Kyouson

Chapter 3 – A Warning of Girls (and Crowds)

---

The next day started – in a direct contrast to the previous – with both Satoshi and Daisuke being early to class. Yet unlike any other day, the blue haired boy had not simply started to read the moment he found his seat, instead keeping what soon became clear to be only half of his concentration on the things he was writing in his notebook when Niwa tumbled into the room only a few minutes later. Again, unlike his usual routine of sitting straight down or going over to talk with either her, Risa or Takeshi, the redhead went straight over to Hiwatari's seat, evidently relieved that the other boy was there.

Hiwatari silently clicked his pen off and put it down.

"Yes, Niwa?"

"I – I need to talk to you. It's really important." He didn't need to say any more. Hiwatari was nodding in agreement.

Though how could he know already what it is Niwa-kun needs to talk about? Riku wondered, confused.

"I understand."

Niwa sighed in a sort of relief.

"Same problems, huh?"

Hiwatari froze up, suddenly more tense than usual.

"I wouldn't call it the same, Niwa. Similar, perhaps. But not the same."

"Oh," her redhead said in response, wincing. "I'm so- "

"Don't." Hiwatari breathed slowly, once, and pushed his glasses further up his nose. "We can talk more in depth during our lunch period, if that is all right."

Daisuke nodded and when he turned back towards her there was a bright, relieved smile on his face.

Riku was certain, though, that just as the teacher came in and everyone sat down, she could see Hiwatari Satoshi looking at her, with a cool, calculating expression in his eyes.

---

Later that day saw the two sitting on the school roof, various food parcels spread out evenly between them. So far, approximately half had been eaten – mostly by Daisuke, but Satoshi had certainly had more than his usual slice of bead – and the rest was taken care of while they talked. Satoshi pointedly ignored it when the other boy talked with his mouth full sometimes in his haste to say what he thought needed to be said.

"...So," Satoshi said at last. "What was it that you needed to talk about?" He already had an idea, but specifics would be useful.

"I need your help and it's about Dark!" came the harried rush of words. Satoshi's eyebrows raised at the knowledge that Niwa was so troubled as to forget to be worried about names on school grounds. "You know what he's like – he's proud and arrogant and doesn't like being bored and right now he's basically trapped inside my house, and Towa-chan's had to find him a few times already when he tried to escape!"

Niwa stopped, paused for breath, and ended up sighing tiredly. Satoshi bit into a piece of onigiri and swallowed before answering.

"And you came to me with this, because..."

"Well, you're the only other person who knows what's happening! And. . . well, er – we kinda need to know whether or not you're gonna arrest him the moment he steps out of the house. . ."

Ah. That. Satoshi pushed his glasses up in a motion to conceal a small smile.

"I can assure you, Niwa, that if I did that, it would do nothing to help. In fact, it was probably make both of our problems ten times worse. So, no. As long as he does not go out of his way to gain my attention. . ."

Niwa caught on quickly, eyes widening and growing brighter, head nodding wildly.

"Thank you very much, Hiwatari-kun! If there's anything I can do for you-!"

"There is," he said, no liking it one bit even if it was necessary. "I need not only you and Dark, but also the rest of your family, to stay as far away as possible from the shopping district this afternoon and evening."

Niwa blinked.

"The. . . oh." Satoshi looked away slightly. "Sorry," the redhead continued softly. "Almost forgot. Mom's been threatening to go on a spending spree herself, so I'll just have to persuade her to do it tomorrow instead, then."

And for a while, they just sat there. It seemed like there wasn't much more one could say after something like that. Nearly a year of hardships, trials and horrors, and now he was forced into being the depraved angel's nursemaid, or mother even. Not because he cared like Niwa cared or through any sort of concern, but because he cared as the police commander he was. If he didn't do these things, then people would get hurt.

The next – and unexpected – words came only a short time before the bell rang.

"Ne, Hiwatari-kun? What. . . are we going to do? At some point, someone is going to look into this. Two people suddenly. . appear. Who look like the famous kaitou and his enemy. Someone's bound to put it together at some point. But... what do we do? What can we do?"

Satoshi picked up his bag and stood, making the sun reflect off of his glasses in order not to see Niwa pleading look. The Niwa. . . they were always supposed to be confident and prideful. Weren't they? Or was that simply his ancestors only seeing Dark in each of Niwa's forebears? He sighed. Either way, it felt somehow wrong to have that look on the face of a boy he might have been proud to call 'friend' if it had not always been a danger for anyone to be his friend. Even now.

"I'm working on it," he said truthfully. "Ask me again tomorrow, and I may have something worked out."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Niwa nod in silent agreement and trust.

Absently but strangely enough not disturbingly, he realised that this was the first time that they had truly worked together for any reason. He didn't say anything, but he also didn't dismiss it. It was an important thought.

---

So far today, Risa hadn't been paying as much attention to her classes as she had been to her older sister. And since Riku had been staring at both Niwa and Hiwatari, then that was where she found herself looking as well. It wasn't as though she didn't feel like doing just that sometimes anyways, after the previous day. Sensei had just about given up on trying to wake the two up at one point. It was a good thing that they looked that much better today, or people would have stared to worry.

Yet there was something in the classroom's atmosphere that was simply more worried, more tense than usual. Niwa and Hiwatari were both on edge, so that meant Takeshi bugged them both more, and Hiwatari's fangirls cooed and simpered over how serious and mature the bluenette looked, and Riku was in a foul temper because Niwa wouldn't tell her what was going on, and therefore spent half her time watching the two boys like a hawk and the rest either snapping at her friends or telling her sister exactly why her boyfriend was so frustrating.

A familiar shadow crossed her and Riku landed on the seat next to her with a light thump. Risa sighed.

"What is it this time?"

"This time? I asked sensei about any joint projects they might be doing, but she didn't seem to have any idea either! All she could say was that it had to be some sort of personal or private thing, and that I shouldn't eavesdrop on people. But it wasn't my fault. I was worried."

Risa blew a long hair out of her eyes.

"Have you actually tried to talk to Niwa-kun about all this at all?"

"Yes! That's why I asked sensei about projects – Hiwatari-kun said they were working on something together. They're acting so secretive about whatever it is, though. . . I don't know what to do."

For a moment, the younger sister was almost slightly perplexed. She was worried about Niwa too, and she supposed that she was kind of worried about Hiwatari as well, since he and Niwa were such good friends. After all, Niwa was her good friend! Without Niwa, there would be no one to escort her to Dark's heists every so often, and maybe one day, she might even have another accident if there wasn't somebody there to stop or save her.

The fact that it hadn't been Niwa Daisuke or Dark that had rescued her from the rooftop of the museum building was a thought that hid in the back of her mind, fluttering only every so often on pale white wings.

Quick on its heels however was a thought that almost made her want to smile.

"I wouldn't worry. I'm sure everything's going to be just fine, believe me!"

Riku smiled.

"Thanks. You don't know how much it means. . ."

"Because you know, if I were you, and Niwa-kun were Dark-san, I bet I'd just be worrying for no reason, because he'd actually be planning a really great surprise for me!"

The bell rang and the other students started pouring into the room on their own and in groups.

Riku sighed the sigh of a longsuffering sister.

"Geez, Risa! Is everything always about Dark with you?"

While Riku had been saying that, Niwa and Hiwatari themselves had come through the door. Daisuke froze for a moment, blinked, and looked at Satoshi, who had a rather annoyed yet also amused expression on his face. Unnoticed by the two girls, the redhead smiled embarrassedly back in a weak defence of his other half. Satoshi meanwhile simply sighed and shook his head before going over to his seat and taking out a book.

Risa giggled as the teacher came in and went to her desk, but went to sit down in her own place, leaving her sister shaking her head with a smile on her face.

---

From then on, classes passed quickly. Not because Satoshi was paying attention to what the teacher was saying, of course – not only had he already passed this grade already, and was able to answer any question thrown at him with comparative ease compared to the rest of the class, but trying to concentrate on the classes while he had other things to worry about would have been a waste of time. Not to mention that said other things happened to be thinking about how all of this could have ever happened in the first place. . . and also how he could ever manage to come up with any sort of idea that would actually be plausible to have people not arrest Dark Mousy.

Which was the problem that gave him the most headaches. He was supposed to arrest Dark – it was his job, it was his duty even, as the last surviving Hikari descendant. Yet he had promised Niwa, and through him the other members – both blood and adopted – that he would not arrest the thief on sight. Which would have been hard enough to do even without Krad, and with him. . .

Well, he sighed as he left the school grounds after the bell, heading back towards the apartment he now shared with said 'angel'. It certainly looks to be . . . interesting.

The same kind of interesting that he would label a night on which Dark had warned the police that he was about to steal a particularly valuable Hikari artwork with particularly interesting uses and effects.

Walking down the familiar streets, he heaved an internal sigh of relief to find that Krad had deemed it not necessary to wait for him out of the apartment today. A small relief, that. One that made him wonder what the other had been doing to amuse himself in the meantime, however.

Coming up to his door, he hesitated for a moment before opening it for those same reasons, but it was his house damn it. The door slid open without a sound, to the exact same picture he always came home to. Frowning slightly, he shut the door with one decisive movement and quickly changed into his house slippers.

A quick examination of the hallway, living room and kitchen turned up absolutely nothing. Taking a precautionary breath to calm himself just in case, he went over the short distance to where his room was. His fists clenched when he did. At the sight, that of the blond sitting cross-legged in the middle of his room, eyes closed and looking for all the world as though he was meditating.

"You. . . I thought that I told you that you weren't allowed in here," Satoshi said pointedly.

Krad merely opened his eyes and looked over at him.

"Ah. You're back."

If he had been in any other more analytical sort of mood, he might have done more than simply take note of the fact that the almost flat stare and the while still formal, nearly monotone speech was hardly ordinary for the light side of the Hikari artwork. As it was, he simply filed it away without much thought, concentrating on the moment and not much beyond it.

"It's my home, Krad, and it was my home before you even came. I told you that you weren't allowed in here. . . so get out."

Not looking at his former host, Krad did so, holding himself in that stiff, formal way of his. After a few minutes, Satoshi went back out to join him, bringing with him an armful of clothes which he tossed at the angel, who was still dressed in that old dress-like outfit of his.

"Change into those," Satoshi said shortly. "They're probably a little small on you, but that's never bothered you before."

As the blond got changed into the black trousers and white shirt in the next room, Satoshi took the time to go back into his room to pick up a few things, such as the wallet he didn't take to school with him. He also changed out of his uniform, all the while looking for any signs that the so-called angel might have done anything while he had been away. Thankfully, there weren't any – though he didn't know precisely what he would be able to do if his other had done anything more than just sit there.

For that matter, he wasn't sure what he was worried about more – the time that would inevitably come when Krad realised that he was the stronger of the two, or if he had already realised this. . . and if he had, what that might mean.

---

Approximately half an hour later, both the blond and the bluenette could be seen walking down the shopping district, side by side. They were garnering a lot of attention . . . a lot of stares. Even with two bags already slung over Krad's shoulder and Satoshi-sama carrying one more, it was more their expressions than their general appearances that people cooed over. Some seemed to see them as silent and deadly. In a way, they were. But in fact, they were probably more deadly to each other at that moment than looking like that simply to look . . . cool, forcing themselves to appear as though they were no different than anyone else there.

Satoshi-sama had briefed him on the story before leaving the house. He was an old friend of a distant family member, if anyone who was ignorant enough to ask did so. The boy had also asked that he not use the honorific '-sama' with his name, but Krad had only smiled sardonically, saying, "Of course, Satoshi-sama." There had been a glare, but apart from that – and various repeated protestations that were promptly ignored on his part – nothing more was said on the matter.

A member of the crowd shoved thoughtlessly into him, disappearing into the mob before Krad could do anything other than twitch and tense at the same time. Perhaps noticing this, there was suddenly a death grip on his arm as Satoshi-sama dragged him into the next shop.

It wasn't as though he was afraid of the large mass of people. That wasn't it. He simply. . . wasn't used to being out and being seen by so many at one time. They weren't police officers, preoccupied with something more important to do. They weren't even reporters. He was used to those types, whether he liked it or not.

It was the crowd of milling people, not there for any better reason than to be there, buying new things that they mostly did not need, and stare at anything that appeared different.

He felt as though he were on parade, on a pedestal. It wasn't a particuarly pleasant feeling to have, and it put him on edge.

Before, he had been perfectly happy to rest in the back of Satoshi-sama's mind, observing and feeling whatever he wished to feel, experiencing whatever he felt necessary to experience, coming out whenever he felt the need to, whenever Satoshi-sama was in danger or thinking inappropriately.

Now, however, as Satoshi-sama took him into yet another store, he could not withdraw at will, no matter how much he might wish to. He could not stop them from staring at what was his. He could not even tell what Satoshi-sama was thinking of right this instant.

Which was, in fact, what he had been attempting to do when Satoshi-sama himself had walked in on him in their old room. . . now Satoshi-sama's alone. He had been attempting to use his magic and his mind to meditate himself into such a state so as to know the true extent of their seperation. He had reached nowhere. All he had been able to sense, the whole time, for hours, was only himself.

There was now nothing but a resounding echoe, such as that of one speaking alone in a church full of emptiness and God.

It was. . . distracting.

Distracting enough that he almost did not notice Satoshi-sama hissing at him to follow.

Later, when he sees it, the coat reminds him of the clothes he woke up in; long, floating material that does not look like it would wear away as easily as other cloths. He does not usually wear red; it is a colour mostly reserved for that other. One of its close neighbors is purple, after all. But its borders are white, and there are crosses on the corners of the collar. Satoshi-sama raises his eyes at the – expensive – selection, but allows it.

It's not the same, hasn't got that same created to fit feel that the other coat has, but for the moment, for Satoshi-sama, it will do.

---

"Look, I'm not saying that!"

"Oh, then what are you saying?"

"I wasn't saying anything about that guy! Just that I thought. . ."

"Thought what?"

Harada Risa stopped in the middle of the street.

"Thought. . . that I . . . might have. . ."

Harada Riku stopped just in front of her sister, eyes challenging her to explain what she meant.

"Seen him. . . before. . ."

She trailed off, not sure that she even wanted to say any more. Not only was her mind fuzzy about a lot of the details, but she wasn't even sure any more whether it had been that person that she had seen – after all, why would someone like them be in a place like this?

She shook her head to clear it of the idea. She must have been mistaken. Just a foreigner, it must have been simply some yellow-headed gaijin. If not, maybe a cosplayer – it was hardly as though Hiwatari-kun would be here, now, at the same time. . . right?

She didn't know where the idea of Hiwatari being in the same place as the blond might have come from, and when she tried to trace it down her head started to hurt. So instead, she tried to concentrate on something else instead, believing that if he was the same person, then things would work out so that sooner or later she would find out for real, with more than just a glimpse through the crowds to work from.

Squaring her shoulders, she looked her older sister in the eye with a jaunty smile.

"Doesn't matter, Riku! It's not like that person'd ever measure up to Dark-san, that's for sure," she said with a real giggle. It was true. Such a thing happening was hardly likely.

Riku gave her a disbelieving look but moments later the two were on their way to another shop, this one exclusively selling accessories. Risa already had her eye on a long – and purple – feather boa, a plush jacket badge with feathers on it of the same colour, and a dress that would simply look stunning in the night-time, shimmering with purple sequins.

She smiled, twirling around once, making the dress she was wearing flutter around her legs. Turning back around, she caught the look in Riku's eye, and the faint bemused shake of her head that said that she didn't quite know what to do with her sister, as Risa had been told many a time.

"Riku~! Which jacket do you think this would work better with? Would the badge work with the dress or would that be too gaudy? Or obvious. I don't want to be too obvious – you know, subtlety and all that. . ."

Riku sighed.

"Risa, I don't think I've ever known you to actually use subtlety for that guy. You're usually all for obvious."

"Riku~!"

"Besides, I'm hardly the best person to ask about these sorts of things, am I? You know what I think of that pervert!"

Risa made a show of breaking down into tears for a moment.

"So cold-hearted... I can't believe that a maiden like me has such a person like you as my sister."

She barely missed the hand aimed at her shoulder intending to swat at her.

"Maiden like you? You forget, Risa. I was there when you pulled your delinquent act! You should be glad I never actually told Mom and Dad!"

Artfully tossing her hair out of her face, she smirked.

"I am. I never told them all of what you did either, did I?" She sighed then, with a disaffected air. "I still can't believe you still think of Dark-san that way."

"That makes two of us, then. I can't understand how you're always fawning after him."

Risa shrugged. "Because he's Dark-san." There wasn't really anything more to say to that, in her point of view. It was enough reason. "But really – I need your help. I'm asking you as. . . as someone who's already got a boyfriend, then, alright? Which one looks better? With or without, for this dress?"

"You're not going to let us leave until I give you an answer, are you?" Riku asked, though it was obvious through her flushed complexion that the remark about her and Niwa-kun had worked its magic on her.

"Nope!" She replied cheekily, holding up the dress and the badge against her.

"Without."

---

AN: Originally, that last scene was going to be the twins actually encountering Krad and Satoshi, but that was before I chose to use mostly manga as canon, though there are certain mentions of one anime episode at least here. Thus, without my consent, it became a nice piece of Twin Interaction.