A/n: Omg, I finally updated. I am so so so so so sorry about the long delay. I really don't have a good excuse except that a lot has happened and I just haven't felt like working on this story. But I finally got around to writing chapter 6, so here it is! And I will do my best not to have any more 6 month delays. You had to wait 6 months for chapter 6, but I promise (hopefully) you will not have to wait 7 for 7. Ha ha, there's my lame pun of the day. Anyway, who cares about my blabbering. On to the story! Oh, and thank you everyone who reviewed and who hasn't given up on me. :P

Chapter 6:

"We're home," Keiko called as she and Hope entered the Yukimura's house. They had just returned from their shopping trip.

Hope followed Keiko's example of taking her shoes off in the foyer before they entered the main part of the house. "Um, ta-tadaima (I'm home)," she mimicked Keiko timidly. It was one of the words Keiko had taught her. Keiko smiled and nodded.

Mr. and Mrs. Yukimura were sitting on the couch in the living room when the girls came in. "Welcome back," Mr. Yukimura said. "Did you find some clothes?"

"Yes, thank you," Hope said. She pulled out the money she hadn't spent and held it out to him. "This was left over."

Mr. Yukimura smiled kindly and shook his head. "It's yours. Please make good use of it."

Hope sighed and reluctantly returned the money to her pocket. She really hated taking money from these people, especially after they had already done so much for her. "Thank you," she said again.

"Hope, we wanted to talk to you about something," Mr. Yukimura told her. "Please sit down." He indicated to the chair beside the couch.

'Oh no, here it comes,' Hope thought as she sat down. 'They're tired of me and they're going to kick me out.' She looked at Mr. Yukimura and braced herself for the bad news. What would she do? She didn't know anyone else and had nowhere else to go.

"We would like you to start attending school with Keiko," Mr. Yukimura said.

Hope blinked at him. She knew that she couldn't have heard him correctly. "You want me to go to school?" she repeated dumbly.

"Yes. We talked to the principal about enrolling you today and you'll start school tomorrow. Until you can find your friends, we think it's best for you to attend so that you don't fall behind in your studies, and it will give you a way to pass the time," he explained.

"But, I can't speak Japanese," Hope told him hopelessly. How on earth was she supposed to understand what the teachers were telling her?

"Yes, we also discussed that with the principal. The English teacher has agreed to tutor you and you'll receive special help in some areas." Mr. Yukimura smiled at her warmly. "Don't worry, you'll do fine, and Keiko will be there to help you out." He glanced at his daughter who nodded her agreement.

"We can practice more after I finish my homework," Keiko said.

"Um, okay," Hope mumbled, even though it really wasn't okay. But if Keiko's parents, who were being nice enough to let her stay in their house and even give her money, wanted her to go to a Japanese school, she didn't really have much of a choice. At the least, maybe it would help her learn some more of the language so she wouldn't have to be so dependent on the Yukimuras.

Sighing again, she followed Keiko to the room they were sharing (Keiko's parents had a futon which she slept on; it wasn't very comfortable, but she guessed it was better than sleeping on the floor), and while Keiko sat at her desk working on her assignments, Hope grabbed the Japanese-English-Japanese dictionary Keiko had given her and started pouring over it. Maybe she could manage to learn enough before tomorrow to get by. Yeah, right.

'No offense to the Yukimuras,' she thought to herself, 'but what are they thinking?'

~*~

"Let me see that!" Jessa said, grabbing Din's vocabulary homework and staring at it. She picked her pencil up and started to click out the lead.

"Hey!" Din cried. "You are not copying my homework. You should have done it yourself!" She snatched the sheet back from Jessa and hid it under her book, glaring at the other girl in case she tried to take it back.

"Aww, but I forgot to do it! Mrs. Brown is gonna give me another zero and I'll get grounded again!" Jessa said. She gave Din her best puppy dog eyes.

Din ignored the pleading look. "Maybe next time you'll remember."

Realizing she wasn't going to get any help from this friend, Jessa turned to Hope. "Hooope, you'll let me copy right?" she said.

"Din's right. You should've done it yourself," Hope told her sternly. Usually she would agree to let Jessa copy, but she and Din had agreed that since Jessa had failed every essay and test so far, she needed to start doing it herself.

Jessa's shock was apparent on her face. Her eyes widened. "Bu-but Hope! Pleeease?"

"I said no." Hope lowered her voice to a whisper, apparently hoping Din wouldn't overhear. "Don't tell, but I didn't do the homework either," she said.

Jessa banged her head on her desktop and Din rolled her eyes. Honestly, she sometimes thought she was the only one who ever took school seriously. The bell rang and Mrs. Brown started class with her usual rant about not having had her coffee yet, so no one had better bug her. It was just another normal day at school.

"Hey, wake up," a slightly familiar voice said, although she couldn't quite place a face to it.

'What? I can't understand you.'

"Wake up, stupid human, or I'll leave you."

'Ningen baka? Hey, I am not a stupid human. You must want Hope or Jessa.'

"For the last time, wake up!"

Din felt a sharp kick in her side and sat up with a yelp of pain. "Jessa! What have I told you about—" She blinked as she saw the short demon boy glaring down at her. "Oh, you're not Jessa," she said. Her heart sank as she took in her surroundings. She was still in this strange, unpleasant world where demons tried to eat her, following a demon who for some odd reason hadn't decided to kill her yet. Being at school had been only a dream. She sighed as she stood up, preparing herself for another long day of walking; she never would have thought she'd say it, but she wished she was back in school, hanging out and laughing with her two best friends, and going back home where it was safe and she would argue with her parents. It was true what they said about not knowing what you have until it's gone. A few tears prickled her eyes and she blinked them away.

For the first time, Din wondered what had happened to Hope and Jessa. Had they wound up in the same place as her? If so, had they been as fortunate as her? Or… She shook her head, getting rid of that thought. Jessa was too stupid to get eaten by a demon, and Hope would probably enter her psycho mode and kick their asses. She grinned at the image. When Hope got mad, you didn't get in her way: or else.

The demon boy stopped suddenly and Din, who wasn't paying attention because she was so lost in her thoughts, would have run into him if he hadn't stepped out of the way at the last second. Instead she tripped on a rock and fell on her face. Din sat up angrily and glared at him.

"Hey! What was that for?" she demanded. He just ignored her and she stood up huffing and brushed herself off. This guy was such a jerk; man she would love to give him a good kick in the shins, but that would probably just make him mad and she didn't want to think about the results. "Why did we stop?" she asked, looking around. This part of the barren wasteland didn't seem particularly special to her. "Oh yeah, you can't understand me." She sighed and sat down cross legged on the ground. 'May as well make use of the opportunity and rest while I can,' she told herself.

"Gouki, if you're there, come out now," the boy said in an irritated voice. Din glanced up at him, thinking he was talking to her, but he was staring in a different direction.

She heard a throaty laugh from the direction he was looking in and turning to look, saw a big humanoid demon jump down from a tree, shaking the ground with a huge thud. He was red, shirtless, with five horns growing out of his forehead and fangs protruding from his bottom lip. Din wondered how that big of a demon had managed to hide in such a scrawny tree without A) breaking it and B) being seen.

"Guess I can't fool you, Hiei," Gouki said.

"Have you found a tear in the barrier?" Hiei replied shortly.

"There's one just farther south of here."

"Good."

Din watched with boredom while the two demons conversed, not having a clue what they were saying. It was too bad the only demon who had spoken English had tried to eat her and been killed by her 'companion'. The big demon that had just showed up looked at Din.

"A human? What is she doing here?" he asked.

Din's companion shrugged. "I found her here. She doesn't speak our language," he replied.

The demon started coming towards her and Din stood up, ready to run away if she needed to. He sniffed her and a grin spread across his face. "I'd be glad to take care of her for you."

"Do what you like," Hiei said. "Although I can't guarantee she won't give you a stomachache. She's quite the nuisance."

Gouki laughed and grabbed Din before she could react, lifting her into the air with one hand. 'Great,' Din thought. 'This is happening way too often.' She glanced down at the demon who had saved her the last two times, wondering if he was going to do anything about this. He didn't seem too concerned. Maybe he was just biding his time? Well, she wasn't going to wait and find out.

"Hey! I warn you, I don't take lightly to people trying to eat me," she yelled at the demon holding her. Of course, he probably couldn't understand her either. As the demon brought her closer to his face, she brought her leg back and kicked him as hard as she could in the cheek. Pain shot through her leg as her foot came in contact with his skin. It was as if she had just kicked a rock. She yelped in pain and bit back tears. Her foot throbbed.

The demon holding her laughed so hard that tears came to his eyes. "Did you think you could hurt me that way, human?" he asked. "I guess you learned the hard way." He laughed some more and finally set her back down on the ground. Her foot gave way the moment it came in contact with solid ground, and she almost collapsed. She quickly shifted her weight to her left foot and cringed as her foot throbbed even more painfully.

"On second thought, Hiei, I just ate so I'm not too hungry right now," Gouki said. "I think I'll save her for when I have the orb; then I can really have some fun with her."

Hiei grunted in reply and straightened up, preparing to leave. He glanced at the girl, who was gingerly testing her injured foot and cringing in pain whenever she did so. "Hmph. Now she's going to be even more of a nuisance," he muttered. "Come on, girl, if you can keep up. I'm not waiting for you." He and Gouki started to walk away.

Din looked up when her ex-savior spoke and saw the two demons leaving. "Hey, wait up!" she called, limping after them. Her foot still hurt too much to put any weight on. "Matte (wait)!"

~*~

"Aaaaaah!" a scream pierced the silent, peaceful forest, sending birds flapping out of the trees. A middle-aged couple jumped up from the tent they were trying to set up and ran in the direction of the scream. Their teenage daughter came crashing through the trees toward them, her face white with fear.

"Karin, what's wrong?" the mother said as her daughter collapsed onto the ground, breathing hard.

Karin pointed shakily behind her. "Th-th-th-there-there's a dead body!" she stammered.

"What?" her mother gasped, peering into the trees.

The father walked towards the place his daughter had pointed at, moving aside a branch that threatened to slap him in the face. His eyes widened as he saw the body of a girl about Karin's age with blond hair, lying still as death on the forest floor. "Sayu," he said quietly to his wife, slowly backing away. "Call the police."