Jade was merely returning a book when he heard the hiss of an angry Riddle. Interest piqued, he followed the sound to find a sight that brought his predatory nature to the forefront. Riddle had been pinned by a particularly dense alleycat, one who made it clear his intentions were less than pure. Leona would likely have the fool's head once alerted, but that did nothing to protect Riddle now.
Well, far be it for him to ignore a classmate in need. Jade had a particularly sinister smirk on his face as he was already planning on how to use this to his advantage later.
Azul wasn't the only one to notice how Riddle's behavior had changed since the 'incident' during the first week. It had changed even more after that stranger had gone into Heartsabyl...one that had looked remarkably like a taller, green-eyed version of Riddle.
Jade was within range to scare the alleycat when the most unexpected thing happened.
Riddle had recently developed a rather odd habit of literally spitting fire since his return during break. He had managed to get it under control, but it still fascinated the other students...and alarmed a few others. The alleycat had likely cornered Riddle in the library to avoid that scenario, because the rule abiding teen would never forgive himself for damaging the books.
What came out of Riddle's mouth wasn't a curse or fire, but ice. Jade was absolutely fascinated, as Riddle accidentally froze the older, taller teen into an ice statue.
Closer inspection the other teen was alive, but he wasn't going anywhere before the teachers and Leona got to him first.
Jade saw how drained Riddle was from the strange new ability he had awakened. He didn't hesitate...he corralled the smaller teen out of the library and to the lounge to recover from the event.
Floyd was on them in an instant the second he realized Jade was leading Riddle to an empty seat.
"What happened?" asked Azul, pushing up his glasses.
"An alleycat from Savanaclaw attempted to accost Riddle in the library," said Jade. Azul's eyes hardened at that. "However it seems Riddle is still full of surprises. There's now a rather ugly statue in the library."
"He turned the other student into stone?" said Azul incredulous.
"Ice," said Riddle absently.
Azul's eyebrows shot up at that, and he went to go see for himself leaving Jade and Floyd in charge. Riddle was still somewhat shaken up from the event.
"You seem rather alarmed from what just happened," said Jade, smiling as mysteriously as usual.
Floyd was more irritated someone had tried to stake their claim on his goldfishie like that. If Leona didn't teach the idiot a lesson, then Floyd might have to pay the alleycat a little...visit...later. He was sure Jade would be nice enough to point him out.
Riddle gathered his usual bluster once Trey arrived, and left for his own dorm.
One week later...
Azul looked at the report Jade had given him, more than a little disturbed.
"You two haven't taken it upon yourself to have a little...chat...with that fool from Savanaclaw, have you?" he asked seriously.
"We haven't had a chance," said Jade.
"Yeah, there's always too many of Goldfishie's dorm around to have a proper...talk...with the guy," said Floyd irritated.
"Trey and Cater would likely look the other way, knowing them," said Azul.
"No, we mean the other members of the dorm," said Jade.
Azul stared at him.
"Pretty sure Crabby and Macky are among the ones roughing up the alleycat," said Floyd. "Crabby was late to basketball twice this week, and he looked like he had been roughed up a bit."
Azul stared at them both.
"You're telling me the Heartsabyl dorm has taken it upon themselves to avenge their housewarden?" said Azul incredulous. He didn't know Trey had it in him to pull something like this, or Cater for that matter. Riddle was too rule abiding to risk it.
He was rather eager for tomorrow's housewarden meeting now.
The moment everyone had sat down to discuss the usual business, Leona spoke up.
"Alright you teapot tyrant. Why has your dorm been hunting one of mine for the past week?" demanded Leona.
Riddle froze, not expecting that. Seeing the open interest of the other dorm heads, as his dorm hadn't exactly been discreet, Riddle winced.
"You should have asked what he was thinking when he accosted me in the library last week," he said angrily. "He made it clear he wasn't exactly interested in studying when he pinned me against the wall like that."
That got everyone's attention.
"Are you saying he planned to assault you in the library?" said Vil aghast.
"He made it abundantly clear he wasn't going to take no for an answer, and used the fact I wouldn't want to damage the books with my fire," said Riddle angrily. That pissed Leona off immensely.
"Wait...then why did Jade say you turned him into an ice statue?" said Azul. That got everyone's attention again.
"Well I couldn't blast him with fire! What else was I supposed to use?" said Riddle. "It's not like I carry seeds with me everywhere."
"I'm sorry, did you just say that you can now spit ice on top of fire?" said Vil in disbelief.
Riddle looked incredibly agitated and clearly wanted to drop it.
"I asked my mother, and apparently my sire has a strong ice-ancestry in his bloodline," said Riddle. "I got my fire from him as well, which was part of the reason why he was kicked out of his family besides the fact he was born male."
Leona was clearly pissed that one of his own had attacked another student, especially someone like Riddle. He might be a lazy bastard, but he had standards and that was one thing he didn't tolerate.
A few hours later...
Ruggie looked to Leona when he came back from the meeting.
"Well? Did you find out why that stupid alleycat has been coming back looking like something that got dragged in?" he asked. It was something of a mystery that most of the dorm wanted to know the reason.
All they could figure out was that the Heartsabyl dorm, which they had dismissed as annoying but harmless, had taken a page out of Leona's book and had surrounded the student in question before discreetly beating the shit out of him. The others had blocked the view and there were no witnesses, but it was clear the alleycat had pissed someone off.
It was even more baffling that even the freshmen were in on it.
Leona smirked.
"Seems the alleycat picked the worst person to target out of the dorm," said Leona. "Dumbass tried to assault Riddle in the library, didn't take into account the tyrant has his entire dorm as his fanclub."
Ruggie stared at him.
"Wait...he attacked Riddle, and the entire dorm took it upon themselves to get revenge? Didn't know the runt had it in him."
"That's the thing, Riddle didn't order it," said Leona. "Kid's too rule abiding to pull something like this off."
Once Vil had the entire story, he had shuddered slightly and had commented about fan clubs sometimes being rabid. Most of the school knew by now that the Heartsabyl dorm were infatuated with their housewarden, but no one had realized it was this bad.
Leona wouldn't be surprised if Trey had taken a picture of the dumbass who attacked the tyrant and had left his dorm to 'settle' matters their own way.
Either way the alleycat now flinched whenever he even looked in Riddle's general direction, or anyone from that dorm.
~*~*~*
Kurama had a rather wicked grin on his face. Learning Hiei had been looking for his twin explained a lot. He was disappointed the fiery swordsman didn't out himself as the brother Yukina had been searching for right off, considering how passionate he was about rescuing her.
Which was why he felt a small nudge was in order. Besides, he had been eager to spring this on Hiei for two months now.
"While I can't tell you where your twin is, I do know where your niece is."
Yukina looked very startled at his words. Hiei, however was staring daggers at him as shock filled his features.
"My...niece?" she repeated.
"She's about seventeen now. I ran into your brother some time ago and let's just say there was copious amounts of strong liquor involved. I highly doubt he even remembers that night," said Kurama. There was no trace of a lie in his eyes. "I only recently found where our daughter disappeared to, so if you are interested I can introduce you two."
Yukina perked up at that.
The second she was out of earshot however, Hiei spoke up.
"Alyssa is my daughter?" he hissed.
Kurama looked at him smiling.
"I didn't want to say anything, but if you're going to be recalcitrant about telling your own twin who you are..."
"Why didn't you tell me before?!" demanded Hiei.
"Because she's been through enough already, and I only recently got her back. I didn't want to spring the fact that her father was so close as well," said Kurama.
Hiei was spitting nails, he was that mad.
"What do you mean 'been through enough'?" demanded Hiei.
Kurama's eyes hardened.
"The fool who mortally wounded me to the point I jumped bodies apparently mistook her for a human infant and adopted her with his wife. They quickly realized their error, but his wife took it upon herself to train her new son into becoming a perfect doll for her own ego. If the headmage of that school hadn't had her arrested for abuse because of some anti-demon artifact she had been using on Alyssa, then I would have killed the woman myself, Koenma be damned."
Hiei was silent, as it was clear Kurama was very pissed about the matter. If the human authorities hadn't taken her into custody, he had little doubt the fox would have made the woman's death as slow, painful and calculated as possible. She would have wished for death long before it actually came for her and that was if Kurama was feeling merciful.
Hiei did glower at Kuwabara, who had a rather obvious crush on his twin sister. No way in hell was he allowing that human to date Yukina. He'd sooner gut the teen.
Too bad he was still on probation, otherwise he would have likely gone to the island himself to see Alyssa.
Two weeks later...
Riddle had a mild fever, and was going to the nurse's station to get some medicine. The man had already left for vacation for the next two weeks, but a replacement had been hired rather quickly. It was a young woman that he had barely taken notice of besides the fact she wore very traditional clothing and was mild mannered. He was sure her qualifications were up to code, if the headmage was so quick to hire her.
The second he entered the infirmary, his nose flared. He could smell the scent of medicinal herbs being mixed, and the oddly comforting hint of wintergreen mixed with a warm hearth. There was a subtle chill of ice as well, but he barely noticed it.
He barely noticed when the nurse, who's name was Yukina, had her hand on his forehead. It was very soothing.
"You should take a nap. That will give me some time to mix up a quick remedy to bring your temperature down," she said, with a warm, comforting smile. Her scent was oddly soothing, despite the odd chill to her hands.
After some consideration, he decided to shift into his kitsune form to prevent any notion of impropriety later. He was well aware of how his fellow students would likely view any attention from the rather pretty nurse.
He completely missed the wide eyed expression on the woman's face, and curled up on the bed to take a nap.
Yukina put her hand to her face in surprise. Kurama had warned her that her niece would likely be unaware of her coming...he had neglected to say anything about her hiding her gender.
She gently pulled the covers over the small fox, which looked so frail and tiny. It would be easy to pull the small kit into her lap, but that could wait until proper introductions were made.
She mixed the potion up, and waited for Riddle to be awake long enough to properly take it. He was still too groggy to make the long trek back to his dorm, so she bundled him up in a blanket. She was vaguely aware of which dorm to carry him to.
Everyone on the staff was aware of the...incident...in the library and wanted to avoid a repeat.
Yukina calmly walked down the hallways, greeting the occasional student. Riddle began to stir in her arms, as the medicine started to take effect in lowering his mild fever.
She ran into Cater halfway to the mirrors.
"What you got there, Yukina-sensei?" he asked.
Riddle's nose popped out of the blankets.
"I didn't want the poor thing to sleep in the infirmary," said Yukina.
Cater blinked, but grinned at her.
Riddle was a bit more awake now, and didn't appreciate being carried in a blanket. So with a bit of maneuvering, he was able to scamper onto Yukina's shoulder instead. Fortunately she didn't seem to mind overly much.
Seeing the temporary nurse walk into their dorm with their housewarden across her shoulders like an odd scarf, the students all stared.
As if in agreement, the Heartsabyl dorm adopted the odd nurse as one of their own after seeing that.