The Ten Shades Of Summer

Some would say high school were the best years of your life, but Reizo personally never understood why people said that. He didn't really have fond memories of the place. There had been bullies, groups and other shallow people all struggling in some strange dominance for power Reizo had never cared for. If not for training he had received from Miss Kronos, he would have just been another 'prey' on the menu because he looked weak. Not so much anymore, he had actually developed some muscle and while quite and soft spoken wasn't nearly as meek anymore. It helped a lot.

College wasn't all bad, but it was something Reizo just wanted to be done with. One of the few upsides was the fact he shared a place with his friend Tomoya. By themselves, neither could afford a place, but together they could scrap enough money to get by. It wasn't perfect but it was enough.

Reizo had stayed a bit after class to take care of things, which meant Tomoya walked to their apartment on his own. He was slightly worried about him walking home alone. If no other reason for the fact Tomoya had made some enemies that weren't happy to leave a grudge or wounded pride, but he couldn't always be there. Besides, so far nothing had happened so he shouldn't worry too much about it, right?

Today he was wrong.

* *

Heiko was used to getting what he wanted, when he wanted. Being a reasonably powerful youkai, he was confident in most encounters he found himself in. He wasn't the best, but he knew his place as did his friends, before that fucking Tomoya and his chicken-shit friend had come along. They had gotten in the way of certain things, including one of his friends 'dates' or rather the fact he was juggling various women. They should have minded their own business.

He had lost to Tomoya in a fight once, much to his shame getting beaten by a human. However, this time, they were going to use numbers. Himself, along with five other friends of his were simply going to wait for Tomoya to make his way home, and then they would let that asshole have it.

'Speak of the devil..'

Seeing their target, Heiko dropped down from seemingly above, and the rest of his friends came from the wood works from the back. "You think you're hot shit don't you? Just come out of fucking nowhere and get in our business. I'm going to say this for the last time Okazaki, stay out of our damned business. Otherwise, we're going to mess up that pretty face of yours. We wouldn't want that would we?"

Tomoya just sighed heavily. Same shit, different day. "Shit, Heiko... it bad enough you have to annoy me with your bull, but I have to deal with you coming onto me too? This is screwed up. Listen, if you all just go home, I promise, I won't hurt you too much."

As predicted, Heiko wasn't pleased to hear this as his face turned red and he clinched his fist. "Fuck you Tomoya. Just beat the shit out of him." At those words, his other friends didn't seem to have any issue with it. They had their own grudges against the new student and the fact they could get back at them and make them suffer was far to tempting to pass up. If they had thought further ahead, they would have paused at the fact if they had seriously hurt Tomoya, they would have a very strong and pissed of mother to deal with. However, since they weren't that smart, this didn't factor in.

They moved to flank Tomoya, one on each side. If they were attacking one at a time, Tomoya could beat them, but as a group things were going to get more then rough. Heiko couldn't wait to see that bloody and beaten face of that cocky son of a bitch smashed to the ground. He was going to let his friends soften him up a bit, then he'd beat on him a bit before leaving Tomoya to nurse his wounds.

So caught up in his fantasy, he didn't notice what happened next. And even if he had been paying attention it was simply too fast for him to catch.

Something a bit less then a blur shot past Tomoya, colliding with one of Heiko's friends sending them crashing into a trash can hard enough to collapse it upon itself; a second later his buddy joined his fate. The two were already down leaving just three more and Heiko still up and standing.

The 'leader' was taken back by this, especially when the figure stopped moving to reveal themselves as a woman dressed in some rather strange clothes. If things were different, he would have been leering at them, she certainly did have the figure and chest as far as he was concerned. Right now he was just pissed.

"You need your girlfriend to protect you now Tomoya?" Heiko spat in disgust. "Some woman? I thought you were at least a man."

"I don't know him." The woman said calmly. "But if they lost to just a woman what does that make them then? Besides, you're the one that used numbers to fight somebody that you likely couldn't beat by yourself."

Heiko saw red. "You don't know me bitch. Get Tomoya! She's mine!" He charged the newcomer just as his friends went to attack Tomoya. One of them attempting to grapple him with a bear hug from the back, while the other went to attack with a right hook to Tomoya's lower jaw.

Tomoya's first thought during all this, was that it was interesting that some random, rather beautiful, woman had come out of nowhere to help him out. His second, was that it was amusing that those idiots were still trying to fight. He was going to just shift out of the way and let the guy in front hit the guy in back, until he sensed something behind him. At the same instant that another blur dropped from above onto the attacker behind him, Tomoya simply caught the right hook with his left hand, and responded with his own hit to his attacker's face, breaking his nose.

Behind him, the one going to grab him was slammed to the ground, face first, by yet another woman. She stood up, brushing dust off of her clothes. "I really hate people who fight dirty..." Tomoya turned to look, and had his third thought; more amusement that now it was two beautiful women he'd never met before coming to his aid. Which, of course, would likely just piss Heiko and his cronies off even more. Today was a great day, he decided.

The one that Tomoya had his nose broken stumbled, but they weren't done as it was already healing at a visibly fast rate. Now more pissed then anything, they decided to screw 'fair' attacks and just got something to down Tomoya quickly. So with that in mind, they shredded their human-looking form, instead their skin turning gray. Spikes sprouted from all over their body as they charged in a bull rush; Tomoya couldn't melee them without hitting the spikes.

As for the other, he didn't know what the woman was, only they had a strong Youkai energy. However, they didn't want to take chances and tossed a lighting bolt at the woman.

* *

If Heiko had even just a bit more sense, he would have thought it was probably a good idea to cut his losses and retreat after three of his friends were dropped. However, since Heiko wasn't on top of having a pride problem, retreating wasn't much of an option. He went to swing at Natomi.

Then hit air. They turned around, trying to swipe again.

Only for the process to repeat. Heiko was getting more pissed by the second as his blows were simply dodged as if he was trying to move normally through water. What attacks weren't simply dodged were deflected harmlessly to the side. Fighting Natomi was like fighting a leaf in the wind. No matter how much force you exerted, it would simply flow around your hit, and even if it did strike, it would lessen damage. If you weren't fast enough to touch the leaf in the first place, then it was a highly frusterating exercise in futility.

But what pissed Heiko off more was the fact she hadn't bothered to hurt him. "Why aren't you hitting me? You've just been dancing there the whole time."

Natomi, not even winded from her last dodge answered simply. "I don't want to hurt you. Please just leave, this fighting is pointless."

That, if anything, hit a beserker button. "You think you can fucking look down on me!? I'll show you weak!"

After that, the attacks became faster but more erratic and violent. Natomi had no problem moving out the way of the attacks, if anything it made it easier. However, she now knew talking wasn't going to do any good so she needed to end this before it got out of hand. Sighing mentally, she suddenly moved.

Heiko lost track of where, only he suddenly felt a pain in his gut. Natomi had dug her elbow in his gut. The attack sent them flying backwards and crashed into a wall in a ungraceful heap. They only had enough energy to move themselves up, curled up as their body trembled in pain. It would go away on its own quick enough, but it was the only way to really make him stop.

"Damn..damn it.." Heiko wheezed. This was utterly humiliating.

The woman rather easily dodged the bolt of lightning, and blitzed the man, doubling him over her fist as she struck, before spinning and delivering a punch to the back of his head to drop him. She then practically skipped over to stand next to the other woman, bending at the waist so her head was level with Heiko's. "Mmm, someone seems to have been taught a lesson. I wonder who could have taught him such a valuable thing..." She hadn't bothered to check with Tomoya, as he'd already handled things. Sure, the spikes stopped him from striking. However, he'd been trained by Samantha Kronos. He didn't need to touch you to hurt you. A powerful Ki-blast would do the job nicely; which is why he'd blasted the idiot up fifteen feet in the air, to fall to the ground harshly.

"......" Heiko didn't bother answering, he wasn't really all there. He was coherent enough and just smart enough to just let things be so he didn't reply. As many stupid things as he did do, he knew when he was beaten and this, as much as it pained him to admit it was one of those times. Briefly, he considered taking revenge on Tomoya another time but that might not end well if these girls were hanging around them.

"Just leave." Natomi said simply, watching them.

The young man just limped away, going to one of his buddies who was semi concious, dragging them away.

Once that was done, she relaxed. She didn't like fighting or hurting people but sometimes there was no avoiding it. She turned to Tomoya. "Are you okay?" He seemed to be able to handle himself just fine, maybe he hadn't really needed their help after all.

Tomoya nodded, grinning. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for helping out. I probably could have handled it, but not without having to hurt them alot worse, or taking some hits myself. That, and it would be far less entertaining than for that sexist bastard to be beaten by a woman, especially that looks like you two do." He paused. "And by that, I mean he'd believe it more if you looked like bodybuilders, but all he'd see when he looks at you is beautiful women. He's blind in a way..."

The comment made Natomi think of certain people back in the past she had met but hadn't had fond memories of. While they did a good job at hiding it and keeping it to themselves, she always had a feeling some of the older elders were a bit sexist, but it was never outright so she couldn't ever say or do much about it for the most part. Add the fact she had always been taught the elders were people to be respected, and she simply had left the matter alone.

"Ah, I see. Hopefully that'll make him have a more open mind." Not likely, but Natomi was an optimist at heart. She bowed slightly. "My name is Natomi Mugen, nice to meet you."

Tomoya smiled, returning the bow. "Tomoya Okazaki, nice to meet you too. And you are...?" He turned to the other woman, who smiled.

"Kusano Mugen. Kusa for short." Tomoya nodded, grinning.

"Well, thanks again, Natomi, Kusa. Though I'm surprised you both showed up like that to help."

Despite 'stealth' and such being part of their training, Natomi was never all that good with lying simply because of her nature. Considering lying, was in fact a vital part of staying out of trouble on some missions, it hindered her a bit despite her combat abilities. On the other hand, telling half-truths or withholding information was something she was more able to do. Still, in times like these they couldn't exactly go around revealing their origins to everyone. The less involved the better.

"We travel together most of the time, and saw you. Just thought you might of needed help..and I was never good at ignoring people in trouble." Natomi said, that was true at least. "We're new to this part of Japan. Do you know a decent place we could stay over for the night?"

Tomoya shrugged in response. "Sorry, I can't really help you there. All I know of is the apartment I'm sharing with my friend Reizo. If you want an apartment, I know a good place, but other than that, I've got nothing. Besides that, the place we got an apartment for, it's real expensive. Our extended family actually got it for us, wanting to make sure we got a good place; me and Reizo just have to pay rent. Otherwise, we'd be in a kinda crappy place."

"Oh."

Natomi felt slightly discouraged at that, but he at least knew of an apartment. Since she was currently on the run and trying to keep a low profile, it was best for something like that anyway instead of being tied down some place more permanent. While the village was isolated from much of the busier city life, it was important as part of their training they went out to see what the world was like so they weren't caught flat footed. Natomi wasn't completely clueless per say when it came to the outside world, but a few things went over her head.

"If you could show us an place, we would greatly appreciate it Tomoya-San." They needed to start somewhere after all.

Tomoya again shrugged. "Alright then. Though just call me Tomoya, I kinda hate the whole honorifics thing. The only difference is Kotomi, because sometimes, she doesn't even realize you're talking to her unless you add the '-chan' on her name. Anyway, yeah, I can show you. I was heading there anyway, so just follow me I guess." Kusa nodded at that.

"Okiedoke then..." She waited to take her cue from Natomi then.

There wasn't much of anywhere else for Natomi to go, nor could she think of anything at the moment.

"Okay, we'll follow you Tomoya-sa-I mean Tomoya. Sorry, it'll take some getting used to. I'm used to using honorifics." She said to him, preparing to follow. In battle, Natomi seemed almost like a different person. When she wasn't in a fight there seemed to be something different; however the differences wouldn't become as readily apparent unless you knew the young woman already.

She was already thinking of what they would do after they got the place. Natomi could change her hair, but then some could sense energy or scent so they would be able to tell it was her right away. Besides Kenji, Asako was one who wanted to hunt her down more. She had never liked Natomi; and now she was effectively a fugitive, it was all the excuse that was needed. How she was going to clear her name was something she hadn't yet figured out, but she was confident she'd find..something. One day.

While Tomoya led the way, Kusa kept close to Natomi, humming to herself, and reflecting on things. Thankfully, she and Natomi would have a bit of a 'grace period.' They had some time before anyone else came looking for them, since Kusa was believed to be hunting Natomi herself, since she was the most likely to be able to find her. In truth, Kusa had indeed found Natomi with disturbing ease; this just gave her more time to help Natomi put distance between them and the village, as well as covering their trail. It wouldn't last forever, but it was a good start.

Tomoya soon led them to the offices of the apartment complex, which was indeed quite nice. "Here you go."

Natomi smiled slightly. "Thank you Tomoya. Maybe we'll meet again one day." She waited a bit longer for Tomoya to be on his way before turning to Kusa. "How much money do we have left?"

She had made a head count of how much money they had between them last time but it was best just to make sure. Getting a job was going to be the bigger problem with things after all. Their money would only last so long before they had to get a job somewhere.

* *

About two days had passed since Natomi and Kusa had semi settled in their new place, and nothing out of the ordinary happened since then. It was just a matter of 'where to now' since they had settled in the place. For now, they didn't have to worry about someone tracking them but it wouldn't last forever. That was the small comfort; she didn't have to worry about it for a while.

But there had to be something else. Natomi had always been taught to think ahead, and while it was easier said then done, as she tended to think with her heart more. Now it was telling her that her fate, and ultimately Kusa's as well, might somehow lay with using the loopholes of her clan. If she lived with someone not involved at all, then by their laws they would have to back off at least for a bit. Tomoya had seemed rather nice, but she didn't want to impose on anyone.

But still it tugged and pulled. Eventually, she gave in.

So around the second day, she had gotten dressed and decided to pay Tomoya's place a visit. She only knew where the place was due to the fact as part of the plan was to enroll in school; tracking skills certainly helped.

When she reached the door, she hesitated, almost losing nerve before knocking on the door.

Tomoya, when the knock came, was cooking lunch for himself and Reizo. He wasn't sure what Reizo was doing, but he was better able to answer the door. "Oi, Reizo, get that, will ya? Kinda got my hands full."

Reizo was doing something revolving school when Tomoya called for him. He wasn't doing much of anything else so he went to open the door. Reizo wasn't expecting to see two very attractive young women at the door.

"Uh..hi, can I help you two?" Reizo wasn't sure who these two were, he had never seen them until now.

Natomi paused just one moment, then went on. "Is Tomoya-sa-I mean Tomoya available? I'm Natomi Mugen,"

The Tuffle blinked, then nodded. "Oh, okay. One second. You two can come in." He moved aside. "I'll get them." Reizo noticed the Natomi woman seemed a bit nervous about something but he didn't pay it anymore mind, he didn't really know what was going on.

He went over to Tomoya where he was at. "Hey Tomoya. Do you have an girlfriend or something? Some girl named Natomi was asking about you."

Tomoya very nearly choked at Reizo's question. "What!? Girlfriend? When the... gah, nevermind. Bring her in here, I can't leave this right now. Girlfriend, honestly... you know I'd have said something earlier if I was dating someone that attractive..." In the mean time, Kusa glanced at Natomi nervously.

"Am I the only one who sees nothing good coming from staying with not one, but two guys that we barely know? ...Then again, they are cute..."

Natomi shifted a bit. "..I know. But we can take care of ourselves..and just trust me."

Reizo came back along with Tomoya, and that's when Natomi knew she needed to lay out exactly why she and Kusa we're here.

Once the two came back, Natomi decided to get this over with. Now or never. "Sorry for bothering you and showing up unexpected, but we need your help. Me and Kusa, we come from a clan of ninja, called the Mugen Clan. I was framed for something I didn't do. A clanmate was murdered, and I was framed." Natomi forced herself to calm; remembering her training. "I've been keeping a low profile ever since. Kusa is with me because she was sent, but really she's here to help me prove my innocence. I'll get to the point. There is a law that we aren't to hurt or get involved innocent people. If we stay with someone, they'll back off."

"We don't know anyone else here; and that's why I'm asking you. I know its a lot to ask." 'Put it lightly.' "So if you don't want to, I understand. We'll pay for our part of rent and help with anything else around the apartment, if we're allowed to stay."

Natomi waited. The more she spoke this outloud, the more she was thinking this was maybe not the best idea. Maybe this really was one of those times she should have ignored her gut feeling. But the worse that could happen was to say no, right?

Kusa bit her lip, closing her eyes and waiting for... something. Some sort of... badness? She didn't see how this could go well. She was, therefore, surprised. "Eh, sure, why not? If it'll keep you safe, I'm in. Besides, you helped be out the other day, how could I not return the favor. Plus, if you two are helping out with the rent and such, it'll make things alot easier. I assume you're cool with it, right Reizo?"

Reizo rubbed the back of his head. "..We'll, if they helped you and everything then why not? Besides if you can help, you should. I don't have a problem with them staying over here."

She wasn't sure she heard right, but Natomi was taken back. "..You mean we can stay?"

Reizo nodded. "Yeah. I don't see why not. We would just have to figure a few things out, but that shouldn't be too hard."

Tomoya nodded. "Pretty much. Until we can get both of you some beds, you can take ours. Reizo will take the couch and I'll sleep on the floor. Once we actually get the beds, guess me and Reizo will take one room, you two take the other. As for everything else, it'll sort itself out."

"...You two... are surprisingly nice. Not had the best experiences in meeting people, but you two kinda throw my expectations out the window, y'know?"

"Yeah, me and Reizo are good at that..."

Natomi was extremely grateful, and out of habit bowed a bit. "Thank you. I promise you won't regret this decision. Me and Kusano will do what we can to help around the apartment."

At that, Reizo scratched the back of his head. "..We'll, no need for all that. You just needed help. Everyone needs help at times, right? Besides you helped Tomoya that other day." Not that he probably needed it but still.

For now, she decided to let that go. "I think I should know what the rules of the apartment are. Is there anything we should know?" Rules were apart of structure. There were rules to her clan, just as there were rules to school and everything else. Her and Kusano being guest were new excuse, she was expecting at least one or two things while they stayed here. If things went well, they wouldn't be staying here for long.