Disclaimer: Nope, don't own it. Darn.

Scene 13-I notice and discover, that I don't belong

That brought Ryouji up short and he squinted at Miaka. Apparently, he recognized her too; he flung an arm over his eyes and started laughing so hard till he had to struggle for breath, wheezing. "Sheesh, if I believed in fate, I'd say this is one screwed up reunion. Since I don't, I'll just point my finger at coincidence."

Somewhat bewildered over the unexpected development, Yuki let Ryouji go and took a step backwards, stopping next to Shuichi.

Miaka approached Ryouji hesitantly with a wondering look as he got up, rubbing his writs, "I can't believe this…I thought you were dead. My foster parents said they adopted me because you died in accident…The only thing I have left of you is a photograph. What happened to Mother then?"

Ryouji eyed her with amusement, "Dead? Me? No, no…the one who died was your mother. She was so annoying, you know? Always nagging me to stop drinking, stop sleeping around, show more concern for you…well, she's dead now and I say good riddance."

"You…you killed her?"

A snort, "Yeah right. Don't make it sound like I'm the friendly neighborhood mad-axe chopper. She wasn't even worth the effort. She genuinely died in a car accident; you should remember. After all, you were there." Ryouji grinned, "Come to think of it, it's you I have to thank for that woman's death."

At Miaka's confused expression, his grin only grew wider, "She died shielding you during the collision-she's dead because of her precious baby girl."

Miaka shaking knees was barely able to support her now. She steadied herself and stared at the man who was her father in absolute horror and revulsion. "Then…if you were alive…why was I adopted?"

Ryouji rolled his eyes in contempt. "Are you as stupid as your mother? What a pity, for a moment, I thought you were lucky enough to take after me." He gave Miaka a casual smile as he continued, "At that time, I was short of money and taking care of children is a pain-I'm sure you understand. Obviously, the most logical solution was to sell you off-and I did. After all the headache having you around gave me, I deserved a reward."

He scoffed at his daughter's expression of deep pain and betrayal, "Oh come on, don't look at me like that. I still remember the situation so many years ago. The Akino's wanted a child badly. Although they were willing to pay a hefty sum for it, the adoption process eats up a lot of time; time they weren't willing to wait. Since they were so pitiful, I did them a favor and offered you for sale. See, wasn't it nice of me?"

Tears feely swimming down her cheeks, Miaka shrieked at Ryouji, "I HATE YOU!" before running off into the dark, sobbing her heart out.

Ryouji merely raised an eyebrow and chuckled in perverse amusement, "I wonder why she's so upset. Was it something I said?"

Miaka already forgotten, he shifted his attention to Shuichi. Yuki automatically blocked Shuichi protectively, slanted golden orbs coldly warning Ryouji to stay away. Getting the picture, Ryouji raised his hands in mock surrender, "Okay, okay. I get it. I'll leave the boy alone," he couldn't resist smirking, "for now."

Yuki didn't even bat an eyelid at the thinly veiled threat, "What makes you think there's going to be a next time? You're going to jail." Feeling a tugging sensation, he snapped at Shuichi without even looking at him, "What? I'm kind of busy here."

"Yuki…let him go…"

At Shuichi's weary plea, Yuki whipped around and snapped furiously, "What do you mean 'let him go'? Shuichi, he wants to kidnap you. Have you lost your mind on top of everything else!"

"Yuki…Please. Just…forget it, I'm so tired of everything…"

Normally, Yuki would insist on throwing Ryouji behind bars and ensure he stayed there for-oh, at least this lifetime. Shuichi's words however, threw him off balance. Yuki sighed. For all the hardship Shuichi had gone through, never once had he allowed such defeated words escape his lips.

He glared warningly at Ryouji, "Go, and don't ever come back. Be thankful you're still in once piece."

Ryouji mockingly bowed, "Why, I do thank you, your majesty."

Yuki didn't grace that with a reply, though his hands involuntarily curled into fists, "Like real I'm letting you go scot-free. Right now, Shuichi's more important but the moment I get home, I'm going to do some research on maximizing your stay in prison."

He watched until Ryouji disappeared into the dark night before turning to Shuichi, "Enough fun and games for one day. Let's go home."

Shuichi just nodded weakly, intensely relieved Yuki hadn't deprived Ryouji of body parts or even maim him a little.

XXX

"Ouch!"

"Oops! I'm sooooo sorry, didn't see you there at all now did we?"

Shuichi just got up and brushed the dirt off his clothes without responding to the sickly-sweet voice. He sighed as he watched the three girls walk away, laughing meanly as they did. How long were they going to keep it up?

The only upside was that Miaka was absent that day. He frowned. Yuki was all for the police but Shuichi had been adamant about leaving her alone. In truth, he felt sorry for her. With a father that sold his own daughter, who could blame her for turning out so twisted? Sure, she had been bent of making his life miserable but didn't everything turn out well in the end?

After all, he hated his former house. Miaka was more than welcome to flame it down to ashes ten times over if she felt like it. As for his mother…right now he was still furious at her but…he knew, one day, he would thank her for setting his mother free.

Shuichi slowly walked back to the classroom. It was only ten in the morning and he had already been tripped twice, 'accidentally' knocked down thrice and even had chewing gum somehow finding it's way into his hair.

He stopped near the biology lab door, bracing himself. "This is going to be the worst class ever. Sheesh, can't those crazy Yuki-obsessed girls go stalk him instead of picking on me? I really hate this…"

The moment Shuichi stepped in, the class fell silent, though not for long. Almost instantly, malicious whispers, loud enough for Shuichi to hear, buzzed throughout the room. "He actually came. Can you believe the nerve of him?" "Poor Yuki-sensei! He must have been completely fooled by this conniving sneak!" "Some assholes just don't know when they're not welcome."

Shuichi went to his seat quickly, eyes cast down. Inwardly, he winced. For some unlucky reason, his ears seemed unable to block out a single word. He knew he was going to have a hard time at school today but still...it hurt. Having people he barely knew single him out for bullying was downright depressing. "Well, it's only to be expected. Between me and Yuki, people would obviously choose to blame me and consider Yuki the unsuspecting victim."

Shuichi felt something hit him right smack at the back of his head. Feeling a slimy patch of hair, Shuichi closed his eyes and took a deep breath, blinking back tears fiercely. He felt a warm hand patting his back comfortingly. Hiro smiled encouragingly at him, "Don't worry, Shuichi. I'm here for you," he increased his volume deliberately, "just in case some people decided to be lame jerks!"

Shuichi couldn't help a small grin as several classmates nervously averted their eyes from Hiro's laser glare, "Thanks." He was determined to be strong. No matter how utterly frustrated and wronged he was, Shuichi was not going to give them the satisfaction of seeing him upset.

XXX

Yuki raised his voice even louder as the students of 3-A's game of prank-playing on Shuichi escalated, wildly battling off the urge to just start flinging books at them, "If you would kindly pay attention-…!"

Splat!

"WILL YOU LITTLE MONSTERS BLOODY STOP THAT ALREADY!"

Yuki breathed heavily and glared icily at the suddenly deathly quiet class, zooming on to the unfortunate fool who had delivered the latest spitball to Shuichi. All eyes were transfixed on Yuki, wide with shock.

Yuki smirked grimly without saying anything, enjoying their discomfited expressions as he allowed the silence to drag on. He would say it was about time somebody ground some common sense into their miniscule feather stuffed heads.

"All of you. Stand up. Now."

They jumped a little as Yuki suddenly ordered them curtly, breaking the tense silence without warning. Still shell-shocked, they hastily obeyed. Only Shuichi remained seated, staring at Yuki as a wave of foreboding drowned him. "Oh no…he wouldn't. He promised to stay out of this!"

Yuki pointedly ignored Shuichi. Sure, he had agreed to let Shuichi take care of this by himself, although he hadn't been too happy about it. However, that was because Shuichi had insisted nobody would take the rumor seriously and that it would snuff out in no time.

"'They'll get over it.'" Yuki mentally snorted, "Sure they will, and they'll probably send him flowers along with heart shaped chocolates just for the heck of it as well-after they cremate his body anyway."

Yuki decided on the boy right at the very back of the room. Earlier he had been busy having fun throwing pieces of paper at Shuichi. Feeling Yuki's gaze on him, he twitched nervously. Evidently, he wasn't having very much fun right now.

"Otoori-san, can you tell me why I asked everybody to stand?"

"Be-because we…we were pic-picking on Shindou…?"

Yuki smiled proudly, "Very good."

Yuki shifted his attention to the boy sitting directly behind Shuichi. "Kenichi-kun, can you tell me why were all of you picking on Shindou-kun?"

"That's…I mean…He's…I-…"

Ruthlessly cutting the boy's helpless stammering, Yuki interrogated another student. "Maki-chan, why were you putting glue on Shindou-kun's chair?"

"O-oh… about that…I was just…um…. I was just-…"

Yuki smiled at her kindly, "Oh, I see. You were worried Shindou-kun might somehow just slide off his chair, right? How very sweet of you!"

Ignoring her blubbering, Yuki locked onto his next target. "Saitou-san, what do you think of me?"

Blushing prettily, the girl fiddled with her hair. "What do I…Err…I-I think you're ho-hot!"

Yuki smiled at her in sardonic amusement, "Why, thank you very much. It's nice to know you find me 'hot'. That's not precisely what I meant though. Let me rephrase it-what do you think of me-as a teacher."

Leaving an extremely mortified student behind, Yuki moved onto his next victim in dark satisfaction. "Takahashi-san, how about you? Are you in love with me too?"

The girl, having seen the fate suffered by those who dared answer that, shook her head vehemently, "N-no! I-uh…I think you're the best teacher ever! There isn't any other teacher we would prefer over you." Enthusiastic now that she was convinced she was on the right track, she nattered on, "You're a model teacher, everybody likes you! Not to mention, you're nice and kind! You're really patient with us and…and you're a brilliant teacher and…and you're nice…"

Yuki raised an eyebrow mockingly as she ran out of steam, beginning to repeat like an annoying broken-down recording machine, "Oh, is that all?" He watched her fluster and flounder for a moment before deciding he had enough fun, "How nice. As a reward, let me have the pleasure of telling everyone here exactly what I think of all of you-as students, of course."

Dropping his smile, Yuki's narrowed eyes scanned throughout the room slowly, meeting each and every on of his students in the eye. Satisfied when not a single student could look at him without flinching, he brutally said without mincing his words "You're the worst," he paused to let it sink into their pea-brains, "every single one of you makes me sick, from your love confessions to your irritating squawking. Yuki-sensei this, Yuki-sensei that; you don't even know me. Well, guess what? This is who I am-and I bloody hate you."

Yuki stalked to Shuichi's table and pulled a wide-eyed Shuichi up. Glaring round the classroom, he spoke in a dangerous tone, "Who I live with is none of your damn business but I'll just make this clear anyway; the one who got 'poor Yuki-sensei' into all this was me, myself and I, so lay off your childish bullying. Don't you feel any shame?"

Yuki dragged a dumbfounded Shuichi to the door and forcefully opened it. As he took a step out, he delivered his final blow, "By the way, don't ever call me sensei again."

"As of today, I quit."

XXX

It's a pity you skipped school today! Where were you anyway? It was so dramatic! Yuki-sensei rushed to his beloved's defense like a knight in shining armor! He was so cool! Oh, but wait…does this mean he's resigning? NOOO! My precious Yuki-…!

Miaka merely grunted occasionally into her cell phone as Yuka rambled on and on at the other end of the line. She thought in annoyance, "Doesn't she ever shut up? I'm busy here." She was rummaging through her foster father's study, searching for something she knew was hidden there.

The night before, she had cried for hours before shock and exhaustion finally took pity on her and carried her off to nightmare land. Her mother-no, her foster mother-had just taken one worried glance at her the following morning and told her to stay at home and rest, knowing full well Miaka would refuse to tell her what was wrong. That was earlier; now Miaka felt perfectly fine and back to normal. She had some things to take care of.

Mi-a-ka! Are you even listening to me?

Coming across cold, hard metal, Miaka grinned to herself darkly and reached for it with both hands, ignoring her cell phone as it smashed to the floor and broke into two.

Cradling it almost lovingly, she absently admired its beauty as sunlight creeping in from a slit between the closed curtains glinted off it. She started laughing, giggling a little at first. As she made for the door, gun in hand, her giggling gave way into peals of maniacal laugher. Her eyes were bright with insane anticipation. She understood that she had already killed before. Just one more couldn't hurt.

XXX

"I can't believe you! What were you thinking? You actually shouted at them. Now, you've probably lost your job and I'm definitely not going to be able to show my face in school again!"

Yuki just casually dug his ear, slumped on the couch as Shuichi paced agitatedly in front of him, ranting and raving. Yuki sighed in exasperation, "You're making holes in my carpet. Sit down."

Shuichi whirled around, glaring at Yuki, "Is that all you can say?"

Yuki irritably retorted, "What else do you expect me to say? You've been at it for two hours. Give it a rest already. I told you I hate teaching and was going to quit anyway-I just quit slightly sooner than expected, that's all. As for school, you can always just transfer. End of story. Case closed. Now sit down!"

"But-!" Shuichi started countering again when the doorbell rang. Glaring darkly at Yuki, Shuichi growled, "I'm not done yet. No way am I letting you lose your job just because of me," before stomping off to strangle the unexpected, unknown and unwelcome visitor.

Yuki just rolled his eyes and remained slouched, "Whatever."

XXX

Shuichi jerked the front door open to find Miaka standing on the porch. He frowned in confusion, "What does she want now?"

Assuming the reason she had decided to drop by, Shuichi impatiently gestured for her to go away, "Go home. I'm not going to call the police or anything. After all, it was a freak accident that my mother died. I just want to put it all in the past and forget about-…." He trailed off as Miaka simply smiled at him, a smile that didn't reach her glittering crazy looking eyes.

As though Shuichi hadn't said a thing, she revealed the gun she had carefully hidden within her jacket and aimed it directly at Shuichi's head. "Where is Yuki Eiri?" Without losing her chilling smile, she released the safety hatch, "After all, it's most exciting to die when a loved one is watching."

ROAR! I'm sorry, everyone. I tried not to leave a cliffhanger but fate decided to have its way. The chapter would be too short or too long otherwise. (Sobs)

Some of you may have noticed this update was a little late. My assignments are piling up not to mention I have to start preparing for exams…so I may start posting up a new chapter once a week instead of twice. I'll try my best to update as often as I can though!