Demon Rising

Chapter 16: A day in the life of...(ER)

Author's note: HERE IT IS! After posting the previous chapter over 4 months ago, I'm back! Now admitedly, this is not an action chapter, or anything like that, but rather an Easy Read chapter. That basically means it has nothing to do with the main body of the story and can be read or not read as it has nothing to do with the actual story. I wrote this chapter to mainly get myself back into the swing of writing Demon Rising.
And in all honesty, this chapter can actually be skipped, as again, it doesn't offer anything for the main story. Yes you learn a little bit about Jinkara, but that's pretty much it.
But, if you want, you can six back and relax, and read a chapter that doesn't have any killing or violence...though how I can call that a chapter, I don't know.
...So enjoy.



Chapter 16: A day in the life of...(ER)

The air outside of Vaugn’s window was cool and crisp in the early morning hours. Small specs of frost had crystalised on the edges of the window, framing the clear glass center in their pure white films

The neighbourhood outside looked as if it had been glazed over night. The rooves of the houses, the light posts and fences all glistened with pearly white frost. The branches of the trees sparkled like giant towers of crystal, their branches swaying and creaking slightly in the gentle morning breeze. As far as the eye could see, the many grass lawns were now nothing but sheets of pearly white frost, looking as if they had been carved out of a giant sheet of crystal.

The city of Tokyo was just slowly starting to come to life from its good night sleep. Lights were gradually being turned on, fighting away the darkness, which had settled over the city. Cars were gradually rumbling to life to whisk their still sleepy owners away to distant parts of the city for another day of minotiny.

Monday had arrived peaceful and quiet. It had been two since Vaugn had arrive home from his battle with Vermillion, a large mutated rat demon who had the ability to not only control humans, but also mutate their souls into mindless slaves aswell as the ability to spew exploding maggots from depths of his body Vaugn didn’t care to think about.

Despite the picturesque setting that had settled over theoutside, the scene was anything but inside.

Vaugn had returned from his battle with Vermillion in a right state. His entire body had been battered beyond beliefe. Every inch of his flesh was brusied, his skin shining black, blue and green in the bathroom light, where his friends had found him. His face was only slightly less battered, having a one bruised cheek while the other bled profusely; a large gash across his nose and forehead, and he was sporting to shining black eyes. After working like a skilled surgical team for near an hour, Vaugn had come out of the bathroom with his legs, arms, his entire midsection and both hands bandaged tightly like a burn victums.

Vaugn’s body, needless to say, had been beaten quite thoroughly, and because of it, he was rather sore.

The weekend for Vaugn passed rather uneventfully. Because of how badly his body had been beaten, he had been stuck in bed all weekend, unable to move due to the fact that the pain he had been feeling on Friday had somehow magnified itself ten fold. Every beat of Vaugn’s heart seemed to have been pushing liquid pain through his body, causing it to ache terribly every second of every minute of every hour. Vaugn’s muscles were unresponsive to even the slightest of simplest commands, prefering to merely stay in their paralyzed state then move. Vaugn was barely able to wiggle his little finger, let alone raise a finger and scratch an itch on his aching nose.

Despite being trapped in bed all weekend, it wasn’t all that bad. Shentin had brought over his portable colourful TV for Vaugn, so the six friends spent the days in Vaugn’s room, watching TV and enjoying eachother’s company. Because of how sore Vaugn was and being unable to lift his arms, Imari, Kihari and Asuke had all been kind enough to feed Vaugn, and they did so with a smile, though Shentin did get quite the smack when he suggested they get matching nurses outfits and give Vaugn a spongebath, who agreed full-heartily with Shentin. Asuke was able to explain Vaugn’s bed-ridance to the rest of the family as a simple case of the flu, and she and the others were keeping him company, despite risking catching the flu themselves.

It was with a somewhat sombre mood that the citizens resumed their weekday life. Over the weekend, the news had reported of the mass killings of the police officers, doctors and citizens of Tokyo, the aftermath of Vermillion’s plague that had spread through the city. The news had also reported the mysterious killings of the port workers, and the strange appearance of some sort of giant rat’s nest in the underground container lot, which port officals said had not been there when they left for the day at five o’clock on Friday. No matter who they interviewed, no one could offer any single explanation as to what happened, except for the nurses saying the patients just started killing everyone in sight without any warning.

But when Monday dawned, the innevitable had arrived, and despite how sore Vaugn was, he would have to go to school. Despite having been chosen as the one who was burdened with the task of destroying forty of the most powerful demons ever to reside in Hell, Vaugn still needed an education.

The clock on Vaugn’s desk read seven o’clock, and even though the sun hadn’t even began to think about rising, his room was full of people, specifically, Shentin, Nikkai, Asuke, Imari and Kihari, all of them dressed in their school uniforms, and all attempting to help Vaugn out of bed so they could get out of the house early before the family woke up.

Shentin and Nikkai had done the somewhat difficult task of dressing Vaugn- the girls with their eyes covered and backs to him, sly gins all over their faces- and were now taking on the arguous task of getting him to stand up and stay standing.

“Okay boys, on three now!”, Kihari said in a somewhat commanding tone, gesturing to Shentin and Nikkai who had a firm grasp on Vaugn’s hands, “One. Two. Three. Pull!”

Together, Shentin and Nikkai heaved with all their strength, and with a few very choice words from Vaugn, the two boys managed to lift Vaugn from his bed and onto his feet, although he did resemble something of a store window maniquin due to how stiff he was.

Every muscle in Vaugn’s body was still paralyzed, holding him in a stiff standing position, and though he was swaying slightly back and forth, he remained standing, though it did seem to be causing him a great deal of pain, the occasional wince flashing across his face.

“Okay, now that I’m standing...what do we do?”, Vaugn asked, taking several deep breaths and steadying himself the best he could, trying to focus out the pain that was so prominent in his body.

“We go to school, what else?”, Shentin replied, brushing Vaugn’s shoulder for dust but grabbing his arm quickly as Vaugn began to fall backwards from Shentin’s light brushing.

“That’s great in theory, except for the fact that I’m having enough trouble standing, let alone walking.”, Vaugn said shortly, grabbing at Nikkai’s shoulder as he slowly began falling backwards again, who hurridely caught him before he fell onto his bed.

“You seem to be having some trouble there Vaugn. Care for me to lend you a hand?”, a sly, cold voice spoke out loud from the walls of the room.

“And what do you mean by that Jin?”, Vaugn asked out loud to the ceiling from his bed, as Nikkai and Shentin had let him go out of shock due to Jinkara’s sudden announcement, letting him fall unobstructed to his bed.

“It’s just how it sounds Vaugn.”, Jinkara replied casually as the friends stared a little warrily around the room, “You’re barely alive as it is, so I figure I could take over while your body heals. You get a break from the monotony of regular life, and I get some fresh air.”

“Yeah, cause that’s all I need,”, Vaugn snarled as Shentin and Nikkai pulled him back up to his feet and held firmly onto his shoulders, “A human-hating demon running around the city pretending to be me. Yeah, I let you have my body, and when I get it back, I’m in the back of a squad car on my way to prison.”, he finished in a very matter-of-fact tone, his friends and Jinkara all chuckling heartily.

“Okay Vaugn. Have it your way. You can just lay in bed for God only knows how long, while your friends are off getting the education they so desperately need.”, Jinkara purred slyly, and with his voice full of finallity, Jinkara fell silent, leaving the friends standing in peace.

“You know Vaugn, Jinkara might be right about this.”, Imari said, looking into Vaugns bruised face, “You did take a pretty big beating out there.”, she finished, her face full of concern.

“She’s right Vaugn, you did,”, Kihari added, “You could be out of action for a week or two, and you can’t go that long without going to school. You’d be held back for sure.”

“Both valid points girls,”, Vaugn replied, nodding to Imari and Kihari, “But have you forgotten that the person who would be in control is a demon who wants nothing more then to destroy all humanity?”, he asked the group as a whole.

“True Vaugn, but beggers can’t be choosers.”, Nikkai told Vaugn wisely with the air of a budist monk.

For a moment, Vaugn fell into silence, thinking about what his friends and Jinkara had said. To give himself something to do Vaugn stared out into the slowly brightening morning scenery.

Yes, Vaugn couldn’t miss out on school, and with Jinkara in control, he could atleast continue his education so he wouldn’t fall behind. And with Jinkara in control, he could keep up appearances so people wouldn’t wonder what had happened to him, though his black and blue face may draw some questions.

But then again…Jinkara was a demon. And Vaugn didn’t like the idea of a demon interacting with humans. Especially since the last few demons that interacted with humans had the unfortunate habit of killing them. And Vaugn thought releasing just such a demon into a school full of kids his age, was a very bad idea.

For three minutes, Vaugn thought long and hard, the expressions on his face changing as he weighted all the options. His face would morph from looks of thoughtful agrreance, to wrinkling his nose in what looked like disgust, and back again.

Vaugns friends stared on in slight bemusement, watching his face change expressions as if it were made of rubber. Exchanging glances with one another, it was rather hard for them not to start laughing at the odd expressions Vaugn was pulling.

Finally, after what seemed like an hour of watching Vaugn’s face contort and twist, he let out a long loud sigh, and slapping himself on the thighs with both hands-and wincing terribly-, Vaugn spoke out loud to room.

“Okay Jin. If you’re serious about taking over while my body heals in the spirit of helping me, then you have yourself a deal.”, Vaugn said outloud, his voice full of grudging submitance.

“Excellent choice Vaugn! You won’t regret this.”, Jinkara said happily from the walls of the room.

“I better not.”, Vaugn said absentmindily, and a second later, Vaugn felt the familiar sensation of being pulled away from the foreground to the background, and a second later he was watching the goings on of the world around him as if seeing it through a video camera.

All of the friends startled and jumped slightly as Vaugn instantly mutated and transformed from a kind, gentle faced humanbeing, to a red-eyed, fanged and clawed demon-human hybrid. Though they had witnessed Vaugn transform on Friday evening when he set out to destroy Vermillion, they hadn’t gotten use to seeing how Vaugn’s eyes suddenly exploded in to a blaze of red, how his teeth lengthened and sharpened into flesh tearing fangs, and how his fingers grew and sharpened into flesh ripping claws.

In a heartbeat, Vaugn had transformed into a half human-half demon hybrid. No longer the gentle face soul they knew, Vaugn was gone, instead replaced by a demons who’s eyes glowed like burning embers and whos teeth shone pearly white, his mouth pulled back in a silent snarl, and his clawed fingers ready to tear anything and everything apart..

Good to his word, Jinkara had taken over.

Breathing in slowly, Jinkara turned his blazing eyes to the window, and stared out for a moment, watching the slowly rising sun, and the brilliant shades of pink, red and orange that accompanied it. He watched as the trees and grass gently swayed and bent in the cool morning breeze, the frost starting to slowly melt and drip from their branches and blades.

The street below was just slowly coming to life as citizens of Tokyo began their morning routine, whether it be simply collecting the news paper from the front step, or else going for a morning jog dressed in bright pink track suits with matching sweatbands.

Smiling broadly, Jinkara turned his gazed from the window, to the group of friends who had huddled together by the door, looking a little warry of Jinkara. Both Shentin and Nikkai were standing in the front of the huddle, the three girls hiding behind their backs like the two boys were their body guards.

Smiling even more broadly to himself, Jinkara gave himself the once over, taking in every part of Vaugn’s school uniform. Twisting around for a better look at the back, and pearing down everything from Vaugn’s shirt to his pants, Jinkara seemed to be examining every inch of himself. The friends watched, a tad confused as to why Jinkara would be doing this, but at the same time, they felt a litle relieved he wasn’t looking at them. His appearance, was afterall, a little scary.

“Well. I appear to be dressed.”, Jinkara purred, holding out his arms and loking underneath them, “So then. Let’s get going to school.”, he finished, smiling broadly at the friends, and sliding a clawed hand into the pockets of Vaugn’s school uniform, tore a large hole through the fabric.

“We’re off to a good start I see,”, Asuke sighed, burrying her eyes behind her hand, as Jinkara ripped his clawed hand from the pocket, only managing to tear it further.

“Well let’s get going shall we?”, Jinkara said, shaking his clawed hand vigorously in an attempt to shake loose the pieces of fabric sticking to his claws.

“Not like that you you are.”, Imari said from behind Shentin, poking her head around for a better look at Jinkara, now that the shock of seeing him close up had worn off slightly.

“What’s wrong with how I look?”, Jinkara asked slightly confused, looking from one friend to another,“I always look like this when I go out.”

“When you go out to hunt demons, yes. But we’re going to school Jin.”, Asuke said, crossing her arms and giving him a slightly withering look, she alone having recovered completely from the shock of his scary appearance, “If you’re going to take Vaugn’s place, you have to look like him so no one suspects anything. These are people you’re dealing with, not demons.”, she finished in a very matter of fact tone.

“Yeah, well, people can be just as bad as demons,”, Jinkara mumbled, scratching his chin absent-mindily and not looking at the friends, “But fine, what do I have to do?”, he asked the group as whole, giving them a slightly annoyed look.

“Well, first lose the eyes.”, Asuke said with an air of great obviousness, “They’re really freaky.”

“And the teeth.”, Kihari added matter-of-factly.

“Can’t forget the claws either.”, Nikkai said quickly.

For a moment, Jinkara stared at the five friends with a look of slight bewilderment. Each of their faces wore a look of slight impatience, as if they wanted him to get rid of his diguinshing features as quickly as possible.

“I just got here and you’re already ordering me around,”, Jinkara growled, reaching a hand up and scratching his head in an annoyed sort of way, “I have no idea how Vaugn puts up with you people.”

Taking a deep breath, Jinkara screwed up his face into a look halfway between being in pain and being very constipated, and began grunting as if pushing something very large and heavy. Though the friends were still a tad warry of the fact that Jinkara was now standing before them, they couldn’t help but smile as they watched Jinkara straining to change how he looked.

The friends watched for a minute straight before they noticed that slowly yet surely, Jinkara’s fangs were retreating into his mouth, growing shorter and shorter with each passing second, until they disappeared completely into his mouth. Like his teeth, the friends watched as Jinkara’s claws began shortening, retreating to his fingers and slowly turning pink, before becoming regular fingernails one again, though they did have the slight appearance of being razor sharp somehow. Looking as if his eyes were dying fires, the brilliant red glow that normally shone from his eyes began to fade, growing weaker and weaker, until it was extinquished completely, leaving nothing except shining black voids in their place. Slowly life began returning to Jinkara’s eyes, the blackness being replaced by a gradually rising ash-blue hue, which filled his eyes like some sort of liquid until finally, Vaugn’s ash-blue eyes returned, though the friends couldn’t help but notice that an odd shadow of great evil remained in their depths.

Slowly, after several minutes of Jinkara straing and grunting, his demonic features were gone, replaced my Vaugn’s own that his friends had become so accustomed to.

“There, how’s that?”, Jinkara panted, doubling over and grasping his legs with his now, sounding very tired.

“Much better.”, Asuke replied, and Jinkara heard that she sounded distinctly relieved, “Now we can go Jin.”, she finished happily.

Still panting, yet looking up none the less, Jinkara saw that all the friends were smiling and looking very relaxed now, a stark contrast to what they had looked like only minutes ago.

Standing straight, yet looking tired nonetheless, Jinkara gave himself the once over in the slowly brightening window. As he stared at himself, he reached a now claw-free hand up to his mouth and felt his smooth lips, void of any fangs poking out from behind. He turned his hands over and over again, looking slightly scared at the sight of his hands without their usual long, flesh ripping claws. But what attracted his attention the most was the sight of his blue eyes, no longer fiery red and glowing wildly.

The friends watched, with slight bemusement, as Jinkara reached a hand up to his face-or rather Vaugn’s face- and mouthed wordlessly as if he was shocked by what he saw.

“Man, do I really have to look like this?”, Jinkara asked slightly desperately, turning from the window and looking slightly desperately at the friends as if hoping they’d say otherwise.

“You sure do Jin.”, Nikkai replied as he opened the door and the friends began filing out of Vaugn’s room.

“You have to look like Vaugn so people think you are Vaugn.”, Kihari explained as she and the others hurried down the hallway to coatroom, Jinkara following grudingly behind them, “And people know Vaugn as someone who looks human not…whatever it is you are.”, she finished brightly as the others chuckled.

“Yeah yeah. I just didn’t realise until now that Vaugn was kinda ugly.”, Jinkara mumbled as he followed the friends down the hall, and despite their best efforts, the friends couldn’t help but laugh, risking waking the rest of the household yet unable to stop themselves.

“Watch it Jin!”, Vaugn suddenly cut-in, speaking for the first time since he and Jinkara had switched places, and admittedly, he was sounding very tired and sore, “You don’t want piss off a guy who can kick your ass from the inside!”, he snarled as Jinkara and his friends began marching silently down the stairs to the coat room, all of them smiling and chuckling slightly.

The windows of the coat room were misted with condensation which glowed pink and orange in the early morning light. Outside, the occasional rumble of a cars engine could be heard trundling by, taking its occupants to far off parts of the city.

Down the hall, the friends could hear as Coonai began working in the kitchen, the random assortment of pots and pans banging and clinking echoing throughout the house. Upstairs, the friends heard as one of the room doors was opened, and a moment later, they heard as Uni walked out of the room, mumbling and grumbling as she walked down the hallway to the bathroom.

“We better hurry before anyone comes down and sees us.”, Imari said unnesseccarily as she and the othetrs began pulling on their shoes and jackets.

“Here Jin, put these shoes on, they’re Vaugns school shoes.”, Asuke said, tossing Jinkara Vaugn’s pair of black dress shoes, and starting to hurriedly pull on her own coat and shoes.

For a minute straight, the room was full of the hustling and bustling as they faught for a space to sit down to put on their shoes, bumping and shoving into eachother as they slipped and pulled on their shoes as quickly and quietly as possible, or accidentally hitting eachother around the face and head with their arms as they pulled on the jackets.

Jinkara didn’t partake in any of this however. Flopping down on the stairs, Jinkara picked up on the shining black shoes and began slowly turning it over and over again, as if trying to figure out what to do with it.

“Hey Asuke?”, Jinkara asked, holding the shoe up to eye level and looking inside, yet seeing nothing but dark.

“Yeah? What is it Jin?”, she asked, zipping up her coat and turning to see what Jinkara needed as the others finished pulling on their own coats, although guessing what it was when she saw him sniffing Vaugn’s shoe.

“How to you work this thing?”, Jinkara asked, holding the black dress shoe up in one hand and looking quizzically at Asuke.

For a moment, Asuke and the others stared at Jinkara, who was looking from one friend to another sort of like a child who was needing their parents help. Exchanging looks in the middle of either tying their shoes or pulling on their jackets, they were all looking slightly unbelieving.

“You gotta be kidding me!”, Asuke sighed as the others smiled and began laughing, “How old are you Jin?”, she asked pointedly, kneeling down infront of Jinkara, taking the shoe from his hand, putting it rather roughly onto his foot and tying the laces for him.

“Let’s see…I think I’ll be six-thousand five-hundred and thirty-eight in March.”, Jinkara replied, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

“And you still don’t know how to tie your shoes laces?”, Asuke asked incredulously, as she and the others stared at Jinkara, surprised at how old Jinkara really was.

“I was alive when going barefoot was the thing, and sandals were just starting to catch on.”, Jinkara replied as Asuke finished tying the first shoe and starting on the second one.

“And yet in all this time, in all this time you’ve spent trapped inside Vaugn’s body, you didn’t take the chance to learn how to tie a pair of shoes?”, Nikkai said, leaning against the door and smiling broadly at Jinkara’s slight ignorance, the others now waiting all dressed and waiting for Jinkara to finish.

“Nope. Demons don’t wear shoes remember?”, Jinkara replied as Asuke finished tying his shoes and the two of them stood up together.

“True, they don’t.”, Asuke said as she handed Jinkara Vaugn’s coat and Nikkai opened the door for the friends, “But then again, what are you doing while Vaugn is getting ready for school?”, she finished as she and the others walked into the cool morning air.

“Honestly…I’m still asleep then.”, Jinkara replied casually, pulling on his jacket and zipped it up, as he and the the others walked down the driveway in the cool morning air.

“You’re still asleep then?”, Imari asked, she and the others looking surprised.

“I sure am.”, Jinkara replied as he and the others turned onto the sidewalk that ran by the house and began their long morning walk to school, “I usually sleep until noon or so before waking up.”, he added as the cool morning breeze played through his hair and bit at his exposed skin.

“You sleep ‘til noon?”, Nikkai asked incredulously.

“I sure do. There isn’t much to do when you’re bound to a human’s soul, apart from flipping through their thoughts and memories, so I just sleep most of the day.”, Jinkara replied with a nonchalant shrug as he and the crossed a sleepy street that was just beginning to come to life.

“Damn Jin…you got it made!”, Shentin breathed, looking slightly jealous.

“I sure do.”, Jinkara replied as he stretched widely and took a deep lung full of the cool morning air.

Asuke and the others had to admit that walking to school with Jinkara was much more fun then they had origanully thought, as it appeared to them that Jinkara was just happy to be out and about, not couped up inside of Vaugn’s mind.

The friends couldn’t help but smile how Jinkara was amazed by how, with a simple press of a button at a crosswalk, they were able to stop an entire river of cars in their tracks, and that the cars had to wait until the six of them had completely crossed the road. Though, he couldn’t quite understand why, especially when he had told the friends “If I were in one of those ‘cars’, I would have kept going and hit any human that stepped in my way.”, he did have to admit that it was rather amusing.

He was once more amazed by how a simple red light could once again stop every car it faced, while a green light would move every car it faced(“It’s as if the humans are scarwed of the red light”, he said) while the friends waited to cross a somewhat busy street.

The friends couldn’t help but smile at how everything from bus stops to newspaper stands seemed to impress Jinkara. Though admittedly it was to be expected, as Jinkara was a demon who had spent the past how ever many millenia imprisoned inside a jewel, unaware of the changes taking place throught out the outside world.

Half an hour later, the six were walking through the slowly filling courtyard of their highschool. They hadn’t met many of their classmates or fellow school goers on the way to school, so no one really took notice of how Jinkara looked-that being looking like Vaugn had just been thoroughly beaten with a baseball bat.

But now that they had arrived, the five friends and Jinkara were drawing quite a bit of attention.

The courtyard was now full of students; meeting up with classroom friends, saying good-bye to the parents who dropped them off, or more groups of friends like Vaugn’s walking to school in the cool autumn morning. It was a stark contrast to that of just a few days ago, when the rat-demon was still running rampant and his infection had spread across the city like a fog, infecting countless citizens.

But now that Vermillion was dead and his plague lifted, life had returned to normal. Atleast at Vaugn’s high school that is.

As Jinkara and the others walked through the windswept courtyard, he couldn’t help but notice that more then a few people were pointing, staring, and whispering behind their back to their friend as he passed. Not being used to being seen like this, it didn’t make him uncomfortable, but rather curious as to what they found about him so interesting. The further he journeyed into the courtyard, the more the word spread, and the more the attention of the many students were drawn to him.

“Hey Asuke? Why is everyone looking at me?”, Jinkara asked curiously as he looked all around him at the people staring and whispering about him.

“Because they think you’re Vaugn, who looks like he was just in a bad car crash.”, Asuke whispered back, trying to move her mouth as little as possible, “You have to realize that Vaugn stick’s out like a sore thumb in Japan. So everyone here has become accustomed to what he normally looks like.”

“Oh that’s right! I do look like Vaugn don’t I?”, Jinkara said outloud as he passed a group of staring girls, causing them to look at one another with very confused looks on their face.

“That’s right, you do!”, Kihari hissed from behind Jinkara, “And because you do, you can’t keep saying Vaugn’s name. You have to refer to yourself as ‘I’”, she finished, catching up to Jinkara and walking beside him as Jinkara continued to look curiously around, sort of like a tourist does in an exotic city.

Feeling it was best to get Jinkara inside and to class where all he’d had to deal with was the continuing stares of his classmate, Asuke and Kihari grabbed Jinkara’s arms and beagn hurrying him forward towards the entrance way, leaving Imari, Shentin and Nikkai to bring up the rear, trying to look ahead the best they could and pay no attention to the staring school kids.

Five minutes later, after pushing and shoving their way through the crowded and only slightly gawking hallway, Asuke, Jinkara and the others were standing infront of their lockers, pulling off their outdoor shoes and jackets, and changing into their school shoes. All except Jinkara that was, who was having a little trouble with the locker.

“Hey Asuke?”, Jinkara asked as he batted the lock of the locker around with his fingers, like a cat playing with a cat-nip ball.

“What is it now Jin?”, Asuke slightly exasperately as she undid the laces of her outside shoes and pulled them off.

“How do I work this thing?”, he asked, looking at her quizzically and pointing at the lock.

“You turn the dial to put in the combo and then pull it to open.”, she said, looking up as she slid on one of her inside shoes.

None of these words seemed to register with Jinkara, as he continued to look at her like a lost and confused tourist does when in a foreign land.

“You do know the combo to Vaugn’s locker, right?”, Asuke asked slowly, straightening up and looking quizzically at Jinkara with raised eyebrows.

“No.”, Jinkara replied simply, “I never really payed any attention to any of this stuff.”, he finished with a shrug as he flicked the lock with a finger and slid a hand into the pocket of Vaugn’s pants, looking rather uncaring.

Asuke let out a sigh and hid her eyes behind her hand as she shook her head. Clearly, she was finding it a tad difficult to deal with a demon who knew as much as the average four year old.

“Don’t worry Asuke.”, Shentin cut in as he and Nikkai appeared from the other side of the locker wall, already dress in the inside shoes, “We can always get the combo from our TA. He should have the combos somewhere.”, he told her knowledgably.

“No need to worry about that Nikkai.”, Jinkara purred, closing his hand around the lock and squeezing it tight, “Asuke said all I have to do is pull to open it, so I think I’ll do just that.”, he finished slyly, an evilly playful grin spreading across his lips.

“Wait Jin!”, Asuke said desperately, “I didn’t mean…”

But it was to late.

With a powerful yank of his arm, the air was rent with the sound of snapping and splintering wood, the door to Vaugn’s locker hanging by it’s lock from Jinkara hand.

“You didn’t mean what Asuke?”, Jinkara asked innocently as the door of the locker hung lamely from his hand.

“Oh…never mind.”, Asuke groaned, burrying her face in her hand as Shentin and Nikkai stared at Jinkara, slack ajwwed and wide eyed

“Alright, if you’re sure.”, Jinkara said with a casual shrug of his shoulders, tossing the locker door over his shoulder and over the rows of lockers behind him.

Five minutes later, when Jinkara had put on Vaugn’s indoor shoes- Asuke tying the laces for him once again- and Imari and Kihari had retrieved the ripped off door after meeting up with the others, the five friends and Jinkara were busy pushing their way through the throng of school kids, themselves busy pushing past on their way to their homeroom.

Like every morning in the school, the halls were packed with students, all them marching to their homerooms from the many reaches of the school halls. Doors were open wide along the wall, welcoming back the freshly recovered students and teachers alike to their rooms inside, who all seemed to be happy that they weren’t sick anymore.

Many of them, despite being tossed to and fro by the throng of students packing the hallways, were smiling and talking happily with their friends, the many different conversations mixxing together and echoing arounsd the hallway in low rumbling din. Intermingled with the many conversations were the shouts and yells of the prefects, who were dressed in their orange sashes, yelling at the school kids to hurry along and get to class.

Asuke and the friends were the only ones who seemed to be in a normal mood. That is to say, grumbling and annoyed about the fact that they were back at school after a long weekend, albeit, a somewhat unimpressive long weekend.

“You know, I kinda wish all these people were still at home sick.”, Asuke said as she, Imari, and Kihari followed behind Shentin and Nikkai as they pushed their way through the absolutely packed hallways.

“I know what you mean Asuke.”, Kihari agreed, “I really did enjoy having some breathing room for the first time in a long time.”, she finished, slightly muffled, as she was pushed against the wall by a large group of twelth graders that were heading the opposite direction.

“I actually like all the people.”, Jinkara replied rather happily from the back of the group, “When I’m stuck inside Vaugn’s mind, it is insanely boring in there. I even tried to kill myself a few trimes when I was in there, but then I rememebred I was already dead.”, he finished with a wide smile, and despite their best efforts, the friends couldn’t help but chuckle.

The five friends did have to admit that Jinkara was rather enjoying himself. His head was constantly twisting and craning around to see everything was. There were bright orange, red, green, pink, blue and purple posters advertising the candidates running for student body president. There were flyers advertising the many different clubs, teams, school activities, events and goings on around the school. There were banners stretched across the hallway, some of them advertising for the upcoming elections, while others advertised small classroom resturants and menu items at the different school stores.

Jinkara’s eyes, which were actually Vaugns and still had the slightest shadow of great evil behind them, were bright with what could only be happiness. To the friends, he seemed to be like a tourist visiting a beautiful city for the first time ever.

“I don’t see why Vaugn dislikes this place so much.”, Jinkara said casually as he and the others broke away from the crowd and turned into their classroom.

“Well when you’ve gone to school aslong as we have, the novelty tends to wear off.”, Asuke replied as she and the others weaved their way through the rows of desks towards their seats closer to the back of the room beside the large row of windows which opened the room to the outside world and it’s beautiful morning.

“I don’t know how it can.”, Jinkara said, rather amazed as he sat down at Vaugn’s desk, “Cause from the looks of it, you have great food here. Lots of things to keep someone entertained. And who would have thought there’d be such pretty girls in a school like this.”, he purred, watching with sly eyes as a small group of girls entered the classroom and took their seats at the front of the room, talking happily and joking with one another.

“What about us Jin?”, Imari said testily as she, Asuke and Kihari stared at Jinkara with crossed arms and raised eyebrows, while Shentin and Nikkai smiled broadly and looked away to hide it.

“What about you?”, Jinkara asked casually as he continued to stare at the group of girls at the front of the class, Shentin and Nikkai snorting loudly as they broke down into fits of laughter.

“Funny Jin.”, Imari said rather scathingly as Asuke and Kihari kicked Shentin and Nikkai in the shins underneathe their desks, “But aren’t you rather old for them?”

“I might be, yes. But with Vaugn’s body, I look like the average sixteen year old. So everything is fair game.”, Jinkara replied with a pur, smiling at Imari, Kihari and Asuke as he leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms.

“He makes an excellent point there you know.”, Nikkai groaned slightly as he and Shentin rubbed there shins underneathe there desks.

“God. Even demon men are pigs.”, Imari said irritably as their homeroom teacher entered the room, and all standing students hurried to find their seats.

“Especially the demon men that actually are pigs.”, Jinkara said out the corner of his mouth, Shentin and Nikkai struggling to keep a straight face as their homeroom teacher, Mr. Takushi, entered the room.

A rather thin man, wearing thick rimmed glasses on his slightly wrinkled face, and having a short brush cut, Mr. Takushi was well known for being incredibly boring. Admittedly, most of the students took the time spent in homeroom to catch a few more minutes of very much needed sleep. And as expected with his boring demeanor, Mr. Takushi didn’t seem to notice this at all, but pushed on with his morning greetings.

“Welcome back to school everybody. I hope you are feeling better and are well rested.”, Mr. Takushi wheezed as he set his slightly beaten and worn brown breifcase down on his desk, “Now I have some morning annoucements before I let you all go, for what I’m sure will be an exciting day.”

As it always did, homeroom took about a half hour, and almost every minute of it was spent with the air full of Mr. Takushi’s wheezing, tiresome voice. To Jinkara, it was like the staticky sound that the TV makes when there’s no picture, and only the black and white dots, only more annoying.

All around Jinkara, the students were falling asleep on cue as if it was programmed into them. Beginning at the front of the class, the heads of the student closest to Mr. Takushi began bobbing up and down before they finally fell to their chest, and stayed there, as the students had been bored to sleep. Then like a wave in the ocean, the students further and further back began falling asleep once by one. Some of the students fell asleep with their heads in their hands, looking as if they were paying attention while really being asleep, while still others used their bags and binders as pillows, resting their heads on their desks as Mr. Takushi droned on.

Even Imari, Kihari, Asuke, Shentin and Nikkai fell asleep despite trying their hardest not too. Imari and Kihari swayed in their seats slightly, before they slumped sideways and rested against once another for support as they slept peacefully; Shentin was leaning back in his seat, his mouth wide open as he snored quietly; Nikkai was sleeping on his desk, his cheek pressed against the surface, squashing his face and giving him a rather funny look as he drooled slightly on the hard surface; and Asuke was bent over her desk, sleeping with her chin pressed against the desk top and looking very peaceful with a slight smile on her face. The only person in the class who wasn’t sleeping was Jinkara.

Despite being awake, Jinkara had taken to flipping through the many books in Vaugn’s book bag, trying to figure out what the different symbols meant in his math book or else wondering what the people in a book called ‘Romeo and Juliet’ were talking about. When he had grown bored of the many pictures in Vaugn’s science book, Jinkara had taken to making his fingers change from fingers, to claws, back to fingers, and back again, looking only the slightest bit amused.

Finally, after a drawn out, mind blowingly boring half hour homeroom period, Jinkara and the others were once again busy pushing their way back through the crowded hallways towards the stairwells that would lead them upwards to their classroom. In contrast to their first time around, the hall was now rather quiet; the rest of the hallway looking bleary eyed and tired.

Asuke, Imari, Kihari, Shentin and Nikkai were all looking distinctly bleary eyed and disgruntled. Kihari, Imari and Nikkai were all looking as if they had just woken up from a good night’s sleep, their hair messy and tangled on one side of their heads. Shentin as rubbing his neck, having developed what must have been a rather painful cramp, and Asuke’s chin was as bright red as a stop light, as she had slept soundly on it for a half hour.

Admittedly, the only person who looked anything even close to being awake was Jinkara. Though, it could be more to the fact that he was just happy to be anywhere but stuck in a classroom with a man who showed less excitement and enthusiasm then a dead body.

“So that’s what Vaugn has to go through every day is it?”, Jinkara asked curiously over his shoulder as he pushed students aside left and right, carving an easily followed path through the packed hallway.

“It sure is Jin.”, Asuke yawned as she prodded Jinkara in the back to make him walk faster as she and the others slowly woke up.

“And I thought I was evil.”, Jinkara purred with a small smile, “But that…that was just diabolical!”

“It sure is Jin. And you only had to suffer it once.”, Shentin said as he rubbed and twisted his neck, trying to undo the kink that had built up as he followed in the wake of Jinkara, “Imagine going through that every single day.”

“I’m starting to see why Vaugn hates going to school now.”, Jinkara said cooly as he pushed his way through the large double doors that lead to the crammed staircase.

“Didn’t you have school when you were a kid Jin?”, Imari asked as she reached above her and stretched widely.

“Nope.”, Jinkara replied casually, “We didn’t have any use for it when I was a kid.”

“What do you mean you didn’t have any use for it?”, Nikkai asked from the back of the group, now trying to flatten his hair the best he could.

“When I was a kid, all that mattered was farming crops and killing animals.”, Jinkara said as he emerged onto the second floor landing, the hallway past the doors just as packed as the one below.

“So what? Does this mean you didn’t learn how to read? Or do math?”, Shentin asked curiously following closely behind Imari as they followed the path Jinkara had made for them.

“Nope.”, Jinkara replied innocently as he started up the next flight of stairs towards the third floor, “All we needed to know was when to harvest the grain, when the animals were migrating, how many animals we needed for the village, that kind of stuff. We had no use for multiplication and division or a written language. Life was much simpler back then.”, he finished simply, as he emerged onto the third floor landing infront of a closed set of doors, with a large ‘3’ written above the frame.

“It sure sounds like it.”, Kihari said as Jinkara stepped aside and let Asuke and the others lead the way.

Pushing open the door, Jinkara let Asuke and the others passed through before following, unsure of where he was going.

Like the other halls below, the third floor was decorated with the many colourful banners, posters and flyers that cluttered the walls in a jumbled mess.

As Jinkara followed the others through the door, he couldn’t help but notice that the hallway was surprisingly empty compared to the rest of the hallways. Yet, to Jinkara it was quite easy to understand why, as the moment he had set foot within the empty hallway, a foul stench of rotten eggs, gun powder, vinegar and several other horrible smells announced their presence by burning, stinging and searing Jinkara’s nose, throat and lungs.

“God damnit!”, Jinkara gagged, covering his nose and stumbling around, “What the hell is that smell!”, he snarled, groping for the wall to steady himself as his eyes began to water from the terrible stench.

“That is the smell of discovery Jin.”, Nikkai said unhelpfully, “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it after awhile.”, he finished, waving a dismissing hand and looking quite relaxed.

“And I thought Vermillion smelled bad.”, Jinkara snarled, stumbling forward to catch up with the others, “But this’discovery’ is a hundred times worse then what he smelled like.”

Covering his mouth and nose with his hand, Jinkara followed the others as they strolled casually down the hallway, hoping as hard as he could that they’d reach their classroom soon so he could get away from the stink.

Several doors away from the friends, a young looking man was standing outside in the hall, smiling broadly and greeting the students who passed him merrily, who in turn smiled and returned the warm welcome.

“Ah! Welcome back to school, kids. I hope you’re all doing well?”, the young looking man greeted Asuke and and the others as they drew closer.

“We’re doing very well Mr. Kucaiko, thank you. Feeling better?”, Asuke said with a bow and a smile as the others, except for Jinkara, nodded and bowed, all of them smiling also, “All you feeling better?”

Mr. Kucaiko was a very young looking man, only in his mid thirties. He had a gentle face with a pointed nose, chin and small beard, aswell as somewhat longish, light brown hair. His eyes were bright blue, and he had an air to himself that made him instantly likeable by all the students.

“I sure am Asuke.”, Mr.Kucaiko said, putting his hands on his hips and puffing out his chest, taking a somewhat superhero-like pose and smiling at the friends, “No mere cold could have-Oh my god Vaugn, what the hell happened to you?”, Mr. Kucaiko gasped, doing the slightest of double takes as he noticed Jinkara-who was posing as Vaugn- for the first time.

Mr. Kucaiko stared into Jinkara’s face in shock. The bridge of Jinkara’s nose was covered in a large bandaid, and a blood soaked cotton patch was covering his cheek. His face wasn’t it’s usually healthy pink, but instead of every inch was black, purple and blue. Jinkara’s clawless hands-rather Vaugn’s normal hands- were taped and bandaged, his fingers barely able to move due to how tightly they were bound.

“Man Vaugn…it looks like you were on the ass end of an ass-kicking.”, Mr. Kucaiko said with a small chuckle, recovering from his intial shock and returning to his cheery mood.

Raising an eyebrow, Jinkara looked to the friends for some sort of explanation as to who this man was, but not offering any. Instead, the friends seemed to be looking at Jinkara as if they expected him to know who Mr. Kucaiko was.

Licking his lips, Jinkara looked back at Mr. Kucaiko-who was starting to show slight signs of confusion- and slowly leaned over towards Asuke, not taking his eyes off of Mr. Kucaiko.

“Who is this guy and why is he talking to me?”, Jinkara asked, not making any attemtp to try and whisper and letting his voice carry.

“Excuse me?”, Mr.Kucaiko asked, looking very confused now while Imari, Kihari Nikkai and Shentin, hid their faces behind their hands, trying to conceal their laughter.

“Vaugn, this is Mr.Kucaiko, our tearcher,”, Asuke said slowly and somewhat loudly, as if explaining it to someone both slow and rather dumb, raising her eyebrows to Jinkara, trying to make him understand.

For a moment, Jinkara merely stared at Asuke, looking a tad confused-Nikkai, Shentin, Kihari and Imari reappearing from behind their faces, wearing large smiles- who stared back with her eyebrows still raised, trying to make him understand.

“Oh…yeah…teacher.”, Jinkara said slowly, nodding his head as he finally understood, though still looking a tad confused.

“You’ll have to forgive Vaugn, sir.”, Imari said, finally recovering completely, “Vaugn is practising for a play you see.”

“A play?”, asked Mr.Kucaiko, looking curiously from Jinkara to Imari.

“Yes, he plays a man who has lost his memory. So we thought the best way to get into character was to practise it throughtout the day, you know?”, Asuke added quickly, thinking as fast as she could to try and make the tale seem believable.

“Oh really?”, Mr.Kucaiko asked, looking very intriqued, “Well good luck with that Vaugn. I hope you do well. And just for the record, you were quite believable.”, Mr.Kucaiko added with a wink at Jinkara.

Chuckling, Imari and Asuke grabbed Jinkara by the arms and lead him forcefully into the room like he was a show dog, the others following suit and hurrying behind them, leaving Mr.Kucaiko to his friendly greetings of more students.

The room was full of many rows of desks, and in them, many healthy looking students were busy laughing, chatting and relaxing, the room looking completely normal without so much of the slightest hint that days before, there had only been five or six students present.

“Damn it Jin!”, Asuke hissed into his ear as she and Imaria lead him through the row of desks towards their seats, and passed the many quizzical looks of their fellow classmates,“I thought we told you you have to act like Vaugn?”

“You did.”, Jinkara replied simply, looking between Imari and Asuke as they lead him through the class.

“Well Vaugn knows who our teacher is, and doesn’t refer to him as ‘this guy’.”, Imari hissed as she and Asuke pushed Jinkara forcefully into Vaugn’s seat, looking rather displeased.

“Well Vaugn might, but I don’t.”, Jinkara replied as the girls took their seats infront of him, and Nikkai and Shentin took their seats beside him.

“So in all this time you’ve shared Vaugn’s body, you haven’t even bothered to learn the name of our teacher?”, Nikkai asked as he rummaged around in his bag for his binder and books, soundingly rather amazed.

“Nope. I never thought I’d need to, so it never occurred to me.”, Jinkara replied with a shrug as he leaned back in his seat, looking quite relaxed.

“Alright everyone, listen up.”, Mr.Kucaiko called cheerily to the students as he marched to the front of class and dropping his breifcase onto the desk with a loud thunk, “Because of that strange bout of illness last week, we are really far behind. So today is gonna be nothing but catching up, and that means tests, tests and more tests.”, he finished cheerily, clapping his hands together and smiling at the class.

There was a collective groan from the students of the class as Mr.Kucaiko began rummaging around in his briefcase and withdrew a thick stack of papers. Everywhere Jinkara looked, he saw that his fellow students were looking very weary.

“So what exactly is a test?”, Jinkara asked Nikkai, who was sitting beside him as Mr.Kucaiko began handing out the test sheets.

“It’s away to see how much you’ve learned throughout the year.”, Nikkai replied as Mr.Kucaiko passed by and handed him three test sheets

“And if you haven’t learned anything?”, Jinkara asked slowly as Nikkai passed him and Shentin their test sheets.

“You copy off your neighbour.”, Shentin said with a sly smile and sideways glance at Jinkara, “And hope they did learn something.”

“Alright everyone. Let’s get going and get these tests done!”, Mr.Kucaiko called out happily to the class.

At once, there was a rustle of paper and a scratching of pens on paper as everyone began writing their tests at once.

Taking a quick glance around and watching as the students around him began working on their own tests, and feverishly pressing the buttons of their calculators, Jinkara withdrew a pen from Vaugn’s bag, and with a quick sideways glance at Nikkai’s sheet, began writing down the first answer to the math test that Mr.Kucaiko had assigned them.



***



“I don’t see what was so bad about those tests. I found them pretty easy.”, Jinkara told the others as a whole as he leaned back in his seat, looking quite relaxed.

The five friends and Jinkara were back in their homeroom, preparing for the lunch hour that was about begin. As every day, the homeroom class had reassembled, and in the few minutes that remained before the lunch-hour began, the students had pushed their desks together, forming large tables that several students sat around and talked happily, waiting for the hour to begin so they could enjoy their meals.

The morning had been compiled of nothing but tests, four altogether, covering a months worth of schoolwork and then some. It had been very hard for the students to get them done, for as soon as they were done one, another would be waiting for them. With each passing test, the students became more and more frazzled and irritable, their hair sticking up and very messy from all the times they ran their hands irritably through their hair. The only person-or rather demon- was Jinkara, who merely snuck the answers off of Nikkai’s paper, writing down what ever he put down and signing it under Vaugn’s name.

Four hours later and the friends were back in their homeroom classroom, looking very frazzled and irritable. Asuke and Imari were off getting the lunches for the group from their lockers, but they to had been very annoyed and upset looking.

“You wouldn’t Jin!”, Nikkai snarled, his head resting in his hands as he leaned on his desk, “Next time try doing it on your own and see what you think afterwards.”

“I just hope Vaugn appreciates what we’re doing for him.”, Shentin yawned, though slightly muffled, as his was bent over the desk face-first and covering his face with his arms.

“He better, cause it’s not easy babysitting a demon who has no clue what’s going on.”, Kihari said sleepily as she leaned again Shentin for support.

“Well you are the ones that said Vaugn needed an education.”, Jinkara replied fairly with a smile, “And in all honesty, I was all for Vaugn just laying in bed.”

“Coming from a demon who sleeps until noon, I believe it.”, Asuke said as she and Imari rejoined the group, laidened down with six rectangular boxes wrapped in colourful napkins

At once, the sleepy friends instantly perked up as if jolted with a powerful electric shock, looks of glee lightning their faces. As if what Jinkara was watching some sort of feeding frenzy amongst sharks, they all lept forward to grab their lunches, and without so much as a thank you to Asuke and Imari, the friends tore into their lunches, their bad moods seemingly dissolved by the fact that it was lunchtime and their tests were done.

Looking around the desk, Jinkara watched a little surprised, as the friends began shoveling down a strange assortment of foods he had never scene. He watched as they slurped long noodles, crunched on long pieces of vegetables and ate large shrimp covered in a red and yellow, thick sauce, their faces spattered with specks of meat, vegetables and sauce. In all the time he had been amongst humans, Jinkara had never seen humans eat so piggishly, and yet from the looks on their faces, they didn’t seem to care what they looked like

Following the leads of the others, Jinkara tugged lightly ontop of the bow that had tied the blue napkin wrapped around his lunch, and let it fall open, revealing a highly polished black box. Leaning close to the top of the box, Jinkara sniffed the box like a dog sniffing a stranger, and a strange assortements of smells tickled his nose.

Staring at the lid for a second, curious at what the smells could be coming from, Jinkara lifted the lid of the box off slowly, and inside Jinkara saw that the box was full of a strange assortment of foods. Some of it was white-looking meat covered in a tangy smelling yellow sauce; some of it was white rice place in the box in two large scoops, looking like ice cream; some was raw, white shrimp that had been shelled save for the tail; some of it was made up of sushi rools full of rice and fish, wrapped in seaweed soaked in sauya sauce; the rest was made up of long, thick noodles mixed with vegetables and pieces of meat, covered in the same tangy smelling yellow sauce as the white meat.

“Um…what is this?”, Jinkara asked the smiling and laughing friends, holding one of the raw shrimp at eye-height and staring at it slightly caustiously.

“It’s food Jin.”, Asuke said as she popped one of the sushi rolls into her mouth, “You need to eat to keep up your strength.”, she finished as she burped slightly, the friends all snorting with laughter in their own lunches.

“Demons don’t need food though.”, Jinkara said as the shrimp jiggled and wiggled in his fingers

“They don’t?”, Nikkai asked through a mouthful of noodles, spraying several pieces across the desk and hitting Shentin squarely in the face.

“Nope. Our bodies are just shells for our souls so that it can survive.”, Jinkara replied as the girls choked and laughed at the sight of Shentin with partly chewed noodles on his face, “Unlike animals that have to eat to survive, aslong as a demon’s soul is still intact, it can go an eternity without eating.”, he finished as Shentin joined in on the laughter with the others, wiping the noodles off his face.

“But you’re in a human body now, so you should eat anyway. Otherwise Vaugn is gonna be pretty pissed when you give him his body back and he’s starving.”, Asuke said as she leaned over and dug around in her bag beside her, withdrawing a large bottle of fruit juice.

“You’re probably right Asuke. And God knows I don’t wanna hear him bitch about being hungry.”, Jinkara muttered, and taking a deep breath, popped the shrimp he had been holding in his mouth.

The friends watched curiously as Jinkara slowly chewed the shrimp over and over, moving it around his mouth as if trying to taste it from every angle, his face breaking into a look of deep thought, as if he was thinking about the taste of the shrimp. Slowly looking from one another, the friends couldn’t help but smile as they watched him eat the shrimp, looking like a child forced to eact spinache.

After a minute or so, Jinkara swallowed that now most likely liquidfied shrimp, his face a blank canvas.

“So how was it Jin?”, Nikkai asked as he and the others studied him carefully.

Without so much as blinking an eye, Jinkara grabbed the box lunch infront of him, and tossing his head back and opening his mouth as far as it’d go, dumped the enitre lunch into his open mouth with surprising accuracys, only missing the smallest of pieces of meat that bounced off his chin and onto the floor.

With his cheeks pushed out as far as they could go like a chipmunk’s full of nuts, and with some great difficulty, Jinkara managed to begin slowly chewing his mouthful of assorted lunch things. Faster and faster Jinkara chewed, his mouth working feverously to reduce the food something more managable.

Finally after a minute of straight chewing, and with great difficulty, Jinkara swallowed his now well-chewed food. The friends, slightly bemused and smiling rather enjoyably, watched as it the food pushed its way down his throat.

“You know, that wasn’t actually bad.”, Jinkara panted, his face having turned a tad red from the strain of swallowing his lunch.

“I’ll bet.”, Nikkai said in a slightly unbelieving tone, “But did you actually taste it before you swallowed it?”, he asked as he and the other went back to their own meals.

“Bits here and there, yes.”, Jinkara replied asbentmindly as he leaned back in his chair and scratched his chin, “Is there anything for dessert?”

“Just these dessert buns.”, Asuke said as she pulled out of her bag six small, different coloured doughy buns wrapped in plastic.

“I don’t know what they are but if they taste half as good as the last thing I ate, I frankly don’t care.”, Jinkara said grabbing a red coloured bun, tearing open the plastic wrapper and popping the red bun in his mouth whole.

The friends watched with slightly bated breath as Jinkara chewed the bun in one go. Exhancing slightly evil looks, the friends watched carefully, as if expecting something big to happen.

But suddenly and unexpectedly Jinkara choked and his eyes widened as far as they’d go. Grabbing his throat, Jinkara heaved and without warning, Jinkara spat the bun that was in his mouth out, letting it’s partly chewed form splatter onto the ground on a large red blob.

“What the hell is that?”, Jinkara coughed, letting his tongue hang out like a dogs, “That thing tasted like I was eating fire!”, he gagged, spitting several times on the ground looking very annoyed.

“Oh sorry, I should have warned you.”, Asuke said, trying very hard not laugh like the rest of the group was doing, “That was a spicy curry bun. They’re…well, spicy.”, she finished, and unable to control it any longer, broke down laughing like the others.

The friends couldn’t help but laugh at Jinkara. When they thought about it, it truly was funny.

The most powerful demon ever to reside in Hell, the demon who had slaughtered countless other demons, and destroyed three of his former follwers, a demon who had with stood exploding airplanes and exploding maggots, subdued and conquered by a mere spicy curry bun, a bun that the friends ate with out so much as a second thought.

Jinkara, at first, didn’t share in the laughter. He merely crossed his arms and watched as the friends laughed at him, choking on their drinks and lunch, snorting with laughter and rolling in their seats. And yet, despite his best efforts, for whatever reason, he smiled. Not his usual, cold, evil smile, but a warm, almost human smile.

Maybe he had spent to much time amongst humans, listening in on their mindless chatter, or maybe it meant he had went soft, but it seemed that for whatever reason, beyond all rational thought and knowledge, Jinkara was enjoying the time he was spending with the friends.

He couldn’t explain why he was enjoying it but right now, watching the friends caughing and choking as they recovered, he didn’t want to explain, not when he was finally, for the first time amongst humans, he was having fun.



***



“So tell me what exactly are we doing out here?”, Jinkara asked, his breath rising slightly infront of him.

The afternoon air was cool and still, and the friends and Jinkara could be found in the gym field with the rest of their class as they jogged around the baseball diamond, warming up for what might be their final outdoor gym class.

Set deep into the field and facing away into the neighbourhood beyond the fence, the baseball diamond stood like a blemish on the immaculately green, grassy lawn. Its reddish-brown dirt infield was manicured exceptionally well, the lines of the rakes used so evenly spaced it looked as waves were passing over it. Behind the infield, standing like a silent watchman, the silver fence backstop rose high above the field, casting it’s broken shadow over the red dirt of the infield.

Bleachers with ten rows of silver benches stood behind the backstop, and were usally full of cheering and clapping students, teachers and parents alike whenever the home team hosted one of it’s many rivals from throughout the city for what was usualy an exciting game.

As a special treat, their gym teacher, a man by the name of Mr. Tsugama, said they’d split the class in half and have a baseball game before the days became to cold to have gym outside.

“We…we’re warming up- for-for gym class.”, Shentin panted, wiping his slightly sweating forehead on the sleeve of his light grey track suit, which was standard for all boys and girls.

Behind him, Asuke, Nikkai, Imari and Kihari were all jogging briskly, their faces blushed and sweat starting bead off their noses. But as was their usual custom, they were talking, laughing and joking, though slightly broken as they were all breathing hard. And the rest of the class was no different.

Everywhere he looked, Jinkara saw sweaty faced and panting students, many of them to tired to spare a single breath for anything except running. Some of the students were clutching stitches in their sides as they trotted around the baseball diamond, while others were doubled over, panting heavily, unable to continue jogging.

The only person-or rather demon- who wasn’t sweating, was Jinkara. In reality he wasn’t so much as breathing hard, let alone sweating, looking more as if he was out for a casual stroll instead of a brisk jog in the cool afternoon air.

“And ‘warming up’ as you call it, means running around in a large circle while makin yourself more and more tired?”, Jinkara asked, clearly confused as to they were doing it.

“The gym t-teachers call it w-w-warming up, but that’s just a n-nice name for it.”, Asuke panted, speeding up and pulling beside Jinkara, her face shining with sweat and her cheek’s flushed.

“Nice name for it?”, Jinkara asked, raising an eye brow and looking confused.

“Y-yeah. It’s a n-n-nice name for it, cause the t-teacher, Mr. Tsugama, uses this t-time to l-look at the girls b-backsides as they jog around.”, Nikkai gasped and panted from behind Jinkara, and though he was tired and out of breath, managed to chuckle windily.

Looking over his shoulder, Jinkara saw that the gym teacher was standing on the pitchers mound, slowly following a group of girls as they jogged around the baseball diamond, a very dirty smile spread across his face.

“Figures.”, Jinkara snorted, “You human males are infactuated with the female backside for some reason or another. I personally don’t see it, but then again, I’m not human.”, he sighed, shrugging his shoulders and looking uncaring.

“Alright everyone, gather round!”,Mr. Tsugama called out from the middle of the baseball field, “Let’s get this class started!”

With small cheers of relief, the students happily trotted from a brisk jog down to a slightly wobbling stroll and slowly made their way to the center of the baseball diamond to join Mr. Tsugama.

Mr. Tsugama was a tall, thickly built man. He was the kind of man that spent every free moment in the gym, lifting weights to try and build his body into something almost unnatural. His head and face were both square, his eyes were beady, and his nose and lips were thin. His neck was as wide as his ears, and he seemed unable to hold his arms at his side, an obvious side affect of spending too much time in the gym.

Today, as if trying to show to his class off for whatever reason, he was wearing a yellow and blue muscle shirt and red track shorts and a small brown clip board held firmly under his arm.

“As this is our last outdoor gym class until spring, we’re going to celebrate with the classic tradition of playing baseball!”, Mr. Tsugama said excitedly, smiling broadly and rubbing his hands together, “Basbeall is my favorite past time, having been a champ back in my school days. So it does my heart good to see you all playing it and carrying on the tradition. Now, when I’ve devided you into your teams, we’ll get this game underway. Now line up so I can give you you’re number.”, he finished, snapping his fingers and gesturing to the kids to form a line, marking what team they were on on his clip board.

“God! Do all gym teachers stink as bad as him?”, Jinkara whispered as he got into line between Nikkai and Imari.

“No. Not all of them.”, Imari said with a sly smile, “Only the ones that don’t shower.”

With a snort of laughter, Nikkai doubled over and broke out into silent laughter, Jinkara himself smiling, appreciating the humour for what it was.

“Miasoto, you’re on team one.”, Mr.Tsugama said, pointing at Asuke with a fat yet stubby finger, and marking it on his clip board, “Okumura, you’re on team two.”, he said pointing to Imari and marking her name on his list

“Ashton..You’re on good god!”, Mr.Tsugama gasped, seeing Jinkara properly for the first time, “What the hell happened to you Ashton?”, he asked loudly, stunned by what he was seeing.

Jinkara merely stared at Mr. Tsugama’s wide mouthed, shocked face, confused by he was looking at him with such stupid look on his face. Looking down the line to the left and right of him, Jinkara saw that every student was looking at him, some of them curious as to what had happened, others smiling at the fact that he had yet to answer Mr. Tsugama.

“What?”, Jinkara asked, raising his eyebrows and looking back at Mr.Tsugama who was looking confused as to what had happened to him.

“I was asking you what happened to you Ashton!”, Mr.Tsugama barked, looking very impatient now.

Looking at Mr.Tsugama very confused sort of like a dog, Jinkara’s face suddenly broke into a look of great discovery. Holding up a finger infront of him, telling Mr.Tsugama to hold on one second, Jinkara leaned over to Nikkai and lowered his voice as far as he could.

“Is Vaugn’s last name by chance ‘Ashton’?”, Jinkara whispered into Nikkai’s ear.

Rolling his eyes, Nikkai nodded, giving Jinkara a very impatient look.

“Right, so you were asking me, Vaugn Ashton, what had happened to me.”, Jinkara said, straightening up and gesturing to his face, trying to sound as casual as possible, “What happened was…Asuke caught me in bed with both of her sisters, and after seeing that, she kind of lost it and beat me with a chair.”, he finished, trying to hold his face into the most convincing looking expression he could.

At once, all the other students around Jinkara into roars of laughter. All around him, students doubled over with laughter, like Shentin and Nikkai, or else grabbing at eachother for support as they roared with laughter, Imari and Kihari wrapping their arms around eachother for support. Predictably, the only person not laughing was Asuke.Embarassed, Asuke burried her face in her hands, shaking her head as her face glowed a brilliant red flush.

“Funny Ashton. Real Funny.”, Mr.Tsugama said testily after the class had recovered, and Asuke came out from behind hands still glowing red, “You’re on team one, smart-ass.”, he finished very angrily, marking it on his list and moving on to Nikkai, who was placed on team two, and Shentin who was on team one.

“Alright everyone. Let’s get the game started,”, Mr.Tsugama said, scanning over the list, “Team one, you’re up to bat first. So let’s get going.”, he added, shooting Jinkara a slightly annoyed look for disrupting his class.

Still smiling broadly, the students of the gym class broke up into their respective teams and took either their positions in the outfield or in the players box as they prepared for the game to start. In he filed and in the player’s box, the students were stretching out their various muscles, preparing for what was bound to be an exciting game.

“Damn it Jin!”, Asuke hissed into Jinkara’s ear as she grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the rest of the team,“Couln’t you have come up with a better lie then me catching Vaugn in bed with both my sisters?”, she spat at Jinkara, poking him stiffly in the chest.

“I could have. But didn’t you say earlier today I had to act like Vaugn?”, Jinkara asked, crossing his arms and looking at her thoughtfully, “Because I’m pretty sure Vaugn would have said the exact same thing in that situation.”

“He has a point there Asuke. Vaugn probably would have said that exactly.”, Shentin said as he joined Asuke and Jinkara, carrying a baseball mit for both of them.

“Great! Now people are gonna think I’m some sort of jealous girlfriend or something like that.”, Asuke snarled, taking the mit Shentin handed her and cramming it on her hand while he tossed the other to Jinkara.

“You know how to play baseball, right Jin?”, Shentin asked as he, Jinkara and Asuke wandered back over to the player’s box to join the rest of the team.

“I sure do.”, Jinkara said proudly, “The goal of the game is to try and score as many points, or runs, as you can in nine innings. One team pitches and mans the field while the others are up at bat. The team up to bat is trying to hit the ball that is thrown by the other team as far as they can in hopes of scoring a run before the play is stopped or they’re tagged or thrown out. Each team has a chance to score as many points as they can before the other team gets three outs, and the teams switch roles.”, Jinkara recited, sounding something like a high school teacher.

For a moment, Shentin and Asuke stared at Jinkara in shock and awe. It was quite appearnt that neither of them had expected Jinkara to know a thing about baseball, let alone the entire point of the game when he couldn’t even so much as tie his own shoes.

“Wow…that’s huh…that’s impressive.”, Shentin said running a hand through his hair, looking very impressed, “How do you know all that?”, he asked curiously as the first batter for their team was picked and went up for bat.

“Vaugn used to play a lot of baseball when he was younger. So one day while I had nothing to do, I flipped through his memories and learned how this game was played.”, Jinkara said proudly as their teammate scored a successful hit and ran as hard as they could for first base while the ball sored high into the air above left field, “Pretty impressive huh?”, he asked happily as he slid the baseball mit he was holding onto the wrong hand and showing it to Shentin and Asuke.

“It would have been had you mastered what hand the glove goes on.”, Asuke sighed, reaching out and taking the glove off Jinkara’s hand and putting it on the right hand for him, Shentin laughing all the while at the funny site of the baseball glove on the wrong hand.

Jinkara had to admit that even though the game was rather straight forward and repeative, it was rather fun watching the different people on his team trying their hardest to hit the ball as hard and as far as they could, and when they did just that, watching the other team scramble as they tried to catch the ball. To him, the other players on his team and on the other team looked like screeching monkies and headless chickens.

But before Jinkara could start truly enjoying the game as a spectator, or for that matter go up for bat, he was trotting out into right field, Nikkai having caught two fly balls in a row as he manned the short stop and the thrid coming as the runner was thrown out.

Taking his position in the field, Jinkara could just make out the rest of his teammates, in particular, Asuke in the far off left field and Shentin taking second base.

Jinkara had only been in the outfield for a few minutes before their team had already scored two outs –neither of the balls coming even remotely close to Jinkara so as to get him excited- and were going for a shut out inning, when Nikkai strode up home plate, and from what Jinkara could tell in the far off corner, he was looking quite confident.

Standing off to the side, Nikkai took several practise swings before slowly walking forward. Raising a hand to his forward and using it as a sun shade, Nikkai carefully scanned the out field, and spotting him, pointed his bat right at Jinkara.

“Hey Vaugn! This one’s coming right for you!”, Nikkai called out to Jinkara, Nikkai’s team cheering and clapping for support.

“Yeah yeah. Let’s see what you got ape.”, Jinkara muttered to himself, hunkering down and punching the pocket of his mit with his fist.

Jinkara watched, slightly bemused, as Nikkai stepped close to the homeplate and pulled the silver baseball bat back over his head, his body coiled like a readied spring. The pitcher, who Jinkara didn’t know the name of, slowly drew his leg upwards, and with a powerful lunge forward, brought his arm swinging over his head and let the ball slip from his grip, launching the ball through the air like a white cannon ball.

Pulling his leg upwards, Nikkai lunged forward and his body uncoiled. The baseball bat cut a silver arc through the air, and with a loud, echoing gong, crashed into the ball with tremendous force. Faster then the blink of an eye, the white baseball rocketed into the air, cutting a wide arc through the sky, shrinking with every passing second.

“This ape obvious has a lot.”, Jinkara said, slightly amazed and slack jawwed as he straightened up and watched the ball sore through the air.

“Run Vaugn! You can get it!”, several of Jinkara’s team mates shouted at him from their different positions.

Keeping an eagle like focus on the ball, Jinkara slowly began backing away watching the ball as it began plummeting down to earth.

Faster and faster Jinkara backstepped, his legs pumping furiously to keep him up with the ball that was falling faster and faster through the cool autumn air. Jinkara’s eyes were firmly foucsed on the small white ball, which was just visible against the bright blue afternoon sky. As Jinkara hurried backwards, the air rushed past his ears, yet the usual roar that would have accompanied it was a distant rumble. The calls of cheers of his teammates were distant buzzes in his ears. Jinkara was focused on nothing but ctaching the ball.

Twisting around, Jinkara spun a full one-eighty and turned his back to the ball diamond, summoning even more speed as the ball neared the end of it’s long drop.

Inside his mit, Jinkara’s palm was starting to sweat, and his fingers were tingling with anticipation, his fingers ready to snap shut around the ball as soon as he caught it. Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime of the ball falling towards the ground, Jinkara licked his lips and with his excitement building, raised his mit into the air.

A heartbeat later, and with baited breath, Jinkara felt the hard thud of the ball crashing into the pouch of his glove and heard the loud smack of leather on leather.

Closing his hand firmly around the ball, Jinkara came back to his surroundings as he sprinted down the field.

His teammates were cheering and clapping in the distant. The other team was groaning and mumbling about a lucky catch. Pulling his mit out of the air, Jinkara opened it and looked at the shining white ball held firmly in the pocket of the mit.

“To easy!”, Jinkara chuckled as he stared at the mit, continuing to run forward.

“Vaugn! Look out”

Pulling his attention away from the ball in his glove, Jinkara looked behind him over his shoulder. Several people on both teams were waving frantically at him, their many different calls mixxing together in an undescernable jumble. Only did Jinkara know what they were shouting about when Shentin’s voice boomed across the field cannon shot.

“Vaugn! Watch out for the fence!”

Slightly confused, Jinkara pulled his gaze away from what was behind him, and turning his attention ahead of him, Jinkara saw what the others were shouting about. Standing tall infront of him was the large silver chain link fence that circled the entire gym field. Up close Jinkara saw that it was about fifteen feet high, but that really was the leats of his worries, as he was heading full sprint towards one of the large support poles that held the fence upright.

“Oh boy…”, Jinkara sighed, and unable to stop, cleared the last few feet between him and the fence before…

CRASH!

With a full head of steam behind him, Jinkara crashed head first into the large metal support pole. With the force of a truck, Jinkara’s head smashed into the pole, bending it as easily as if it was made of rubber, the pole bending over and stopping at a perfect nintey-degree. Staggering backwards slightly, Jinkara’s eyes were out of foucs and before he knew what had happened, he lost his balance and fell backwards onto the soft grass with a soft ‘fwump’.

In the infield, every student was slack jawwed in complete surprise. The cheering and groaning that had been so loud before was now gone, replaced by a shocked silence. Comically, the entire gym class watched as Jinkara’s head popped out of it’s molding and he fell limply to the ground spread eagle.

The only people who weren’t shocked at what had happened were Asuke, Shentin, Nikkai, Imari and Kihari. They had all burried their eyes in their hands and were shaking their heads, exasperated looks very clear on their faces.

On the ground, looking as if he was sleeping, Jinkara layed spread eagle on the cool grass field. His brain was a little scrambled, and through his closed eyelids, he could see stars and swirls exploding infront of his eys.

Groaning slightly and raising a hand to his head, Jinkara slowly opened his eys and stared at the blue cloudless sky for a moment before sitting up and climbing to his feet, wobbling only slightly as he balanced himself. Dusting himself off with his mit and hand, Jinkata stared for a moment at the large, upside-down L shaped bend in the fence support pole.

“Phew, what happened there?”, Jinkara asked out loud as he turned his back to the fence and started jogging towards the baseball diamond, “Oh yeah…I did!”, he laughed to himself as he trotted closer and closer to the infield.

As Jinkara jogged into the infield, he couldn’t help but notice that every shocked face was watching him, their wide-open mouths like dark spotlights that were keeping him in their sights.

“Well c’mon everyone! Let’s get going”, Jinkara called out happily as he jogged closer and closer, sounding quite excited and relaxed.

One by one, Jinkara’s fellow players glanced at once another, and figuring that he was alright if he could walk –make that run- away from such a hard, head first collision with the fence that there was nothing to worry about. Shrugging, his fellow teammates joined him in jogging back to the players box, anxious for their turn up at bat, while the players of the other team trotted out into the field for their turn, many of the students congradulating Jinkara on his fantastic catch.

“Hey Nikkai.”, Jinkara said casually, catching Nikkai by the shoulder as he passed, “If you didn’t choke up on the bat as much, you would have hit it out of the park.”, he finished with a smile, flipping Nikkai the ball and letting him take his place on the pitchers mound.

“Nice catch Vaugn.”, Shentin said with a wink as Jinkara joined he and Asuke, who were getting ready for their turn up at bat.

“It was, wasn’t it?”, Jinkara asked, slightly pompusly.

“It was Vaugn.”, Asuke said with a smile and a nod, “But damn it Jin. Try and act more human will ya or people will start to suspect something.”, she hissed, leaning in closely and grabbing Jinkara by the ear, pulled his head down so they wouldn’t be over heard.

“What I do wrong now?”, Jinkara whispered, rubbing his ear as Asuke let go of him.

“Normally when people run head first into a fence, they don’t get up, let alone walk away! Not even Vaugn could do that, no matter how hard his head is!”, Asuke hissed exasperately.

“Aw give him a break Asuke.”, Shentin said with a huge smile, slapping Jinkara on the back, “It was a great catch and an even better finish. Let him have this one.”

“Well, I guess we can. But just try and becareful from now on.”, Asuke sighed, giving Shentin a half exasperated look as he ruffled Jinkara’s hair with a wide smile.

“Hey Asuke! You’re up!”, a girl with light brown hair holding a clip board, called from the end of the players box.

“Thanks Miyabi.”, Asuke ccalled, jumping slightly as she hurried to the end of the players box, grabbed a helmut, rammed it on her head and hurried out to homeplate.

Stepping into the batter’s box, Asuke seemed to take a completely different mind-set then she had been in when she had been interogating Jinkara. Stretching her neck and cracking it, Asuke ground her toes into the soft dirt ball diamond, and slowly pulled the bat behind her head, turning her eyes and setting them firmly on Nikkai’s focused face. As they stared at eachother, Nikkai leaned over slightly and began rolling the ball in his hand behind his back, as if trying to pysche Asuke out. Asuke, despite what Nikkai may have been doing, was set firmly on his face, the bat not even so much as twitching as she waited for Nikkai to pitch.

“Asuke seems to know what she’s doing out there.”, Jinkara said, crossing his arms and watching the stare down between Asuke and Nikkai intently.

“She should. She’s been a baseball champion every since age seven. Nikkai doesn’t stand a chance against her and he knows it.”, Shentin replied with a slightly triumphant smile.

Breathing deeply, Nikkai slowly straightened and brought his throwing arm infront of him, sinking the ball into his glove. Looking like he knew what was about to happen, but seeing it through to the end anyway, Nikkai slowly raosed his leg infront of him, Nikkai lunged forward, and swinging his arm over his head in a wide arc, launched the ball through the air in a lightning fast fastball.

Ripping through the air in a dull whistle, the ball covered the distant between Asuke and Nikkai in no time at all.

Smiling to herself, Asuke kicked her leg upwards, firmed her grip on the bat and drove lunged forward, swinging with all her might, the bat cutting through the air with menacing speed.

In the slight confusion that followed, Jinkara scanned the sky for the ball, but couldn’t see it. Instead, his attention was drawn to the backcatcher leaping on the ground and Asuke dashing down the first base line. A second later, the catcher cocked their arm, the ball held firmly in their hand, and whipped their arm as hard as they could, sending the balling streaking through the air towards first base. But it was to late, as Asuke was already standing firm on the base, the ball finally reaching and sinking into the first basemens glove.

Shentin and the others cheered loudly for Asuke, who pushed her long brown hair out of her eyes, looking very proud of herself with a victorious smile. Jinkara looked around, slightly confused at what had happened. He was sure that Asuke had sent the ball soaring into the air, but then why had the backcatcher been the one to have the ball?

“Shentin? What just happened?”, Jinkara asked, looking at Shentin in hope of an answer.

“Asuke bunted.”, Shentin replied simply, “One of Asuke’s specialities as it is is making the other team think she’s going deep but is really only going to bunt. They never see it coming no matter how many time’s they’ve already seen it.”, he finished, grabbing a helmut and preparing for his turn.

“I see…”, Jinkara said slowly, nodding and turning his attention to the batter of their team at the plate now, “Kinda anticlimatic.”

“Yeah, a little, but then again a hit is a hit.”, Shentin said as their teammate scored a powerful hit that sent the ball into left field, allowing Asuke to make it easily to second before being stopped.

“Hey Kuromura, you’re up!”, the girl named Miyabi called out to Shentin, marking his name off the clipboard.

“After me is you Jin.”, Shentin said with a smile as he picked up a bat and marched out onto the ball diamond, looking cool and confident.

And Shentin had every right to be cool and confident, as with one, half-hearted swing, he knocked the ball into centerfield, and with it, easily got to first, as Asuke and their other teammate advanced a single base.

Jinkara couldn’t help but notice that Nikkai didn’t seem to really try when he pitched to Shentin, as he didn’t take nearly the wind up, or have as much speed as when he pitched to Asuke. It was as if he was saving himself for some reason.

“Hey Vaugn, you’re up now!”, Miyabi called, waving to Jinkara.

Returning the wave, and following the other’s lead, Jinkara grabbed a helmut and crammed it onto his head, grabbing a bat as he passed and strolling onto the ball diamond.

Stopping short of the batter’s box, Jinkara took a few practise swings, getting a feel for the weight of the bat, before slowly stepping into the batter’s box. Staring down the pitching lane, Jinkara saw that Nikkai was looking highly confident as he was bent forward, rolling the ball over and over in his hand behind his back.

“You may have gotten a lucky catch out in the field Vaugn, but don’t expect it to happen when you’re at bat.”, Nikkai said, still rolling the ball over and over as he was bent forward, readying for the pitch.

With an air of realization, Jinkara knew that the reason why Nikkai had taken it so easily on Shentin was because he was still a tad sore about being robbed of what could have been a spectacular homerun.

“Well let’s see what you got then.”, Jinkara goaded Nikkai, pulling his baseball bat high behind his head and readying himself for the pitch, flashing Nikkai a broad, confident smile.

Smiling slyly, Nikkai slowly straightened and stared at Jinkara down the pitching lane, rolling the ball over and over in his mit. Like a statue, Jinkara stood stalk still, his bat held high and his body locked, ready to spring.

Around the two players, the many calls, jeers and cheers of the other players began rising into the air, twisting and mixxing with one another in a roar of jumbled confusion.

“Strike him out Nikkai!”

“You can do it Vaugn!”

“Easy out Nikkai!”

“Hit us home Vaugn!”

Breathing slowly, Nikkai focused his every fibre of his mind down the pitching lane, his vision tunneling and the sounds of distraction around him dying and fading into the background.

In one magnificent motion, Nikkai’s leg kicked up and he drove it forward, lunging off the pitcher’s mound. Swinging his arm over his head in a wide, lightning fast arc, Nikkai launched the ball like it was shot out of a cannon, his leg kicking up into the air behind, trying to keep himself balanced.

In a heartbeat, the ball rocketed down the pitching lane in hushed whistle. Over and over the ball spun, its red stitching blurring into flashes of red on the pearly white face. The late afternoon sun bounced off the glistening surface of the baseball as if it were a mirror.

Around Jinkara, the sounds of his fellow teammates dyed aswell, leaving only the sound of the whistling ball to fill his ears, growing louder and louder with each passing heartbeat. Jinkara watched the fast spinning ball draw closer and closer with baited breath, his eyes unblinking and his body as rigid as a statue.

Finally, when the ball had gotten within spitting distant of Jinkara, he struck.

Licking his lips and firming the grip on his bat, Jinkara lunged forward, and his body uncoiled, swinging the bat through the air with ferocious speed.

In the momentary uncertainty that followed his swing, all of Jinkara’s sences went blank, unsure of whether he hit the ball, or if Nikkai had managed to slip one past him.

To ease his uncertainty, a moment later, the air was rent with a thunderouse crack, a momentary shutter in the bat, and the many cheers of Jinkara’s teammates.

Coming back to his sences, Jinkara turned his attention to the sky, and with a slight surge of excitement, watched as the ball rocketed upwards into the air at alarming speed, tumbling over and over in a twinkling dance, speeding further and further away from him, eventually shrinking into nothing but a small, pinprick sized spec in the sky.

Nikkai, who seconds before had been looking so confident, now had his back to Jinkara as he watched the ball disappear into ther sky and out of sight. Without even needing to see his face, Jinkara knew that he was shocked and surprised

And he wasn’t the only one.

Everyone around Jinkara, and in the field for that matter was once again slack jawed and wide-eyed. Though the ball had disappeared completely from sight, they were still staring at where it had been moments earlier; hoping that what they had seen was merely an illusion. Even Shentin and Asuke were surprised, despite knowing that Jinkara knew how to play baseball.

Pleased with him self, Jinkara turned the bat he was holding upside down and rested the tip on the diamond ground, leaning on the butt end like it was a cane.

“Hey Nikkai!”, Jinkara called out from homeplate, looking quite relaxed, “Do you think I should run, or will we just call that a grand slam?”

Turning a shocked face to Jinkara, Nikkai merely shook his head in disbeliefe before turning back around and going back to the sky like everyone else.

All in all, Jinkara thought as he trotted around the diamond, getting congradulatory pats on the back from his fellow players, it was a pretty good day at school.

Though class was a little boring and lunch time was a time of new discoveries, not all of them exactly pleasent, and the daily ritual of warming up for gym class by running was a tad confusing, it made for a nice change from being couped up inside of Vaugn’s mind and soul.

And though he had fun, he got some fresh hair and learned a few things, he probably wouldn’t want to do it again anytime soon.


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