Between Us

Of course, when Ameya growled, the girls scattered. This freed things up a bit. Tohru, seeing that Ameya was able to get the girls to back off, moved closer to Ameya, while Tomoya finally got to Elsa. Everyone else seemed to be coping... when someone's patience snapped. "ENOUGH!" A heavy power flooded the room, the pressure of it forcing the weaker people to struggle to breath. It was brief, but attention grabbing. Ashi was glaring at nothing in particular, her vampiric energy coming off of her in waves, her crimson eyes glowing slightly. "All of you, leave us be, now!"

Emanulle felt something stir when Ashi scared off the rest of the 'fan club' who had taken off after the display. There was just something about the way she had did things and the way she looked that...

No, he was getting distracted.

"Man, those guys didn't know when to quit." Adell relaxed when everyone else went away. He was a pretty close to even losing his patience with the forming crowd that had been here just moments ago. Kieth and Dysis were just happy the guys were away from their people of interest.

Ameya gave a sigh when they were gone, turning to Ruby. "Is it always like this here?"

Ruby smiled sheepishly. "Unfortunately. Alot of the students were raised in places that cater to their instincts more, so they aren't used to... well, being rather forward in what they want. That's part of why they are here; to learn to interact with society normally."

"Hm.." Ameya didn't have much to say after that. She could understand what it was like with instincts, hers were pretty strong herself but she more or less learned how to control them. "I guess I'll get used to it for as long as I'm here. Have you guys picked out if you're sharing your dorm room yet?"

Adell shrugged slightly. "I don't know. Probably with Kieth or Reizo. I haven't gotten that far."

"Maybe with big sister, if that's okay." Elsa was of course referring to Ruby.

Ruby shrugged at that. "Maybe? We don't get to pick who we room with, unfortunately. We'll see how it goes. There's a board up here, says who is rooming with who..."

Ameya was curious who she'd end up with so she went to check the board as did the others but careful not too crowd around too much. Surprisingly or not, she still sort of stuck close to Tohru most of the time if anyone was paying attention anyway.

Tomoya got a clear view of things first, and called out to the others. "Alright, listen up guys! Elsa and Ashi are together in A302. Ameya and Kurumu are in A314. Moka and Mizore are in A420. Kahlua and Ruby are in B220. Manny and Dysis, D131. Adell and Tohru, funny coincidence, D413. And finally, me and Kieth, D437. Amusingly, Reizo, you're on your own in D492.... ah, according to this; A, B, and C are 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year girls dorms. D, E, and F are 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year boys dorms. Also arranged by floors. So... we are all on the first floors of our dorms, except Kahlua and Ruby, who are on the second floor. Nifty."

"Did you just say nifty?" Mizore raised a brow, and Tomoya shrugged.

"Yep. It's like saying 'cool', but I didn't want you making a joke."

"That's fairly cold of you."

"...Ugh. Seriously, whoever got you into those stupid puns needs to be shot."

Reizo glanced at Mizore. "..It's probably my sister's fault..I think. Anyway, looks like I don't have a room mate."

"We'll, makes sense. Not everyone is gonna have a roomate." Adell then clapped Tohru on the shoulder. "Looks like its just us two, Tohru."

Elsa wished she could have went with Ruby, but she didn't mind going with Ashi since they were friends and had known each other since childhood. Honestly, she would have been fine with any of her friends here. Dysis and Manny didn't have a problem sharing a room, either.

Mizore patted Reizo on the shoulder. "I'll keep you company." Tomoya, of course, snickered at that, but didn't say anything.

Reizo was purely embarrassed about things, rubbing the back of his head slightly and blushing but otherwise didn't comment. He wasn't sure what to say anyway and didn't really trust himself to speak. Never the less, the group went their own ways to settle in their new environment.

* *

Adell glanced around the room, it was pretty normal but plain all things considered really. But to Adell, he didn't much care because a place to stay was a place to stay in his mind. "So Tohru? Where do you come from?"

Tohru rubbed the back of his head. "Uh, I'm from a small village called Sotoba, out in the middle of nowhere... it's... kind of a backwards place; you should really avoid it. There was a young girl named Megumi there. They tried to have her killed because she was a Shiki... after that, I kind of thought I should get out of there. It was around then that my dad informed me he'd enrolled me here. Said he'd been sent some information about it, and it seemed like a good place."

Adell's normal smile turned a bit downward at the news; he hard heard of that place but always in unflattering terms. To be honest he had only known about Sotoba because of the 'incident' that happened when they attempted to murder a young girl. Adell knew you couldn't brush everyone in a town, city or group with a broad brush..but the fact he hadn't seen much sympathy from the residents there was alarming. And disturbing.

"Yeah. I heard of that. Doesn't make it any less..we'll, what it was." Adell shook his head and sat down on the bed. "I only heard about it because the attack you mentioned. I know Megumi because her adopted mom Kazenabi is a family friend of our little group. Did you know her personally when you were there?"

Tohru blinked in surprise. "You know Megumi? How is she? I... well, we didn't know each other well... I was friends with a boy named Natsuno. Megumi had feelings for him, but... he treated her really badly, in an attempt to get her to give up. Thankfully she did give up, she deserved better than that... anyway, a friend of mine was the nurse that attended to her after the attack... but she's okay? I didn't move until a few weeks after she did..."

Adell really didn't know Natsuno, and Megumi didn't talk about them much if at all but second hand impressions didn't paint a good picture of them. Sesshomaru and Inuyasha were very protective of the young Shiki. If Natsuno had acted that around to Megumi with them around, it wouldn't have been pretty but he couldn't tell what either of those two would have done. Inuyasha was straight forward and wasn't subtle. Sesshomaru on the other hand could hide his emotions very well and plan, that made him more intimidating in his own way even if he expressed his emotions less then his younger brother outwardly.

"I know her, and she's good." Adell smiled. "She's really happy now; her life here has turned a 180 from what it was before. She hangs around a group of friends she made, one of them is named Naoki, another Sayaka and Mami. They've kinda been attached to the hip ever since. Though.."

There was something, but he couldn't put his finger on it. "Eh..never mind."

Tohru paused at that. "Hm? What is it, Adell?" He didn't want to pry, and wouldn't, but Adell seemed to have something on his mind.

"It's just..I feel like there's something more going on." Adell didn't know how else to really explain it. "Megumi hasn't been acting that different from normal but..I dunno. I got no proof but just a feeling, and nothing's really struck out. We'll, her childhood friend was acting out of character and distant. People normally don't change that quickly in a day so that might be part of it. I guess there's no point in burning myself out about it, especially when its probably nothing."

Tohru paused. "Childhood friend... Kaori? How has she been acting out of character?" It was hard for him to imagine Kaori acting odd in any way. She was.. constant. Always happy and cheerful, without fail.

"For one, from what I've heard she's cold." Adell started, remembering a few things he had over heard. "I really don't know Kaori to really comment, but from what little I do know of her she was always the happy go lucky type. That and being emotionally distant. Another friend of Megumi's, Kayo said one time Kaori had hugged her looking a bit sad. Then she said to her 'if you were offered a chance to change the past, would you give up your soul for it?'"

"Now, I'm not saying that's what it is. But that's another red flag..or I'm reading too much into it and driving myself nuts. Mom did say I over think these types of things sometimes. I don't know anymore. All I know is..I have a feeling something is going on, and whatever it is if there is something, we're not going to like it."

Tohru frowned a bit. "That... is unsettling. I can't really say anything though. We weren't close... still, I hope they are okay..."

"I'm sure they'll be fine. Megumi has the Taisho family to look after her, and together if anything is really wrong they can figure it out." Adell wasn't so sure if he was telling more himself then Tohru about it. "Anyway, no point in worrying about it right now."

Besides stress and such, that is. Adell opted for a change of subject for them both. "So..how are things here compared to Sotoba? You like it? I'm guessing you're still in Japan, but I heard the bus that comes here takes people from all over really."

Tohru nodded. "Yeah, I like this place a lot already. Saizou aside, people here are a lot more tolerant, and not so... stiff... I'll admit, I'm not used to all this diversity, but I really like it. Meeting new people from different backgrounds is better than a place where everyone is pretty much the same; everyone knows just about everything about everyone else. Here... something new every time."

"Yeah, I'd probably go stir crazy in a place like Sotoba even if the people were nice just because the place was so small." Adell said, more or less agreeing with Tohru about things. "Which part of Japan are you staying at now? I'm in Tokyo; been there pretty much all my life."

Tohru smiled. "Osaka, currently. Had some distant relatives there. I do intend to move to Tokyo eventually though. It seems to be the center of everything strange and amazing that happens here on Earth."

"No kidding. I don't know why that is. I guess there's something to it, but I don't know what it is. New York is kinda the same way..just state side." Adell figured there was some kind of explanation for it, but what it was he honestly didn't really know. "That girl Ameya..I think she likes you already. I'm not really a expert on girls but that's the vibe I get."

We'll, that and she looked at him a lot.

Tohru blinked, and blushed slightly. "Ah... well, maybe. Too soon to say, I think. We just met, I'm sure it's something else... probably."