"How does life come to this?" Daisuke asked as he stood out front of the gates of Sakura's Boarding School for Girls. "You try to do the world good, and you get sent to a girl's boarding school? Life doesn't make much sense anymore."
He carried his three suitcases into the gates. The school was built nice, and had a nice location. It was located far into the hill of evergreens, and Daisuke saw either light smoke, or heavy steam coming out of multiple places around here. Perhaps this was located around a small volcano. Anyway, the school looked like it was built recently. The schoolyard had marbled floor. This school did not cost Daisuke's father just a couple yen out of pocket, that was for sure. Fountains were scattered around the compass. From the time he got in, and the time he found the office, he saw thirteen large fountains spraying and soothing the soul a little.
When he fond the office, he walked in with hesitation. He knew that the moment he went through those doors, life would never be the same. He hit walked through the front doors and looked around. It was classy. Such as Greek marble, beige colored, and light brown walls with pictures and drawing from modern and ancient times hanging on the walls. There had been many secretaries at row of tables that lined up from one end of the room to the other. Daisuke walked up to one of them and stood in front of the desk until the woman realized he was standing there, and gave him her attention.
"Hi." Daisuke said. "I'm Hiromushu Daisuke. I was sent here for–" Daisuke was interrupted by the woman's smile. It was overly happy, that it gave off a creepy look. Daisuke looked around, seeing if there was any reason she was smiling. He didn't find anything, and looked back at her.
"Yes, Ms. Hamura is expecting you. Please, follow me."
The two walked down the hall until they appeared at a doorway. A woman was on the phone, talking in a language Daisuke couldn't very well pick up on. The only thing he understood was the word "sushi". From the heavy kicking from her tongue, Daisuke guessed it was English. When she got off the phone, the secretary gentle pushed Daisuke to the room, and he stood in front of the desk.
"Ms. Hamura? The boy is here?"
Ms. Hamura turned her chair around. She was only in her late twenties at most. She had long blond hair and blue eyes, and her skin was tanned. She held out her hand to shake, and Daisuke noticed that her nails were extended my fake nails. Daisuke shook it, a little creeped out, but he hid his fear.
"Hi. Welcome to Sakura's all girl school." She said. Her accent reeked with an American accent. But she had a Japanese last name, didn't she? Daisuke was a little confused. "So," Ms. Hamura said as she leaned back in her large swivel chair. "You're the homosexual from Tokyo?" she looked deep into his eyes, and neither of them said anything for a moment. "Are you sure your gay? You pretty straight to me."
"Yes ma'am. I am straight. My father… he thinks that because the, uh… psychiatrist–" he stuttered again. He knew lying about lying would make it a little easier keeping his profile under wraps. Ms. Hamura interrupted him.
"I've heard enough. I was just kidding." She said, smiling slyly. "I was born and raised in San Francisco. You know about the rumor, there, right? Besides, nobody knows you here. You don't have to worry about anything. You don't have anything to hide because there's nothing we expect from you than to be you."
"Excuse me for talking out of place, but the girls are okay with me being here?"
"They're actually excited." She said.
"Excited?"
"Yeah. Do you know how few gays there are here in Japan? Besides, these girls haven't been out of the school for the last three quarters. They haven't seen a male in months."
Daisuke nodded, showing he understood. Daisuke felt a long paused, and decided to look around. Her room was full of things from both America and Japan. She had a couple movies in which had characters in English he couldn't read.
"Do you know another reason why you were sent here?" she asked, and Daisuke's attention went back to her. He shook his head. Him being gay was the only reason he thought he was here. "Your dad wants you to 'straighten' up. Pun included."
"He wants me to be… er, I mean act, straight?" he pretended to see his mistake. "I mean–"
"You know you don't have anything to hide, Daisuke."
Daisuke wondered how stupid people were nowadays. Everybody believed in the fact that he was gay. His mother had always suggested that he took theater. He had never thought about it, but now he realized he could pretty good at it. Daisuke shrugged his shoulders, and stared at the floor. His eyes remained on Ms. Hamura, and her eyes looked up and down at him, examining him. Her grin stayed on her face.
Ms. Hamura looked through her desk until she pulled out a piece of paper, and handed it to Daisuke.
"This is your schedule for this semester."
"Third semester?" Daisuke asked as he looked at the paper for a while.
"Yes. We're an all year around school. As a boarding school we have to be better than the public. So we thought that the only way to do that was to make this an all year school. You get some vacations. The next one coming up is spring break, which is two and half weeks."
"How long is that from now?"
"About a month and two days from now. Plenty of time for you to get to know people and the place around here."
"Is there anything else?" Daisuke asked, finished looking at his paper.
"No. At least nothing I can do. Your teachers will help you with the rest of your stay. Good luck."
Daisuke started to leave, but Ms. Hamura called his name. He turned around to see her with a devious look on her face.
"The girls around here…" she paused. She did the same thing that Dr. Hiru had done.
"What about them?" Daisuke asked.
"Their personalities are a little… diverse."
"What's that suppose to mean."
"If I told you, it would ruin the surprise." And then she shooed him out of her room, and closed the door. Daisuke stood at the door wondering what that meant for a while before he went to his dorm.
The campus was larger than Daisuke had given it credit. Trees were planted everywhere, and you could see the large buildings, but from the look of it, they were all academic buildings. After a couple of minutes he finally found the dorms. But on his way, he saw the tennis courts, the swimming pool, basket ball courts, baseball field, debating buildings, language and Grammar building, and the lunch hall.
Daisuke looked down the halls at all the umbers that hung on the doors until he found his dorm. When he opened the door, it was smaller than he thought it was going to be for a dorm. It was around the same size as his room. He thought that with the same size, he would be able to be comfortable in this place. Plus, there was a balcony out of the window, big enough to store three or four chairs with a small table. As he stood on the porch, he could see that beyond the trees that stood in front of his dorm, maybe twenty yards away, there was one of the areas with the large steam.
Daisuke walked back inside and looked at his schedule and the school handbook. He was going to have to wake up at seven in the morning to go to breakfast an hour later. How long did he usually take a guy to get ready for breakfast? He still had forty-five minutes to sleep in. After breakfast, he had twenty minutes to find his Japanese Literature class. After that, he had a half hour break to just hang out. After that, he went to Japanese History, which gave him another break afterwards. Following that was English. Daisuke never thought he would learn English, but since the principal had grown up using it, it was only natural to learn this. After English, Daisuke had lunch at three o'clock. After lunch, he had a two-hour PE class. Then he returned at nine at night for cram school, which had Pre-Calculus.
Daisuke was surprised about how crammed the schedule had been. He hardly had time to do his homework. Maybe he would do it during every break, lunch, and breakfast. It seemed like the only logical thing to do.
Daisuke looked around his room, and he noticed something strange. There was a piece of plywood on the floor, and when he removed it, he saw a hole, big enough for a body to slip through. He thought it would both be weird having, but also useful if there was some kind of emergency and was an easy way to get down.
Daisuke had felt a presence at that moment and looked out his window. Heading toward the steam, he saw a demon. Heh. So that's what the steam was. It was some sort of place that demons met. It made sense to Daisuke; demons liked dark and damp places, usually. Daisuke got on his balcony and leaped off the second story, and followed the demon.
But when Daisuke got to the place where he had seen the demon last go into, he didn't see anything. He looked around, but nothing was there. He thought maybe he had seen things when he thought he saw the demon. But then a large demonic force was sensed above Daisuke, and when he looked up, he saw a demon fall from the trees, and leaped out of the way. The ground exploded, probably with some sort of demonic attack. Daisuke snapped his fingers and grabbed his Spiritual sword. The demon had started to slowly circle around, like a cat. It was dark like the one in Tokyo, but instead of taking shape of a person, it did take shape of a lion or tiger. It's eyes pierced Daisuke's eyes. It was different a little. It seemed smarter than the others he fought (Besides the demon from the roof).
The demon leaped toward Daisuke and tried striking, but Daisuke repelled the attack. As soon as Daisuke fought the demon's momentum off of him, the demon made way to the trees again. Daisuke quickly followed it, and was only a couple of seconds behind it. When the demon realized he wasn't losing Daisuke by climbing, it leaped out of the tree, trying to get away. But Daisuke jumped only momentarily after the demon, and at a quicker pace. Daisuke grabbed the demon, and pulled it down to the ground. As they fell, Daisuke cocked his arm back, ready for an attack.
At first, Daisuke was expecting to hit soft, wet earth, but instead he saw water. This was placed to his advantage. He was an excellent swimmer, where as a demon wasn't, usually. The moment that the two hit the water, Daisuke had stabbed the demon, making it disintegrated like usual. The weird thing was, this demon was easier than most demons were. It was obvious. It was weaker than the weakest one he had ever fought was. Daisuke felt that it was smarter than it acted.
Daisuke noticed the floor under the water wasn't past his thigh line. He could sit on his knees and still be past his shoulders. And the water was strangely warm, and not hot. When he looked around him, though, he realized something. Something horrible. In a perfect circle, all around him, Daisuke had found seventeen shocked and scared female faces. Their bodies were either not clothed or in towels. Daisuke realized where he was now: the girl's hot springs.
"You girls wouldn't exactly know where there's a spring for guys, would ya?" he tried joking his way out of it.
When Daisuke noticed that the girls were grabbing heavy, but easy to throw object, his eye twitched a little.
"PERVERT!" screams filled the halls.
Daisuke ran down the halls while objects continued to be thrown towards him. So far, a hair dryer, three combs and a pot (?) had met with his head. Even though he ran outside the dorms, the girls still chased him with their towels barely hanging onto their bodies. Daisuke ran with all his might, not knowing anything about where he was going. Eventually, he cornered himself between a wall of trees with no separation in between.
"Halt, pervert!" a girl called. Everyone, including Daisuke, was panting from running so much.
A girl had made way through the crowd of girls, and she looked the angriest. She must have been the ringleader of this. Every school had one. The girl who everybody like, and she tried doing good things, but she sometimes didn't see things the way they really were, and jumped to concussions too soon.
"Who the hell are you, pervert." The leader asked.
The leader had long black, silky hair that ran to her shoulders. Her eyes were a strange emerald green color. Even though it wasn't his intention, Daisuke couldn't help but notice that she had the largest chest out of the visible group.
"My name is Daisuke. I'm the new student here." He tried explaining, saying it in a way that had made sure the girls didn't attack him.
"Yeah, right." The girl said. "This is an all girl school. Who the hell do you think we are? The retarded school?"
"Isn't there suppose to be a gay kid coming to our school soon?" a girl asked the leader.
"Shut up!" she whispered loudly. "We can't have him taking excuses!"
"But I really am the gay kid from Tokyo! Is swear!"
"It must be him." A girl said. "We never said he was from suppose to come from Tokyo."
"I don't know…" the leader said looking at him. "What's your dorm number."
"Number seventy-eight in the Jade building."
"Really?" the leader asked. "That's right above my room. Can you tell me anything peculiar about that room?"
"There's a whole covered by plywood that peeks down to your room. That's all I really saw in there."
The leader looked at the girls with a semi-suspicious look. The girls whispered a moment, and then all looked at Daisuke.
"Fine. It seems that your story checks out… for now. But, I swear, if you do any funny business…" she left a pause for him to use his imagination.
"Don't worry I won't." he said.
There was a silence, and eventually, Daisuke's attention couldn't be innocent anymore. He started to blush a little and he stared at the ground, and the leader noticed it.
"What are you blushing about?"
"Do you girls mind… you know… getting some clothes on? I'm a bit disturbed."
"My god." The leader scoffed. "He really is gay." And the girls started to walk away. Before they left, he head, "But it's better than a pervert."
Daisuke sighed, and he couldn't believe he had gotten away with what just happened. His luck was usually never that good. Daisuke thought that he should head to his room before anything else happened.
Daisuke didn't have to attend any classes until the next morning, but he still was forced to go to dinner. The dinner hall was made entire of redwood, and gave off a "campish" influence to the area. It was large, and the room was a dome, standing about twenty-five feet.
Daisuke ate by himself, examining the girls around. The aroma of this place was really different from the public school. It smelt nice. But public and private schools had one thing in common: meatloaf. Daisuke stared at his in disgust, and looked at it. His stomach growled, begged, for food. But he didn't want to fulfill his stomach with crap. He had no other choice though. It was either eat this, or starve. He took a fork full, and looked at it with even more childish disgust. His face scrunched and a long, "Ew" flowed out of his mouth. But when he sniffed its smell, it smelt nothing like the one back at his old school. It smelt pretty decent. He stuck out his tongue and touched it quickly, before retreating. He smacked his lips, wondering if it was good or not. The texture was rough, a little too much. Before he had finished thinking he didn't like it, a giant bomb of spices had exploded in his mouth, making him grab a napkin, and spit it out. It was far too flavorful, which was just the opposite problem at his old school.
As he spit into his napkin, he heard a laughter behind him. Not a making-fun laughter, but a hearty, warm kind. He turned around to see a young woman, a couple years younger than the principal. Her hair was dyed deep red, almost a violet. Red like a deep pool of blood, the very middle of it all. She smiled. Her eyes were violet, another unusual color. She had a tray in one hand, and books underneath the other arm.
"You must be the new student." She said when he looked at her.
"Yes. I'm Hiromushu Daisuke." He bowed.
"Mrs. Tsyuyaku." She said, slightly nodding her head. Since she was far more superior than he was, she didn't need to bow at all, but rather wave or nod. "You're English teacher." She added.
"I thought your name sounded familiar." He said.
"Yeah. Welcome to the school, by the way. I'm hoping you'll have a good two years here."
Two years? He thought. I thought I was only going to stay here for a couple of months! Two years? How the heck am I suppose to survive without a male influence? If I stay here too long, I may actually turn gay!
"If there are any questions, just let me know." she said as she started to walk away.
"Actually," Daisuke said, and waited for her to face him again. When he got her attention, he looked at the girl who had been the leader of the pack of girls who hunted him today. She had been only a couple of tables down. "I'd like to know who that girl is."
"The one with the emerald eyes? Her name is Hotomutsu Yuri. I heard about you two today. Not the greatest way to get her to get to know you."
"Why? Why is there a problem with her?"
"Well, Yuri has trouble getting to believe and try to get to know males. She had an issue with one back at home pretty often. She thinks they're all out to get her. But other than that, she's strong-willed, independent, and has a dangerous right hook."
"Right hook?" Daisuke asked.
"The girl's first in her clubs. Kendo, fencing, boxing, lacrosse, and art."
"Art?" Daisuke asked, accidentally letting his surprise escape with the words.
"Yeah. For the violent girl she is, she's a great sketch artist. Sometimes she heads out into the hills and just draw birds that are there. I swear, it's like she takes black and white photographs and plasters them on paper. They're that good."
"Any advice you haven't given already?"
"Well, since you are a guy, you might be dense, so let me clear something up I said earlier. When I said she had a dangerous right hook, I pretty much mean stay out of her way." Mr. Tsyuyaku left, grinning a devious smile that looked both dangerous, yet playful at the same time. She walked and Daisuke wondered if she was joking or not. Not that it mattered. How dangerous could she be? Daisuke was a Demon Hunter of course. Nothing stronger than he hadn't seen before. But before another thought could be made up, Daisuke's stomach growled again. He wanted to look for something else to eat.
At the other table, the girls saw Daisuke walk away from the table, and then looked at each other. They were wondering what kind of person he was and what he was doing. There were four other girl's in the group other than Yuri.
There was Fujibyoshi Deíji, the silent observer. Deíji was a bookworm and loved reading and studying. Her hair was the color of a plum, and the girls thought that any guy who didn't find that attractive was crazy. Her hair only reached a couple inches above her shoulders. She hardly ever spoke, unless others expected her to. She was pushed around a little in the beginning of the year, but that's when Yuri came in and saved her. Ever since, the two had been best of friends.
Second was Hatamashi Kori. She was the one who liked to keep things a little more on the light, and hysteric side. If the mood ever felt low, and the others didn't exactly feel in the mood, Kori usually took care of that. She had long black hair, which she usually kept tied with a double tied ponytail and a headband. She was the tallest one in the group, about the same height as Daisuke. Kori had known Yuri from their neighborhood. Their mothers had been friends, but they had their differences in the past, now they were almost alike.
The third girl was Monohatsu "Momo" Umi. Momo was the hyper one. And she was a challenger. If she felt anybody was challenging her, she took on the challenge, and usually one. She tried to be the best in everything that didn't have to do with math or science. Even if Japanese, she'll try to write the best essay. Even though she was only thirteen. She was freshman, who was skipped a grade ahead. The first day she came here, she wouldn't let Yuri go. She fired questions at Yuri like a machine gun fired bullets. Before Yuri could answer the first two, Momo had reached question thirteen. The only way Yuri could think of to shut her up was asking her to hang out with her someday with her and her friends. Mom was part of the group ever since.
The last one was Raine Mayberry. She was an Australian from Albany who took Japanese courses since fifth grade, and was top of her classes. When she grew bored of Japanese, she demanded that she took Japanese to a whole new level: by going to Japan for high school and collage. She was a gothic smoker who hardly spoke. But she had given the group an edge. Nobody had messed with her. She was said to be Yuri's equal in all the clubs that had to do with physical contact. But the thing she was the best in was kendo, which she trained with since second grade, where Yuri started in sixth.
The group still looked at Daisuke, until he left. He walked out of the room, and he made a right at the corner. He was heading to his dorm. As soon as they lost sight of him, they sat back down in the chairs in a circle.
"I still don't like him." Yuri said.
"Oh, c'mon, Yuri." Kori said with a smile. "We no nothing about him. Shouldn't we give a chance? You know, get to know him?"
"Do you really trust that creep, Kori? He saw us either in a towel or nude. How do you explain that?"
"It was an accident. He fell out of the trees."
"And what was he doing in a tree next to the gate of the hot springs?"
"You don't trust anybody, do you?" Kori asked.
"How can I, after what happened to me?"
"What's in the past is in the past. I know it may have scarred you for life, but can't you think of that person, and not blame that on somebody you don't even know. You're prejudice."
"I still don't like him." Yuri said.
"You didn't like me at first, either." Momo said, eating a buttered biscuit.
"That's not–"
"Yeah it is! I could tell with the way you kept walking faster and the way you looked. You didn't like me at first. And now look, I eat with your guys and help you with your homework every night."
"You don't help that much." Yuri said, trying not to look stupid compared to a thirteen year old. Momo smiled. She knew that she helped a lot for them. But Momo had to hand it to them. The stuff they were taking wasn't easy. Pre-Cal wasn't a loved class.
"So, what do you plan to do with him?" Raine asked, her gloomy plastered on her face, as usual.
"I don't know." Yuri said. "If you guys want me to give him a second chance, I guess I could, you know, get to know him."
"I think that might be best." Deíji said, quietly
"So, who's going to talk to him?" Yuri said. And she regretted saying it. At that moment, everyone starting to look at her. "What?" she asked.
"Well, you are the one who wants to dislike him the most." Kori said.
"And you are the one who needs to trust men more." Deíji added.
"Don't be such a wimp." Raine said.
"It would be nice to have another friend." Momo added with another bite to eat.
"Alright, alright. I'll talk to him first thing in the morning." She said. She picked up her tray that held a plate full of small leftovers, and started to walk away.
"Where are you going?" Kori asked.
"Just heading to my dorm to take a shower before we hit cram school."
"So, we'll see you in Pre-Cal, right?" Momo asked.
"Yeah. See you guys later."
An arrow made way next to thirteen others in a tree with a small target. Daisuke was on his balcony, reloading his spiritual bow. He needed the practice. He hadn't done any practice since this afternoon, and it wasn't too much of a practice. It was just, well, easy. He needed to keep in shape in his hunter form, otherwise he could easily be taken over, like he was on the rooftop. It was a simple, and obvious mistake, a mistake that you would think would be needing thinking. But Daisuke was too determined to even see the edge. He needed to learn to still stay entwined with the things that happened outside of the fight. Another arrow was shot, and hit a bull's-eye. He reloaded and shot quickly as he could, maybe less than two seconds, and it hit the edge of the target, farthest away from anything he wanted done. He still need work on reloading quickly and firing while maintaining a good aim. He wasn't even fighting a demon, or running around, which was going to throw off his aim a lot. He needed a lot of work to do.
Daisuke let the bow to disappear, and headed back into his room. He gently closed the window door behind him. He sat on his bed and looked at a picture that stood on the nightstand next to his bed. It was a photo of Daisuke's last family picnic. Everyone- his father, his mother and himself- looked happy. Daisuke smiled at the memories, but then realized that's exactly what they had been: memories. Things that weren't going to come back, ever.
All of the sudden, Daisuke felt a very powerful wave of demonic aura. He sat up, trying to pin point where it was. When he realized where it was, his body froze. It was downstairs, right below him: in Yuri's room. Then, Daisuke had heard a female shrill from the same place. Daisuke removed the plywood, and stuck his head from to below to make sure she was okay.
"Are you okay?" he asked as his head entered.
Daisuke and Yuri froze as they're eyes met. Yuri held a broom, and there had been a dead, large spider on the floor. She was in a bath towel, barely clasping to her chest, and hardly covering her backside. When the two realized the Daisuke was seeing something he shouldn't, Daisuke's face had been the next victim of the broom. With a loud THWACK!, Daisuke removed his head out of the hole as he rubbed his face. There had been scattered red places on his face, which stung like crazy.
"And stay up there, Baka!" she yelled, shoving a large pot that fit perfectly in the place. Why did all these pots come to the possession of girls who wanted to hurt him?
Daisuke couldn't believe that had just happened. And he just noticed that when his head peeked, the demonic aura vanished. And he saw Yuri, standing there with her breasts… Daisuke shook the thought out of his head.
All these bad things were happening because he was being careless. And then he realized something. It was all due to demons. The rooftop, the hot springs, and just now. All three had to do with demons. And so did Daisuke's mother's death. Why had demons come out and attack them at the most random times. Was it something in his bloodline that had made demons hate him? He didn't know, but he was going to find out eventually. As for now, he thought he should head to Pre-Cal.
"I can't believe I overslept! And on the first day!" Daisuke cried as he ran along the hallways.
He overslept for breakfast. Sure, it was breakfast, and it was his own fault if he went hungry, but it was his first actual day, and he didn't want to be late for anything. He looked around, not seeing anyone. That's when he decided it would be okay to use his training skills. He leaped onto a balcony, and then a roof. He quickly ran across and transferred from roof to roof, and exchanged into trees once in a while, until a half a minute later, he was in front of the breakfast hall. He sighed, and straightened his uniform out. It was a navy blue, unbuttoned jacket with beige pants and a plain white shirt showing and tie. It had used to be the old principal's uniform, who had been Daisuke's size. The old Principal was also the founder of this school, and Mr. Hamura's father.
Daisuke walked through the doors, and headed towards a line that had been pretty short compared to lines for places in Tokyo. He stood in line for no more than two minutes, and quickly picked what he wanted to eat, paid, and sat down in an empty table. He had started eating, when he noticed a shadow behind him, drawing closer. Then, out of the corner of his eye, Daisuke had seen a hand draw a seat. When he turned his head, he saw Yuri sitting next to him. Her eyes were closed, and her nose was in the air, as if she was more superior than he was.
"Uh…hi?" Daisuke said, not sure what to say to her.
"I'm sitting here to prove my friends wrong, and no other reason, so don't get any ideas you, got that?" she said.
"Yeah…sure." He said, not knowing what she meant by proving her friends wrong, but if that's what she wanted, it was fine with him.
He continued to eat, but he noticed from the corner of his eye, Yuri's eyes were on him, and he finally stopped slipping the spoon in his mouth, almost taking another bite, but looked at her instead.
"Can I help you with something?" he asked.
"No, nothing…" she said, obviously lying.
"Okay." He said, continuing to eat. But before he could take that bite, she lifted her hands, as if saying she wanted to say something. He dropped his spoon and looked at her. "What?" he said in a tone that could've been nicer.
"Where were you born?"
"Kogashima." He said, answering her question, and waited for more, but none came. Until after he tried eating again.
"Have you ever been held back a year?" she asked.
"No. Why? Do I look dumb?"
"Not too much." She said, meanly. "You look older than you are." She then said simply.
"Any other questions."
"Are you really gay?"
"That's for you to decide." He said, and he stood up and threw his food away. He was hungry, but he didn't want to answer these questions. Something was up, as if she was planning on asking him these questions for a while. She looked kind of angry last night for his accidentally peeking on her.
"Hey, you don't walk away from me." She said, quickly following. He sighed, and slowed down. It was obvious that she wouldn't give up until she asked and got all her questions out of her system and got them answered.
"What do you want?" he said, feigning stupidity of her actions. He knew exactly what she wanted. Answers. But what kind, was his question.
"How long have you lived in Tokyo?"
"We moved to Tokyo when I was four. I lived in Kogashima the entire time until then." He said, not hiding his stress, but she pressed on.
"What's your favorite sport?"
"I don't like sports." He said. He was being perfectly honest about each and every question. Mainly because if she did find a lie, that would mean she would have to come back and make sure he told the truth.
"What do you like to do, then?"
"I usually hang out with my friends, or go out by myself."
"Would you consider yourself a self-preserved person."
"I guess you could call me that." He said, his tone a little gentler. He looked at her, and she looked like she was processing all of this down into her memory bank in her mind. She didn't speak for a while, but still followed him.
"Anything else you want to ask?" Daisuke asked.
"No. I think I have everything. Thanks." She walked away, and Daisuke shook his head, wondering why it had to be so long, and why she cut out in such a random spot in the conversation.
Daisuke's day had been pretty easy as it came to classes. But there was one weird thing, in every single class, Yuri was in it, and with only one of her friends. But it was never the same friend in any of the classes. In Literature, it was Yuri and Deíji, in History, it was Yuri and Rose, and now it was Yuri and Kori. What was worse was the fact he was stuck in between Yuri and her friend in every class as well. On both sides of him, he could feel a weird aura of hate flowing, but he never bothered to look at any of them.
At the moment, Mrs. Tsyuyaku hadn't come into the classroom yet, so the girls made side conversation. It had been made from eating to the latest Negumi episode. Daisuke couldn't help but chuckle to himself. Negumi was a show about a young wizard trying to pass wizard school. To pass, he had to do good deeds, so he ends up being a ten-year teacher at an all girls school. And nobody knew, or learn, that he was a wizard. It sounded a lot like Daisuke.
As Daisuke looked around, he saw Yuri giving him a look that parents give children when they think they're lying about something. He looked directly at her, thinking she would look away quickly, making sure he didn't see what she was doing. But she didn't. She gave him the exact same look, directly in his eyes.
"What?" he asked.
She didn't rely, but rather kept giving him the look. He looked away, but he could sense her still giving him the look. Before he tell her something he would have regretted later in the future, Mrs. Tsyuyaku had entered the class.
"Hello Class." The teacher said as she came in. Daisuke couldn't understand her in the language she was speaking. He didn't know anything about English. "Please get out your textbooks, and turn to page 101."
Everyone started to get their textbooks, and after a second passed, he thought he should grab his books, and did. He leaned over to see what page they were looking at in Kori's book, and turned to page 101. When he looked inside, it was nothing but a giant sheet of confusion. He had no idea what the characters stood for, or what they were.
"Does anybody have any questions?" Mrs. Tsyuyaku asked, and Daisuke raised his hand. Mrs. Tsyuyaku walked over to Daisuke and leaned in to hear his problem.
"I can't read any of this." He whispered.
"None?" she asked, raising a brow. This was English course 3.
"No. I didn't sign up for this."
"Hmm?" she seemed surprised. "Your father said you were very good in English. He said you could almost speak it fluently."
Is this your way of getting back at me, dad? Daisuke thought.
"I'm sorry, but I've never even seen English and tried understanding it."
"Hmm. Well, I guess we could match you up with the number one student in this class."
"That would be great." Daisuke said with a relived sigh.
"Yuri?" Mrs. Tsyuyaku asked. Oh, god no.
"Yes, Mrs. Tsyuyaku?" she asked in English.
"I'm going to need you to help your new partner here." She said, pointing to Daisuke. He didn't understand a word she said, and it was kind of ticking him off.
"Did I do something wrong?" she asked with a worried face.
"What?"
"Am I being punished. Do I really have to help him?"
"Yes." Mrs. Tsyuyaku said. In unison, Yuri and Daisuke sighed in pain. Neither of them liked each other very much, and now they were going to have to study together for endless hours? Great, they both thought. Just great.
As class let out, Yuri found Daisuke, and grabbed the back of his shirt.
"Okay, we're meeting in my room, seven o'clock until we have to go to Pre-Cal. We're going to do nothing but study, do you understand that. And we're going to study hard."
"Yeah, okay. Can you let me go now?" he said, swapping her hand off his clothes, and continued to walk away.
"You think you can just walk away from me with a fake bad-ass attitude!?" she shouted, but he didn't reply. Man, she thought. This guy's a real pain the ass.
Daisuke didn't think of anything he could do, so he headed to the library. Maybe there was an English-Japanese dictionary somewhere in there. When he walked into the library, his mouth dropped. It had been the largest library he had seen in his entire life. It was three stories tall, and it was filled with shelves, and books were also kept inside the shelves engraved into the walls. There had been a couple dozen computers, which seemed modern, unlike his old school, which had stuff from the nineties.
He slowly walked around, looking in all direction, looking at everything that had enthralled him. He couldn't believe how large it had been. There had been no doubt about the Japanese-English dictionary. When he found the section with the language, he entered down the isle, and saw Deíji a couple of shelves down. The isles were extremely long.
Then, Daisuke saw something in between the books. He saw somebody trying to push over the shelf, and it was starting to tip. It slowly started to fall in the direction that Deíji was standing at, reading her book.
"Look out!" Daisuke cried, and ran as fast as he could, and tackled her out of the way. The shelves came crashing down, and knocked over some other ones. When the banging stopped, Daisuke sighed with relief.
"You okay?" he asked.
"Y-yeah." She seemed a little shaken up. "What happened?"
"It looked like somebody pushed over the shelf." He sensed somebody trying to run out of library. "And I think I see him leaving." He said, getting up and dashing towards the exit.
"But…" she started to say. "I don't see anybody." She said quietly.
Daisuke looked around as he exited the library and saw a person running at his right. Daisuke ran as fast as he could, probably faster than he should show in public, but he didn't care. He ran as fast as he could, until he caught up with the person, and socked them in the head as hard as he could. He could tell that it wasn't a girl, and he demanded to know why a guy was here, and why he was pushing bookshelves on people. The person flew forward a couple feet, and skidded and bounced on the ground. Daisuke punched a little harder than he should have as well. Oops.
When the person had stopped rolling, he slowly sat up, rubbing his head. He was wearing a dark cape and a mage's hat. He was pretty short, or so Daisuke had just realized. And pretty fast for someone that small.
"Some arm, you got there." The person grabbed the person by the collar, shook them once. Daisuke then saw their face. It was weird. It was like a scarecrow, and was pallid purple. His eyes were red, but not hateful. His hair was golden blond, and seemed like it was made out of straw.
"Who the hell are you?" he demanded.
"Relax." The scarecrow said. "I'm with you."
"What are you talking about?"
"You're the demon slayer, Daisuke, right?"
"Who's asking?"
"Well, the Demon Hunter Association thought you could use some help. So, they gave you this."
He showed a small ball of light. It was a mixture of the rainbow colors, and it just floated. It was no larger than the bigger marble.
"What's this?"
Hello Daisuke. Daisuke heard in his head.
"Who said that?"
My name is Gi. I'm your partner from now on. Please program…
"Program?" he asked, and then he looked at the scarecrow. "Who are you?"
"My name is Hatchi. I'm the delivery man for the DHA."
"What's this thing?" he pointed to Gi.
"That is your Demon 411. It gives you any and every information about demons. Their strengths, most the times their weaknesses."
"Most of the time?"
"Some demons are sketchier than others. It may not be able to help you with all weaknesses. Hey, nothing's perfect." Hatchi said when he heard Daisuke's disgusted sigh.
"What else does it tell."
"Well, how strong they are physically, spiritually, what their special is, you know, basic stuff."
"What."
Daisuke: Strength: 110 Spirituality: 84 Special: Close-up combat.
"My strength is 110? What's the highest? 200?"
"No. 1000."
"What? I'm only 11! I know I'm not possibly that weak!"
"Well, the average human's strength is usually a 50, maybe a 55, and their spirituality is usually only a 4 maybe a ten if they're special. You're a whole lot stronger than any person you'll encounter with, unless it's another Demon Hunter."
"What's usually the normal demon percentage?"
"Oh, I'm so glad you asked. Well, demons are divided into levels: F, E, D, C, B, A, and S. S is for superior. You'll hardly see an S demon. F is usually from 1-100, E is 101-200, D is 201-350, C is 351-500, B is 501-700, A is 701 to 900, and S is 900 and beyond."
"What kind of demons have I been fighting."
"Usually F's, but you've seen the occasional E."
"Okay, but what's with this programming?"
"Well, there are questions that it'll ask you, and after the exam, it'll have the personality that suits you, and it'll turn into something of your surroundings. It won't stay this little light bulb forever. It'll be a raccoon, or a quail or somethin'."
"Oh. Well, thanks, Hatchi."
"Hey no problem. If you ever need help, just call me up."
"Okay. Thanks. Oh, wait, by the way…" Daisuke said, and socked Hatchi on the top of the head again.
"What was that for!" Hatchi yelled.
"Why the hell did you drop a book shelf on Deíji! You could've killed her."
"I knew that you would save her. If you didn't, what kind of Demon Hunter would you be?"
Daisuke sighed with frustration, and wondering why that had to do with anything. He started to walk away, and Gi followed him.
"I gotta head to class. I'll see you sometime later, okay?" Daisuke said, right before Hatchi could ask where he was going. This Daisuke kid, Hatchi thought, is going to be one kick-ass demon hunter. Maybe even better than Kagori.
"He what?" Yuri asked flatly as they ate lunch.
"He saved my life." Deíji said. "I was studying for our English test, and all of the sudden, the book case starts falling towards me. Then Daisuke leaped, and tackled me out of the way, and ran away saying he thought he saw the person who pushed the bookshelf."
"Are you sure it wasn't him who pushed it on you?"
"Why can't you trust somebody for once?" Kori asked. "You have major trust issues."
"And you should know why, Kori."
"Eh, barriers of the past, that's all I have to say."
"So, we're having another study buddy now?" Mom asked, shoving another sandwich in her mouth.
"Do you always talk before you're about to eat?" Raine asked, and Momo just smiled, then shoved in, and chewed.
"I won't say he's a buddy, that's for sure. He's just a study partner until he can get the English language."
"So, he'll be with us for the remainder of the year."
"No. It's not like he just joined English. Why else would he be taking English 3? It doesn't make sense."
"I heard a rumor that it is his first year taking English. In fact, I think it might be his first time trying to actually understand the language." Raine said.
"That's stupid. Like I said before, it wouldn't make sense."
"A lot of things don't make sense in life. Things that will have us guessing the rest of our lives. Like why Momo eats so much and never gains a pound, while I eat a bite and gain three, and why are we attracted to boys. You know, those things" Kori explained.
"Well, what do you guys think of him?" Yuri asked.
"Well, he does look out for our best interest." Deíji said.
"I don't know." Kori said. "I've never really talked to him."
"I say we get him to hang out with us for a full twenty-four hours!" Momo cried.
"Are you crazy!?" Yuri yelled. "There's no way I'm spending an entire–"
"You know," Raine said. "Momo has something going on here. If we hang out with him for a day, maybe we'll be able to see what he's like."
"Twenty-four hours? He'll have to sleep with us!"
"Then he'll sleep outside on the balcony. Besides, he's gay. What's he possibly going to do?"
"Fine. When do you guys want to do this?"
"Why not tomorrow? It's Saturday, we don't have school until night." Momo suggested.
"Fine. Why not."
Yuri wasn't sure how she really felt about this. She didn't like him, that was for sure, but she couldn't be prejudice and say she didn't like him just because he was a guy. Sure, she had her problems with guys before, but couldn't she just forgive and forget? No. At least not with the man who did that to her. She wouldn't. But maybe Daisuke was different. Maybe she could start trusting men if she could start trusting him.
Favorite color?
"Black."
Favorite food?
"Kitsune Udon."
Favorite TV show
"Um… I don't watch TV too much. I guess, er…" Daisuke thought about it. He was usually killing off demons or in school. "I'll say Yu Yu Hakusho."
Daisuke was answering the survey from Gi. Gi had been at it for the last twenty minutes, trying to get as personal as it possibly could.
Female you find attractive?
"I don't find any–"
Answer honestly.
"Fine, fine. That Deíji girl is kinda cute." He answered, and he meant it. She was nice, she was quiet, and she enjoyed books. Nobody appreciated books anymore. That's one of the reasons he didn't watch a lot of TV as well. He liked reading.
Gi was silent for a couple of seconds, and Daisuke looked at him. Daisuke was in his dorm, lying on the bed, and Gi was floating a couple of feet away from his face. Daisuke looked at Gi oddly.
"Is that it?"
Processing information. Please wait.
Daisuke waited a second, and then there was s small cloud in where Gi was. When it cleared, Daisuke saw a small ferret. It smiled at him, and Daisuke's eyebrows went up.
"Um…hi?" Daisuke said, not knowing what was going on.
"What's up!" the ferret yelled, and leaped to hug Daisuke's face. When Daisuke peeled the ferret off his face, he held it by the collar skin on which the mother cats old their young.
"What happened to Gi?" Daisuke demanded.
"I am Gi!"
"What?" Daisuke asked.
"With the information you've given me, you made my personality, and with the surroundings, I've transformed into something for this area."
"FERRETS DON'T GROW IN JAPAN!" Daisuke yelled.
"I know. But your surrounding is an all girl school. Girl's love things that are cute, cuddly, and aren't seen too often."
"So you think a ferret is the best choice."
"C'mon! I'm adorable! How can the resist?"
How did my personality make this? It's nothing like me!
"It's because a positive and a negative neutralize each other." Gi answered. "And yes, I can read your thoughts. We're connected there. You're serious, I'm fun. Your silent, I joke a lot. And when you think you can do everything by yourself, I make sure I help and irritate you."
"Why's that important?"
"Then maybe you'll see an edge or cliff you don't run over."
"How…?"
The ferret grinned.
"We're connected at the mind. I feel your emotions, and know your memories. You can't lie to me, so…" his voice trailed off.
"Great. So know I have the entire DHA knowing my every thought."
"No. Just me. The only thing I tell the DHA is your progress."
"Progress reports?"
"Yep!"
"How often do you send them?"
"After every twenty-five demons."
"So, I see." He thought about DHA. He wondered how big it was. "How many people are actually in DHA?"
"Demon Hunters themselves, there are about seven hundred in Asia. Fifty in this hundred mile radius."
"There's two in a square mile?"
"Pretty much."
"Whoa."
"Sadly, I don't know who any of them are. Sorry."
"No, it's fine. Hearing that there are more then just one Demon Hunter in this area is great!"
"Don't get too excited." Gi warned.
"Why not?"
"People that are in the DHA are highly training, are very territorial. They usually find other Demon Hunters a threat n their progress. There have been quite a few deaths between Demon Hunters."
"How many are we talking about?"
"Seven this week."
Daisuke remembered seeing something in the newspaper about some strange deaths. The victims didn't look like they were physically harmed in anyway, and they couldn't find any drug samplings in the blood. But they knew that they were murdered. He'd heard of these stories for a large chunk of his life. He understood why they couldn't see the injuries: they were made by Spiritual weapons, making it invisible to the human eye.
There was a knock at the door, and Daisuke jumped a little. He was in so much thought, that he got scared when the silence was disturbed.
"Who is it?" he asked, feeling his racing heart thump.
"It's me, Yuri." She replied.
Daisuke opened the door, and saw Yuri standing outside his door, her expression rather unusual. She didn't seem upset, or angry, or lethal. She seemed sort of…happy. And it scared Daisuke.
"Hi." He said. "What's up."
"You're coming over tomorrow at six o'clock in the morning and hanging out with us tomorrow." It was an invitation at all. It was an order. And with nothing left to say, she left. Daisuke watched her walk down the hall. Tomorrow was going to be one hell of a day.