5 When Fangirls Attack

:3 Yay for five parts, I feel accomplished. But next week there will probably be no updates as I'm moving, then I have to wait for the internet to get hooked up at the new house, that or I go to school. I'll try and get another part out this week though... Hopefully
They returned to the classroom after gym, Hana was still hideously disappointed in Kurama and he was still highly amused by her insults. "Ah Mr. Minamino, I see your cousin is attending class with you today." Hana jumped slightly and looked at the new teacher; he was the one they had met in the office that morning. Kurama relaxed slightly, this teacher liked him and was unusually lax, not that he had had any reason to take advantage of that before. This was also the period that lunch fell in, and many of the other students had already gotten their lunches and gone outside.

Kurma picked up their lunches and headed for the door. He didn't want to sit in the classroom today, he wanted to find a quiet spot where there would be no classmates asking questions and no girls pestering him. "Chi-chan runs slow, trips on his own feet," Hana sang out as she skipped after him. "Falls down, stepped on, silly Chi-chan."

"Hana-chan, I'd appreciate it if you didn't sing that," he said as he pushed out into the crowded hallway. It looked as if everybody intended on sitting outside on such a nice day. He pushed forward a bit more when he noticed her song had stopped. "Hana-chan?" He turned around sharply to see the crowd pressing up against him, his normal set of fangirls moving in, but the demoness was gone. "Hana!" he called slightly louder, standing on his toes and looking around. He noticed that the girls were concentrated behind him and were responsible for most of the pushing he was doing his best to resist.

"Chi-chan!" He heard the shout over the buzz of noise in the hall and began pushing back towards the source, for once not politely pausing to apologize to each person he bumped out of the way. "Chi-ahhh!" He saw a crowd had gathered, circled as they normally do when there's a fight and he knocked the gathered students out of his way, thankful his demon's strength made this an easy task. He had seen adult men, bulky men at that, have great difficult wading through the sea of teenagers.

"God, are you crying you little baby?" A harsh female voice audible even at a distance, Hoshi he thought her name was. The group had circled around her and Hana and Hoshi was advancing on the other girl with a sneer on her face and her hand raised. Hana looked smaller than Hoshi at the moment, her lean form and hunched body added to the illusion though he knew the demoness was really taller than the human. She had both hands covering her injured ear. Kurama shot forward, his arms wrapping around Hana as Hoshi's hand came down. He felt the sharp pain of her claw-like nails digging into his skin.

Hoshi gasped as she saw who she had scratched. 'The president of the Minamino Shuichi fanclub attacks the object of her affection,' Kurama thought wryly as he fixed a very cold glare on the girl. "Shuichi-kun, you should have heard the things this girl was saying!" Hoshi was trying to save face and doing a very poor job of it.

"Chi-chan," Hana said quietly. "You bleed." He looked down carelessly and saw four lines on his forearm dripping red.

"It doesn't matter," he said loosening his hold on her. "Did she hurt you?" His hand reached up to brush the hair back from her ear and she cringed away, covering it. "She got you in the ear." He felt the crowd draw back a pace and realized the anger must have been apparent in his voice. Anger no one at his school had seen before. "No one is to lay a hand on Hana-chan," he said slowly, aware that they heard every word. For the first time he wanted them to be afraid. "I do not look kindly upon attacks on my family members." He pulled Hana along by her waist and the circle parted to let them through.

"Chi-chan, you are an idiot," Hana muttered as he pulled her away from the scene as fast as possible. He was heading for the roof, one of the few places that was guaranteed to be next to empty.

"And why am I an idiot Hana?"

"You should have let her scratch me, instead of taking an injury yourself. I am already hurt."

"Hana, things work differently here. People are willing to suffer injuries to save those around them from being hurt. And most injuries do not lead to death; they will not weaken you so that a predator can eat you."

"That may be," she said slowly as he pushed open the door to the roof and she stepped out into the sunlight. "In this world you are my herd, you have looked after me and taken me in, but I would not be hurt for you and I cannot understand you being hurt for me."

He smiled and looked up at the sky as the door banged shut behind him. Clouds were drifting overhead bathed in the sunlight and the air was warm and fresh. "Hiei once said much the same thing. In fact he would still say it, but now he does not mean it. I too was of your opinion when I arrived in the human world, but the kindness and affection of those I met changed my mind." He drew his eyes away from the vast blueness and looked at her with an affectionate smile. She pursed her lips and shook her head, still telling herself he was crazy.

"Here, let's have lunch." He walked to the edge of the roof and sat down then patted the space next to him. She followed obediently and sank to her knees in a close imitation of the way she'd seen the other girls sit. He handed her a bento box and she opened it greedily. A herbivore spent most of its day eating. While she was occupied, he pushed back her hair and looked at her damaged ear, the bandage was still in place, but it was red with blood, more blood than had a right to be there. "She reopened the wound," he said quietly.

"The bitch." Kurama stared at her, for some reason it surprised him to hear her curse, and so casually too. She didn't even look up from her meal as she added a few more curses under her breath for good measure. "I not understand why she attack me," Hana said slowly, taking her time to pronounce each word.

"She was probably jealous of the fact that you were spending time with me," her companion replied as he began on his own lunch. "People act like that sometimes. Because they are trying to establish bonds with each other they can react violently if they are immature and they see someone threatening a bond they wish to form."

"So she wishes to have your offspring, but you have turned her down as inferior and now she hates any woman who might bare your children?"

"In a way," he said slowly, still slightly aggravated by her way of relating all relationships back to offspring and their production. "Except, it's not about reproduction to humans. To them it is about love, a strong affection for someone based completely on their characteristics and your interactions."

"I shall ask Yusuke to explain what humans think this love is later," she said as she rubbed her ear. "I not think I understand your explanations."

"You should ask Kuwabara then," he said with a laugh. "Yusuke would not admit his feelings out loud, but Kuwabara will go into more detail then you could ever wish to know." He put his hand on the ground to shift his weight and felt a sharp pain shoot along his arm. Looking down he saw the scratches, they had been scabbing over, but his sudden movement pulled them open again.

"Silly Chi-chan, how you forget?" Hana laughed as she unwound one of the bandaged from her arm, "Give arm," she directed, gesturing at him. He held out his arm, watching carefully as she spun the bandage off her arm. "This no bleed," she said, showing him the clean white gauze that had covered a particularly nasty looking cut that had been weeping the night before. She grabbed her untouched water and poured some over his arm before whipping around the gauze and spinning it around his arm. It was a neat, efficient wrap, tied off faster then he had ever seen. "Just because the injured get eaten does not mean we do not try to help them," she said in response to his surprised look. "No one likes to see the herd diminished."

They returned from lunch without incident and settled in to sit through the rest of the school day. When classes finally finished for the day Kurama had to wake Hana up, she had somehow fallen asleep sitting up. She yawned loudly and followed him out, holding on to the back of his shirt so she didn't get separated again. Once outside she brightened up and began stretching as she smelled the fresh air.

"Let's run Kurama. As long as you don't repeat that disappointing trot you did this morning."

"I'm not sure right now's the best time Hana."

She snorted and bent her knees while hitching up her skirt slightly. "You mean you cannot run faster and are afraid I will mock you more?"

"Just to the end of the street," he said, pointing straight ahead of them. "Three blocks."

"Fine," she said. "This form should be enough for now." They bent down, watching the traffic flow. One glance was all it took and they both shot off. Kurama pulled ahead immediately. He had to force himself not to look back for her, but instead think of why she wouldn't be faster than him. His foot was jerked back suddenly and he stumbled realizing it was a 'flat tire.' A hand hit his back and there was the swish of fabric over his head. As he looked up he saw the dark blur running in front of him. She zigzagged between the pedestrians and quickly disappeared from sight. Kurama hadn't stopped moving, but he had slowed down for a second to recover. Now he pushed himself again, running as fast as he could, but he couldn't catch sight of her anywhere. He was starting to worry as he crossed onto the second block and still couldn't find any sign of the demoness, but he kept running.

The redhead skidded to a halt at the corner, causing many strange looks and stares from the people waiting for the light to change. "Slow!" A girl squeaked and Kurama felt a finger jab his side. He spun around and grabbed her wrist while still panting. Her voice rattled on in its pleasant tones as she gestured and poked him but he was still catching his breath and completely missed what she was saying. He could guess though, he could also guess he was better off not hearing.

Once he'd caught his breath he straightened up and taking her hand, tugging her around the corner and down another street. He had not been specific on where he would meet Yusuke earlier and hoped he could reach the boy's school before Yusuke decided to come looking for him. He turned down another street and smiled when he saw the two boys headed towards them.

Hana had only been slightly disappointed with the speed of her human form. She had managed to beat the fox hands down, and her speed was only a shade slower than in her demon form, though it was a bit more unsteady in sharp turns. 'The cost of being bipedal,' she'd thought as she was waiting for him to catch up. When he did she was surprised to find him out of breath, she hadn't even been winded by the short sprint. But when she'd told him what she thought about it he hadn't been listening and now he was still not listening as he pulled her along. She'd told him at least three times to let go but he was still holding her hand, another sign that he had tuned her out. 'Maybe it is not such a good thing to be mistaken for a youngling then,' she thought with a glare at her keeper as he came to a sudden stop and she walked into him.

"Hana, be careful!" Kurama exclaimed as he felt the girl bounce off his back. He caught her arms as she was falling and pulled her back to her feet. Yusuke snickered and hit Kuwabara with his school bag.

"Urameshi, what was that for!"

"Eh," the shorter boy shrugged. He stepped forward and punched Kurama in the arm with a wicked smile. "Had a good day at school today? Plenty of distraction from boring old work?"

"Bitch scratch him," Hana said, grabbing Kurama's arm and pointing at the bandage.

"What happened?" Kuwabara asked.

"One of the girls was trying to scratch Hana and I got in her way," Kurama said carelessly. He quickly pulled his arm from Hana's grip and moved it out of view.

"She must have cried when she saw that she got you instead!" Yusuke laughed. "Poor Hana-chan bringing down the wrath of the fangirls. So Hana, ready for life with a human?" he asked, laughing heartily.

She cocked her head to the side, watching him with her large, liquid eyes. "You ready me?"

Kurama chuckled. "She can be something of a handful Yusuke, though her grasp of Japanese seems to gain exponentially. I am sure you will manage to answer her questions despite not being fluent in her dialect."

"Uh, in a language we can understand?"

"I talk well, talk much," Hana said patiently. "What that?" she pointed at a bus going by on the street. "Not car? Too Big."

"Er, that's a bus Hana," Yusuke said.

"Yusuke," Kurama said, redirecting their attention. "I have arranged for Hana to attend school with me as my visiting cousin. If you can get her to Meiou in the morning I will be able to handle the rest of the day. Most days I think it would be perfectly reasonable for her to come to my house after school so I can teach her more Japanese, and about this world. I asked for your assistance because I cannot have her sleeping at my house. That would not sit well with my family. If there's anything I can do to make her presence," he paused and looked at the girl carefully before returning his attention to Yusuke, "less of a burden, please tell me immediately."

"Don't worry about it!" Yusuke laughed, throwing an arm around Hana's shoulders and drawing her over. "Hell, don't think you're going to hog all her time either. If we're gonna teach her about the human world, we're gonna do it right! Tonight's lesson is Introduction to Channel Surfing. This weekend we'll start with Basic Arcade Gaming since that's an all day event!"

Kuwabara smiled brightly. "I'm sure Keiko and Botan would love to teach her Aggressive Shopping Tactics and Mall Geography."

The males all burst out laughing while the girl looked at them curiously. Yusuke stiffened suddenly and stifled a surprised cry as he felt a hand pinching his thigh. "Kurama what's she doing?" he asked as he jumped away from the girl.

"Hana!" Kurama exclaimed. She turned her innocent eyes to him from where she was crouching on the pavement.

"I was not initiating mating," she sniffed. "I wanted to check his leg muscles; they seem more developed than yours." Kurama stiffened slightly and bit back his comment of 'And how would you know?' "He is faster than you, no?" Kurama gave a slight nod, still suspicious of where this was headed. Hana straightened up, her eyes fixed on Yusuke, who was watching her closely. "Run," she said, pointing down the street.

"Uh, what?"

"Race! Run. Run!" She started bouncing up and down like she'd done in gym. Then she stopped and slapped her legs, pointing again. "Race!" She started bouncing again.

"She wants to race you down the street Yusuke," Kurama said, the amusement in his tone coming back at the girl's one-track mind. "She thinks I am far too slow and hopes you are faster."

"Oh, so that's how it is?" Yusuke smirked, handing Kuwabara his bag. "To the hill and back, first one to hit Kuwabara wins. You understand?" Her face broke out into a grin and she nodded enthusiastically. "Kurama, you say when."

"Hey, how come you guys win by hitting me?"

Kurama watched as they both got into position, the girl twisting her feet around, obviously still not used to running full out in her human form. "Go," he said when they were ready and they shot off. Like she'd done before Hana immediately fell in behind Yusuke, keeping his pace exactly two steps behind him. But she didn't flat-tire him Kurama noted as they raced uphill. She had hitched the skirt up to her knees to allow her legs movement and the sight of her blurred form was slightly amusing especially with the incongruous addition of a pair of his old sneakers and the double pair of socks she was wearing to keep them on her feet. Suddenly she weaved out from behind Yusuke and shot ahead. There were only a few people on the sidewalk but instead of barreling through them like the human she was making a show of weaving in and out, her body leaning into each sudden turn.

She reached the top of the hill and turned around, but at her speed couldn't do it very sharply and veered dangerously out onto the road. Kuwabara made a hissing noise as he drew air in between his teeth while watching her. She was back on the sidewalk in a millisecond though and hurtling back towards them. Yusuke stuck out a foot to trip her as they passed but she jumped right over it and kept going. The boy got to the top a second later and spun around on the spot, glaring down at the girl. He wasn't terribly far behind her, but her lead was growing with each step, even though it looked like they both kept their paces the same. Hana came towards them at full blast her eyes wide with delight. She threw out her arms while yelling "Wheeeeeee!" and ran straight into Kuwabara. The large boy was knocked flat on his back by the impact while the girl merrily rolled to her feet and started jumping up and down again.

Yusuke came to a screeching halt and plopped down in the middle of the sidewalk, holding his side. "Good God she can run!"

Yusuke and Kuwabara brought Hana over to Kuwabara's house while Kurama went home, still reassuring himself that he'd turned the girl over to the right people. "Yo sis, you here?" Kuwabara yelled as he tossed his book bag in the general direction of a chair. Yusuke followed, dropping his bag and stepping out of his shoes.

Hana observed them then quickly sat down and pulled off her own shoes. She walked forward on her knees to set the pair of sneakers exactly next to Yusuke, adjusting the backs so they were exactly lined up.

"Those things look way too big for you," Yusuke said as Shizuru emerged from the depths of the house.

"Yes," Hana nodded and got to her feet. "Kurama's."

"Who's that?" They both turned to look at the tall girl as she brushed some brown locks from her face.

"This is Hana. Hana this is my sister Shizuru."

"Hello!" Hana called, jumping forward to get a better look at the girl.

"She's a demon."

"Yup, fresh from the demon world," Yusuke said. "Kurama picked her up yesterday."

"Picked her up?"

"Found her in the park," Kuwabara corrected. "Hiei thought he was crazy for taking her in, but he can't keep her at his house without freaking out his mom."

"So she's mine now," Yusuke smirked, throwing his arm around the girl's shoulders.

"You've got to be kidding me. And he trusted her with you guys? He really must have gone crazy, I thought Kurama had more sense."

"Aw sis, don't be mean. We stopped over to see if you have any old clothes you don't want any more since Hana doesn't have any."

She paused, her eyebrows going up as she looked at the girl, her eyes flicking over the too-big clothes, then to the boy's tennis shoes sitting next to Yusuke's. "Yeah, come on back Hana-chan." She waved and the girl stepped forward cautiously, glancing around at the three humans.

"Don't worry, Shizuru doesn't bite," Yusuke assured her.

She actually looked relieved by this statement and walked forward with more confidence. "You're pretty jumpy, aintcha?" Shizuru laughed as she took Hana's arm and led her into her bedroom. The boys high-fived at their success and started wrestling. "You're definitely smaller than me Hana-chan," Shizuru said as she sat the girl down on her bed and went to her closet. "Well about my height, but skinny as anything. Do you eat, girl?"

"Grasses, leaves, some shrubs. But human food different, strange." Shizuru snorted slightly and reached into her closet.

"Okay, what's too small for me?" She pulled out a skirt and a couple pairs of pants then turned to her dresser for shirts. "I never wear this," she said tossing something onto the bed. "Or this. And this shrunk in the last wash, stupid brother. Wow, can't believe I still have this top, must be from middle school. I wonder if I still have any training bras," she mused as she moved to another drawer.

"Bra?"

"Uh, are you wearing one?" Shizuru asked, pointing at the girl. Hana patted her chest then plucked at the shirt fabric. "No underneath that, a bra?"

"Nothing under, just shirt."

"Figures he forgot that. I'm assuming those are Kurama's mom's old clothes?" The demoness nodded after a moment of digesting the possessives in that question. "Typical boy." Shizuru folded up the clothes on the bed and placed them in a paper bag. "Okay, let's go hit up the boys for money and get you a bra or two." She glanced down and saw the two pairs of athletic socks on the girl's feet as they swung back and forth over the edge of the bed. "We'll fix that too."

Hana jumped to her feet and followed the human girl from the room. "Thank you very much Shizuru-san!" She remembered was the appropriate response to this kind gesture.

"Okay boys, Hana-chan needs your help now." Both boys turned expectantly. "Two thousand yen a piece." Their jaws dropped. "Come on hand it over.Think of it as dues for getting your little demon pet."

"You've got to be kidding!"

"Kazuma I know you just got your allowance! Hand over the money." Yusuke started sliding towards the door. "And you too Urameshi, no getting out of it."

"What do you want the money for Shizuru, we just asked you to give her some old clothes!"

Shizuru glanced back at the girl and deciding that she wouldn't be embarrassed said: "Don't you guys want to buy a pretty girl her first bra? And a cute pair of shoes, she's wearing Kurama's old ones."

They were gaping, staring at Hana, who was watching them back with a curious expression. "You mean, she doesn't, doesn't have one on?" Kuwabara was aghast, but intrigued.

"What, you guys think Kurama lent her one of his? Wallets, now." They reached into their pockets and with many a sigh and dark look pulled out the bills. "That wasn't so hard was it?" Shizuru smirked as she pocketed the money and steered the demoness towards the door.