• The next morning as Suichi, Leiko, Kinoko, Kouji, Meicho, and Yuki walked into class they noticed that Principle Artimus was leaning against the desk at the front of the classroom

    “Good, go ahead and take your seats” Mr. Artimus said with a smile as he indicated the seats that the children usually took towards the middle of the room

    “What’s going on, where’s Miss Kagamesh?” Suichi asked with a sly look on his face, he had a feeling something odd was going on

    “I will tell the whole class once you are all here” Mr. Artimus smiled brightly as he stood up ready to begin, Suichi took his usual seat in between Leiko and Kouji in the middle of the back row of desks.

    As the bell rang Mr. Artimus opened his mouth to speak when the door opened and Shin walked in with a weird aura about her

    “Alright, you’re late Miss Shinshia…next time I will expect you on time” Mr. Artimus shook a finger at her and the wove his hand to show her the empty chair at the front of the first row on his left, near the door.

    “Alright, as I was about to say…Miss Kagamesh has fallen very ill and the doctor’s think it would be best if she did not come back to school this year…Miss Akemi will be out as well, seeing as your teacher is her sister…” as Mr. Artimus went on explaining that she had a malignant form of cancer and would be out for a very long time for chemotherapy, Suichi and the others had begun whispering amongst themselves

    “Do you think she really is sick? She seemed fine yesterday…” Kouji started, everyone looked at him

    “What? She was…” Kouji shrugged, Suichi shook his head and continued

    “No, I think that she isn’t going to be coming back at all…now that she revealed herself to save her sister…her master must think that it’s a bad idea for her to come back with us here at school” Suichi frowned as he crossed his arms, pretending to listen to what Mr. Artimus was talking about

    “Well…wouldn’t it be an ideal place to attack us? I mean, there are so many people around and we’d have to protect them first before dealing with her…” Leiko said with a hard look on her face, she didn’t understand it

    “I don’t know, but I get the feeling that they are up to something…” Kinoko put a hand on her think as she continued to wrack her brain for ideas

    “something must be going on…we should warn Shin…especially because she is active during the Darkness” Yuki whispered while trying not to turn around to look at them, seeing as Suichi sat right behind her.

    “Alright, so from not on your permanent teacher is going to be Sota Anzai…he will be taking over your class, but I will be checking in on you all regularly to make sure that this classroom is run to Rising Sun High standards” Mr. Artimus smiled and headed for the door

    “Good day Children” Mr. Artimus waved as he left the room and closed the door behind him, as soon as the door clicked there were cheers, yells, whoops and hollers from every corner of the classroom; Even Sota smiled widely.

    As Sota went on with the lesson plan for that day a tall boy with short jet black hair that was styled to a perfect-T walked in and stood next to the door with his hand on the strap of his book bag, his vibrant green eyes looking around the room for a place to sit as Sota stopped and looked at the boy who was wearing their typical blue jacketed uniform with his long blue slacks and white t-shirt, the boy’s eyes turned to Sota who was waiting on him

    “Are you lost?” Sota asked the boy in confusion, the boy silently looked down at the class schedule in his hand and shook his head

    “No, this is Miss Kagamesh’s classroom isn’t it?” the boy replied, his voice was controlled and he was very well spoken; Suichi stared at him with the rest of his classmates and noticed that every movement by the boy seemed to be so elegant as if he were dancing

    “Yes this is it, I’m Mr. Anzai and I’m going to be taking over her class while she is out” Sota replied as he walked over to the boy

    “Well my name is Mikio Umari, but everyone calls me Miki for short” Miki smiled and all the girls in the classroom seemed to melt in their desks and land in puddles on the floor, except Leiko.

    “He’s so dreamy…” Yuki whispered, Leiko looked at her as if she was nuts

    “he’s so thin…he looks like he’s starving” Leiko glared at him with disgust as she clenched her hands onto her skirt underneath her desk, Suichi was still staring at Miki as Sota told him to take the desk directly to the right of Yuki

    “Hi, I’m Yuki” Yuki smiled as she daintily held out a hand for him to shake, Miki looked at her hand and then sat up straight and took it in his; Miki pulled her the backside of her hand up to his mouth and he kissed it lightly while his neon green eyes were transfixed on Yuki’s Robin’s egg blue ones

    “A pleasure” Miki smiled and let go of her hand, returning to the days lesson; Yuki stared at him longingly for the rest of the day.

    As Suichi and the others headed for home they noticed that Miki was walking ahead of the alone

    “Do you guys think that he moved in near us?” Leiko suggested to Kouji and Suichi as they past Yuki’s house and said good-bye to her

    “He could have, the neighbors moved because they couldn’t stand Mr. Hiro complaining about their chickens any longer…” Kouji pointed out, Suichi had fallen silent and couldn’t hear anything that they were saying he was just staring at the back of Miki’s head as if he were in a trance

    “Suichi…did you hear me?” Leiko asked as she waved her hand in front of Suichi’s blank face

    “What…sorry, I was thinking about all the homework I have to do tonight” Suichi smiled convincingly but Leiko didn’t buy it

    “Wait…we have homework tonight?!” Kouji exclaimed looking at the other two for help

    “No…Sota didn’t give us any homework…” Leiko replied as they watched Miki walk up the driveway to his house that was in between Suichi’s and Mr. Hiro’s own home

    “Wow…what a guess Leiko!” Kouji smiled at her, Leiko shook her head

    “No…I saw the movers this morning, I was running late remember?” Leiko tapped her wristwatch quickly and the three of them set off for their own homes.

    Later that night Suichi found himself sitting on his window sill with Kiera sleeping beneath him, he was looking out at the horizon as the sun set and he was watching the different shades of blues and purples take over the sky to make it night

    “Beautiful, isn’t it…” called a voice, Suichi jumped and searched around only to fall onto Kiera beneath him, Suichi poked his head out of his window and saw Miki sitting in his own window looking out at the night sky too

    “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you” Miki covered his mouth to pretend to hide his smile from giggling at Suichi’s fall

    “oh…it’s ok…” Suichi said nervously, slightly embarrassed as he crawled back onto the window sill to keep looking at the night sky, Miki and Suichi sat there in silence for a long time before either of them spoke

    “I don’t think we’ve met, I’m Mikio but you can call me Miki” Miki smiled brightly, Suichi blushed a little and looked down at the grass almost a floor below him and pushed the brown hair out of his eyes before replying

    “uhm…sorry…I’m Suichi...” Suichi stuttered in reply, Miki giggled at this

    “are you always so well spoken, Suichi?” Miki joked, Suichi forced a short laugh and continued looking up at the sky, trying not to let Miki see his red cheeks

    “I saw your dog when we were walking home, he’s beautiful” Miki complimented, Suichi nodded

    “She…” Suichi corrected and Miki looked up and apologized

    “She…is beautiful” Miki smiled flirtatiously as he said goodnight and climbed off his window sill and headed off to bed, Suichi nodded and followed suit.

    As Suichi turned around he came face to face with Kiera, who was sitting on his bed with a smug look on her face

    “what?” Suichi demanded, Keira shook her head and lay down still looking at Suichi smuggly

    “WHAT?!” Suichi yelled at her, Keira giggled and replied

    “You like him…don’t you!” Keira exclaimed with a wide smile on her snow white lips, Suichi looked at her as if she were crazy

    “WHAT? NO…I’m with Leiko…and he’s a…” Suichi was cut off by Keira

    “…A BOY?” Keira suggested, but Suichi just looked at her angrily and stomped off to shower and get ready for bed

    “You crazy mutt…” Suichi grumbled under his breath, as Keira stared after him rolling around on his bed laughing.

    Shin stood in the middle of the room in a trance, her eyes were glowing a dark purple and there was a black aura about her body; donna sat on her couch with her leg crossing the other and a large victorious smile taking up half of her elongated face

    “She’s almost ready…the Darkness has almost taken her completely…and soon I can take her to the master, then he will reward me greatly!” Donna laughed maniacally as her ugly mutt followed suit.

    In the corner of the room sat the cage that Shin’s Spirit Guide was trapped in, the small mouse was attacking the cage’s bars with all it’s mousy might, but to no avail the bars wouldn’t budge

    “Silly rabbit, those bars are reinforced with a little spell of mine…there’s no way you can get out unless I unlatch the cage!” Donna laughed again

    “You’ll never get away with this…once the others realize what’s going on they will come looking for me and I will purify Shin of the Darkness once more!” cried the mouse in as heroic a voice as his small mouse body would allow him

    “well there’s nothing that you can do” Donna smirked as she rattled his cage, startling the small animal.