Chapter Five

By the time they had all reached Kana's house, Kin and Hanabusa had both retreated into a simmering silence.

"I'll take Hana; you work with Kin." Kana muttered to Ari. "Try to get her in a better mood."

"Why do I have to take the blabber mouth?"

"The snow is really starting to get deep!" Kana stated.

"You're avoiding the question." Ari grumbled.

"Do you want to die of food poisoning?" Kana asked, throwing Ari a look. If most of Kana's cooking was bad, it was at least edible, even if it did taste funny. Kin's cooking could kill. It was so bad, the group knew that stray dogs avoided it.

"Good point." Ari agreed. "Fine, I'll take Kin."

"Hanabusa," Kana called, walking up to the tall brunette.

"Yeah?" She responded, sounding annoyed.

"I'm going to need some help in the kitchen. Can you help me, please?" Kana asked, sounding completely innocent.

"Sure, whatever."

"That's the spirit." Kana grumbled sarcastically as she unlocked the front door. She stepped into the front hall and automatically called out "I'm home!" She then turned and invited her friends in. "Sorry if it's messy. I'm sure Mute and Nuke took the firstopportunity to mess the house up as soon as I left."

"Must make it hard to keep this place clean, with those two around," Ari said.

"You have no idea," Kana responded. " We're talking virtually impossible."

"That's right, you don't take long distance trips, do you?" Kin said, temporarily forgetting her silence.

"If I did, I would come home to find the house in shambles." Kana said, kicking off her shoes. "Not a very appealing image."

"No, I would guess not." Hanabusa said, following Kana into the kitchen. Mute was lying beside a slightly open window, white snowflakes drifting down, showing boldly against the black fur. Kana crossed the room and closed the window. She shooed Mute out of the kitchen; then cleared a place on the cluttered table for the bags. In the process, she knocked over a couple of magazines and a piece of paper that was sitting on top drifted to the floor. Kana picked it up and read it.

"Oh, it's from Rin-Oba-Chan." Kana said.

"What does it say?" Hana asked.

"Umm . . . 'I left the soup I brought for you in the fridge, and picked up your laundry. Will bring it back on Monday. Clean your room.'" Kana read.

"She does your laundry?" Hana asked, picking the letter up. "Wow, she's got really neat hand writing. . ."

"It's either she does it, or no one does. Mute and Nuke won't let me do it here, the machines make too much noise, and they steal most of the socks as they fold them."

"Must be hard, being the only one in the household with opposible thumbs." Hana remarked.

"Not really. Shadow taught us all to be sufficient. Mute and Nuke just like messing with people's heads." Kana said in reply. She started pulling stuff out of the bags and put it away. " If they really want anything, they can get it themselves, they'll find a way. They always do. I mean, they learned how to use an electric can opener easily enough."

"Have you seen them?" Hana asked, sounding amazed.

"Not really, but I hear them and every now and again, I will find an empty can that I don't remember opening. And they leave the top of the can on the magnet."

"Very discreet." Hana remarked sarcastically.

"You have no idea." Kana groaned. "The only rule that Shadow helps enforce is the 'no dead animals in the house'. I don't want to know how bad the house would be if we didn't. It's a strict, no exceptions rule, from the both of us."

Just then Ari opened the door to the kitchen. "Hey, Kana, less talking, more cooking. Kin's getting hungry and I don't know how much longer I can distract her."

Kana and Ari exchanged worried glances. A hungry Kin was just as dangerous as a hungry Kana. "Okay, we'll speed it up." Kana said as she whipped out a frying pan, poured some oil in it and heated it up. Then they both went to work, opening the cans of pre-cut vegetables, cooking the rice, and cutting the meat.

A girl with long brown hair held her arm out as a black raven flew lower. It landed on her arm and cawed loudly, then ruffled it's wings slightly and gave the girl's ear a gentle nip.

"So, Kana is still alive? Good, good." She smiled, her blue eyes twinkling mischievously. Her eyes met the pure black of the raven's eyes, and she pet it gently. "Thank you, Spirit. Perhaps it's time I paid my little sister a visit." She looked around, no longer smiling. "But for now, It seems we have some uninvited guests." She dropped into her stance as she was surrounded by a group, wearing nothing but black. Spirit circled her head as she observed the group, cawing loudly at being disturbed.

"Tatsukage, Katana. Today we will defeat you, fulfilling Sesshomaru-sama's wishes," came a high pitched, feminine voice.

"You're welcome to try, Makokoro. You're welcome to try." Katana replied, sounding seriously bored.