Sorry, this was going to be up yesterday so I could be working on the next chapter now and have it up Sunday, but I needed to wash some walls and worked myself into a muscle-fatigue induced head-ace while I iced a right arm that screamed at for rest. That just goes to show you, moderation in all things is wise in all matters.
Anyway, enjoy the chapter I'll try to get the next on up as soon as I can.
x-x
I do not own any of the franchises used in this story. The people and events and people in this story are completely fictional.
Oh b- I mean girl.
After Sam cleared Keito's physical condition and Gabriel had demonstrated is powers to retrieve a change of clothes for her, which had been followed by Jaden promising to ward he girls' dormitories from further brake-ins by the multi-dimensional feline, the jorougumo and the umberlist went to the break room to talk about their connections to the yokai who fought using a red string.
"So how do you know my uncle?" Keito asked, causing a nostalgic look to inter Jaden's eyes.
"I doubt he would remember me as I am now. But we met a long time ago in Tokyo." He answered as simply he could to avoid along winded discussion about resurrection and such things.
"So, he's your uncle? How is the old stringer doing now-a-days?" Jaden asked conversationally before his mind caught up with a key fact, "Wait a minute! You're a jorougumo! How in hell is Kubinashi related to you?!"
Keito frowned at the lack of depth to his explanation and abrupt change in attitude and rubbed a hand through her hair to discover that her time at the bottom of a lake had left it a gunky mess. Promising herself to see to it later, Keito turned her focus to the umberlist and told him, "He's not, not a direct blood relative anyways."
That both made things clear for Jaden and puzzled him. "Continue please." He prompted.
"Well, before they settled down my mom and her twin sister were serious party animals." Keito started to explain only for Jaden to hold up his hand for her to hold on to her story telling for a second as he walked over to a closet and ripped it open to pull out a squawking Gabriel. "Oh, come on! Party animal twins! How can I resist listening in on that?!" he begged his boss to let him stay and listen in.
"I don't know, but I recommend that you figure it out before I decide to tell Sam and she has you neutered." Jaden growled as he forced the cheshire cat out of the room.
Closing the door after evicting the eavesdropping feline while muttering under his breath about how he should turn the cook over to Sam for going around her back, Jaden turned to Keito and apologized for the interruption and asked her to continue.
"Anyway, they happened to go to a party with a guy from the Nura clan my mom was dating at the time and a few other members of the clan, and among them was uncle Kubinashi." Keito said picking up where she left, "Naturally nether my mom or her sister have ever disclosed what happened next in detail to me, but needless to say, the party ended with everyone hung over the next morning."
"Naturally." Jaden conceded, if the parties that this new Nura Clan attended were anything like the ones from when he was Nurarihyon it was easy to picture the scene. Making a mental note to himself to check out this new clan now that he knew about it, Jaden focused his attention on the story Keito was telling.
"In the up-come week my mom and sister had a couple of unexpected surprises coming. Namely that they were pregnant, that's also when my father decided that he wanted nothing to do with rising me and dumped my mom." Keito said, her voice turning bitter as she thought of the man who had abandoned her and the good woman who had raised her as a single mother as best she could.
Jaden knew that kind of thing happened, but he couldn't relate such a dead beat to the name of the Nura clan. "I think I would very much like to break a very large number of your father's bones." He said, making his disapproval known.
Keito smiled, appreciating the gesture as she continued her story, "That's a thought I've entertained myself several times. But, fortunately he doesn't have any further part in our story. Wait, I almost forgot he does have one side appearance. After he founded out about how my father left his lover and unborn child, uncle Kubinashi punched him in the face, breaking his nose."
"Good man." Jaden complemented, proud of his former subordinate's noble actions.
"Indeed, my mother and I have always been proud to know him as family." The jorougumo agreed, before resuming her tale, "The reason I call him my uncle through his that he was the one who got my aunt pregnant at that party I mentioned." Relishing the wide-eyed shocked look on Jaden's face, Keito continued her story, "From what I understand, Kubinashi was pretty surprised by the news too, but he took to the idea of parenthood much better than my father did, and did his best to make the mother of his child happy."
Keito a saddened look crossed her face as she said, "And my mom would tell me that the short time they were together he succeeded in doing so. But, while my cousin was born a healthy jorougumo despite a premature birth, my aunt unfortunately didn't survive strain that the labor put on her and died shortly after giving birth."
"I'm sorry, I wish I could do more than offer condolences." Jaden said sincerely while Keito thanked him for his understanding before she finished her story, "Even thou she was pregnant with me at the time, my mom didn't hesitate to take in her departed sister's new born daughter. Kubinashi helped raise the both of us however he could, even teaching us both his fighting style."
"And then you grew up and decided to attend school here." Jaden guessed, accurately summarizing the jest of what had happened next in the story.
"Some other things happened along way but that right." Keito said, "My cousin is being home schooled by my mom and still lives in Ukiyoe town back in Tokyo."
The two continued to talk long into the night until the jorougumo stifled Jaden looked up at the clock on wall and saw that midnight had come and gone. Telling Keito that she could spend the night at his offices he turned to leave saying, "My offer about joining the newspaper club still stands."
x-x
The next morning Jaden found that Keito had left. As he worked on the newspaper club's next publication he wondered if she had gone back to work for Kuyo, if she had gained thing from their short time to gather or if all he been was a way to get medical aid and a warm bed without admitting her lose against him in a fight.
The jorougumo in question was just outside the door and when she entered she felt like she was entering an enemy camp to pledge her fealty to their leader after her defeat. In many ways that statement was more than true as she recalled how he had defeated her and how the lord of pandemonium was said to have recruited several of his chief officers in the same way.
Passing through the entry way, she found the symbolism growing stronger when she saw Jaden working at a table near the far wall flanked by his two enforcers as Mizore and Kurumu moved forward to block her path. "It alright." Jaden told the yuki-onna and succubus, the ease in his voice as he continued to work on the newspaper prompting them to clear the way again but continued to send the new arrival dirty looks from there sits, "I've been hoping you would come by. Sit down anywhere you like, there's a lot to do."
Keito smiled, ignoring the dirty looks from the other members of the newspaper club, as she sat down in an empty chair while the "official" club president cried out in objection to her joining, "Jaden Yuki, are you crazy!? She's one of Kuyo's lieutenants. He must have had her come here so he could use her to spy on us. Tamao, you know I'm right, back me up here!"
Tamao wanted to kick the P.S.C member out just as much as Gin did, but Jaden had vouched for her and she didn't want to be a hypocrite. "Well, has he been wrong about a woman yet?" she asked, reminding everyone of the umberlist's track record.
"I'm running the risk of incriminating myself by ask this, but how wide are we willing to open this up?" Keito inquired, knowing that while he had been wrong at first, she was now turning out exactly as he had hoped. "However, your club president isn't completely wrong, the chance to have a spy on the newspaper club was the reason he agreed to my coming her. But my reasons for coming are my own."
"Fair enough, now let's get the ball rolling on this next newspaper." Jaden said looking up from his work to give Keito an assignment only to pause as he took in her appearance, "Keito, your hair…"
"Sinking to the bottom of that lake ruined any chance of getting clean, so I just had it cut." Keito said, not noticing the tone in Jaden's voice as she ran her hand through much shorter hair that didn't even reach her shoulders. She had styled it much in the same way it had been in grade school, a mess of barley organized wild purple spikes that both framed her face while the rest pointed down and away from the rest of her head.
"That trick in our little spat, I mentioned a friend using. You used to show it off to your friends in grade school, right?" Jaden asked, rubbing a hand over his eyes as Keito nodded silently, already suspecting where he was going with his current line of questions and said, "I only had two friends growing up. A red-head with violent tendencies and a kid that the rest of neighborhood thought was cursed."
Jaden sighed, he could already hear what his other friends would say when he got to the point. "Imagine me, four feet tall and with a slight amount of baby fat." Jaden instructed, deciding to get straight into the point.
Keito gasped in realization as Jaden nodded. "You're… But I…" The jorougumo sputtered as Jaden kept nodding and voiced a few words of confirmation at the confused spider-yokai's broken comments, "Yep… Afraid so…"
"Everyone, I'd like to introduce you to Keito Sutekinakumo, one of my two best and only friends from grade school back when my parents and I lived in Japan. Of course, we haven't seen each my parents and I moved back to the United States." Jaden said, bracing himself for what would inevitably happen next.
x-x
Meanwhile deep within the junction between Jaden's soul and the heart of his deck Yubel swooned as a strong sensation passed over her.
"Are you okay?" Filia asked, resting a supportive hand on the fiend-type's shoulder.
"I sensed a disturbance in outside world. It was as if over half a dozen souls cried out in confusion and are now clamoring for Jaden to give them an explanation." Yubel said before she shrugged and continued offhandedly, "Everyone must have figured out that Jaden and Keito knew each other back when they were young."
x-x
After almost an hour's effort, Jaden had finally managed to calm the others down, Keito realized something about their fight at the lake. "Wait a minute during our fight you said you once knew a "guy" who did the same trick. Did you think I was a boy back then? And why the hell didn't you recognize me when we first met." She asked accusingly.
"Okay, in my defense, back then I was kind of a moron back then." Jaden said, trying to placate her while he explained.
"If you remember I barely spoke Japanese back then and I thought your name was Keto, spelled K-E-T-O, like the oriental manservant of Inspector Jacques Clouseau in the classic Peter Sellers films from the Pink Panther series. I didn't know that it was actually a name that could be used for a boy or girl." Jaden explained, "And I'm sorry I didn't recognize you, but you've really matured into a fine young lady since the last time we saw each other. And besides you didn't recognize me ether, I mean I haven't changed that much right?"
Lightly blushing at the small praise Jaden had given her, Keito smiled as she compared the umberlist's current athletically lithe appearance to the short and cutely pudgy appearance of his grade school years. "What can I say, you've really matured into fine young man since the last time we saw each other." Keito said coyly.
"Touché." Jaden conceded, another light blush at her flattery appearing, causing all present female company gaped at the subtle display before launching into the next stage of inducting a new member to their group, anger.
'Jaden belongs with Moka and me!' Yukari thought as she started to scheme up ways to get rid of the new obstacle that had appeared.
'Okay, stay calm. Jaden would be upset if I beat her to pulp now, so I'll just deal with her when the time comes." Tamao told herself to bring her temper to a low simmer.
'Threat assessment increased to Class A.' Mizore adjusted her analysis of Keito's standing with Jaden due to their shared history as kids.
'That spider-whore! How dare she try to flirt with the boss!' Both Scanty and Kneesocks seethed at how friendly their former co-work was with the man they had devoted themselves to.
'That's my destined one you're trying to make headway with missy!' Kurumu raged in her mind while sparks of purple fire danced around her figure tips unnoticed.
However, the reactions of both aspects of the vampire were on opposite ends of the spectrum. Moka was still shocked and was trying not to fall in to a fugue while Fangs was raging at the absurdity of the situation, 'A member of the P.S.C is the first to make real progress in since Witch's Hill developing a relationship with Jaden?! And she's his childhood friend?! Are you kidding me?!'
"Wait, what are you doing at this academy? Aren't you…you know…" Keito said, starting to allude to Jaden's yokai identity before she cut herself off and glanced around the room.
Guessing what was wrong Jaden reassured her that it was okay, "It's alright everyone here knows that I'm a human."
"You're a human?!"
"Everyone except Gin, I forget about him." Jaden amended as the werewolf grabbed him by the front of his shirt and dragged him to his feet.
"If you're a human why the hell are you here?" Gin growled.
"I came here because I needed a change. The details aren't important." Jaden said without any desire to go into the details.
"That's it?" Gin asked, the incredulity in the werewolf's voice adding a new dimension of subtext.
"No, but I really don't want to talk about it." Jaden admitted as a smirk started spread across his lips.
All but howling in frustration, Gin threw the umberlist back to his chair with a noisy thud. "Fine, so you don't want to want talk about it. But while you may be enjoying your time here, Kuyo will find out about you're a human and that will be all the justification he needs to move against you and then all of us when you're out of the way.
As the werewolf continued to rant about how he was jeopardizing everyone's safety, Jaden thought over what he said. In time, Kuyo's pride as a youko wouldn't let him take being held back or playing second fiddle any further and he would attack. As Nurarihyon he had faced a nine tailed Seishin no Yako, field fox of spirit, but he was at the full peck of his powers and had his night parade supporting him. As he was now, he doubted he could face an opponent like that again and win if he had to face a different kind of youko.
"You're right." Jaden concluded, shocking Gin by the abruptness of his statement, "I may be endangering everyone, but I still want to stay here with everyone despite that…"
"Plus, I still have thing I need to do here." Jaden's eyes hardened as he thought about leaving Tamao and Oyakata alone without giving them the help they needed and leaving rest of his friends to deal with Kuyo by themselves, that was defiantly not an option. Still he couldn't shake the feeling that thing were about to come to a head.
Next time: Fox Hunt