Hi, I'm back! I'm really tired...

J: She's busy with other end-of-year stuff, so she can't update that frequently this week.

Thanks, J! Disclaimer, please!

Shindou: Roze Hime-sama does not own IE or ant of its characters. They all belong to Level-5. Which is a relief, since I'm sure that Tsurugi and Kirino would still like to kill me-

Tsurugi: Come back here, you!

Shindou: /squeak/ I'd better be on my way! /runs/

Literally Ch.5

"Come on!" Shindou ran on, following the lead of the two cats.

Tenma sighed and trudged behind, pausing occasionally to scan his surroundings, trying to spot the troublemaking sphere.

"Shindou-san!" Kariya and Hikaru appeared in front of them.

Kariya noticed the two abnormally large cats and sniggered. "Are you walking your giant pet kitties? Here, kitty kitty."

Shindou gulped. He didn't think that Tsurugi and Kirino would appreciate being turned into cats, and then have Kariya teasing them.

Tsurugi-the-cat's eyes narrowed to slits. A feral growl arose from his throat. He took a menacing step towards Kariya.

Kariya's eyes widened. "He-help, Shindou-san! I don't think your pets like me."

Tenma face-palmed himself. "Kariya, those aren't ordinary cats! They're Tsurugi and Kirino-san!"

Kariya couldn't hear Tenma properly over the yowling of the cats. "They what?"

Tsurugi-the-cat advanced. Kariya took a few steps backwards and hid behind Hikaru. "Help, Hikaru!"

Hikaru sweat-dropped at his friend's action. "You scaredy-cat, Kariya! They're Tsurugi and Kirino-san, didn't you hear?"

"Meow!" A frightened-looking cat sprang out from behind Hikaru. Hikaru lost his balance in surprise.

"What was that?" Hikaru pointed at the teal cat, which was now trembling and whimpering.

"I believe that you made the same mistake as I did…" Shindou said.

"Huh?" Hikaru scratched his head

"You called Kariya a scaredy-cat. That turned him into one!" explained Tenma.

"Sou…Well, I paid him back for making my pants catch fire!" Hikaru laughed lightly. "Hi, Kariya!" Hikaru bent down to look at the teal cat.

The cat sprang away, its pupils dilated. It moved away from Hikaru, cowering in fright.

"He doesn't like me…" Hikaru said, making a sad face.

"You've turned him into a scaredy-cat, of course he'd be scared of everything!" Shindou said.

"O-oh," Hikaru nodded. "So where's the sphere now?"

"This way!" screeched a new voice. Endou was running towards them, with Midorikawa in tow.

"Kantoku! Watch out—" Tenma was about to warn the coach about the three cats, when Endou plowed his way into Tsurugi and Kirino.

Tsurugi-the-cat yowled in pain when Endou stepped on his paw, tripping in the process.

Kirino-the-cat let out a screech as Endou landed on him.

Quickly, the cats leapt up and started scratching Endou with their sharp claws, slashing furiously.

"Ow, ow, ow!" Endou scrambled away from the cats in a hurry, crashing into Midorikawa.

Midorikawa steadied his friend and glared at Endou. "Stop being so clumsy!"

Endou put a hand to his head. "Sorry… Ow!" His face was covered with cat claw marks.

"Serves you right," muttered a grumpy voice.

They heard a loud smack, and the owner of the grumpy voice squeaked. "Mind your manners!"

Deasta and Sain had appeared again, arguing as usual. They were glaring at each other.

Endou put both of his hands up in the air, in a gesture of surrender. "Don't argue! We've got more things to worry about."

Sain stiffened. "I'm sorry."

Deasta rolled his eyes. "We rarely see eye to eye, anyways!"

"Idiom alert!" said Midorikawa, recovering from the shock of Endou's stupidity.

True to the chaotic power of the chaos, Sain and Deasta couldn't seem to meet each other's eyes.

"Deasta, you stupid DEMON!" Sain growled. He tried to glare at Deasta, but his head automatically snapped to one side, making him wince in pain.

"Ha!" Deasta shouted triumphantly.

"Please stop, you two." Midorikawa was rubbing his temples.

"Hey, guys!" Ichino and Aoyama walked to them, their feet pounding on the granite sidewalk. "Need some help?"

Shindou sighed in relief. "How about getting the others here?"

"Calm down, Hayami, for God's sake!" They heard a loud voice.

Hayami dashed past them, with Hamano hot on his trails. Minamisawa, Kurama and the other third years strolled behind, looking annoyed.

"Help! What the heck—what am I doing here?!" A familiar-looking blond was sitting on the ground, looking confused, with his normally perfect hair messy and ruffled.

"Aphrodi?" Endou asked in amazement.

Aphrodi picked himself up and gave Endou a scowl, as if he weren't pleased at all to see the brunet. "Yes. Now can anyone explain why I'm here? I was coaching at Kidokawa Seishuu, when I suddenly fell into a weird purple portal and appeared here!"

Midorikawa raised his eyebrows. "Your hair looks terrible."

Aphrodi's scowl deepened. "Before you go criticizing the state of my hair, try falling through a portal and keeping your hair perfect throughout the winds." He was about to say more, but then apparently thought better of it. "Anyways. An explanation, please?"

Endou coughed. "You see, there's this purple sphere thing…" Endou explained the whole thing in detail.

Aphrodi looked weary. "So, if I presume correctly, someone said 'god' and I appeared, for entirely no reason, at Raimon Town."

"Yes." Endou nodded for emphasize. "We need to capture the stupid sphere before it causes any more havoc!"

"So I see…" Aphrodi began shaping his hair back into its accustomed side ponytail. "Need some help?"

Endou nodded again, smiling gratefully. "Thanks!"

Suddenly, a whirl from above interrupted their conversation. The purple sphere floated near once again.

"Whoa." Aphrodi ducked, his hands still busy with his hair. "That thing nearly took off—" He was about to say 'my head', but Midorikawa silenced him with a meaningful look.

"No idioms, remember? No matter how smart you are, save it for after this crisis." Midorikawa said smugly.

"O-kay?" Aphrodi finished tying his ponytail and set his hands down by his sides. "So, should we continue our chase?"

The two cats were standing still, sniffing the air. Kariya-the-scaredy-cat was wedged in between them. Tsurugi-the-cat jerked his head in the direction of the sphere, as if to say, 'Move it, slowcoaches!'

They started off again, trudging wearily. Midorikawa followed the cats, leading them all.

"If I'm getting this correct, we're supposed to cooperate with Sain and Deasta to catch the sphere, right?" Midorikawa started babbling on, rambling, and saying meaningless things to fill the gap of silence between the search groups.

Kurama rolled his eyes. "He sure can talk the hind legs off a donkey."

"Drat," muttered Minamisawa in a low voice. He nudged Kurama. "Look what you've done!"

A purplish light passed over Midorikawa's eyes. He opened his mouth. "You're cool as a cucumber," he nodded at Minamisawa.

Minamisawa turned into a giant cucumber with limbs and a horrified expression on his 'face'. "What did he just say?" Minamisawa gurgled.

The sphere, apparently, had taken a liking to the more chaotic part of Kurama's hastily spouted idiom. Midorikawa began sprouting nonsensical idioms.

"This is getting real bad." Sain stared into the sky, as idiomatic chaos appeared all around them.

Hope you liked this chapter... The next chapter should be the last one, if there are no casualities...

J: What do you mean casualities?

It means me torturing the IE cast more! Mwahahaha~

J: Reviews?