Minamino left the hospital the next day. Before he left he went to see the girl who had been injured and found her fast asleep. He was glad she seemed to be healing quickly. He called Hinata as soon as he arrived home. She hadn't been allowed to go to visit him at the hospital and she had been worrying herself sick and going over worst possible scenarios in her mind all night. He assured her that everything was fine and that he'd be back at school that day. His mother overheard this part of the conversation and she had something to say about it.
"What was that about going into school today?" She asked him as he sat down to eat his breakfast. He sighed and gave his parent a look that said 'I'm fine, stop worrying'. His mother sighed and replied:
"Be careful. Remeber what the doctor said." He finished his mouthfull and sighed.
"I always am careful, mum, and you know it." He said exasperated. His mother merely sighed and shook her head. He then finished his breakfast and left for school. Minamino walked slower than usual, meaning that he caught up to Hinata rather than her catching up to him.
"Hi." He said coming into step beside her. She smiled at him.
"Hi." She replied then asked, "How's your arm?"
"Fine." He moved his arm freely to demostrate his point. Hinata sighed and shook her head.
"Sometimes I think you should worry about yourself more." Minamino always put others first, Hinata liked this but not when it meant he was in danger to.
"Maybe I will when there isn't a severly injured girl with no pain relief in the room, when someone is trying to extract a bullet from her." He raised his eyebrow and she sighed again. Whenever they had this discussion Minamino always had a good comeback. Then again, it was rare that he didn't. They walked into the classroom early again and everyone was talking about the incident yesterday.
"Minamino! Didn't you get shot too? Are you okay?" A group of girls came over to him and Hinata and started a conversation about the events of yesterday. The only time when Minamino spoke during this was when they were talking about the shooting, as this was the time he knew he wouldn't give anything about himself away. The teacher walked in and ordered silence so everyone listened intently.
"As you may already know, two other classes were attacked by demons, also." Mumurs broke out and Minamino and Hinata exchanged looks. "Fortunately, there were no injuries in those classes as the demons left when the first shot was fired." This caused even more mumurs and whispers so the teacher had to ask for quiet once more. Minamino wondered why they would attack two other classes, then leave before doing anything. He shuddered at the line in the prophecy once more.
"The demons that were disguised in these classes were not revealed, but, with specialists help, we managed to identify that there are at least three more demons in disguise in the school." People started chatting eagerly so the teacher yelled at them to get into a line and go into the hall for an assembly to figure out who these three 'dangerous characters' were. Minamino stayed quiet and so did Hinata. She figured he was thinking and she never liked to disturb his thoughts. The other classes were already in the assembly when they arrived but everyone was chatting and the classes were all mixed up. Minamino and Hinata sat down on the nearest two seats they could find and didn't talk. The head teacher asked for quiet and an eerie silence fell over the cramped hall.
"I would like to introduce you to the experts who allowed us to discover that there were three more of these demons still within our school." He carried on to say their names and they entered the stage one by one. The last was holding the demon who had been revealed during the incident yesterday. She looked as if she'd been beaten up badly as she was covered in bruises. Minamino felt queasy seeing her like that. The experts then took over the assembly.
"We are going to find the other three demons in this hall and we are going to rid this nice school of them." He made it sound as if they were a disease. Someone snorted but no-one could pinpoint where it came from. The demon at the front smiled to herself.
"We will give you ten minutes to decide to confess and then we will have to take action." The leader of the group finished and sat down when an unfamiliar gir'ls voice echoed through the room.
"'Take action'? Is that your way of saying torture? Sometimes I wonder why we go out of our way to save dying humans trapped in the demon world when this is how they repay us." She walked down the steps into the well of the hall where everyone was sitting. She was covered in bandage like strips and wore a black cloak underneath them. The only thing you could see of her body was her right eyeball which protruded from the bandages so she could guide herself in this disguise. Minamino now knew who had snorted and smiled internally. Things were about to get interesting.
"Who are you?" The leader asked in a flat, monotone voice. She snorted again.
"Why would I tell you that? You're my enemy, you fool! It's not like I'm going to have the sudden urge to tell you everything about me! Well, that's presuming you won't have the sudden urge to inform me of everything about yourselves." There were a few snorts and giggles in response to the last comment and Hinata and Minamino looked at each other, smiling. They both liked this newcomer, though Minamino had a slightly different reason than Hinata. They turned back to see her looking around the room.
"That got a better reception than expected. It may be easier getting people on my side than I first imagined." She seemed genuinely pleased to have recieved such a clear reaction. The leader didn't react and the others seemed to be waiting for his next orders, hands on guns.
"Well, maybe you would answer a question as to why you were here?" She looked at him.
"Well, maybe I might if you asked me one." Again this caused a few giggles, but not as many as before. She smiled inside her bandages, she hadn't meant for any of it to humiliate her opponent but that seemed to be the effect her words were having. She liked it.
"Then, why are you here?" The leader asked remaining seemingly unfazed but Minamino could tell it was getting to him. The girls smile widened as she sensed it too.
"I would have thought it obvious! To save my comrade and stop you revealing the other three! I have no idea how this is going to turn out if you can't work out even that by yourselves!" She made it sound as if she were getting irritated by their stupidity and the response from the crowd was exactly what she wanted, the same as before. Minamino shifted slightly, even if things went wrong he wouldn't mind fighting beside her the way she was now. He decided to make a pact with the face for now and let it half take over to see how this, very long as it was turning out to be, assembly would end. The leader, again, appeared unfazed. Then someone stood up with a half smirk half grin on his face.
"If this is goin' the way I think it is I don't care about revealin' myself. I'll follow ya til the end boss!" He made his way through the lines of people to stand beside the bandaged demon.
"You didn't have to do that on my account you know, Masuto." She said looking at him with a hidden smile. He shrugged.
"Ya know I never cared about that back then and I just did it now. I 'aven't changed much since then." She chuckled quietly and then turned back to the leader.
"As I seem to be gaining allies you seem to be loosing them." She gestured at two of the men who had been watching over the captured demon and who were now lying on the floor unconcious. The demon girl stood to the other side of the one in bandages and looked considerably better and less bruised than before. Minamino realised she was a good actress.
"Still got it." She said her eyes sparkling with a determined light, they would win this one. The leader sighed and took off his glasses, putting them into his pocket for safe keeping. The demon in the bandages moved forward one step. No-one else moved and there was a brief pause whilst the leader ordered his men to stay back and cover the students and not to worry about him. Then the leader walked into the middle aisle and stopped at where the chairs began. His face was still in its expressionless mask as he spoke.
"I think we should get down to the point. We don't want anyone here to get hurt unless absolutely nesscesary-" He was interupted by the demon who had been captured
"Or unless you feel the sudden need to torture people for imformation." Her eyes were as cold as ice and the men at the front shifted uneasily when hit by her icy glare.
"-we also know you wouldn't want anyone to get hurt-"
"Unless absolutely nesscesary." The demon in the bandages interrupted. "Do you have any idea what it feels like to be tortured? Have you ever actually experienced what you do to people?" Her voice had become sharp and cold and Minamino could feel himself getting worked up. There was about to be a fight.
"It's true, I have never been tortured and I do not enjoy doing it no matter what you may think." The leader responded. The demon in the bandages snorted.
"I think you're a good liar. Unfortunately, your eyes cannot lie and I see the pleasure other peoples screams bring you." She revealed her left arm and began unwrapping the bandages that covered her robed body. There was a collective gasp as her true form was revealed. She had been born as a slave and in order to escape, she had burned off the entire right side of her body, excluding the bottom of her leg, using acid. All that remained was the bloody tissue muscle and some metal limb structures she used in place of her original arm and leg. She liked the scars and showed them proudly, what she considered to be her best scars were hidden under her robe though and she wouldn't wish to show them in such a place as this. Her blond hair was swept to the opposite side of her face and her eyes were pitch black even though the colour changed frequently depending on her mood. Minamino was used to her appearance but reacted as seemed appropriate for the moment. Hinata had a look of shock and horror on her face and Minamino put on a slightly shocked look.
"I apologise if anyone is squeamish." She said with a small smile looking around the room. The leader reacted for the first time, raising his eyebrow slightly.
"Well, your youki just went up by a staggering amount, miss Mukuro if i'm not mistaken." He said his voice still montone despite his expression. Mukuro smiled.
"Usually i'm quite good at sensing reiki, I can't sense yours." She then added "Of course that could mean that you're too strong but I highly doubt that and rather believe it is the complete opposite." The leader snorted quietly and someone plucked up the courage to ask Mukuro the question everyone wanted to know the answer to.
"Erm...How did you get those scars?" He asked timidly not wanting to stand out too much. She looked at him and then around the sympathetic and shocked faces around the room. She was suprised at the sympathy, but if that was how she was going to get people on her side then so be it.
"I had a rather unpleasant upbringing and in order to run away I used acid to burn the right side of my body which is what created these scars." She answered the question as though it was nothing and this caused her to gain much more respect among the pupils of the school, especially ones who knew the whole story. Minamino wasn't that suprised that she edited as this was hardly the place for talking about such things. Hinata smiled at Minamino and whispered:
"I think I like her much more than I did at the start! How can she just make it seem so casual." Minamino smiled and shrugged.
"Perhaps she's so strong that she's gotten over it." He replied trying not to give too much away. Hinata nodded and then they turned their attention back to Mukuro and the leader.
"Well, what's going to happen now then?" Mukuro asked the leader though it seemed pretty obvious what both of them intended to do.
"Why don't we take this outside?" The leader suggested his eyes scanning the faces of the pupils eagerly watching them. Mukuro shook her head.
"What's the point? I've already won." She smiled and looked him directly in the eyes, her eyes changed colour. From deep black to a vibrant blue. It was abvious she wasn't going to fight. Minamino's offensive side calmed once more as he figured out Mukuro's plan and smiled to himself. The leader raised both his eyebrows and merely replied:
"Oh?" Mukuro rolled her eyes still smiling and then pointed at a member of the audience.
"You." She looked at him."Who's side are you on, mine or his?" The boy looked shocked to have been asked such a question but answered honestly.
"Yours." Mukuro pointed to another person and they responded immeadiately with the same answer. She carried on with this until everyone in the hall had answered. Everyone, bar 2 people, was with her. She looked back at the leader with a smile still on her face.
"My only goal was to get people to see that demons aren't all bad and to show that sometimes humans can be worse." She smiled wider her eyes shifting to a muddy brown colour. "We could still fight if you wanted to, though." The leader sighed and someone clearing their voice from the railings up above made everyone, bar the demons in the middle and Minamino, jump. A young man with black hair and a scarf was standing there. You wouldn't notice anything unusual about him at first but if you looked closer you may have seen the letters 'Jr' tattooed onto his forehead. He was the ruler of the spirit world, lord Koenma. Mukuro looked unfazed as the spirit world elite team took away the team whom had been trying to capture the demons. She'd seen them plenty of times before but she knew she could easily defeat them if they turned on her for some reason, which she doubted seeing as Koenma was there and she was working with them.
"I apologise on behalf of my subordinates." Koenma stated. "Some are disobidient and don't like the way I work things." The room was still mumuring and someone yelled out
"Who are you and what's going on?" Koenma sighed and replied that he was the leader of the spirit world and that the people who had been arrested were people who were trying to disturb peaceful demons.
"Although," He added. "We will deal with demons who are willing to take action, such as the ones yesterday who were promptly arrested." This caused more mumurs and Koenma excused himself abruptly. He never liked talking to a crowd more than nesscesary. Minamino knew the reason for this and supressed a smile, no matter how many times it came up the incident with the crowd would still be funny. He looked around at the chaos in the hall. Mukuro and her two suburdinates had mingled into the crowd and were talking to people. Hinata nudged him to get his attention and pointed towards a mini fight happening in the corner furthest away from the teachers.
"Let's go see Kensuke get his butt kicked by that demon!" Hinata said eagerly and Minamino smiled at in response. They walked over to the scene of the fight to find Kensuke on the ground and the girl demon who had been captured looking down at him.
"Is that all you got?" She commented looking slightly bored with one eyebrow raised slightly.
Kensuke glared at her and got up angling a punch at her face. She dodged it with ease and flipped him over, slamming him face-first into the ground. He coughed and spluttered but appeared to only have a nose bleed and a couple of broken teeth. She put her foot on his back in a triumphant pose. Everyone watching cheered and she grinned at them. She moved her foot so he could stand and left before the fight could continue any longer. Kensuke spat out blood and stayed on the floor glaring at the cracked ground. Hinata laughed as they walked away from the scene. Minamino grinned, Hinata noted that this was the happiest she'd seen him in a while. They returned to their original seats and sat down talking about what had just happened when Mukuro came and sat next to Minamino. Hinata smiled at her and she smiled back. The three of them broke into an easy conversation about the way Mukuro dealt with the guards. Minamino felt at ease, he had let the face take over for a while but he knew it wouldn't matter unless he made conversation as he would hardly be revealed by saying 'you.' Mukuro noticed his ease and said nothing to reveal him. The teachers finally called for silence and everyone stayed where they were, including the demons, but everyone fell silent.
"You have all probably discussed this matter with each other and can continue to do so after I have finished speaking but I would prefer it if all of it stayed secret to your parents." The head continued and Mukuro seized the oppurtunity to talk to Minamino without Hinata hearing.
"The date for the next tournament has been set. I presume you'll be entering again." He smiled at her and let the face take over for the conversation.
"Of course." He replied. He knew it was coming up and the note from Kuwabara had said to prepare for it (he still hadn't gone to see him yet but made a mental note that he should visit within the week). "When is it?" He asked.
"Three weeks so you should enter while there's still room on the entry forms(!)" She put a little sarcasm into her voice and they exchanged an unseeable smile through their eyes. The head finished speaking and Mukuro said goodbye to them and mingled back into the crowd. Her job here was now completely finished.
"She's cool!" Hinata commented, she obviously adimired Mukuro and Minamino could see it as plain as day in her eyes.
"She is pretty cool." Minamino commented. He liked Mukuro and was begining to feel as if he knew her better than he knew his previous partner, Yomi. He sighed to himself and thought about the tournaments and puzzles that he and his three friends had been through with various other allies as well. He missed the three of them but he knew he needed a slight break from it all. But, now that he was having a break, he was getting bored more easily and wishing there were problems the four of them could solve together again. He sighed audibly and Hinata looked at him with a frown which he chose to ignore. She sighed. Hinata was just as troubled as him, even though she didn't look it, so she decided not to press him on it.