A/N:

Thanks again to everyone who reviewed! Reviews make authors happy. :D

I'm sorry some of you found the flashbacks confusing: I labeled the first bit that's back into the present, I hope that helps.

1

Storm Shadow whistled the end of the Volleyball practice feeling just a bit better about the team and its prospects than at the start of the hour. They were just as hopeless as the other teams he was coaching, but as was the case for the others, he was confident he could improve them, and he was already enjoying the challenge he had issued to himself of getting every last one of them at state champion level. They were already making progress, too. Today, for instance, most of the Volleyball players had managed to learn to dive without hurting themselves and were now confident enough to do it for fun. It was definitely a start, even though they were still nowhere near actually being able to make the dives useful by sending the ball back up in the air.

The boys headed for the change room, chattering about various things. Storm Shadow followed: as the teacher, Mr. Nakamura was expected to keep a loose watch on the boys while they were in the change room, just to make sure a fight didn't break out or the high energy teenagers didn't suddenly get some bad ideas. He settled in a chair by the door with a book, paying just enough attention to detect it if the kids started screaming, until the conversation veered towards his cat-like white haired cheerleader and potential student, Esuma.

"What's the name of her dragonfly again?"

"That thing's weird. Do you think it's always the same one? Do they live that long?"

Storm Shadow knew what they were talking about: a dragonfly always appeared near Esuma towards the end of the afternoon, and stayed near her from there on out. He assumed Esuma's shampoo or soap attracted the things, but he was aware that Esuma and her friends treated the insects as though they were always the same individual, and even had a name for it… not that he could remember it.

"Esuma calls it Racno. I think they die after like, one day."

"Still cute she names them, though."

Storm Shadow lost interest when the boys started just being boys and trying to guess her bra size. He started paying attention again when one of the older boys started getting a bit too explicit, detailing in far too many details what he'd like to do to her. He scowled at him and the boy immediately stopped talking.

"Aren't you eighteen?" Storm Shadow asked.

"Yes, Mr. Nakamura."

"She's sixteen."

"That's only two years less than me." The boy answered, rolling his eyes.

"I will not put up with would-be sexual predators on my team. If I ever hear you talk like this again about ANY young girl, you're out. This goes for all eighteen year olds here. Do I make myself clear?"

There were a few protests. Storm Shadow resisted the urge to reach for his back to draw a sword that wasn't there anyway and crossed his arms instead. He could hardly believe the nerve of these kids… he was their teacher. The proper response to a lecture from him was for them to drop on the floor and beg for forgiveness, not to protest.

"I might extend that to anyone who complains about a perfectly reasonable rule. Are we clear?"

They got the hint: there were no protests this time, just a chorus of mumbled "Yes, Mr Nakamura".

From there, the conversation veered to a rather nasty planned prank on one of the other cheerleaders: the chubby blonde called Lily. Once again, Storm Shadow was too angry to stay silent.

"Miss Duncan is one of your five cheerleaders." He growled. "She spends time and energy encouraging you and the other sports teams while you're playing. You will not prank her."

As he said it, he gave them such a glare that a few of them gulped. There was another chorus of "Yes, Mr Nakamura" and the boys, finally ready, filed out of the change room to go eat their lunch before they went to their afternoon class.

2

Storm Shadow sat down with his lunch with the other teachers, and took a long, delightful sip of his mocha latte. It wasn't quite as good as McCullen's, but he had never met a mocha he didn't like, or a latte, so mocha lattes were pretty much an addiction.

"So, Asanuma, you've been here a week now. How are you finding the school?" The teacher next to him, a red-headed man called Mark Brown who taught mathematics, asked.

'Asanuma' answered with a non-committal shrug, taking a bite of his sandwich to give himself an excuse not to give a more detailed answer.

Brown, who was done with his own lunch, was not about to give up so easily on the conversation.

"Obviously, you like the coffee, at least." He chuckled. "For myself, I think we have a very entertaining student body."

Storm Shadow frowned a bit at that: he was still rather disgusted with his Volleyball team's lack of respect for two of their cheerleaders. As a matter of fact, he intended to keep a close eye on them to make sure they didn't bother Esuma or prank Lily.

"Most of the kids seem fine," he commented, his upper lip curled into a slight snarl, "but I just finished a Volleyball practice and had to lecture the boys in the change room not once, but twice. They were lusting in way too precise details after one of the cheerleaders, and they had this nasty prank planned for another one."

Several teachers laughed at that. Storm Shadow frowned and cocked his head questioningly.

"The boys are always lusting after Esuma," an English teacher called Cheryl Halliday explained, smiling indulgently. "She's an awesome kid: very smart, super friendly and a good sense of humour, but she's way too pretty for her own good."

The geography teacher, a graying man by the name of Cartwell, nodded energetically.

"Can't blame the boys." He commented. "Can't say she leaves me cold either…" he added wistfully.

Storm Shadow's eyebrows disappeared under his bangs.

"She's sixteen." He remarked.

"Yes, well, she doesn't act like it, and she turns 18 in 414 days." Cartwell laughed. "I'd wait, don't worry. Not interested in going to jail."

"Four hundred and fifteen." Brown interjected. "You forgot the extra day next year, John; it's a leap year."

Cartwell's eyes widened a bit before he chuckled.

"Obviously, I'm not the only one who's counting."

Storm Shadow slammed both fists on the table, making most drinks spill over a bit and all the teachers jump back slightly, startled.

"You are both disgusting," he growled, "and I can't believe I'm the only one objecting to this kind of talk. I don't care how pretty and mature she is, she's sixteen! She's a CHILD! You should all be exerting as much self control as you might need to get such thoughts out of your head or at the very least, bury them so well that none may suspect they exist!"

One of the female teachers laughed.

"That's really sweet, Asanuma, but we're just talking. None of us would let anyone, one of us or anybody else, touch a hair on the girl's hair. Cheryl told you, she's a great kid."

Storm Shadow wasn't really mollified, but he nodded and went back to his sandwich, letting the fight die for now.

3

"What's wrong, Esuma?" Lily asked between two bites of her apple.

Esuma blinked, coming back to the here and now. She had been thinking about her conversation with her father that morning.

"Sorry." She said, forcing a smile. She had been very expressly forbidden to tell anyone about her father's concerns and his solution to them. "I was just lost in thoughts."

And they weren't nice thoughts, either. Her father had looked so serious this morning that she'd been afraid there was some sort of international crisis going on. It had turned out that the reason for her father's gloominess had been Mr. Nakamura – he was suspicious of him. He had apparently been up all night trying to decide how much to tell her, and had sworn her to secrecy, but he was going to send someone from his team to investigate Mr. Nakamura, just in case he was really one of his enemies trying to get to him through his adopted daughter.

Esuma was horrified. Mr. Nakamura was among the nicest teachers she had ever known, and in the single week he had been here, she had already seen some improvements in all the sports team. One of the baseball players had even hit the ball in the left field today during their regular gym class, something that was unheard of at the school – none of the players had ever hit the ball past the pitcher since she'd started here. The idea that Mr. Nakamura may be an enemy of her father's, out to get her, was simply inconceivable to her.

And yet, her father was worried enough to send one of his men, one of the best of the best in the World, to infiltrate the school and investigate Mr. Nakamura. Her thoughts slid to how Mr. Nakamura would look if he knew, and she pictured one of his now famous glares, which although they were admittedly intimidating, did not manage to make him look any less handsome. She pinched her arm to bring her thoughts back to the present; thankfully, Marie and Lily were chatting about the homecoming dance and didn't notice her blushing.

"I wish I'd get invited." Marie sighed. "Did anyone ask you yet, Lily?"

Lily shook her head and shrugged. Unlike Marie, she had no problem with going to the dance alone.

"Esuma?" Marie asked.

Esuma hesitated before she nodded, feeling a bit bad for her friends: she had accepted the first invitation she had received, from one of the basketball players, and had refused sixteen more since, from various boys she barely knew.

"I'm going with Matthew." She said.

"Cool." Lily said, taking out a notepad. "Now I know who to bet on."

Marie blinked at her. Esuma, guessing what her friend meant, turned a bright red.

"You think we're going to be Homecoming King and Queen? And you're betting?" She sputtered.

Lily nodded, smiling. Marie giggled and nodded, obviously agreeing with Lily's prediction.

"It's just a betting pool for fun. The winner gets a free pizza." Lily specified.

4

Storm Shadow settled in the tall tree, waiting. He saw Lily come out of the school with Esuma and one of the other three cheerleaders, the red headed Marie. Storm Shadow had time to notice, although he had no idea why he'd take note of that, that Esuma was wearing a kilt-like skirt and a fitted turtleneck before he took his eyes of the girls and examined their immediate path and the area surrounding it. He found the would-be prankster, Heatly, hiding behind a large garbage bin, a bag which Storm Shadow knew to be full of week old cafeteria compost in his hands. His eyes narrowed.

He could hardly believe the nerve of the boy. It was bad enough that he had ever thought the idea of tossing a bag full of, essentially, rotten food to an overweight cheerleader was hilariously ironic as opposed to cruel and idiotic; it was bad enough that he had actually considered making the stupid idea into reality; it was simply unthinkable that he had decided to go through with it after his coach had told him very specifically not to.

Storm Shadow climbed down from the tree so as to look as though he was emerging from behind it and walked to the small group of girls, timing his pace so that he'd catch up to them just before they got to the garbage bin. If the boy was scared off by his presence and gave up on the prank, he'd just chew him out at the next practice and instill a bit more fear into him. If Heatly was crazy enough to try and get Lily anyway, he was the one who would end up full of compost and he would be out of the team and therefore, someone else's problem.

"Good afternoon, girls." He called out when he got to their heights.

They greeted him back, and the dragonfly even happened to make a pirouette that made him chuckle at the coincidence and made the girls giggle and praise 'Racno' for his good manners.

The bag flew through the air towards Lily's head when they were a mere step away from the garbage bin.

5

Esuma saw the bag coming but had no time to get Lily out of the way and had to settle for using her own body as a shield by putting herself between her friend and the bag filled with who knew what. She braced herself, but the expected impact never came. She saw a white blur, heard a boy scream and next thing she knew, Mr. Nakamura was dragging a screaming, kicking and compost covered Steve Heatly from behind the bin to the main path.

Mr. Nakamura dropped Steve on the ground. Both the teacher and the student were looking downright murderous.

"This ain't the gym!" Steve screamed. "You're not the boss of me outside of school!"

The bravado left Mr. Nakamura completely unimpressed.

"I'm not the boss of you anywhere anymore, Mr. Heatly, except for your regular gym classes." He growled. "You're off the team, and if you don't want your friends to be kicked out as well, you had better advise them not to even mention you during practice from now on."

"YOU THREW GARBAGE AT ME! YOU GOT NO RIGHT TO DO THAT!"

"I did no such thing. I intercepted a flying bag of garbage that was about to hit one of my cheerleaders and sent it back the way it came." Mr. Nakamura said, his tone still having a slight growl-like quality but otherwise perfectly calm.

Steve stuttered for a moment before settling on his next verbal attack.

"You're in trouble, Nakamura-san." He sneered, pronouncing the Japanese honorific with as much disdain and sarcasm as Esuma thought was humanly possible. "You touched me. You dragged me here and threw me down."

"How could I possibly be in trouble for hurriedly getting you out of the shadows and into the sunlight to have a look at you and make sure you weren't hurt?" Mr. Nakamura said. "You're not, by the way. I would say you won't even have a single bruise or scratch on you."

Steve's eyes widened as he realized he really wouldn't be able to get the gym teacher into trouble. He scowled at all of them, got up and stormed off, muttering curses. They all watched him leave for a few seconds, until Mr. Nakamura spoke again. His voice was back to normal.

"Good reflexes, Miss Yr." He said, addressing Esuma. "Are you all right, Miss Duncan?"

Esuma felt herself blushing and saw her friend turn bright red as well, creating a stark contrast to her light blond hair. Lily nodded in answer to the question and Esuma mumbled a thank you, her heart beating altogether too fast for her liking.

"That was awesome." Marie commented, still looking wide-eyed at Mr. Nakamura. "You saved her! You totally saved her!"

Storm Shadow couldn't help smiling. It was always nice to be appreciated, even for something easy. He couldn't help but notice that Esuma, her embarrassment at his praise to her passed, looked very impressed as well.

"It was no trouble." He said. "You girls take care. I'll see you all tomorrow at practice."

"Wait!" Esuma called out as he was walking away.

She ran around him to face him, all the while asking herself what she thought she was doing. She couldn't help herself – here he was, saving her and her friends, and her father was about to put one of his super-soldier after him, and she couldn't so much as warn him. She couldn't stand the thought of not even showing her gratitude for what the white-clad teacher had just done.

He raised an eyebrow at her, tilting his head just so. Her heart started hammering and she almost changed her mind. The last thing she needed was to have a crush on someone, especially a teacher. She took a deep breath to steady herself.

"We're really grateful, Mr. Nakamura." She said, her tone remarkably calm. "Please let us buy you a coffee, or tea? Whatever you'd like?"

Lily and Marie had joined them by now and enthusiastically exclaimed that that was a great idea. Within seconds, the two of them were pretty well begging, while Esuma just smiled, waiting for an answer. A soft breeze caught her snowy white hair and made it flutter around a bit before it settled back, looking just as nice slightly messy as it had before the breeze had disturbed it.

Storm Shadow's first instinct was to refuse, but he couldn't come up with any reason why he should follow that instinct. If he'd been attracted to Esuma, refusing to go anywhere near her whenever he could help it would indeed be the only honorable course of action, but since he wasn't, since he couldn't possibly be attracted to a girl barely more than half his age, no matter how inhumanly beautiful she was, no matter how maturely she behaved and no matter how much fun she was to be around, there was really no reason not to let the girls express their gratitude. In fact, it would have been rude to refuse.

"All right." He sighed. "If you insist. You do realize you really don't have to do that, don't you?"

They all nodded energetically. The dragonfly flew a circle around Storm Shadow before returning to Esuma's side and the girls giggled.

"It's official." Marie laughed. "You have to come now: Racno just bound you to us."

Storm Shadow snorted but followed the girls to a nearby coffee shop.

6

Esuma frowned slightly when Mr. Nakamura, after staring at the part of the menu that contained all the fancy coffees with whipped cream and syrup, tore his eyes away from it and ordered a cup of green tea.

"Mr. Nakamura, you can have one of the nicer ones. You don't have to have one of the cheapest things they have." She whispered to him.

He chuckled, surprising her.

"Thank you, but this has nothing to do with the cost and everything to do with my own self-control. I already had one mocha latte at lunch and I don't allow myself any more than one daily."

She chuckled too, ordered a chocolate milk, and the two of them joined Marie and Lily at a booth in the corner of the shop. Marie and Lily were sitting on the same side, leaving Esuma to sit next to Mr. Nakamura. She squeezed herself as far against the wall as she could and Mr. Nakamura sat right on the edge of the seat so that they weren't even close to brushing against each other. Esuma relaxed a bit.

"Mr. Nakamura, are you going to the homecoming dance?" Lily asked.

Mr. Nakamura's eyes widened.

"No." He answered. "Why would I? It's for the students to have fun, you guys don't need all your crabby teachers getting in the way."

"But you're not crabby at all." Marie protested. "Some teachers do go… I think they're required to have a few adults around. I bet you're a good dancer."

Mr. Nakamura just shrugged. Unknown to the girls and for reasons he could not fathom, he had suddenly pictured himself dancing with Esuma and was very eager to get the mental image out of his head.

"Are you guys going to wear your uniforms to school?" Lily asked Esuma and Marie. "I have a pink shirt, but I don't have anything else than my uniform with lilac on it. Do you?"

"You have to wear the school colors on homecoming week?" Mr. Nakamura asked.

Esuma nodded.

"Yes, and it's really nice. Everyone wears them… we never win championships, but we always win the school spirit competition."

"Even the boys?" Mr. Nakamura asked. "I can see the ones in the teams wearing their uniforms, but what about the others? Do they actually wear pink and lilac for the whole week?"

Marie giggled and explained that most of the boys wore a necktie with pink and lilac in it, or borrowed a scarf from their mom or some other women in their families. She then asked Mr. Nakamura whether he'd join in.

Esuma's chuckle at the face Mr. Nakamura made at the idea died in her throat as she was suddenly seized with a particularly violent headache. She winced and clamped her hands on her forehead and temples, shutting her eyes and clenching her jaw. It did not help at all: the headache quickly grew worse until tears were streaming out of her eyes. At the same time, the usual images started flashing in her head, accompanied by the usual sound of her parents screaming and the usual overwhelming feeling of pain, loss, hopelessness and helplessness. She tried to ride it out, but rather than fading away and leave her with a migraine like they usually did, the visions sharpened until there was nothing else and the pain just kept increasing until it felt as though it would kill her.

7

Storm Shadow barely had time to put his cup down between the time Esuma winced and grabbed her head and the time she collapsed limply on him. He put his fingers on her throat to check her pulse and breathed a sigh of relief upon finding it.

"ESUMA!" Marie and Lily cried together, scrambling out of their seats.

Storm Shadow got up, picking up Esuma in his arms and patting her cheek gently in an effort to wake her up. Marie and Lily crowded around him, bouncing on their feet, chewing on their fists and emitting panicked little cries at the same time.

"Please calm down." Storm Shadow begged them.

"We should get her home!" Lily exclaimed. "And call her doctor!"

Storm Shadow frowned, puzzled.

"We should get her to the hospital." He argued. "There'll be doctors there."

Both Marie and Lily shook their heads.

"She's seen tons of Doctors," Lily explained, "and they can never do anything for her. They always end up doing all sorts of tests that only make her worse… her father has issued specific instructions to the school that if she needs medical attention, she is to be brought home and their family doctor is to be contacted. He knows what to do with her."

Now that she mentioned it, Storm Shadow remembered that, like all teachers, he had indeed been issued these instructions on what to do if Esuma was injured or ill.

"Very well." He said, nodding. "We'll take her home. Can we walk there or should I call a taxi?"

"We can walk." Marie said, leading the way. "You can carry her, right?"

Storm Shadow resisted rolling his eyes.

"Easily," he said. "She's actually really light."

Marie only had to lead them for a block before they reached Esuma's house: a rather anonymous looking cottage, well maintained without being particularly pretty. Storm Shadow felt it looked like the house of someone who doesn't want to be noticed and automatically started wondering what kind of family Esuma had.

Marie took a key from Esuma's bag and let them all in. They walked through the living room and Storm Shadow caught a flash of red and yellow somewhere near the ceiling, behind the valance adorning the room's window.

"What's up there?" He asked.

"I'd say that's Sop." Lily replied.

Storm Shadow heard "I'd say that's up" and blinked at her.

"Isn't that what I said?" He asked. "I was wondering what was up there. I saw something move."

They had left the living room by now, and Marie turned into the first bedroom in the hallway.

"Sop. S.O.P. It's Esuma's budgie." Lily said.

Storm Shadow deposited Esuma on her bed and turned to Lily.

"A red and yellow budgie? I thought they only came in green and yellow or in blue and white. And isn't one of you going to call this family doctor? I can't very well go poking around for the phone number."

"Right!" Marie exclaimed, rushing back towards the kitchen.

Lily stayed behind, looking worriedly at Esuma.

"That almost never happens." She said. "I think it's the first time since third grade."

Storm Shadow had no answer to give, but he preferred to stay until he at least knew the doctor was on his way, so the two of them stood in silence, looking at Esuma in the hopes she'd wake up.

Marie came back a few minutes later.

"Her doctor's on his way," she announced, "and I also called General Abernathy."

Storm Shadow's eyebrows shot straight up. He turned to Marie.

"Abernathy?" He asked, in as normal a voice as he could manage. "Who's that?"

"Her dad." Marie answered absently.

Storm Shadow did remember overhearing that Esuma was an adopted orphan, but he would never have suspected this kind of coincidence.

"I'm… going to walk around to stretch my legs a bit." He said, getting out of the room and scanning the small house for family pictures.

It didn't take long to find what he was looking for: there was a family portrait in the hall, with Esuma standing between a woman Storm Shadow had never seen before and, sure enough, General Clayton Abernathy, also known as Hawk. At the very least, Storm Shadow was now very glad he had spared the man. However, it did mean that he had best get out of here very quickly.

He went back to the room and, with a perfectly calm voice, informed Marie and Lily that he couldn't stay because he had another engagement. He asked them to let him know in the morning how Miss Yr was doing and bidding them a good night, left as quickly as he could without raising the girls' suspicions.

He reflected on his way back home that maybe Fate was trying to mock him. He now knew where Hawk lived, and he couldn't take advantage of it without betraying the trust of his students. There was no doubt in his mind that he'd do the same if Hawk had turned out to be the father of any of his students, and that it had nothing to do with Esuma in particular.