Yuki: THE CORE!!!!

Anika: Is a good movie!

Disclaimer: Butch Hartman would projectile vomit out of every orifice if he would read this misshapen horror of a story.

Chapter 5: Friendly Reunion

Danny was watching his anime on his laptop. The new laptop, which he had wormed out of an unknown child support agreement, sounded with beautiful music of his birth mother's homeland. He opened up a bottle of red wine that his adult friend Tori had given him recently. Danny closed his eyes as the alcohol made its way down his throat. It burned a bit, but made his head feel nice. (1)

Saa, wasuremasho sono mirai da Come, let us forget that future

Mata shinurarete yuku nante That is becoming smeared with blood again

His phone rang, the tune of Evanescence's My Immortal playing. He grabbed his phone. The little screen said-

'Devi?'

Danny opened up his flip phone to see himself and his friend. Their group -(2) they never really decided on a name- had grown a bit distant. They still got together to record music, but that was about it. He pressed the 'Talk' button.

"Johnny?" When Danny was 10, he had shown the Johnny the Homicidal Maniac comics to his friends. They fell in love with it and began to name themselves after the characters. Danny was Johnny C., Paulina Sanchez was Devi D., Valerie was Tenna, and so on...

"Hi, Devi."

"So... Umm..."

"What do you want, Dev?"

"Will you go with me to the school dance?"

Na wa nuruikaze toguro maitara If a warm wind curls into a spiral

Sore ga tabun aizu That is probably a sign

"Why?"

"I just wanted to... you know... patch things up between us."

"Paulina, you and Ten left me. You wanted to forget everything that happened at CAMP so you decided to become all snotty and shit and became all popular and now you want to patch things up?!"

Danny was pissed, to say the least.

Nukedashite Nukedashite Escape from here Escape from here

Kanashi sugiru unmei tara From this sorrowful fate

"I -hic- I just didn't want to -hic- to hurt anymore."

Danny knew what she meant... The hurt that she was talking about... The fact that their strength had been taken away from them at such a young age.

"Fine."

"Wha?"

Danny laughed, happier than he felt in a long time. "I'll go with you to the dance, but I have to embarrass myself in front of the student body first, okay?" (2)

"Ha ha! I'll try and be nice."

"Ja ne, Paulina." He said good-bye in his mother's language, something that he had taught his friends to give them something to hold onto: Words. He trilled the 'r' in the pronunciation of Paulina's name fluidly enough to sound like her name, but still enough to differentiate the sounds. (3)

"Adios, Danny. Ah! Recordé algo!"

"Nani?"

"Quieres a tener nieve después de escuela hoy? El usual sitio?"

"Hai!" Danny smiled. The two of them were actually conversing for the first time in two years. YAY! "Dewa mata ashita!" (4)

A bit later, Danny walked downstairs and into the lab, backpack for school on his back. He saw his father sitting in what appeared to be a fishing chair, the kind that were in boats, and sporting the soda drink hat that he had bought in Japan and that reminded Danny of days when he didn't know everything about life... and its cruelties...

-Flashback-

"P-pa-pa?" (5) Danny, age 3, asked, reaching up to his father who sat on the couch watching an American football game. They were in Japan for a big Ghost Expo for the summer of 1996. They had celebrated the boy's birthday recently in Tokyo, a telescope and Play Mate Keyboard as his presents. (6)

They were currently in the outskirts of Tokyo, near a psychiatrist as to find out Danny's... condition.

"Hey, son." Jack, age 29/30, reached down and plucked his son off of the floor and onto his lap.

"Pa-pa? C-can I w-wear your h-ha-t?" Danny had never seen a hat like that before. There were soda cans in it, and there were straws that let Papa drink the soda. Papa had been unable to buy the hat because of ignorance of the Japanese language, but Danny had translated how much it cost without being taught the language. They had taken the boy to Kizuka-sensei (7) after that...

Anata wa naraku no hana janai You are not a Flower from Hell

Sonna basho de In that kind of place

"Here ya go." Jack smiled as he placed the hat on his son's head and wiped off the mouthpiece. The big man smiled. If Danny had some advanced learning personality, it wouldn't matter. He would go to the best schools in the world, and that's what mattered to Jack.

The hat fell over Danny's eyes, but the boy looked up at him after lifting the hat slightly and slowly drank from the hat. Danny stopped drinking and smiled. Of course, why wouldn't he smile?

He didn't expect his mother to come home to their rented apartment so angry...

So keen on separation...

-End Flashback-

"Hey, Dad. What are you doing?" Danny dropped his backpack onto the ground and walked over to his father.

"Danny, quiet down. You'll scare away the ghosts!" Jack seemed irked. That ghost kid had appeared and no one seemed to care except him and his wife. He knew Danny was once interested in the paranormal. If he could once again excite that part of his son...

"It's the Fenton Ghost Fisher. I'm fishing for ghosts," he said as he wound up the line. "Check out this line," he said smugly.

"Coated with a special high-test ectoplasmic resin that ghosts can't break." Jack turned back towards the open Ghost Portal. "Quiet, now. Don't want to spook 'em."

Jack pulled back and let the hook fly into the Ghost Zone. He drank his soda for a few moments while winding the fishing rod.

"Whoa," he said, sitting up straight. "That soda goes through you like Sherman through Georgia." He handed, or rather forced, the fishing rod into Danny's hands. "Here, hang onto this. I'll be right back after I use the Fenton Urinal."

This, kiddies, is why Danny doesn't like inviting kids to his house. Sam and Tucker just waltz right in, so they don't count.

Sakanaide Sakanaide Don't bloom there Don't bloom there

Karametorarete naide Don't let them ensnare you

The fishing line was suddenly winding out of control. Something was caught on the other end. Suddenly, it stopped and Danny saw his breath.

'Master, it's a powerful ghost.'

"Oh, no." Danny said out loud. He hastily pulled against the pulling of the line, hoping to dislodge the ghost on the other end. The line became slack and Danny looked up to see a giant claw appear.

Today was not good.

(Skipping scene b/c I'm lazy)

The Casper High bell rang for lunch at 11:03. Tucker Foley stood at the front doors, feeling lucky. A girl came by.

"Hey, there. I-"

"No."

Another girl. "Hi. Would you-"

"Forget it."

Another girl still. "No."

"I didn't ask you yet!" Tucker, rejected, walked over to where Danny and Sam were eating. Danny had his ham-and-cheese sandwich and Sam had her salad.

Danny smiled at him. "Strike three, Tuck?"

Tucker placed his head on his hands which were balancing on his elbows on the picnic-style table. "Try strike 3000."

"I don't know what the big deal is about going to some stupid dance." Sam announced to her friends, both staring at her dully. "I don't need to be asked to some dance to know I'm special. I-"

Sam looked over at the boys, who beamed their happy faces into the distance. "What?"

"Paulina..." Danny and the aforementioned girl had made a bet years ago... or rather, an agreement. Whoever found their true significant other first had to be a temporary servant to the other. As of yet, this hadn't happened, so the two made a side agreement.

If they never fell in love with someone, Danny and Paulina -yes, both of them- would get married... Just to make sure the other was never lonely. Of course, to achieve this without it being weird, Danny, the unpopular one, had to pretend to be in love with Paulina.

Hodo mo naku tobikau toki no kakera Shards of time fly by without a sound

Tucker just likes pretty girls. Going on...

Paulina Sanchez, age 14, aka Devi D. Absolutely flawless skin, the prettiest girl in school. A boy riding his bike crashed into a tree and another boy knocked another male down into a fountain. Yep, Paulina was that pretty.

Danny and Tucker sighed. "Paulina."

'Master? -jealousy-'

-"Shut up, Phantom."-

"Oh, please." Sam was so exasperated with boys acting up over some pretty girl. "Paulina? Girls like her are a dime a dozen."

Danny and Tucker put their hands in their pockets. "How much change you got?" asked the adopted one.

"Ha ha! Very funny." Sam said sarcastically. "But just remember: 'You can't judge a book by its cover."

"Well," Tucker said, "there's only one way to find out. Go on, Danny. Go to that library and check out that book."

Paulina made her way to a tree, where she sat on the ground to eat her lunch.

Phantom, the overprotective spirit he was, didn't want his master near any girl with a spirit so unruly. He quickly took over Master's body.

"I can't." Danny's voice said, being controlled by the ghost. "I get weak-kneed when I try to talk to cute girls."

"Oh!" Sam turned to Danny, her eyes narrowed. "And you have absolutely no problems talking to me."

Danny came back to consciousness. "Uhh..."

"Save it. Go give your weak knees some exercise." Sam stood, pulling Danny up with her and pushed him over in the direction of Paulina.

Paulina smiled, knowing that the Johnny to her Devi was next to the tree she sat against. Danny took a breath. He put his hand against the tree and leaned against it.

'Remember, you two aren't on the same status level. She is above you.'

"Hi, I-" Danny stopped as he felt his arm go all tingly. He fell against the tree and then fell flat on his face.

"Please, don't say you've suddenly fallen for me." Paulina said, stirring and scooping up some of her yogurt. "That line is so last semester."

Danny stood. "Yeah, I mean- No, that's not it."

Paulina looked up at him, expecting something romantically cheesy or just cute.

"I'm Danny."

Phantom was seething.

Sorry, Master...

Truthfully, Phantom wasn't sorry at all.

Danny didn't notice as his pants turned intangible and fell down around his ankles. Laughter filled his ears are he stood, shell-shocked.

Paulina stood, laughing. "A gentleman usually tips his hat, but I'll give you points for originality."

Sam frowned, not noticing her color-blindness turn more gray-scale. (8) She walked over to Danny, who slouched slightly, not knowing what the hell was going on. "Kudos, Danny," Sam said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You just set an all-time speed record for drowning in the shallow end of the gene pool."

Paulina looked at the other girl, who she thought was very pretty. "Oh, no. You did not just call me shallow, did you?"

Sam stood her ground. "If you mean 'Do I think I can stand in a puddle full of you and not get my feet wet?', then yeah."

"Shallow, I am not shallow." Paulina frowned, seeing that Danny would not stand up for her at all. He couldn't...

Even Paulina couldn't to such a pretty face. (9)

Song: Theme song to Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai (When the Higurashi [type of cicada] Cry Answers), Naraku no Hana (Flower from Hell) You people can figure that the underlined words next to the lyrics are translations.

1) He's drinking Bernkastel Wine, if anyone's curious.

2) Danny doesn't really care about his social status, as a big part of his personality is based on my own. He would rather have a fulfilling life and not be looked at as a show piece. Being Supreme Ruler of the Earth on the other hand... That's a story for another day. His hesitation for popularity also led to him and his friends never thinking of a name for their band. The group name ideas are "We are Murderers"(Japanese) or 'Suffering Spooks'... Please vote in your reviews or volunteer a name. Please!

3) The Japanese language doesn't really have a "v" or an "l" sound. They pronounce it as someone would in Spanish. The 'v' is a very soft 'b' and the 'l' is a quickly said 'r', so 'velvet' in English become 'berubetto'. The way that Danny is saying Paulina's name is "Paurina", but with that fast 'r'.

4) Their conversation goes:

P: Bye, Danny. Ah! I remembered something! (Spanish)

D: What? (Japanese)

P: Want to have ice cream tomorrow after school tomorrow? The usual place?

D: Yeah! See you tomorrow!

Although my family's original language is Spanish, I don't know it that well (which is very sad). Quiero llorar. TT~TT

5) I was watching Paulie with my sister and dad a few months ago and decided that Danny would have a speech impediment. Not that I hate Danny or anything, but giving him problems and watching his story self try and get out of them is just fascinating. However, Danny (having that problem from the first time he spoke to the middle of first grade) only has that problem when he talks in English.

6) Danny wants to become an astronaut, only because Phantom wants to be one. Danny gets the fame and recognition, but Phantom gets the knowledge and experience. Danny just wants to be a Renaissance man (sciences, mathematics, the arts, music, everything he doesn't seem to be in the show).

7) Kizuka Aoyagi (Random first name, last name of main character in Loveless) is Danny's psychiatrist. She has diagnosed Danny with depression, to which Danny has a prescription of Prozac. Kizuka will have a bigger role later on when Danny has to face the demon disguised as Prince Charming.

8) Sam is essentially colorblind, as is Tucker. They can see most colors, but the rest of their vision is comprised of shades of gray (DP episode reference!). It's very karmic. Sam, getting angry at Danny's friend (Paulina), just lost a few shades of a color she could see. The worse she acts, the more black-and-white her world will become.

9) Here's the Sam x Paulina pairing... Please don't kill me *gets shot*.

As of now, I'm not retyping One of a Kind and Splitting Images. Doesn't change or have any effect on my story at all.

THE STORY MUST GO ON!