Chapter 17: Halloween Chapter

Jun seemed to have even more energy this day as she jumped out of bed and quickly flashed through her morning routine.

"Good morning, Mom!" Jun called out cheerfully when she saw her in the kitchen.

"In a rush for something? This is the earliest I've seen you come down."

"Nope, I'm just really excited."

"Oh, I get it," Jun's mother said with a smile, "It's getting close to that time of year again."

"You remembered!" Jun shouted joyously.

For as long as Jun's mother could remember, her daughter had always had an almost unnatural excitement about Halloween. She had learned last year that it wasn't the passing of candy that she enjoyed, but it was the dressing up. Ironic since Jun had never shown any interest in playing dress up featuring her mom's clothes.

"I know; how about we go out to the Costume shop after school today and buy you a brand new outfit this year."

"Really? That would be great."

"Let's try to find something other than a witch, okay?"

"Yeah, I was getting tired of that one anyway."

Jun seemed to always find herself dressing as a witch on Halloween mainly because it was the only costume that they had ever gotten their hands on and Jun wasn't picky enough to complain about it.

"See ya, Mom—gotta' catch the bus," Jun said waving to her mom as she zipped out the door.

Everyone got a full dose of Jun's state of hyper-excitement almost to the point that it was annoying. Kids knew what to expect however. This wasn't the first Halloween that they had been forced to live through. Her good mood would permeate throughout the entire school and for the most part everyone else would be in a good mood. Around Halloween school became a far less tedious routine. Students were busy organizing parties and planning programs at the school that were Halloween themed. Of course, Jun would be part of all of these things.

It wasn't until the end of the day after she transitioned from her supremely good mood that she began to think of one certain person—someone who had yet to be privy to her enthusiasm. That was going to change, of course, but before she went out with her mom to the costume shop. That would take at least two hours to do.

After getting off the bus, she would have taken off immediately had Lee not stopped her.

"You seem pretty excited today," Lee said when he caught up to her.

"Of course I am—it's almost Halloween."

"So that's what it is. I'm guessing you're going to that Halloween party then."

"Yep, but I haven't picked out what I'm going to wear."

"Something tells me that whatever it is, it'll be something elaborate."

Jun smiled at him, "You read my mind. I'm going out to today with my mom to pick out something."

"Well, let me know what it is you'll be wearing. Maybe we could be themed."

Jun paused before she answered him. Speaking of being able to read someone's mind, she had wanted to ask the same thing of Kazuya, but she had not factored Lee into the equation at all. What was she going to say? No, find your own costume? Buzz off, I was planning on making this Halloween extra special?

"Um…Well, you see…"

"Oh—I'm sorry—

"Sorry for what?" Jun asked quickly.

"It's just, never mind. I wanted to know what you were going to wear so that…we wouldn't wound up wearing the same thing. That's all really. But if you did want to be themed…"

"No, not really." How to make this seem less awkward… Jun thought silently to herself. "Um, but I appreciate the thought."

"Alright," Lee said with a brief smile, "Guess I'll see you soon."

"Tomorrow for sure," Jun said with only a touch of excitement so as not to overdo it.

Lee and Jun went their separate way soon after and when Lee was out of sight, she took a turn towards Kazuya's house. She had no idea why she wanted to make sure that Lee hadn't seen, but it seemed like the thing to do at the moment. Before she knew it, she was knocking on the door to Jinpachi's mansion. She was immediately let in and she ran up to Kazuya's room without any assistance—she knew the route by heart. Jun didn't know what to expect when she knocked on the door even if he didn't answer she would still go in which is what happened at the moment.

"Kazuya!" she called as she knocked, but there was no answer. "Kazuya, you sleepyhead!"

She opened the door that never seemed to be locked and saw a nice Kazuya-shaped bump on the bed—he was completely covered in comforters and positioned a little ways from his pillows. With a sigh, she marched up to his bed and shook him so profusely that it would take a rather dedicated sleeper to ignore her. Still all she received was a grumble.

"Do you know what time of year it is?"

"No…but I guess you'll tell me," Kazuya said through the covers.

"It's Halloween!" Jun said in an especially high-pitched voice.

"Now?"

"No, not now, but in a couple of days. You gotta' get ready for it."

Kazuya grumbled again. Then Jun watched as he crawled from under the covers and finally looked at her with bleary eyes, "What's a Halloween anyways?"

There was an obvious look of disbelief on Jun's face, "You really don't know?"

"I wouldn't be asking if I did."

"It's when you dress up in a scary costume and you go around people's houses and get candy and you're supposed to say 'Trick or Treat'."

"That sounds stupid."

"What?" Jun shouted.

"I don't know why I haven't suffered a loss of hearing with all your noise."

"Well, you're always so hard of hearing. I just told you about the coolest holiday ever and you called it stupid. You have to try it out first before you say that, you know."

"First of all…going around to random people's houses? What? And why the dress up?"

"You can be whoever you want to be for Halloween—someone cool and scary. Okay, you don't have to do the trick or treating but you can at least go to the Halloween party."

"So you're inviting me to a party?"

"Yes, if you want to dumb it down like that."

"And a party would be one of those things that people dance at and there's music, right?"

"Yeah."

"I'm failing to see how this would interest me."

"It's called having fun, you should do it sometimes. All you do is study, train, and sleep. That's got to be getting boring."

"I do what's needed."

"The way I see it, you need to go to this party with me. I mean…do you really want to stay in this house all the time?"

"Listen, Jun…I can't. There'll be so many people there…"

"Oh, Kazuya, you didn't tell me you had a phobia of crowds."

"No, that's not it."

"Then you don't like meeting new people."

"Jun…"

"Or maybe you're just too lazy to be sociable. Is it really going to hurt you so much? I know you've been through…a lot, but maybe this could be your first step to recovery."

"Jun, I'm telling you, I'm not going. I don't want to dress up and candy is pointless."

"I didn't think it was going to be this hard to get you to do it."

"If you're looking for someone to go with, why don't you try that other fool who lives down the street? I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

"No! I don't want to go with him!" Jun said becoming quite loud. Her eyes suddenly became watery, "I came here to ask you…to ask you to dress up with me. That's all. That's all I wanted from you. You don't have to be…such a jerk all the time!"

"Look at poor little Jun, are you gonna' cry about it?"

"I don't waste tears on losers." She couldn't help her face from becoming red. She began to feel quite heated. The longer she stared at him the harder it became to stop the moisture from spilling over. That smug look on his face…it was too much. She looked down and wiped her wetted eyes with her sleeves. She was unprepared when she felt a hand on her shoulder—she might have whipped out a punch if her mind hadn't quickly reminded her of how fruitless such things would be against him.

"Fine, I'll do it," Kazuya said steadily.

She was still gazing at the floor when he said this. Her mood skyrocketed quickly, but not instantly. "You enjoy torturing me…"

"No, not really. I was just…being an ass. Sorry."

Jun looked up in a surprised manner, "Did you just say…?"

"Don't make me say it again."

"Yeah…wouldn't want you to wear it out," Jun said with a slight sarcastic tone. "I wanted to ask you—my mom and I are going out to buy Halloween costumes, want to come with us?"

"Sure, I'm not doing anything."

"Really?" Jun asked in a surprised tone. She hadn't expected him to agree so quickly. Then she became suspicious. "What a minute, you're not planning something, are you?"

"Planning…? No," Kazuya said in a confused manner.

Well, if he wants to be nice all of a sudden then I better make the best of it. "Alright, just checking. I'll be downstairs waiting for you.

Jun didn't wait any longer than ten minutes before Kazuya joined her and then they headed off towards her house.

"So, do you have any costume ideas?" Jun asked Kazuya cautiously. She still couldn't believe that he had actually agreed to coming with her.

"Nothing comes to mind. I've never done this Halloween thing before."

"Have you done any sort of holiday before?"

"Holiday. It's a word I read before in books. In a way, I guess I already know, but it's just…foreign."

"Well, now, all that's about to change. Stick around and you'll find out about all the fun holidays—and the boring ones too."

"I can't wait," Kazuya said in a voice that suggested interest, but not exactly excitement.

Jun wasn't entirely sure what to make of Kazuya as of late. She had already established the fact that he was clearly acting differently, but it was still too good to be true. She'd have to get to the bottom of it at some point. Meanwhile, she would take him to meet her mom and not feel quite so anxious about it since he was being such a good boy. After all, this was the first time that Kazuya would actually step into her house—it was monumental, at least to her. Jun had deemed Kazuya incapable of leaving the security of his own mansion unless for special cases and there was no way that Kazuya would ever see the need in meeting her Mom.

"Hey, Mom!" Jun called as soon as she stepped into the house. Kazuya followed her closely behind and soon stood beside her when they were fully in.

Jun waited for her mom to come from the kitchen.

"Oh, and who is this?" Jun's mom questioned before Jun could get the chance to say anything.

"This is Kazuya, he's our neighbor—the boy I said I've been visiting all this time. And Kazuya, this is my mom."

"So this is the proverbial boy I've been hearing about for some time. You just moved in with Mr. Mishima, then—he's a very busy man. It's a pleasure to finally get to meet you."

"The pleasure is all mine," Kazuya said. Although when he said it, it sounded as if he was plotting something sinister…at least in Jun's opinion.

"You don't seem so bad; I wouldn't mind it at all if you visited more often, if it's okay with your father."

"I may have to take you up on that offer."

"Well, good, maybe Jun won't have to be out of my sight all the time. Alright then kids, to the car."

Jun looked at Kazuya sideways. Seriously….this is getting kind of weird…it's like the twilight zone or something…He seemed to ignore her looks, but there was no way that he could have missed them.

The trip to the costume shop was rather pleasant much to Jun's surprise. Mom turned on the radio to an R&B station and whenever a new song came on Kazuya would always politely ask what the song was and who was singing and then claim that he'd have to buy their albums. Jun sat in the back beside Kazuya quieter than usual with her arms crossed and one eyebrow raised. He seemed to get along quite well with her mother. Who would have predicted that? And did Kazuya really want to listen to R&B? Then again, what music did he like in the first place?

"We're almost there, kids," Jun's mom announced.

Jun perked up when she said this and looked through the window to search out the glowing sign of the "Costume Party" store.

"I can already see it," Jun said enthusiastically.

"Wow, it's so close by," Kazuya said who had managed to scoot over close enough to look out the same window as she.

Jun felt a warm feeling crawl across her face when she noticed his close vicinity. She could smell his breath which was an odd mix of baking soda and mint. Jun was almost sad when they had to get out the car. The cold rush of the air as soon as she stepped outside startled her, but it was only 73 degrees outside—not really cold at all…As they walked to the store, Jun wondered if holding hands would have been completely out of the question. He was just being so…amiable. In fact, he seemed quite content at the moment—a rare mood.

It was pretty crowded in the store during this time of year and traversing the store would be a pain. People seemed to be packed everywhere.

"Now, make sure to keep up," Jun heard her mom say. "We're going to the back, that's where the kid's costumes are at."

Jun gasped when she felt something take hold of her hand. She looked behind only to find herself lost in Kazuya's direct gaze.

"Wouldn't want to be separated," Kazuya said correctly reading the question on the tip of her tongue. "Let's keep up with your mom."

Jun led the way and Kazuya followed—it wasn't something she was used to doing, but it had happened once before on a random occasion. Then again, this entire moment seemed random. There was a permanent blush across her cheeks and there was no way she was going to hide it. Both her mom and Kazuya chose to make no comment on this fact as they went down the aisle that was directly in the back. Pictures of the costumes were placed on the wall and its number. If they saw what they liked, they would simply have to go to a blue vest wearing employee and they'd get the costume. Now for the choosing.

There was, of course, the witch costume. There were lots of these and it seemed like they got better and better every year.

"Now, Jun, you said you wanted something different. Let's make this trip worthwhile," Jun's mom said as she saw her daughter eyeing the new and improved witch costumes.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. From here on out, I'm going to ignore it…but, you know. Maybe Kazuya could be a warlock…" Jun said as she looked over at Kazuya who seemed practically mesmerized by everything.

"Now that would be cool," Jun's mom said thoughtfully, "You sure you want to keep the same theme from last year?"

"No, no. I said I wanted something different so I'm gonna' get something different."

Jun wondered over to Kazuya to see what he was looking at—clowns.

"I thought Halloween was supposed to be scary—what's with the dopey looking clowns?"

"Clowns are supposed to be scary, you know. Just look at its creepy smile."

"From what I know about clowns…aren't they supposed to smile?"

"Ugh, you don't get it. You haven't seen the movies."

"You're right about that."

"Oh my gosh, we should have a scary movie night!"

By now, Jun was through wondering why Kazuya was acting so differently and using it to her advantage. Watching movies was an activity she had long wished to do with him and this was a good excuse.

"Now, Jun," Jun's mom said overhearing the conversation, "You can barely stand to watch one scary movie before crawling under your covers forever."

"I'm not like that anymore," Jun said confidently, "I can handle it if I've seen it before."

"Right. So, seen anything of interest?" Jun's mom asked her.

Just as this was said, Jun's eyes caught sight of a pirate outfit. "We could be pirates!" Jun said joyously. Jun dragged Kazuya over to the picture she had seen "I could be the cool female pirate and you can be that swashbuckling pirate dude."

"I have to admit, that eye-patch is a nice touch," Kazuya said approvingly.

"Really? You like it too?"

"Whatever you choose to wear, I'll try to match with it. I really have no particular interest besides that."

Jun couldn't believe her ears. She hadn't even said as much and he already understood that she wanted to match. She guessed that it was rather obvious what she wanted, but it wasn't as if Kazuya was the type to notice those kinds of things. Really, what has gotten into him lately and how could she keep it that way? This would certainly be one of the best Halloween's she had.

"Make sure you look at all the costumes before you make the final choice," Jun's mom instructed.

"Okay," Jun said back.

The two of them—Jun and Kazuya—managed to look down the entire aisle before deciding on costumes that Jun deemed "cooler than pirates or vampires": Mortal Kombat. Kazuya was a little confused about it having never heard of the games or the movies or the animated series. Jun's mom might have been confused as well had she not noticed her daughter watching the animated series on TV—the games were a little much for a child her age to be playing though.

"I'll be Kitana and you be Sub-Zero."

"They have the same color scheme," Kazuya noticed.

"Yeah, but that's all they have in common. Whatever, Kitana is like the female version of Sub-Zero anyways so it all fits. Do you like it?"

"His outfit actually looks kinda' cool."

"He's a ninja. He fights just like you. It's like a match made in heaven. I'll go get Mom."

For a few moments, Kazuya stood by himself in front of the large picture of Sub-Zero costume. "I wonder why he has such a weird name. Must be his fighting technique."

Jun came back soon with her mom and pointed out the costume that she had chosen and then Kazuya's.

"Kazuya, did you want me to pay for it for you?" Jun's mother offered.

"There's no need. I was given enough money to cover the costs."

"Okay, then. Let's grab one of these employees."

They soon had their costumes in hand and also browsed a little while in the accessories and picked up some things there before finally heading off to the registers to pay for everything. Jun was absolutely stoked as they walked back to the car. They had spent a total of one hour and a half at the store, but Jun considered it time well spent. Any time spent doing two things she liked doing at the same time was never a waste; those two things being picking out a costume and hanging out with Kazuya.

Jun could tell that the other was a little tired when she noted him dropping off a few times in the seat beside her—the music did not help. Since it was getting a little late and both Jun and Kazuya still had homework to tend to, Jun's mom dropped Kazuya off at his house before going home.

"Bye, Kazuya! We'll have to try on our outfits tomorrow."

"Then I'll come over after your school ends."

"That'd be great."

"See you, Kazuya, don't be a stranger," Jun's mom said before taking off down the street a little ways to their house.

When she stepped out of the car and stood in the driveway, she tried to peer into the distance at Kazuya's driveway to see if perhaps he was still there, but she couldn't really see so far.

"Still thinking about him?" Jun's mom said startling the other.

"Um, no, I was just looking."

"You know, he seems like a really nice kid. The way you talked about him before, I thought…well, I wasn't expecting this."

"Join the party."

"I think it's a good sign," Jun's mom said with a grin.

/

Jun was already in a good mood, but now she was in a mood that was indescribably good. She missed her alarm clock and almost the entire school bus, but still she was happy. She received the second C of her life today on a Math test and still she was able to smile. Chaolan Lee seemed almost sullen, but it did little to affect her. She'd forgotten to ask mom for some more lunch money and wound up not having lunch at all and still she smiled. She tripped twice that day and people pointed and laughed at her clumsiness, but she never took it to heart. Today was a superb day despite the darkening clouds' warning of a downpour. It was bright and sunny in Jun's world.

Jun raced home as fast as she could as soon as she stepped off the bus and nearly ran headlong into Kazuya who had been waiting for her on her doorstep. She gave no thought to Lee who might have seen all this, shrugged, and continued back to Heihachi's residence. Could the day be any better? It was already drizzling.

"I must have come too early, but no matter—let's go in before we really get wet."

"Okay," Jun said with a smile. "I hope you weren't waiting for too long."

"About thirty minutes."

Jun looked at him in a shocked manner. "You really were early. I'm sorry to make you wait."

"It was really no problem…do I ever have anything to do?"

"You know, that's what I always say."

Jun couldn't wait to try on the costumes. She had to will herself last night to not tear open the package and put it on before today. After showing Kazuya to the bathroom, she zipped upstairs to her room and began her transformation. She took so long that she was certain that Kazuya was already ready by the time she came downstairs again.

She was no longer looking at Kazuya—she was looking at Sub-Zero. His costume was…flawless (pun intended).

"So what do you think?" Jun asked as she twirled around in order to reveal the entire costume.

"I think it makes you look very beautiful."

Jun almost fainted from his rather bold comment before she caught herself—she only wavered a little.

"You okay?" Kazuya asked noticing her movements.

"Fine, I'm fine. It's just…Well, you look great too."

"It's very lithe. It wouldn't be entirely impractical to fight in. Although, why is it that he calls himself Sub-Zero? Is he…cold-hearted maybe?"

"No, he can shoot ice at you—it's his element. He's one of the top fighters in Mortal Kombat. He's sort of like an anti-hero. Some times he's good, sometimes he's bad. I guess it just depends on the situation. You know, if you played the game, you'd really understand."

"Well, I don't really play games, but if you insist…"

"No, no, you don't really have to do it—I didn't think you'd actually want to…"

"You're right, you know, Jun. There's only three things I ever find myself doing and those are things that are needed."

"Alright, that does it. Who are you and what have you done with Kazuya?"

"What?"

"Don't try to act confused. You've been acting weird ever since yesterday, ever since…you said that you'd come with me to the costume shop."

"Who knows? Maybe I've run out of insults to give."

"That's not an answer!"

"You're…happy, right?"

"Well, yeah, but…"

"Then that's all that matters. Now, before you start asking anymore questions—I still have a lot of homework to get to."

"But, Kazuya, hey, wait!"

"Yes," Kazuya said exasperatedly.

"Well, since you've decided to turn a new leaf for no apparent reason, I'd like to invite you to trick or treating."

"You just love pushing your luck, don't you?"

"Well, Kazuya, what do you say?"

"Fine," he said rubbing the back of his neck, "I'll do it. It's only for one night anyways."

"Yay!" Jun said excitedly, "You don't know how much this means to me."

"You're right, I don't."

"I can barely tell who you are when you're all dressed like that."

"Maybe it's a good thing. Countless other people will see me in this thing and I don't want people to know that it's me."

"No one even knows you. Lee would be the only one to figure out."

"Good," Kazuya said as he finally walked out the door.

"Don't be a stranger!" Jun shouted when he was a good distance away.

"You know, I never understood what that meant," he said with a grin. He waved briefly.

Jun closed the door and smiled brightly to herself. She still didn't quite understand what exactly was up with Kazuya, but it didn't matter anymore. Tomorrow would be Halloween and it would be a day to remember. Jun could barely sleep that night. It was like the night before Christmas when no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't fall asleep. She closed her eyes to no avail. She wondered if Kazuya was nearly as excited as she—she doubted it, but it was an entertaining notion.

/

TOMORROW NIGHT:

"Having any second thoughts?" Jun asked Kazuya teasingly as they stood in front of their first house.

Jun's mom was in the car at the driveway and she had allowed them to go up to the place themselves, but the house did seem rather spooky.

"Is there a reason for all these decorations?" Kazuya asked finally.

"It's Halloween decorations. You're supposed to decorate your house if you're handing out candy."

"Really? I didn't realize that there was a certain…ettiquette."

"C'mon, let's go already."

"This is so embarrassing. I have no idea how I got dragged into this," Kazuya said with a sigh.

With his comparably small shuriken themed candy basket, he trudged up the lawn with Jun to the brightly lit house full of pumpkins, ghosts, and spider webs.

"Just follow my lead," Jun said right before she knocked on the door.

A middle aged woman came to the door with a fantastically large bowl of chocolate candy.

"Wow," Kazuya said under his breath. Luckily, his costume basically covered up his mouth and left only his eyes showing.

"Trick or treat!" Jun said excitedly, "You have to say it too," Jun said nudging the other.

She didn't see the apparent frown on his face, "Fine. Trick or treat," Kazuya said as quickly as possible. He wondered if he would then be expected to jump on one leg and rub his head and stomach at the same time…

"Don't you two look cute together? Take as much as you want now, not many kids come 'round here. Oh, just one handful? Take a couple."

The two of them filled almost half of their baskets by the time it was all over with. Jun walked back to the car with a satisfied look on her face.

"I'd say that was a good run. People usually give out maybe one or two pieces of candy."

"So much…chocolate," Kazuya said staring down at it as if it was instead a pile of pure gold.

"We have to wait 'til we get back home before we can eat it. On to the next house!" Jun said excitedly.

The three of them—Jun, Kazuya, and Jun's mom—went through the entire neighborhood and ended up with an overflowing amount of candy. Jun couldn't have been more pleased and Kazuya couldn't have been more fascinated. The level of generosity from the people in the neighborhood was quite frankly appalling to Kazuya. He had gotten that they would be going around to people's doors and getting candy, but saying it and actually doing it was two different things. All he had to say was the magic password and viola candy, but only on this night, only on Halloween night. It was a very strange phenomenon in Kazuya's opinion.

They drove back to Jun's house and emptied their baskets on the floor. The pile of candy was quite impressive. And what exactly does one do with so much candy? Jun was the first to demonstrate their next course of action which was to proceed to eating as much as one could before passing out. Of course, Jun's mom had warned them against doing as much, but it was hard to resist a pile of such goodness. Kazuya couldn't remember the last time he had partaken of chocolate or any sort of candy at all—he hadn't realized how much he enjoyed it nor did he take into account the inevitable energy boost that would result.

The only thing Jun's Mom could hear from her bedroom upstairs was the sounds of scrambling feet and laughter. She might have come downstairs to supervise them if she didn't know that they would soon tire themselves out. In about an hour or so, it became very quiet and she smiled to herself. Kids. As strange and reclusive Jun had claimed this Kazuya to be, he was still just a child and was wont to do as children did. She would have to call up Jinpachi's household and inform them that Kazuya would be spending the night.

/

Jun was the first to wake up the next day and quite early in the morning. It had been a rather wild last night. Jun, who was already a hyper person to begin with, became doubly so and somehow Kazuya had been able to keep up with her. She'd think of something ridiculous and he'd barrel forward and do just that much to her amusement. Whatever fooleries they had wound up doing, eventually they found themselves in a pseudo-fight which consisted of rolling about all over the living room floor and a lot of tackling and retackling. When they grew tired of the whole thing, they would pretend as if they were in a spaceship constantly being attacked by asteroids, aliens, vultures, rhinos, and giraffes never mind that some of these things couldn't fly or breathe in space—they only needed an excuse to tumble and lurch over each other. At some point, they even ran into another humungous ship which caused them to crash in which case they infiltrated the new ship and continued on. Anything was possible. Sometimes they wouldn't be on a ship at all and break into a random game of tag. It was complete ridiculousness.

Kazuya was pretty much sprawled out on the floor and presumed dead. Jun didn't even begin to try to get him up, but she did begin to clean up the mess they made. There were candy wrappers everywhere. She made quite a bit of noise, but Kazuya was unperturbed. Jun gave a huge sigh.

"I swear the entire world could be falling apart and you'd sleep through all of it," Jun said exasperatedly.

"Have a good time last night?"

Jun jumped a little at the new voice, but turned quickly to her mom, "I'm really sorry! I'll clean everything up."

"No, no, I'm not mad, sweetie. It's Halloween anyways. Besides, I don't think I've seen you have this much fun in a while. Looks like you've finally found someone who can keep up with you and your wild imagination and energy bursts."

"Yeah, I guess I have, but it's no fun trying to get him up. Any suggestions?"

"Let him rest. We can't all be wind-up toys," Jun's mom said with a teasing smile.

"Hey!" Jun said in a playfully pouting tone. "Guess you're right. I got to get ready for school before I'm late. Love you mom!"

"Love you too," Jun's mom replied as the girl rushed up the stairs. "Now what am I going to do with you?" Jun's mom asked as she looked at the quite peacefully looking boy on the floor.

Jun left for school so quickly that the woman scarcely knew when it actually happened. By that time, she had lifted up the small boy and placed him on one the couches in the living room.

"Now don't you have school to get to?"

As if in response to her question, her phone began to ring. The woman quickly picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Would you be Jun's mother?"

"Yes, this is her. And who are you?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Mr. Takahashi. Do you still have Kazuya in your possession?"

"Yes I do. Did you want to come and get him? He's still asleep."

"No, no need for that. He's never missed a day of school before so I think I can let him go for the day. It's not very often that he ever steps foot out of the mansion; it's a nice change of pace. Tell him to come back whenever he wakes up. I understand that he likes to sleep a lot."

"Well, if that's the case, then you won't be seeing him for quite some time. You know how kids get after a lot of sugar."

"Energy crash, I see."

"Although, Jun is unaffected. I'm not surprised."

"Well, I don't want to hold you up."

"Until then."

Jun's mom couldn't stay there for long since she had work so she wrote a note and placed it at his feet in hopes that he would notice it. If not, then she wouldn't mind, but she was almost certain that he would head for home on his own.

"Alright, kid, stay safe," Jun's mom said before leaving the house.

As it were, it took another four hours before Kazuya woke up on his own. It took him a full minute to realize where he was. Waking up to a place other than the mansion was a little startling. He noticed the note left for him a little bit later before he stood up and looked around for Jun only to conclude that she had probably gone off to school. School. Right, he had completely missed it by this time. Kazuya folded up the sheet of paper and quickly made his way down the street to his home. He managed to make it back to his room without anyone noticing (like the ninja he appeared to be) and he took off the costume as soon as he could. He washed off and put on a new set of clothes which was followed by a trip to the kitchen to grab a few snack foods. Candy for dinner had severely ruined his appetite for actual food—snacks would be fine for now. After missing his tutor and skipping a session of training and proper food, he at least wanted to do one thing right for the day.

The gym was his next destination and he stayed there for only a little bit deciding that he should save his energy for that party that Jun was so stoked about. He took another shower and put on another set of clothes before finally determining that he had absolutely nothing to do for a while. As he usually did on such occasions, he'd stare at the ceiling idly while lying flatly on his bed. Such a boring pastime. He'd also switch on some music for good measure, but after listening to that R&B music that Jun's mom had played in the car—he found the tunes he was listening to to be rather loud and jarring. There was a time and place, he supposed. Besides, by now he had listened to every single song off of every album so much that he knew the words by heart, but he never chose to actually sing them out loud. He'd have to ask Takahashi about getting a wider music selection.

He couldn't believe he was thinking along such lines. Was this what his life was now? Full of the mundane? Full of boredom, Jun, and more boredom? Then again, was it really all that bad? If the rest of his life were spent like this, he wouldn't mind it in the least. After all the excitement and strangeness, perhaps normalcy wasn't such a bad thing. But Kazuya knew better than to continue thinking like this. Normalcy would always be just out of his grasp. He could claw for it all he wanted, he could pretend like everything was "honkey dory" in front of other people, lie to himself that his future was not enveloped in this large, dark cloud, but it would be to no avail. The thing about facts was that it was impossible to get around and Kazuya knew for a fact where his life was headed even it didn't seem that way now, even if he could no longer sense Devil. "It" would always be there hiding in the shadows waiting to pounce.

And there was that image of Jun that he could not erase from his memories. It wasn't until yesterday that he realized that he could easily make her cry and much to his surprise it wasn't something he was proud of. She could be angry or upset or even sad, but something about her tears did not sit well with him—they were the telltale signs that he had gone too far. Jun was the person who had continued to stick by him despite knowing that there was something seriously wrong with, something sinister about him. Yet she would come and see him fearlessly as if everything was alright or very close to being so. Kazuya realized that if he could bring a person like that to tears, then there really was no hope for him. There was no way that he would say as much to Jun no matter how much she pried.

At that moment, when Jun glared back at him with those large, dark eyes of hers full of grief, anger, and disappointment, he knew that he had done something gravely wrong and that if he continued in this way he would regret it just like that time when they had stopped seeing each other. He never wanted to have a repeat of that. In fear of such a thing happened again, he did the only thing he knew would make her happy once again. For the first time, he was glad that Jun wasn't the type to stay sad for long.

He wondered how long this would last, this leaf he had decided to turn on a whim. For as long as he could stand it, he supposed. It wasn't so bad. In fact, he began to realize something that he hadn't noticed before. When she was happy, so was he no matter if he was embarrassed or completely out of his element. He couldn't quite figure out the cause for such a correlation, but then again, maybe he was too young to know as much.

/

An elemental ninja and an Edenia Princess walked casually together towards the stylishly decked out gym. Whispers went all around. The Edenia Princess had never even vaguely shown any romantic interest in anyone. She was what many believed to be "off limits". While she was cute and well-liked, no one could ever bridge that gap. No one except the mysterious ninja who seemed to have her complete attention. Who was this ninja? No one could pinpoint his name. His arms were well muscled and his gait was very sure and confident and his eyes were deep and enigmatic.

"We finally made it," the Edenia Princess said to her ninja—she was better known as Jun.

"It wasn't so far away, but I can already see the crowds gathering. Is this how a 'party' is?" the ninja said back—he was better known as Kazuya.

"Trust me, there's nothing out of the ordinary."

When they stepped in, they were met by a pitch black room filled with bright colorful lights flashing from the walls and ceiling. It was enough to startle Kazuya and he was immediately on his guard.

"Jun, there's something I have to ask of you." Jun turned to him as he said this. She was caught off guard when he placed his hand into hers, "Let's not get separated."

He said this in such a serious tone that Jun suspected that there was more to his statement than he was letting on, but she didn't push for anymore explanation. She understood that he was uncomfortable around crowds—it just made it even more incredible that he had agreed to coming with her tonight.

"Don't worry," Jun replied, "There's no reason for us to."

Just as Jun suspected, Kazuya had no idea what dancing was, but Jun was determined to change this as she dragged him with her out to the hordes of children and extra loud music. After instructing him to follow her lead, then all was well. He caught on pretty quickly much to Jun's amusement. For someone who was the very antonym to the word fun, he seemed to be having no trouble at all. They never lost sight of each other the entire night and near the end, they finally decided to call it quits and sit down at one of the tables off to the side. Jun could spot a few couples who had been there for the majority of the dance. She shook her head in pity. Why come to a dance if you weren't planning on dancing?

They were both visibly tired out when they sat down.

"So, how'd you like it?" Jun asked the other.

"Who would have thought that this 'dancing' could be another form of exercising."

"There's a world of difference between picking up some weights and dancing, isn't there?"

Jun couldn't see the grin that he gave her from underneath his head mask. "And this is what people call fun?"

"Yep."

"There, now you can't accuse me of never doing anything besides work anymore."

"Nope, I guess not."

"Let's go outside already—I'm soaked."

"Okay," Jun said getting up just as Kazuya did.

There was plenty of candy conveniently placed on all the tables, but Kazuya and Jun had already had their fill and they would not be prepared to consume any more of it until weeks later at the least. So it was that the Edenia Princess and her loyal ninja escaped into the night air away from the noise, sweat, and blinking lights. It took a moment for their ears to grow accustomed to the quietness of the outside and their eyes to adjust.

"Kazuya, you know I have no idea what goes through your mind all the time, but you've been really different lately and I have to admit, I'm kind of getting used to it. But somehow…somehow I'm afraid that it won't always be this way."

"People change, you know. At least, that's what my grandfather told me. I don't expect you to be exactly like this in a few years and you shouldn't expect it from me."

"I guess when you put it that way…"

"I've really enjoyed this night, even more than I thought I would."

"Good 'cus I did too. I would say that we should do this more often, but Halloween only comes around once a year."

"Once is good enough for me. I still have a lot of 'things' to take care of."

"Like?"

"Well, nothing that you should worry yourself over."

"And the mystery returns. You really are a ninja, aren't you?"

"In costume only."

Just then, a crackle of thunder went off overhead. Jun visibly jumped from the sudden noise. Kazuya was unperturbed and found her reaction to be amusing.

"There's that storm that's been threatening to come down for a while. Now is a better time than ever, I guess," Kazuya said thoughtfully to Jun.

"Mom should be here any minute to take us back." Jun searched the parking lot with her eyes just in case she was already waiting for them. "Kazuya," Jun began slowly, "Were you really being serious back there when you said that you had fun tonight?"

"It isn't something I would lie about," Kazuya answered unsure of where this was going.

"Then…I wish this night would never end."

Of course, that sort of wish could never come true, but a girl was allowed to dream if only for a moment. They'd go home that night and the next day would start and the next day and the next day and so on. Time itself could be very uncaring. It was a cold and heartless thing and at the same time inevitable. Jun didn't quite understand why her mood dampened a little as she laid in her bed that night. Despite having experienced one of the best two days of her life, she felt an uncanny despondency.

/

AN: Sorry for the wait. I might have come out with another chapter sooner had I not lost the flash drive with my work on it. This chapter is nothing like the one I had planned on putting up and you can tell where I got the inspiration from for this one. Anyways, there was a certain point that I wanted to cover in this chapter and as long as that was done, then I can get over the fact that I lost that flash drive. I had some suggestions about other characters which I could put into this story—I haven't exactly come up with a clever way of introducing them, but have no fear. Also, just for the heads up, there'll finally be a time skip come the next chapter. We'll be that much closer to the inevitable King of Iron Fist Tournament. For those who are still reading this, thanks for your patience. I'll try to be a little quicker in my updates especially since Thanksgiving break is close at hand.