Disclaimer: I, InuApril1445, hereby declare to all the readers of the universe, that I do not, in fact, own Nurarihyon no Mago. This can be made apparent by the fact that for the longest time, I couldn't even spell it. So, there. That was my torture of the day. Let us proceed to the story!

By the way, in case anyone was interested, Kazeshima is derived from two Japanese words. Kaze means wind, and shima means evil. So, basically, I just named my evil wind dude "Evil Wind". Now, here's the real story!

I'm too nice, Yuki Onna, or Tsurara, as her current guise was called, thought as she stood staring at Kana. "What? A yokai? I didn't see anything! Ha, ha!" The laugh seemd forced, even to Tsurara. "Anyway, why don't we go looking for Kiyotsugu and the others? We should tell them that today's not a good day to be on the roof. I mean, did you see that storm?" Tsurara choked out another fit of laughter, then grabbed Kana's arm. "Come on! Let's go!"

"Wait!" Kana yelled. "But wasn't Rikuo up there too!"

Drat! She actually did see us! "No. He was still in the classroom when I left him. He was busy getting my lunch." Tsurara saw that scowl form on Kana's lips. Oh, how she enjoyed that look. But she wouldn't tell Rikuo. He was too kind for anyone to be anything but happy.

But that wasn't to say that he wouldn't do everything in his power to make this lunch period the most miserable hour that the wind yokai had ever seen.

._.

In the lunchroom of Ukiyoe Middle School, a true panic was ensuing. It had started out normally. Everyone walked in with their individual cliques, the cheerleaders with the cheerleaders, chess champs with chess champs, that sort of thing. After the late bell rang, a few straggler students came waltzing in. After all, can you really be later for lunch?

It was actually precisely eight minutes after the lunch bell rang, as the first gust of wind attacked Rikuo that the true madness began. All the kids were talking and laughing. A few were in the lunch line, waiting to pay for their meal.

That was when the first wave of rats attacked.

A scream pierced through what was once a happy scene, then another, and another. Nothing the faculty or staff did could stop the flow of rats. They seemd to be coming out of nowhere, in an infinite flood of dirty fur and red eyes.

:(

"Kazeshima!" Rikuo yelled, doubled over after that blow to his stomach. "I'll ask you again nicely. Leave. Now! Whoever put you up to this is not worth a humiliating defeat!"

"Oh, and who is it that will deliver such a loss to me? Certainly not you, puny human!" Kazeshima let out a thunderous laugh that seemed to shake the school's roof. Rikuo carefully widened his stance. He flipped his sword from his left hand to his right.

"Is that your final answer?" Rikuo asked, slightly bending his knees.

"Hmm, let me think…Of course it is, you fool!" Kazeshima released another gust of wind. This time, however, Rikuo was ready. As Kazeshima twitched his finger, Rikuo leaped to the other side of the roof, being careful to land on his toes in case the yokai let out another gust.

"You should have taken my offer," Rikuo said, almost as if he was sorry Kazeshima hadn't. "Your technique is obvious. Every time you move a specific joint, a blast of air strikes at a corresponding area. Really, you should have been more subtle. Unfortunately, it's too late for you now." Rikuo jumped, covering half the length of the roof, reaching an impossible height above Kazeshima. Twirling his sword, he let out a samurai yell and slashed down as hard as he could on Kazeshima's head. They both went down, creating a huge dent in the roof where they landed. "There," Rikuo panted, slowly stepping away from Kazeshima's struggling form. The third heir's leg was badly bruised, and his school suit was slightly ripped, but other than that, he was fine.

Suddenly, Kazeshima started cackling, a maniacal, villain's laugh. "You think it's over? You think I could possibly be defeated that easily by a human? I don't care if you are the heir of the Nura clan! You couldn't hurt a fly with that kind of power. PUNY!" Before Rikuo could react, Kazeshima seemed to implode, deepening the roof's already large crater. If Rikuo's life wasn't in danger, he might have worried about the type of structural damage he was creating. But, his life was in danger, so he had more important things to worry about.

Rikuo hopped three times, trying to get away from the blast of powerful wind and debris that Kazeshima had sent flying in all directions. Reflexively, he managed to block a cement block our two with his sword, but he wasn't fast enough. One managed to scrape his face while another hit his knee. He buckled under the impact, but righted himself quickly. He wouldn't let the pain distract him. And he certainly wouldn't let Kazeshima see that pain.

Twenty-four hours seems like a long time now, doesn't it? Night Rikuo taunted.

"Go back to whatever corner you came from!" Rikuo shouted. This time, he heard to pairs of voices laughing together, one fading in the distance of his mind, the other one from behind, approaching at a break-neck pace.

Rikuo turned around, already holding his sword in a blocking position that his counterpart used quite often in battle. Kazeshima just went through it, through Rikuo in the process. Rikuo felt a horrible chill wash over him, worse than Yuki Onna's cold hands. This was like a breeze bringing in the horrible sense of frostbite, where as Yuki Onna's touch was that of an ice cream spilled on your hands.

After a second, Rikuo regained his composure, and turned around once more to face Kazeshima.

But the yokai was gone.

"Well, this is just peachy," Rikuo grumbled. The last thing he wanted was to worry about that kind of yokai coming to haunt him. "I liked it better when I didn't know what Night Rikuo was going to send after me." He sighed. "I guess I'd better go catch up with Yuki Onna and Kana. I hope they didn't get into too much trouble." Rikuo started walking. Stopped for a second, then ran. Yuki Onna wouldn't freeze Kana after I asked her not to…Would she?

…

"NOOOOOO! You did not just see a yokai on the roof! How could you two possibly see him? I'm the one destined to come face to face with yokai!" Kiyotsugu cried. Tsurara and Kana had found him and the rest of the Paranormal Patrol on the outside hallway between the stairs to the roof and the cafeteria door. The group had taken awhile because Kiyotsugu had supposedly heard a door coming from the walls behind the lunchroom. That was when they ran across the two girls. For some reason, they had been having a heated argument about whether or not Rikuo was really in his classroom. Of course, Kiyotsugu didn't care about that. "It's just not fair!"

Tsurara sighed and quickly put on a smile. "Well, why don't we just eat lunch in the cafeteria? You know, change of scenery!"

Kana stared at Tsurara. "But what about Rikuo? He sure is taking a long time to come down from the roof."

"He wasn't on the roof!" Tsurara yelled.

"He's on the roof?" Kiyotsugu asked. "Well, let's just meet him up there!"

As the group turned around and Tsurara struggled to think of some new excuse to say, Rikuo came running down the stairs. He was bruised all over, with several rips in his jacket and an evident limp in his right leg, but other than that, he was smiling, as per usual.

"Master!" Tsurara exclaimed, momentarily shocked by Rikuo's appearance. Realizing her mistake, she caught herself. "Uh, the master of the school told you not to, Rikuo!" When everyone gave her that confused look, she added. "He told you not to run on the roof without tying your shoelaces. You should have listened. You probably fell all over the place! What were you thinking?"

Rikuo caught on quickly. "Oh, yeah. You know me! Such a klutz. I didn't even realize that my shoes were untied. I thought he was talking about yours!"

"So you were on the roof!" Kana exclaimed triumphantly.

"NO!"

"YES!"

Tsurara and Rikuo stared at each other. "For a little bit!" Rikuo elaborated. "But, let's not talk about that! Boy, am I hungry. And I don't want to go back to the roof! Whew, did I fall! What do you guys say to eating in the lunchroom for today?" No one argued, so Rikuo started walking toward the door.

As he got nearer, he heard this soft, annoying sound coming from the cafeteria. Oh no, he thought.

Oh yes! Night Rikuo exclaimed. Let's see, what to do, what to do?

You can't even come out yet, so just be quiet. You're not being helpful at all. Rikuo opened the door…

…and saw a furry mass of ugly fur covering the walls and floors of the lunchroom.

"Eeew," he groaned, then turned, an excuse already forming on his lips.

All right! Next chapter will come shortly. In the meantime, please comment! Thank you!