〄Hᴀʟғ-Bʟᴏᴏᴅs' Lᴇɢᴀᴄʏ〄 [Ch. 4 Up!]

[Duskpond]

YOU HAVE INSPIRED ME!! I'm going to upload a story about-WAIT, can't give to much away! It's not up yet, but it's gonna be called "Those Three Weirdo's".

[scmarshtacky]

Alright. ^^ I'll definitely check it out then.

[scmarshtacky]

If you haven't voted yet, please do so as the poll will only be open until the end of the week.

[Duskpond]

I HAVE!

[Pichufudge]

I have

[scmarshtacky]

There we go. Now I have more votes. Thank you to my commenters and stalkers.

[Duskpond]

I can't wait until the celebration!!!

[scmarshtacky]

I can't either. I wonder if that's weird since I'm the one hosting it. XD

[scmarshtacky]

Okay guys, I'm working on the double release, but of course my Internet had to be stupid so I've got to start over with the post. *sigh
It'll be up, but it'll be a little later than usual.

Edit: I'm halfway done. It should be up within the hour unless my internet stops responding again.

[scmarshtacky]

Chapter 14 – Uncle

“The whole yard reeks of stale alcohol,” he said disgusted putting his hand over his nose.

“Alcohol? Are you sure that’s what it is?”

“Yeah, I’m quite sure. It’s so strong I could smell it from a good ways off, but I didn’t realize it was coming from here until we got closer.”

“Well, if it’s alcohol that you smell, then it’s probably my uncle that’s in the house. It is his home after all, but he stays out drinking most of the time,” Mika explained.

“Oh. Well I pity you having to go into the house. Even you will be able to smell it once you’re actually in the house.”

Mika began opening the gate slowly, but her mind was in turmoil. Why is uncle home?! She remembered that her mom had hated him and had only mentioned her brother once, and that was to say that he ‘was a good-for nothing, constantly drunk fool, who spent every penny he had on booze’. Mika could also remember her saying that he was a violent drunk on top of it all. Although she had met the man twice before when he was sober. She was already beat up enough; she really didn’t want to have to go into the house with a possibly violent and drunk man.

“Are you okay?” Kaito asked noticing her pale ever so slightly.

“Oh yeah. I am. I just was thinking it was going to be a bit awkward meeting him. I've only ever met with him twice, once when I was young and briefly when I moved in. With all the alcohol he’s probably had since then, I wonder if he still remembers me,” Mika attempted to laugh, but it came out very awkwardly. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then. And um... thanks for helping me today...” Her voice dropped as she said it, the embarrassment of it all hitting her once again.

“Don’t worry about it. Just let me know if you need anything else. And if you decide you don't want to stay with that guy,” he jabbed his thumb in the direction of the house, “you can just come over to my place.”

“O-okay,” Mika replied. I wonder if he even realizes how awkward that would be... Mika turned around and walked into the yard. Her heartbeat seemed to get faster the closer she got to the house. She opened the door warily and stepped in. The blaring of music was the first thing that hit her. The second thing was the smell of beer. Kaito wasn’t joking when he said it reeked.

Mika walked slowly down the hall and turned right into the living room. She immediately located the fat, balding man situated on the couch with the TV blaring almost as loudly as the music from the radio. He was in a heavily stained white t-shirt and tan shorts. His face was a tomato red making the white-flecked hair above his ears stand out even more. “Uncle?” she shouted over the deafening music.

“EHH?” He looked in her direction, his eyes were wide and bloodshot, and his face was red. “WHO’RE YOU?” he shouted back nearly as loud as the music he was playing.

This was what Mika was most afraid of, that he wouldn’t remember her and would throw her out. “I’m Mika. Don’t you remember?” she asked almost desperately. “My grandmother died and I was sent here to live with you!” she shouted back hoping she could be heard over the music.

“AH, ‘DATS RIGHT! I ‘MEMBER YOU. DON’ SHOUT SO LOUD A’ ME. I ‘AN HEAR FINE!”

“Okay…” He’s lost his mind.

“'AN GIRL! WHAT’D YA DO WIT MY BEER?? IT AIN’T IN DA FRIDGE!”

“Um... I threw it out. It was getting old, and you weren’t home so...” Mika trailed off.

“HAH?” he grabbed one of the bottles he had sitting on the table and threw it at her. Luckily the bottle missed, but when it shattered against the wall behind Mika, one of the shards flew back at her and sliced the side of her face. “GIMME ALL YA MONEY!! I GETTIN’ MORE!”

He stood up shakily, and wobbled his way toward her. Although, it was almost like he was falling forward rather than walking.
“Sir,” Mika said desperately. “I don’t have any money on me right now. I’ll go get some out of my room, but I only have around 1000 yen–”

“EHH? YOU SLUTTY BRAT!” His eyes went wide in hysteria making his whole face look devilish.

Mika stepped sideways and began to back toward the entrance to the living room. When her uncle had fallen his way to the doorway, he promptly shoved her to the side, marched - as best he could - down the hallway, and stomped up the stairs at the far end of the house.

Mika fell sideways from the strength of him shoving her, and hit a small table holding a lamp. The table toppled and she fell on top of it. She gasped in pain as her left side hit the side of the wood that formed the top of the table. Mika moaned and tried to pick herself up, but from the way she was positioned, she couldn’t sit up, so in the end, she had to roll off of it onto the floor.

She lay on the floor for a very long time waiting for the worst of the pain to pass. This has all got to be a very bad dream. Surely this series of events couldn’t ever be plausible. It’s way too much bad luck for one person... But the throbbing in her side was very much real, and no matter how much she wished it was a dream, her situation didn’t change.

From her spot on the floor, she could hear a lot of thumping noises coming from upstairs, and occasionally a shattering noise as something breakable fell to the ground. After a little while of this, she heard the door open and slam back, and her uncle stomping back down the stairs. He didn’t even think about her as he made his way to the front door and slammed it behind him.

Several minutes after her uncle had left, she finally picked herself up, and began to make her way slowly to her room. She pulled some of her school books out of her bag and threw herself into studying and homework hoping to pass the time quickly. And it worked, when she looked at the clock, she found that three hours had passed. Pleased with herself, Mika packed everything back into her school bag, and headed down the hall to get a shower.

The warm water was paradise. It relaxed her muscles and even made the throbbing in her side ease. Mika frowned at the huge purplish bruise that was forming on her left side. That won’t be going away any time soon. She touched it slightly and winced. Mika threw back her head and let the water fall on her face. If only she could just stay in this place forever.

At last, Mika shut the water off, dried herself, and carefully dressed in her pajamas. During this time, she became aware of the noise downstairs. Oh no... she groaned inwardly. He’s back. I wonder how long he plans to stay this time. She was quite sure she couldn’t put up with this for more than a couple of days. Dreading tomorrow, she climbed into her bed, buried herself under her covers, and attempted to go to sleep with the music blaring downstairs. It didn’t work.

The next morning, she got up bleary-eyed, and exhausted. Around 3am, she had finally given up on trying to get sleep, and had just read a book. It was only 6:30, but the night had already taken its toll on her. One thing was certain; it was not going to be a good day.

Her whole body ached from yesterday's events. After dressing, she walked down the stairs and into the kitchen, where she promptly had an aspirin, and then a quick bite of breakfast. At least it’s quiet now. Her uncle had apparently left the living room early this morning while she had been absorbed in her book. It was trashed with beer bottles and wrappers, but at least he had gone for the time being.

It took her much longer than usual to get ready that morning, but when she walked out of the house, Kaito was waiting faithfully at the gate. “So did you make it through the night?” he asked once they began walking.

“Yeah, barely.” She forced a little laugh.

Kaito studied her for a moment. “Are you sore from yesterday?”

It took her a moment to realize that he had been talking about the encounter with Mio. “Yeah, a little bit,” she admitted. “Is it that obvious?”

“You’re walking slower today, so that was just the logical explanation.”

“I see.”

The rest of the walk went by in mostly silence until Ayako joined them and picked up the conversation. She mostly complained about the ridiculous amount of homework, and the paper they had to write, but Mika was more than happy to just listen to the conversation and only add the occasional comment.

All the classes progressed slowly, and uneventfully as Mika sat in her desk dreading going home. At one point, she even seriously considered sleeping in the park or somewhere else until her uncle finally left the house, if he hadn’t already. All in all, the day was going fine, until gym. Mika seemed to be able to do nothing as sore and bruised as she was, and today, the coach had decided on volleyball.

At least everyone knows I’m pretty bad at sports, and they’ll cover for me. Most of the time, Mika was allowed to sit on the sidelines. She only rotated in the couple of times due to Ayako’s insistence that she try to play. And so went the rest of the gym class.

Mika was overjoyed when the coach finally dismissed them to go back to the locker room. She unlocked her locker, and carefully began to pull her gym shirt off. It took a while, but at least she avoided hitting the more tender spots.

She was about to begin working on putting her uniform on when she heard a gasp from behind her. “Mika what happened to you?” Ayako had seen the large dark bruise on her side, and as she gazed at her, found several others on her back and shoulders.

“It’s nothing really,” Mika said smiling. “I was just careless this morning and fell down the stairs. Stupid huh?”

Ayako shrugged. “If you say so. Just try to be a little more cautious, silly klutz,” she teased.

They both laughed and walked out of the locker room in good spirits; however, when the final bell rang, Mika’s mood plummeted, although she tried her best not to show this on the walk home. It was fine until it was just her and Kaito left. Mika fell into dark silence, and didn’t even try to liven up the mood, and Kaito immediatley picked up on gloomy atmosphere around her.

“Thanks for walking me home,” she said quietly when they reached her house.

“You really don’t want to go in, do you?”

“It’s fine. He’ll probably only be here a couple more days. I think I can tolerate the stink of alcohol for a little longer.”

“But that’s not all that’s got you concerned is it?” Kaito raised one eyebrow as he studied her.

“Really, it’s not a big deal,” she smiled. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” She turned and began to walk through the yard.

The stench of the house was a lot worse than it had been the day before. It was purely nauseating. At first glance, the house seemed empty; however, when she walked up the stairs to her room, she could hear the loud snoring coming from her uncle’s room. Mika resolved that she would stay in her room the rest of the night, hoping that this way, she could avoid anymore encounters with him.

So Mika, like the previous day, threw herself into her books, and spent several hours studying and working on homework. When she finally tired of school work, she picked up another book for pleasure reading. It was Mika’s unfortunate fate to be a fast reader, and although she had had a couple hundred pages left to read, she finished them in a couple of hours, and then she ran out of things to entertain herself with.

With a sigh, she decided that she would go down to the kitchen and grab a small meal as her stomach was constantly growling and a small headache was beginning to form. She realized when she got down the stairs, that this was a grave mistake. She could hear her uncle thumping around in the kitchen, and as she slowly neared the door, she heard several things break, and a series of cursing.

Ignoring the urge to run back to her room, she poked her head through the doorway to see the damage. It was a wreck. Bits of broken glass were scattered about on the tile floor, and drawers were overturned. Currently, he had his back to her, digging in the refrigerator, for presumably, more beer. Finding none, he spat out another series of curses, and began to throw things out of the refrigerator.

Horrified, Mika stepped up and called, “Uncle please stop that!” He turned towards her slowly, his eyes much like that of a hungry animal. Mika pressed herself against the wall, and attempted to continue in a shaky voice. “T-There’s no beer uncle. Please... please stop wrecking the house!”

His mouth twisted into a snarl. “You Dare Tell Me What To Do in MY House?!” he screamed in her face. Mika turned her head, not looking at him, and trying to ignore the smell of liquor that seemed to radiate off of him. “Look at me girl!” he spat. When she still didn’t meet his eyes, he grabbed at her neck, and began closing his fingers around her throat. Now, Mika did look directly at him, fear reflecting in her wide eyes.

“Heh, that’s better,” he snarled. “Now that I have your attention, why don’t you go get me more beer, before I strangle you.”

Mika, even though terrified, shook her head. “I-I can’t. I w-won’t,” she managed in a broken voice. I know he isn’t always like this. When I first arrived here, and back when I first met him he was sober. If he would only let the alcohol wear out of his system.

Mika was beginning to gasp for breath under his iron grip. When he saw he wouldn’t get his way with her, he released his grip on her throat, but he wasn’t quite done with the girl yet.

Mika collapsed to the ground gasping for breath as he released her, but when she saw his eyes, saw the rage and bloodlust, she knew she hadn’t seen the end of it yet. She yelped as her uncle grabbed her shirt collar and pulled her to her feet. “Stand up you worthless brat!” He screamed as he slapped her hard across the face several times. When Mika fell down once again after he released her, he began to kick her. Mika rolled herself into a ball, and tried to think of something else, anything else.

Her mind wandered to the first, and only time, she’d met her uncle before she had moved here. She'd only been around four years old at the time, but she remembered that they had played ball out in the yard, and then he had taken her around the big city. She remembered how exciting it was to see all the huge buildings and all of the people. They had gone in various shops, and he had bought her a stuffed bear that she loved to death. She had kept it until she had been forced to move after her grandmother’s death.

Mika was suddenly jerked out of her thoughts by a particularly rough kick to right side. She gasped in pain, and shut her eyes trying to block it out. When she did finally open them once more, she found her uncle was gone. Mika began to slowly stand up, but the pain in her side almost made her collapse once again, bringing tears to her eyes.

I think I must’ve cracked a rib or something. She had never broken anything before, so she couldn’t be sure what it felt like, but this seemed painful enough to be broken.

Mika walked very slowly and painfully out of the kitchen, and up the stairs, doing all she could to stay on her feet. Once she was in her room, she began to gather up all of her clothes and important materials, and shoved them all into a small bag. It wasn’t much, but enough to last her through a couple of days.

I can’t stay here anymore. At least not while uncle is home, I don’t know how long he will be staying here, but I need to get away for at least a couple of days, and hopefully he will leave again soon. Perhaps... I’ll have to take Kaito up on his offer after all.

She really didn’t want to have to do this, but she knew that anything was better than staying in this house any longer, and she didn’t really think she could manage to stay out in the open. I really should ask Kana and Ayako where they live. Although I wouldn’t want to impose on them either, but it would still be much less awkward to stay with them than with him.

With a final look around the room, she grabbed the bag full of clothes, her hairbrush, toothbrush, and her school materials, and began to work her way back down the stairs and to the door.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Kaito lay on the couch mindlessly flipping through the TV channels. His stomach growled reminding them that there was no food in the house, of course, there rarely was. If he wanted food, he often just went to a stand or a fast food restaurant and grabbed something.

His mind began wandering back to earlier in the day, to Mika. She had seemed extremely sore today, which he had expected to some extent after the encounter with Mio the previous day, but it seemed worse than what just Mio had caused, and this led him to believe that her uncle had done something to her. The mere thought of this outraged him, and although he didn’t know much about this uncle, he knew that he was often drunk – the smell of the house was enough to tell him that – and that Mika had been hesitant, scared even, to go into the house.

Kaito sighed. It did little good to think about these things if he wasn’t planning on doing anything about it. What the girl does, and her relations with her family is her concern, and I have no right to be sticking my nose into her business. He kept telling himself, but he couldn’t deny the fact that he did want to do something.

And that was when the doorbell rang. It sounded so loudly and suddenly through the apartment, that Kaito jumped. He stared at the door for a moment, and then recognized Mika’s scent. He got up and quickly crossed to the door. He paused for a slight moment, and then twisted the knob and threw open the door.

His eyes widened; although he had expected her uncle to be mistreating her, he hadn’t imagined it would be quite this severe.
“Mika,” he breathed.

“I-I’m sorry to bother you,” she bowed; although she could do little more than bend her head. “I j-just...”

Kaito shook his head. “I don’t need to hear your explanations.” He moved to the side to allow her through the doorway. “Can you walk?” She looked like it was all she could do simply to stand up.

She nodded, but when she went to take a step, she stumbled on the metal that was sticking out slightly at the threshold. Kaito moved letting her fall into him. She gasped in pain as she fell into him, and unconsciously moved her hand to the area where she was sure she had fractured one of her ribs.

Kaito held her gently against him, and slipped the bag off her shoulder. It thumped to the ground where he left it, and then he proceeded to pick Mika up, as gently as he could.

She clung to his white shirt, and allowed him to carry her without protest, she knew she could barely walk, and he knew it too.
He laid her on her back on the couch, and then sat on the floor beside her. “I know this is going to sound strange, but Mika,” he paused for a moment and then met her eyes. “I need you to take off your shirt, if you can.”

“You what?” Her voice was muffled slightly by pain, but her eyes widened, and it seemed that they could very easily just pop right out of her head. Her incredibly pale face even flushed slightly. “B-but,” she sputtered.

Kaito took a deep breath. “Please Mika. I don’t want to see you in this much pain.”

She met his eyes again, and she saw something there that caused her to resign. She wasn’t sure what he would do, but she knew for a fact, that he would help. “Fine...” she muttered. If he could alleviate any of the horrible pain, she figured it would be worth it.

She worked at the buttons of her shirt, and then slowly tried to squirm her way out of it without sitting up. A few movements sent shockwaves of pain through her body, but she did manage to work her way out of it. She crossed her arms over herself feeling extremely exposed an uncomfortable. She of course had her bra on still, but that didn’t help much in relieving her discomfort.

“Just stay still,” Kaito muttered as he began to run his fingers lightly over the bruises. Everywhere he touched seemed to burn, but Mika knew that was caused by her discomfort and not by whatever he had planned for her. He started at her neck, frowning as he examined where she had clearly been grabbed and held by the throat, and then slowly worked his way down her left side. Again he paused as he examined the horizontal bruise that ran across her left side.

“Where did this come from?” he asked offhandedly.

Mika jumped at the sudden noise that cut through the intense silence. “I fell... into a table.”

Kaito didn’t reply. He looked at it for a moment longer, said, “Stay very still,” and then closed his eyes. Mika watched him, curiosity burning inside her. For a moment nothing seemed to happen, and then she began to notice that his hand was... glowing?
When he touched the bruise on her side, she couldn’t help but jump slightly. It was hot, and this time, she knew it wasn’t just her imagination.

“Stay still,” he muttered again, and Mika did her best to go absolutely motionless.

His hand only stayed at that bruise for a moment, and then moved up to her neck, where her near strangling was becoming more evident.

He lingered here for a moment, moving his hand slowly across her neck, and then pulled back. Mika, who had closed her eyes to concentrate on being motionless, opened them again. She looked at her side, and the bruise there had completely vanished, and although she couldn’t see her neck, she figured that those would be gone as well.

“Healing?” As Mika looked at his face, she realized he was covered in sweat. “Are you–”

Kaito cut her off with a wave of his hand. “Flip onto your side,” he instructed shortly, and she did, shifting carefully, so that her right side was facing upward.

Kaito looked for a moment at the large dark blue bruise that had spread over the majority of her right side. He prodded at her ribs slightly, and she gasped in pain. “Don’t do that again!” she said.

Kaito took a deep breath and his hand began to glow once more. Mika stilled again, but she found that unlike the bruises that he had healed, this hurt. It wasn’t a sharp pain, but a dull throbbing that gradually seemed to be increasing. She shifted slightly closing her eyes tightly.

“The bone has to grow back together,” Kaito said. “It will hurt for a moment, but I believe it will be worth it.”

And after a minute or two, Mika became aware that the pain was slowly decreasing. It must take a while to grow back the bone. He only spent a few seconds on the bruises, but he’s been at my rib for a good couple of minutes.

Finally, Kaito pulled back, and the glowing from his hand dissipated. After glancing over Mika and confirming that the worst of the injuries had been healed, he laid flat out on his back on the floor at the foot of the couch. He wiped his shirt sleeve over his brow removing some of the sweat there, and brushed his bangs out of his eyes.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Mika asked as she leaned over the edge to the couch to look at him sprawled out on the floor. He did look slightly pale, but she wasn’t sure if he really was, or it was just a trick of the light.

“Yeah,” he said slowly. “It’s just been a long time since I’ve done this. I see it still exhausts me as much as it used to.”

“So can you heal any injury then?” Mika asked, curiosity burning inside her.

“Any physical injury. I cannot heal something like a virus, or cure poisoning.” His eyes met hers. “I am warning you now, that this is not an absolute art. I can only keep this up for as long as I have the stamina do to so.”

Mika nodded and opened her mouth to ask another question, but the loud and sudden grumbling of her stomach stopped her. She flushed with embarrassment, and Kaito couldn't help but laugh.

"Sorry,” Mika muttered. “I never got the chance to eat earlier. When I went down the kitchen, my uncle got a hold of me and... yeah...” she trailed off figuring that Kaito didn’t need her to explain the specifics.

Kaito sat up with a soft grunt, and shifted so that he was leaning against the couch. “Well, if you’re hungry, we’ll have to go get something since there isn’t anything here to eat.”

Mika looked at him in surprise. “You don’t have anything? What do you usually eat then?”

“If I’m hungry I’ll just go out and grab something at a food stand or a fast food restaurant,” he shrugged. “I’m not much of a cook, if you haven’t noticed. I burn whatever I try to make, and get too impatient waiting for things to get done. Thus, the broken stove.”

Mika’s stomach grumbled again, and she silently cursed if for being so loud and obnoxious.

“Come on then,” Kaito said hauling himself to his feet. “We can go get something if you don’t mind eating out.”

“It’s okay,” Mika said quickly. “I’m sure I can last through the night. You don’t have to bother yourself with me. I just randomly showed up here after all.”

“Even if I did let you go through the night, what do you suppose you would eat tomorrow morning, or for lunch? Or do you think you’d be comfortable without eating for a full day? And anyway, what sort of host would I be if I let my guests go hungry?” he asked.

Mika opened her mouth, but once again, couldn’t find the words to counter his argument, so in the end, she just looked down.

“Exactly,” Kaito said with a slight smirk.

Chapter 15 – A Night Out

Mika walked along beside Kaito somewhat amazed by the city’s brightness. Sure she had been out at night before, but she had mainly just gone to the small neighborhood convenience store. There weren’t usually many people out in the area around her house, and so all the shops closed much earlier than they seemed to in the middle of the city. She couldn’t help but admire the lights that blazed around her turning the night into day.

She heard Kaito chuckle under his breath.

“What?” she demanded.

“Oh nothing. I’ve just never seen someone so excited by city lights.”

“Well,” Mika said, “ I used to live way out in the country, so there really weren’t any lights on at all, and since I’ve moved here, I have tried not to venture out too much at night. If I go anywhere, it’s to that little convenience store down the street.”

“Are you feeling any better?” Kaito asked gazing at her.

“Yeah, since we’ve been walking, the pain is almost completely gone.” When she had first gone to get up off of the couch, she found that even if her rib was healed, it still hurt when she moved. Kaito had said this was due to the rapid repair of the bone, and that it would take the nerves a little while to catch up to the healing. As she walked along though, all the pain was gradually decreasing.

“So where are you taking me exactly?” she asked.

“You’ll see,” he replied. “It isn’t much farther, but don’t get all excited. It’s not anything fancy.”
Mika nodded. I’d feel even worse about him taking me out if it was some fancy restaurant.

After another minute, Kaito stopped. “Here,” he said.

Mika glanced at him, and then looked up to the name of the shop. “Fasuto Kicchen?” she pronounced the name. She followed him in, and gazed around. The restaurant was almost completely deserted except for a group of four junior high girls who were leaning over the table discussing something with each other. They were quiet except for the occasional giggle.

Mika turned her attention to the menu. Even from a brief glance, she could tell they offered a lot more than just a standard fast food burger menu. They also had soups, pasta, pizza, and a whole list of different flavors of french fries. “Korean barbeque, buttered potato, basil, chicken soup, Italian tomato garlic, Korean seaweed, original,” she read aloud as she looked over it. “That’s quite the selection.”

“Indeed,” Kaito agreed. He waited for a moment and then asked, “Have you decided?”

Mika nodded, and they went up to the counter. “I’d like the Hakata pasta dish with a small Pepsi, please,” Mika said to the older cashier lady. The lady nodded as she punched the buttons of the machine. “And for you?” she asked glancing up at Kaito.

“Medium barbeque fries and the royal tapioca tea float,” he said shortly.

The cashier nodded once more. “That will be ¥1,350.”

Kaito reached into his pocket and produced a silver debit card which the cashier scanned, and then gave back to Kaito with the receipt attached. He shoved it back into his pocket, and then glanced at Mika who was staring at him incredulously. “What?”

“Where the heck did you get a debit card from?”

Kaito smirked. “I have my sources.”

Mika was about to demand a more thorough response, but Kaito shushed her with a look, and she grudgingly closed her mouth once more. When they had gotten their food and seated themselves, Mika asked again. “So where did you get a debit card from? Where do you even get money from? You don’t actually work do you?”

“Of course I don’t work,” he stated.
“So where do you get the money from?”

He paused for a moment and then continued more softly. “I find it amusing that this whole world runs off of numbers in a system. To transfer money around, a computer simply shifts the numbers from once place to another, and I’m quite good with... hacking machines to make them suit my needs.”

“You hacked the banking system?!”

“It took me a good long time to do it too,” he said with a sigh. “The whole system is quite thorough. It took a good month for me to make sure that all my tracks were covered and I had fabricated everything that I needed to.”

Mika’s mouth gaped open slightly. How does he even manage to do that, and how would he have known enough about the bank to do it? His whole life here really is quite the mystery. “So you just manipulate everything through the card?” she asked once she had regained her voice.

“Basically,” he said as he pulled the card out of his pocket once more.

Mika picked it up and studied it as if it were some incredible new invention. “And people haven’t noticed that you’re hacking the system?”

“Clearly I haven’t been discovered yet since the card still works. Humans think that their systems are invincible, and even if the facts are laid out as clear as day in front of them, they refuse to believe it. As long as the numbers are there, they’re convinced that the money is also there.” He shrugged slightly. “Oh well, as long as they stay in that mindset, it makes my life a heck of a lot easier.”

Mika absentmindedly twirled the last few noodles on her plate around her chopsticks before finally eating them.

“Here,” Kaito said shoving the float he had gotten in her direction. “They’re quite good.”

“Are you sure?” she cast a questioning glance at him.

“Yeah, you can’t come here and not get a float. It’s just wrong.”

Mika laughed. “If you say so,” she said as she stuck her spoon into the float. “Mmm... you’re right. It is very good.”

“I told you it was,” he said as he stuck his spoon into the other side. Between the two of them, they finished the float up fairly quickly.

Mika was licking the last remnants of her float off her spoon when she was suddenly distracted by a chorus of giggling from the corner. They still haven’t left yet? We’ve been here a good half an hour, and they were already finished eating when we came it.

She turned her head to look at the group of girls, and was surprised to see that they were staring at her. She turned back around quickly and stared out the window for a moment, but curiosity drove her to glance back at them once more. No, they aren’t looking at me, she realized. They’re looking at him. Her stomach clenched when she realized this, but she wasn’t sure why. They’re junior high girls, of course they’d find him attractive.

Kaito himself was paying no mind to any of the girls in the corner, and was busy staring out the window and watching the passersby.

“Kaito?” she asked hesitantly. His blue gaze flickered to her, and for a brief moment she lost her words. “A-are you ready?”

“I suppose so,” he said, and he got up and stretched.

Mika grabbed the tray that they had piled their trash onto. She glanced around for the nearest trashcan and found it directly across from the four girls. She sighed mentally and headed over to it.

“Don’t you think he’s hot?” Mika heard one of the girls ask when she got closer.

“Of course he is!” one of the girls replied back in a mixture of a whisper and a squeal.

“Why don’t you go ask what his name is Kaoru?” the third whispered excitedly.

“No! That would be so embarrassing! Why don’t you do it?”

“What?! No way! We don’t even know how old he is, and he’s with that other girl too,” her voice was barely audible as she said this, but Mika could still hear her.

“Do you think they’re dating?”

Mika shut her eyes tightly for a moment trying to block out the sounds. Were girls always like this? She heard a series of compressed gasps, and couldn’t help but look at the four. She followed their gaze and realized that Kaito had now turned to look at them, and then his eyes moved to meet Mika’s and she quickly shoved the tray on top of the trashcan with the others, and walked back to where he was waiting by their table.

He turned and led the way out of the restaurant with Mika following close behind him. She imagined that she could still hear the giggling of the girls even after they had exited.

“What’s the matter?” Kaito asked after a moment of silence.

“Huh? What?” Mika jolted out of her thoughts. “Nothing’s the matter,” she said a bit too quickly.

Kaito’s eyes narrowed as he studied her expression. “Was it those girls back there?”

“No. I told you nothing was wrong. I was just thinking.”

“About...” he prompted her as he faced forward once more.

“About... I’m not really sure how to put it. I never really paid attention to how others view you. So it was just... a little strange I guess,” she trailed off.

Kaito stopped and turned to face towards her. “Well rest assured,” he smirked and did a mock bow. “I’m all yours.” He raised his eyes and met hers.

“W-wha?! That’s not what I –” Mika stuttered as her face flushed a brilliant red, but Kaito wasn’t listening to her, he was too busy laughing.

“You’re expression...” he managed between gasps.

For a moment Mika was speechless, and then she too began to laugh. It seemed to be incredibly contagious, and it took several minutes for the two of them to get over it. Mika was vaguely aware of a few people staring at them like they had gone mad, but at this point, she couldn’t care less.

Kaito was the first to gain his composure. He took a deep breath and stood up straight. “Ah, that was good. It’s been a long time since I’ve laughed like that.”

Yeah, come to think of it, Mika thought, I don’t think I’ve ever heard him really laugh. “Was my expression really that funny?”

“It was priceless,” he answered. “Now come on, if we don’t get a move on, we’ll be out all night.”

Mika smiled and fell into step behind him. “Are we going somewhere else?”

“Well you do want food for tomorrow morning and for lunch don’t you? Or if you think you could last a day without food...”

“Food would be nice,” she agreed. “I’m really not a very good cook though, just good enough for things to be edible.”

“Anything you could make would be infinitely better than what I could, I assure you.”

Mika shrugged. “Well if you say so.”

They entered a convenience store, and Mika glanced around wondering which aisle to head to first. “What do you like to eat?” she asked as she grabbed one of the smaller baskets.

“Anything that’s edible,” he smirked.

“Well that’s a great help...” she muttered, but she couldn’t help but smile. “You really don’t have anything you’d prefer?”

“Nope, all human food is pretty good.”

“Okay then, I guess I’ll just start over here,” she said as she headed to the right side of the store. The first section she came to was produce. She grabbed a couple of apples, pears, and satsunas. Then headed over to the vegetable section where she got a daikon, a few turnips, and one or two of other various vegetables.

She continued on her way through the store. Rice was the next thing on her list, and then a couple of boxes of noodles. By this time, she was beginning to regret not getting a cart. "I suppose I’m not a very efficient shopper."

“Give me that before you hurt yourself,” Kaito said as he grabbed the basket from her. He examined the contents of it, and then looked back at Mika. “Exactly how much are you planning to get?”

“Sorry,” she apologized with a small nod of her head. “Is this too much?”

He shrugged slightly. “Get whatever you need too, just don’t let all you’re getting go bad before you get a chance to use it.”

Mika nodded enthusiastically, and ran up and down several more aisles grabbing things that caught her attention. Now that she knew Kaito didn’t really have any money to begin with, she didn’t feel bad ‘spending’ it, and everything that she wouldn’t normally buy because she was on a tight allowance, she got.

By the time she was satisfied, Kaito was loaded with food. The basket had become too full, so now Kaito had the basket hung over his arm and both hands filled with other things, and Mika was still carrying several things. “I think I got too much...” she said slowly as the cashier ran the bar codes of everything over the scanner.

“I think that’s an understatement,” Kaito muttered as he watched the number rise. It finally stopped at ¥7,860.

“Will that be all?” the cashier asked.

“It'd better be, or there’s no way we’ll be able to get it all back to the apartment,” he muttered as he pulled out his card once more.

The cashier took it and ran it through the slot, and nothing happened. Mika felt her stomach drop. Why didn’t it work?!

“Ah, it get’s like that sometimes,” Kaito said. “I think it has a couple of scratches on it and dust gets in the scratches. Can I see it for a moment?”

“Oh sure,” the cashier handed it back over, and Kaito used the corner of his shirt to wipe it off, and then gave it back.

“It should work now.”

And it did. Mika released a breath she didn’t know she had been holding. Her hands shook slightly from the sudden adrenaline rush, so she busied herself putting all of the things she had bought into bags, trying to get as much as she could in one bag, so they didn’t have to carry so many back.

“What happened back there?” she demanded after they had left the store.

“Like I said, it get’s like that sometimes. The older cash registers put out a slightly different electrical signal, and that distorts the magnetic field around the card. Were you that worried?”

“Of course I was. You just told me you hacked the system, of course I’d think that something went wrong...”

“Well it’s fine. You don’t have to worry about it so much. I’ve been here long enough to learn how to make everything work properly.”

“I suppose...”

“Come on. We’d better hurry back. I’m getting tired of carrying these bags, and it’s already almost midnight.”

“It is?! Already? Wow, time sure flew by,” Mika exclaimed.

They arrived back at the apartment in another couple of minutes, and Mika immediately began to busy herself with sorting through everything they had bought, and moving it either to the refrigerator or the cabinets.

“Mika, why don’t you just do that in the morning?” Kaito asked as he moved to the couch to sit down. “If you keep going, you’ll be dead on your feet tomorrow.”

“Oh yeah, today’s a weekday,” she said slowly. “For some reason, I keep feeling like today is Friday. Let me just finish putting a couple more things away.”

“Fine,” Kaito said with a sigh. “Do what you want. I’ll move your things up to the room.” He began to walk towards her few bags which hadn’t moved since she had first entered earlier that evening.

“Wait,” she suddenly turned from whatever food she had moved on to sorting. “I’ll take the couch. It’s definitely not my place to take your room. That would make me feel even worse about this...” she muttered.

Kaito turned to look at her. “Well it’s the only bed, and I refuse to let you sleep on the couch. I do at least know how to treat a guest properly.”

Mika opened her mouth to argue.

“Would you stop?” he cut her off with a slight edge to his tone. “This issue is not up for discussion. You have two options.” He held up two fingers. “Option one, take the bed without complaint or argument. Option two, share the bed with me,” he smirked as her face turned a beet red once more. “That’s what I thought,” he said and begin carrying the bags up once more, and Mika could do nothing but stare after him.

Kaito set everything she had brought down at the corner of the bed and then moved to some of the drawers to fish out what he’d need for the next day. I wonder if I should go ahead and take a shower now. It would be easier than trying to do it tomorrow morning I suppose. I’ll just have to be quick about it.

He stepped into the shower as soon as it was warm enough and quickly began rubbing the shampoo into his hair. One of the best things about this world has got to be the easy access to warm water. I’m going to hate to have to give this up when I leave.
He finished in less than five minutes, and threw on his loose white-collared shirt and baggy sweat pants. He ran his hand threw his hair, slicking it back to get it out of his face before heading back down the stairs.

Mika was sitting on the couch watching an anime that happened to be on TV. “Ah, I hope you don’t mind me turning it on,” she said when she noticed him.

“Doesn’t make a bit of difference to me,” he replied with a shrug. “You can do whatever you want except destroy the apartment.”

Mika laughed. “Where would I be if I destroyed the apartment? I’d have to sleep in the park after all.”

Kaito smiled at her and plopped himself down on the other end of the couch. They were silent for several minutes as Mika watched the show she had on the television. “You’re hair looks good like that,” she said softly once the commercial break had started. “With it out of your eyes.”

“It won’t be like this for long though,” he replied with a little bit of regret to his tone. “One of the disadvantages of short hair, you can’t tie it up.” He absentmindedly messed with one lock of his hair. “Even so, I still prefer this to it being long.”

“You’ve had your hair longer?” Mika looked at him her eyes widened in surprise.

“Yeah, back in my world it’s highly unusual for anyone to have hair as short as this,” he spoke cautiously.

“Why?” Mika was burning with curiosity, and though she was aware that Kaito didn’t like to discuss it, she couldn’t help but ask anyway.

“Our bodies simply won’t allow it. I don’t really know the science behind it all, but the increase in demonic energy causes our hair to grow faster until it reaches a certain length. I’m probably not explaining it well...” he trailed off.

“I think I understand.” She looked at him. “I want to see your hair long,” she giggled.

He regarded her, his eyes soft. “I hope you don’t ever have to,” he said with a twinge of sadness to his tone.

Mika watched him waiting for him to go on, but it was clear he didn’t want to talk about it anymore, so she let the subject drop and turned back to the TV. A second later, her mouth opened in a huge yawn, and she felt immediately drowsy. “I think I might go to bed now. It must be really late.”

“Probably more like very early.”

Mika nodded. “I wish it were Friday. Then it wouldn’t matter.”

“You don’t have to go to school tomorrow. You could just skip.”

“I couldn’t do that!” Mika exclaimed. The horror of the idea was written all over her face.

“Alright, alright,” Kaito held up his hands in surrender. “Just forget I said anything.”

“I will,” she stepped up onto the first stair, then turned around once more. “Oyasuminasai¹, and thank you for allowing me to stay here. I’m sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused today.” Mika lowered her head in a bow.

“You don’t have to worry about it. You’re no trouble at all. Oh, and one more thing before I forget to tell you. I would very much appreciate it if you did not tell the other two about my ‘healing’ abilities. Unfortunately, I can’t afford to go around fixing every little problem that someone has. You understand?”

“Yeah, of course,” Mika nodded. “I promise not to tell either of them.”

Kaito nodded and then met her eyes once more. “Night Mika.”

Mika had to tear herself away from his intense blue gaze. She felt like she could stare into his eyes forever. Get a grip! Come on, up the stairs before you collapse from exhaustion, she rallied herself.

She softly shut the door to the bedroom, and began to rummage in her bag for her clothes. The bag was in no order whatsoever since she'd thrown everything in when she was only half conscious. She ended up having to take everything out to find what she was looking for.

Mika brushed out her hair, then her teeth, and finally changed into her night gown. When Mika slipped into the bed it was cold, and it seemed to take forever for her body heat to finally reach the sheets. At last, she formed a comfortable spot for herself, curled up into a ball, and drifted off into a deep and undisturbed sleep.



¹Oyasuminasai~ Good Night

A/N~ These two chapters in particular were a lot of fun to write. First Kitchen is a real fast food resturant in Japan, and I actually went to their website (Here) to calculate the prices. I guess I'm just that much of a nerd when it comes to Japan. XD The next chapter will start my first arc, and most of it will take place in Okinawa.

I hope you all enjoyed the double release. In the next hour or so, I will be making a thread for the writing competition, so I hope you all will check it out and enter the contest!


IMPORTANT NOTICE:
Due to the writing competition, I will be taking one week off from posting. The next chapter will be posted Oct. 19 at the usual time, and I will start with a fresh new arc.

<==Chapter 13

Chapter 16==>