Chapter Two: Forged Signatures and Troublesome Lunch Time

Shinako had barely taken any notes or paid any attention during that first class of hers as she had been trying to do as many forged signatures as possible. As she was doing it she could only think that in case she was found she would be the one to get in trouble.

Damn you Hibari and your goddamned laziness.

Cursing in her mind she just kept on diligently working, knowing that the last thing she wanted was to be bitten to death by the chairman of the Disciplinary Committee. She couldn't really be judged poorly for it, after all, only the downright suicidal wanted to annoy Hibari.

When the bell rang, signaling the end of English, Shinako gathered all of the papers, carefully putting them inside her notebook so they wouldn't become wrinkled and prepared to leave the room and head towards what you could call the 'Disciplinary Committee headquarters'. As she picked up her bag she thought to herself about how nice it would be if Hibari was still asleep in the rooftop or patrolling the school, as it meant she wouldn't have to deal with him right away.

"Yo Shinako, where are you off to?"

"Ah Ryohei, I need to get some things done before lunch." She told her friend and then added, out of curiosity "Speaking of which has Kyoko-san told you about the lunch?..."

"Yes, she and Hana dropped by before class started." He told her as a wide grin seemed to take over his face "It's going to be a blast to the extreme! So don't be late!" he told her and Shinako only managed to nod with an unsure smile. "I'll see what I can do, you wouldn't believe how much paper I still have to sign." She admitted with a sigh.

"Sorry about it, sounds like you have it rough," he began, shaking his head ever so slightly "I'm off then, see you by lunch!" and with that he ran off again.

"I do have it rough." She muttered under her breath as she exited the room, with considerably less excitement than Ryohei.

As she travelled through the halls she was surprised when she heard rumors about more Disciplinary Committee members having been found in very bad condition, which despite her reluctance to admit something strange was happening, did get her a bit worried. I'm sure there's a logical explanation…

She re-told herself for the billionth time as she entered her destination. She was glad to see that there wasn't anyone around and so she went to sit down on one of the couches, as she knew better than to sit on the chair destined for Hibari.

You see, the members of the Disciplinary Committee had found out (the hard way) that Hibari greatly disliked when someone sat on his chair and even worse was the fact that he could tell when someone had been sitting there, even when he wasn't anywhere near the room.

For that reason Shinako suspected that the perfect had placed cameras around the room but it's not like she'd ever ask.

But, would someone like him go to such extreme measures?... Shinako suddenly wondered and unconsciously her gaze started to sweep through the room. Her dark brown eyes then fell upon the door. It didn't seem like anyone would come in anytime soon so why not snoop around a little?

Standing up, Shinako picked up a random chair and moved it so it was below the air vent as it looked like the best place to hide a camera. The short girl then stood up on the chair only to realize that she still couldn't reach the vent. "What did I say before about being short? It really is a curse!" she muttered with a frown and carefully placed one foot on the chair top and then another. "I can do this…" she told herself, balancing on the chair top and reaching her arms upwards so that she could hold on to the bars of the air vent. She stretched and even had to get on her toes, but a wide grin appeared on her features as she felt the cold metal touch her skin and she finally took hold of the bars. "Got it!" she cheered and pulled herself upwards.

Her excitement did not last though.

"What do you think you're doing?" the cold voice that came from behind her startled her more than she'd like to admit and in that surprise, Shinako kicked the chair to the side, which wouldn't be that bad if she hadn't let go of the bars as well; causing her to fall back down on her back. "Ow…ow…" she whined, eyes shut tightly in a futile attempt at blocking out the pain.

"Well?" the cold voice now seemed to grow annoyed, whereas Shinako just grew wary. She cracked one eye open, looking up at Hibari's scowling face and frightening glare, making her laugh nervously. "I…lost something…?"

Hibari was not amused by this answer.

"Get up."

"My back kinda hurts."

"I don't like to repeat myself." As soon as Shinako caught the sight of one of his tonfas she was back on her feet in record time. She kept a hand on her aching back though.

Hibari on the other hand didn't spare her another glance and just moved towards his chair and promptly sat down, thinking of…well whatever it is Hibari thinks.

Uncomfortable silence started to weigh down on Shinako and possessed by whatever supernatural force was around she attempted to start a conversation.

"Ano…Hibari? I was wondering if you couldn't sign those papers Kusakabe-kun gave me, because—" she was immediately cut off by his icy glare. "It's just that it's too much paper and forging signatures isn't right!" she immediately said, trying to reason with the chairman.

In all truth Hibari had decided to ignore her but when she had mentioned that he, of all people, should sign the papers he had to glare at her. "I'm delegating."

Delegating? That's the lamest excuse, EVER! She screamed in her mind but knew better than actually saying it out loud.

"But it is your job, you know that right?"

"Can't you handle such a simple thing, herbivore?" he asked, clearly annoyed that she was still talking to him.

Shinako's eyebrow seemed to twitch at being called herbivore. "Why do you say herbivore as if it were a bad thing? You know there a very important part of the food chain! There wouldn't be any balance if herbivores didn't exist!"

Hibari's eyebrow seemed to arch ever so lightly, though his eyes only narrowed. What an annoyance, he thought and placed both his elbows on the table, resting his chin atop of his hands. "Get out, I can't tolerate the sound of your voice anymore. You're disturbing the peace in this office."

Rude, rude, RUDE! Shinako was now resisting the temptation of ripping out her dark brown hair as she clenched and unclenched a hand behind her back.

The corners of her lips were twitching and she was feeling divided between shouting something offensive and her survival instincts "Fine, chairman" she ended up hissing and stomped back towards the couch, angrily throwing the papers she had been handed without care into the back.

"You're being too loud."

Hibari's voice called to her again, in a warning manner, causing a vein to pop out in Shinako's forehead. She didn't answer though and once she was done, she started to head out the door.

"Lunch is the deadline." Hibari said once more, and to refrain from doing something unnecessary Shinako practically ran out the door; yet at the last moment her temper took over and she slammed the door. That was pretty much as rebellious she could be.

Still, when she realized the awfully loud bang the door slamming had done and when she started to hear footsteps she immediately assumed Hibari was coming to beat her up to a pulp with his tonfas and just darted down the hallway.

To Shinako it honestly felt like she had ran for hours and still couldn't get as far away as she'd like from the Disciplinary Committee room. For once she thanked all the jogging and early mornings of practice Ryohei had put her through.

When the bell rang she was shocked to realize that she had never been so overjoyed over going to Math. She sat down in her usual place by the window and took out the wrinkled papers she had previously thrown in her bag. Might as well do these…

When Lunch time rolled around Shinako still hadn't filled out all the papers. She had done about ¾ of it all, which in her mind should be seen as a record. Looks like I won't be able to have lunch with Kyoko-san and the others… she thought and for once didn't know whether to feel happy or sad about that.

"Shina-chan!"

"Uh? Kyoko-san? What are you doing here?"

"I figure I'd come to pick you up" Kyoko answered Shinako's hushed question with a bright smile "Shall we go?"

"Actually Kyoko-san, I still have a lot of work to do for the Committee and—"

"Really?" Shinako would never understand why but seeing Kyoko doing that saddened expression really messed with her. "I…I guess that if I hurry…it's ok…"

"Really?" This situation was almost funny if you were to compare the change in Kyoko's tone "I'm so glad! Then come this way, Shina-chan!"

And just like that Shinako found herself being lead to Kyoko's classroom where she was supposed to have lunch with Kyoko and her friends. "Here we are," Kyoko informed as they both now stood in front of the door. Kyoko turned to look at Shinako and was apparently able to sense her uncertainty for she quickly added "It's fine Shina-chan!"

Shinako slowly turned her head to face her and was about to respond to this statement when Kyoko opened the door and gave her a light push forward.

"Shinako! You're late to the extreme!" Was Ryohei's immediate statement upon seeing her, followed by a very loud 'Eck!' that came from Tsuna, who promptly backed away into a desk.

"Jyuudaime!" Gokudera suddenly exclaimed upon watching Tsuna hit the desk behind him and was promptly by his side, making sure he was fine.

"Tsuna-kun is something wrong?" Kyoko asked with a concerned expression, whereas Shinako was just starting to feel uncomfortable. That is, until she realized that the boy yelping was No-Good Tsuna, whom she had bumped against earlier that day.

She blinked her eyes but then decided it was time to do the right thing so she stepped over to him "I'm glad I finally found you. That encounter this morning has been bugging me all day, especially because I didn't get a chance to—"

"Please don't beat me up!"

"Uh?" she blinked her eyes again. Apparently her words had been misinterpreted, and not just by Tsuna, by Gokudera too.

"Woman how dare you come here and try to harm Jyuudaime!" he yelled taking several angry strides forward, whereas Shinako still looked confused. "It's always the same thing with you Disciplinary Committee members! I bet Hibari sent you to do this, didn't he?"

The hell? Shinako thought as she looked up at Gokudera's angry expression and scowled. "What are you talking about?" she questioned with an arched eyebrow. "I was going to apologize"

"Eh?" Both Tsuna and Gokudera said eyeing her with disbelief. "I bumped into you earlier today because I was startled by the bell, but I never got a chance to apologize so I was going to do it now." Shinako explained, turning to face Tsuna who had been blocked from her sight by Gokudera. Yamamoto, who had been quiet throughout this laughed fondly, "Ah, it was all a misunderstanding, I see." He said gleefully.

Gokudera turned to face him "What are you happy about, baseball nut?"

Tsuna simply sighed in relief, watching Gokudera yell at Yamamoto, who just laughed off his remarks through the corner of his eyes before facing Shinako once more. "Ah, sorry, I misunderstood."

"Oi, oi, now that this is settled can we eat? I'm hungry to the extreme!"

Contrary to what Shinako had been expecting, aside the initial confusion, having lunch with these people wasn't all that bad. She already knew Yamamoto, thanks to his position in the baseball club even though they had never actually talked, but he turned out to be very good company with his constant optimism and sunny disposition. Gokudera seemed to be highly protective around Tsuna though and kept calling hum Jyuudaime, for reasons Shinako was unaware of for the moment. And Tsuna turned out to be a pretty funny guy to hang around, especially when he reacted so flustered in regards to Gokudera's excitement towards him.

In the end it was just like Kyoko-san told me, they really are good people, she thought. She quickly reminded herself to get some more things done in regards to the signatures so after she was done she took out the papers and started signing them.

"Masayoshi-san are those for the Disciplinary Committee?" Tsuna asked her looking over at the papers. Shinako nodded "Yes they are, I'm sorry I brought these out during lunch. I hope nobody minds, but I have to get these done by the end of lunch." She apologized with a small sigh.

"It's no problem, we understand." Yamamoto said, with his usual smile, while Gokudera nodded "If Jyuudaime says it's fine then it is." He said and Tsuna sweatdropped a little "Yeah, it's fine Masayoshi-san."

Shinako was truly happy that they didn't seem to mind but her good mood was broken when the door to the classroom slide open and in came Hibari Kyoya "Masayoshi, how long do you intent to crowd around here?"

"What are you doing here?" There it went, Gokudera's temper flaring up again as he stood up to glare at Hibari.

"Be quiet, I have no interest in you."

"What?"

"Gokudera-kun, please calm down!" Tsuna pleaded, which actually seemed to work. "Hibari you came to have lunch with us?" Ryohei questioned, to which both Shinako and Tsuna replied with looks of disbelief.

"There's room for more!" Yamamoto added, causing Shinako and Tsuna's jaw to drop. They're so naive! They both screamed in their heads.

Hibari on the other hand didn't even feel the need to reply and just cast them a look that meant to question their sanity. The chairman moved over to where Shinako was and looked over her shoulder at the paper she was filling out. "Is that all?"

"Yeah…" Shinako replied rather hesitantly. She honestly hoped Hibari hadn't come here to beat her up over the door thing. When she saw Hibari nod, hope filled within her. Said hope was then brutally stabbed, beaten and thrown out the window when Hibari lifted her to her feet, by her ponytail. "Eck! HIBARI! That hurts!" she protested, but, Hibari being Hibari chose to ignore these protests and proceeded to drag her out the classroom, by said ponytail, as shocked eyes followed them out until the door closed and they were both gone from the others sights.

Thankfully for Shinako, Hibari had let go of her ponytail a short while after they left Tsuna's room, though he still intimidated her and demanded that she followed him back to the Disciplinary Committee room. So Shinako did as told, settling for being happy over still having her long ponytail attached to her head.

Once they walked in she looked surprised after seeing Kusakabe standing there. "Vice-chairman, speak." Hibari commanded simply, walking past Shinako as he went to sit on the chair. "Kyo-san, we were told that more of the Committee members were found severely injured."

Shinako froze. So the rumors I heard today were true?

"How many?"

"Another 3…that brings the total to 5." Kusakabe promptly answered Hibari's question. Hibari simply closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. "What a bunch of weak herbivores." He muttered.

"Hibari, you shouldn't be talking like that about your own Committee members!" Shinako pointed out to him, ignoring the fact that this was the man who dragged her half of the way there by her ponytail, despite her demands for him to let go.

"Shut up Masayoshi. It's getting crowded here, leave." He said simply, causing Shinako's fists to tremble with anger as her eyes narrowed. Why did you even drag me here in the first place then?

Kusakabe nodded and was about ready to leave when Shinako spoke up again "Wait, what are we going to do about this situation?"

Hibari slowly opened his eyes, glaring towards the girl in front of him "You, nothing." Shinako seemed taken aback by his words. What does he mean by that? Is he planning on taking care of this on his own?

"Shinako, let's go." Kusakabe's stern voice, brought her back from her thoughts and with a huff she walked of the room, followed by the Vice-Chairman.