed glare. When Kori jumped him she drove her knee into his stomach so he was wincing from the pain. Kori narrowed her eyes in anger again and proceeded to dig her knee deeper into his gut.
"Why the hell were you following like a creepy stalker?" she questioned grabbing Kasai's collar and pulling him up.
"Wh-What the hell are you talking about?!" Kasai growled out, in pain and anger "This is the way I've always taken to go home you crazy bitch?!"
"Lies! I've been taking this road for a year now and I've never seen you, ever!" Kori shook him "you're stalking me aren't you, you stupid bastard?!" by now the two were glaring bloody murder at each other.
"Hey! What's going on over there?!" the two whipped their heads towards the voice that shouted at them. The person was quite a bit away to make out any characteristics but by the height and voice, the person was most likely an old woman.
Not wanting to cause any incidents that neither needed, and because they didn't want to give the old woman a heart attack, they got up and ran away from the scene.
We now find the two standing in front of Kori's house, both hunched over and panting. They took some side alleys to lose any pursuers, not like there was any in the first place.
"Damnit…" mumbled Kasai standing up and stretching his back "As if I wasn't tired already…"
"Oh quiet your bitching" growled Kori glaring at the blonde haired boy from the corner of her eye "it's your fault anyway"
"We're back to this?!" shouted Kasai, his tiredness replaced by anger "it was your stupid ass that-"
He was cut short by the front door of Kori's home opening. From the open door way stepped the form of her mother, who had a frown on her face.
"Kori Takasu, where have you been?" she asked in a voice that Kori knew meant she was angry.
"Mo-" the orange haired girl was cut off by Kasai, who wore a confused look.
"Who's the pipsqueak?" he asked.
Both Takasu females whipped their heads towards the black/blonde haired boy, both wearing shocked looks, one of which turned into anger. It was obvious who was angry.
"What did you call me you brat!" shouted Taiga stomping her way towards Kasai, who was taken aback.
The older orange haired woman made it to Kasai and grabbed him by the collar, forcing the boy to lean down and look her directly in her eyes, her angry eyes.
"I'll have you know I'm a youthful 32 year old woman!" Taiga shouted in the boy's face. Kasai's eyes widened more at the fact that this person, who was smaller than Kori, was in fact older than said girl.
"Maybe I should beat some manners into you, you little punk!" Taiga raged raising her fist to, quote, beat some sense into the black/blonde haired boy.
And Taiga would have proceeded with the beating, had someone not grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her up, which also caused her to let go of Kasai's collar.
"Dad!" Kori said in surprise looking at the person who picked the angry orange haired woman up by her waist. Ryuuji sighed well rubbing his temples tiredly as his wife tried to break the hold he had around her waist.
"I'm sorry about that" Ryuuji looked up at Kasai, who blinked in surprise at the man's eyes. Obviously the blond haired teen has seen that type of eyes; he was forced to stare at them not even 10 minutes ago, but it was a shock.
"That voice does not go with a pair of eyes like those" said Kasai, the current situation be damned he was gonna say what was on his mind. His (second) blunt statement made the Takasu family give him looks that ranged from shocked, to confusion.
"If I had a nickel for every time someone told me that, I'd be rich" mumbled Ryuuji as he put his wife onto her feet, since she had calmed down "tell me son, what are you doing coming home with my daughter?" he frowned and narrowed his eyes.
"Wait…Kori brought home a guy?" Taiga realised the situation and looked at her daughter who looked just as confused as the boy next to her.
"…huh?" the two said, Kori's look of confusion had suddenly turned into one of fear when she saw her mother's evil grin.
'Oh fuck…' she thought.
"I'm sorry about that" Taiga's attitude towards Kasai did a 360, from angry and cold to warm and inviting "I don't really like it when people make fun of my height"
"…Okay?" said Kasai, stepping back to get away from the crazy woman in front of him.
"Why don't you come in and have a cup of coffee?" the smile on Taiga's face widened, scaring Kasai more.
"Um…I'm okay thanks…" the boy turned around "I gotta get home and do my work" he tried to leave but Taiga grabbed the back of his school jacket, surprising the boy at her strength.
"Well at least let me and my husband walk you home, it's not right to let someone walk alone at night" the orange haired woman pushed more. Kori was not having any of that.
"Mom! Let him go!" the orange haired girl grabbed Taiga's hand and forced her to let go "and don't insert yourself in situations that don't involve you"
"So there is a situation?" Ryuuji asked crossing his arms. He had been quiet, wanting to gather as much information as he could.
"What?" Kori looked over to the man she called father in confusion, which turned into shock "No! There's nothing going on!"
"Sounds suspicious to me" Taiga had a cattish look on her face.
"Oh my God! Stop! Both of you!" Kori yelled pushing the blond boy away "go away! Just go!"
Not needing to be told twice, Kasai started walking away well listening to his classmate shout at her parents.
What they didn't notice was where the boy was headed to and vanished into.
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