AN

Yes, the chapter title is ridiculous but given what happens, how could I not go with it? LOL This is also the longest chapter yet :D

Kurotabou gets a break and somebody else gets a turn at being humiliated. There's also some juicy stuff you've been waiting for when Mezu's time in the bath turns steamy. Hur-hur-hur… puns…

So! Now that I'm almost caught up on the manga (I'm at chap 168 right now!) I think I need to point out that, yeah... this fic is AU lol. It follows the real story right up until after the defeat of Hagoromo Gistune and then it goes off on it's own. But I think it being an AU would be pretty obvious anyway since I'm having various bishounen youkai hooking up with each other :3 So with that established... I'm gonna go add this statement to the first chapter too lol

Also, in my version of Nuramago here, Kubinashi and Kejoro have more of a brother-sister relationship going on and each of them tries to act like the protective, older sibling.

Chapter 5

~Rub-a-dub-dub~

Three Youkai in a Tub

"Aren't cats supposed to land on their feet?"

Ryoutaneko yowled in pain as Zen popped his dislocated shoulder back into place. The healer poured some liquid medicine over the swollen joint and some of the various cuts and bruises on his patient.

"I did land on my feet." Ryouta flattened his ears against his head angrily, "Most of my injuries happened before I reached the ground. If it wasn't for Kubinashi's stupid yarn, I wouldn't have even fallen."

"You know it's string. You're only calling it yarn to irritate me." Kubinashi hissed when Kejoro applied some of the more painful disinfectant to a fairly mean looking wound on his arm.

"I think I have the right to be a little upset with you since you were the one who literally dragged me along." The cat instinctively went to lick a wound on his hand and was swatted on the head by Zen, who then poured ointment on it instead.

"You weren't trying to do much to stop me at the time," Argued the blonde, who grimaced as the hair demoness purposefully tied a bandage too tight.

"Both counts are true." Aotabou nodded. After Kejoro had shut the doors and kept the humans from looking outside, the blue monk had come out of his hiding spot to help her take the three injured into the house faster – but not without jostling Kubinashi more than was necessary in payback for having used him as a step ladder earlier.

"You're lucky that nobody who still has one broke their neck."

"Ha ha. Very funny, Aotabou." Kubinashi said sarcastically and rolled his eyes.

"Well, from what I understand of the story, it sounds like Mezumaru was the only one who didn't deserve to fall on his face out of that tree." Kejoro started putting away the extra bandages and ointment she didn't use.

"Yeah, but he barely got hurt at all since he landed on Ryouta." The blonde pulled his shirt back on now that his injuries had been treated. With Zen's medicine and his own fast healing as a youkai, the moderate flesh wounds would heal over in only about an hour. By morning, it would be like he'd never even been hurt, with no scars whatsoever.

Mezu's very minor wounds had already been tended to, but he still sat in the room with the others instead of returning to his ever-present partner Gozu. The dark-haired youth had flitted out of the tree to places unknown shortly after Mezumaru had yelled up at him anyway.

He was lost in thought about that brief moment that had happened between them and was a little dejected that Gozu had ended it by dropping him. He wasn't sure why it bothered him that way.

Gozumaru had dropped, kicked and pushed Mezu out of their tree countless times before and it only made him mad and most times the blue-haired youth would get back at him for it. But something about this instance was different than their usual roughhousing and fights.

He wasn't sure what to think about it all – only that he much preferred the severe injuries he attained in the past from fighting a losing battle alongside Gozu, over the new and uncomfortable emotional feeling that he was experiencing.

Back across the room, Zen was finished treating Ryoutaneko and began putting away his medical supplies.

"You'll be completely fine again by this time tomorrow, but you'll want to soak your shoulder in a hot bath as soon as possible so it doesn't heal too stiffly."

"A bath?" The cat's ears drooped and his eyes became large and slightly frightened, "You mean with water?"

"That is generally the preferred liquid when bathing." The bird youkai rolled his eyes, knowing exactly where this was going.

Ryouta's ears flattened and his hair bristled in response to his fight or flight instincts kicking in. "Well I prefer to take my baths without water."

Zen sighed, "You're not going to make the shoulder you dislocated feel any better by licking it."

"We won't know that for sure unless I try-"

"-You're soaking in the bath," Zen cut him off. "That's an order as your healer and higher ranking Nura-gumi member. In fact - all three of you should soak your injured and sprained muscles. The ointments I used are waterproof so there's no need to worry about it coming off as long as you don't scrub at it."

Mezumaru and Kubinashi made no sign of complaint, but Ryouta looked like a kicked kitten with big sad eyes.

Even though she was still mad at them for their earlier stupidity, Kejoro couldn't resist his adorable, sad kitten face. She gently pulled his head to her chest in a hug, mindful of his injuries, and started petting his head.

If she realized this position left him with his head resting on her breasts like a pillow, she didn't show it and Ryouta wasn't about to protest either. He just blushed heavily and started to purr loudly, closing his eyes in bliss as she scratched behind his ears.

"If you take a bath like Zen told you to, I'll make you a catnip cream shake and cookies for when you get out."

Feline ears perked up in excitement and he opened his eyes to look up at her hopefully. "Really?"

She nodded and pushed him away so he could stand up, "Of course. Now be good and go with Kubinashi and Mezumaru."

The mentioned blonde had been scowling at the back of Ryouta's head while he had had a face-full of Kejoro's cleavage. However, his expression returned to normal as soon as she released the cat from her hug, and he heard what she had said.

"Can you make me some dessert too Kejoro?"

She gave him a flat look, "I don't think I have to bribe you to take a bath."

"But I fell out of a tree today!"

"Which was what you deserved."

Kubinashi frowned, almost to the point of pouting, "You're wanting me to go to the bath with a human-sized demon cat with razor sharp claws. We both know I'm going to end up earning some kind of reward after dealing with that."

Barely noticeable, Kejoro cringed at the thoughts brought to mind with that, but she quickly put on an air of annoyed resignation and sighed, "Fine, I'll make snacks for all of you."

"Does 'all of you' mean the three of them or do Zen and I get cookies too?" Aotabou asked, pointing his finger to himself and Zen.

"Oh for-" Kejoro let out a truly annoyed sigh and raised her hands up briefly in frustrated defeat. "Fine. I'll make a whole batch or two of cookies - as if I don't already have enough to do this week."

Zen chuckled, "You know everyone loves your desserts. Being asked to make food all the time is just one of the side effects of being a great chef."

"Well somebody else can learn to cook sometime." A wide grin appeared on her face as an idea popped into her head. "As a matter of fact, since neither of you are doing anything right now, you can help me."

Zen and Aotabou widened their eyes in surprise.

"Actually, I have to-"

"I think I'm supposed to go-"

"-Oh no!" She interrupted them both and grabbed each of their kimonos at the chest, "I'm recruiting your help for cooking tonight and that's that."

While she set to dragging them to the kitchen - Aotabou shocked that she could pull him along behind her so easily - Kubinashi and the other two quietly snuck out of the room from the opposite door.

In the large communal bath, Mezumaru sat on the tile floor on his knees. He took his time washing his hair while deep in thought and trying to ignore the bickering of the room's only two other occupants.

"You don't have to wash your hair Ryouta, but I already told you that you have to at least wash the dirt from your skin before you soak in the tub." Kubinashi tried not to growl in impatience as he tried to pin the wiggling cat down long enough to wash the grime from him.

They had been in the bathing room for about twenty minutes, and in that time, Kubinashi had already washed himself and his hair using a wash bucket, all the while trying to convince Ryoutaneko to get himself clean before soaking in the tub. But it had eventually become clear to the blonde that the only way to get the bakeneko washed, rinsed and soaking in the water was if he strong-armed him.

"I thought I just had to soak in the water!" Ryoutaneko and Kubinashi both, only had small towels wrapped around their waists for modesty, and it was such a small amount of covering that it made pinning the feline down on the floor and washing his back more than a little awkward for the two friends. "I don't see why I have to wash with soap too! The way I normally get clean is just fine!"

Kubinashi had finally gotten the other to hold still and lay face down on the floor by pinning him down at his upper back with one hand. He was also able to stop the other's legs from kicking him by putting his knees on either side of Ryouta's hips and placing his feet toward each other so his shins effectively held down the cat's thighs.

It was not the kind of position either would want to be caught in by someone who just walked in and didn't know what was going on. However, Mezu was the only one around to see it and they weren't really paying attention to him since they were busy wrestling and he already knew why they were fighting anyway.

Ryouta finally lessened his squirming for fear of accidentally jostling his injured shoulder by the hand Kubinashi had tactically placed nearby the wound, for just that reason of getting the cat to fear hurting himself further with his struggles.

After a moment to be sure that the bakeneko wouldn't start fighting him again, Kubinashi reached for the nearby washcloth that was already lathered with soap and tried to cleanse all the grime within his reach off his friend as fast as he could.

He finally answered the other's earlier complaints now that he wasn't as busy trying to keep him from moving as before. "You have to wash the dirt off before you soak in the tub. That's just communal bath common courtesy." He washed over the other's wounds more gently than the rest of him so as not to rub off the ointment or hurt him.

"Nobody wants to soak in a tub with other people's dirt and 'cat bath' spit in it."

With all the area Kubinashi could reach cleaned, he climbed off the cat, who sat up to look at him with eyes shining with unshed tears that seemed to say, 'You've defiled me with water! What did I ever do to make you hate me so much?'

Kubinashi sighed and looked away slightly so 'the face' wouldn't affect him. "Now, you have three options." He held up three fingers to emphasize his point. "One, you wash the front of your own body like an adult, two, I wash everything not covered by your towel for you, or three, I wash you anyway but knock you out cold with a wooden wash bucket this time because I'm not gonna wrestle with you on the floor again with you facing me while we're dressed only in towels."

He made his point clear and Ryouta's face turned pink in embarrassment as he mechanically opened his hands to silently ask for the wash cloth to finish the dreaded cleaning by himself.

Kubinashi smirked in triumph and handed over the item, though even he couldn't look Ryoutaneko directly in the eye right after what he had just said.

Mezu had watched their scuffle without making it too obvious that he had been staring. But if the other two had been paying any attention at all outside of their wet, mostly naked wrestling match on the bathroom floor, they would have heard him drop his soap and seen his eyes double in size and his face turn a much deeper shade of red than just embarrassment alone would make.

When Kubinashi moved away from Ryouta, Mezu could finally tear his eyes away to turn his back on them. He definitely didn't want them to see the look on his face since they were no longer distracted with their struggle.

He desperately tried not to, but his mind automatically turned the scene he had just witnessed and the position that Kubinashi had said he refused to pin the cat down in, into something far less innocent than just washing a long-time friend who had a fierce hate and fear of water.

In the blue-haired youths mind, what played out for him was much more sinful and the only struggling was half-hearted attempts made only to excite the other demon.

Without actively realizing it, the two in his mind turned into himself and Gozumaru, with the dark-haired one pinning him down and himself, squirming only enough to show that he wasn't completely submissive.

When the Gozu of his daydream laid his wet, mostly naked body on top of his and kissed him hungrily, Mezu's eyes snapped open in alarm. He was suddenly slapped hard in the face with the realization of just what he had been thinking about and who it was with.

Moreover, he was mortified when he noticed he was getting turned on with the dirty thoughts of himself and Gozu. He swiftly found that he wanted to imagine doing more dirty things with the other than anyone should think about of their battle partner and life-long friend. However, it wasn't that understanding or the thoughts themselves that made Mezu feel so humiliated, but it was the fact that he was getting turned on by such thoughts while wearing only a towel with two other beings nearby.

As if to prove that the universe purposefully timed embarrassing circumstances with the precise moment they could do the most damage, Mezumaru heard his name being called from the room behind him.

"Hey Mezu! You planning on staring at the wall all night or are you gonna finish bathing?" Kubinashi hollered at him from the tub. "Ryouta might bite, but I don't."

It was true, after Ryouta got a quick bucket of water dumped on him to rinse the soap away, Kubinashi once again had a struggle with him to get him into the bath water and the cat had actually bit his hand.

The blonde had then smacked Ryouta upside the head, which had apparently knocked his sense back into him and he realized what he had done. He apologized and promised he would try as hard as he could to stop fighting. After the slowest descent into a bathtub that Kubinashi had ever witnessed, the cat finally sat with water up to his chin and his ears lying on his head in a way that made him look pitiful.

All of that had taken place during the ten or so minutes that Mezumaru had zoned out, completely distracted by the dirty thoughts in his imagination.

"If you're still mad about Gozu knocking you out of the tree with us, we can hold him down for you while you kick his ass." Kubinashi grinned mischievously and looked over the edge of the in-ground bath at the younger's back, since he had yet to turn around.

The comment was meant to be completely in jest and not taken seriously in any way. But Mezumaru's mind was still being driven by youkai hormones and sexual thoughts, which caused the innocent comment to turn into something much more deliciously filthy than it was ever meant to be.

The youth tried the best he could to beat down the image of ravishing a Gozu that was restrained and held down to give Kubinashi some kind of response so he wouldn't question Mezu's silence.

"I… I'm fine. I'll get back at him by myself."

Kubinashi noticed the odd tone he had started his statement with but didn't call attention to it. "Well, whether you plan to soak with us or not, you should hurry up and get done over there so we can go bother Kejoro for our cookies before Ao eats them all."

Mezumaru only turned his head to look at the other two out of the corner of his eye so they knew he was acknowledging them but couldn't see his face, "Alright."

If he was going to get out of the bathing room without being completely humiliated in front of them, he was going to have to cool down his aroused and overheated body. Luckily for him, dowsing himself in a few pails of ice cold water right then wasn't going to raise any suspicions whatsoever.

He shivered a little after he dumped the second bucket over his head. He was feeling miserably cold but it did the trick. He stood up to walk to the tub to soak in the hot water just long enough to stop feeling like he'd been frozen by Yuki-Onna.

He hadn't even turned around to face the other direction yet before he was stopped in his tracks by the sound of running feet outside the door of the bathing room and a shout of "Wait! Don't go in there!"

Kubinashi had barely enough time to dunk Ryoutaneko's head under the water and submerge himself to hide, before the door slid rapidly open to reveal the naïve members of the Kiyo Cross Squad standing in the doorway with Yura behind them with her hands over her eyes.

Mezumaru was both horribly unlucky as well at incredibly fortunate in that particular moment. On the one hand, he had been nowhere near a place to hide in the brief seconds he had warning before they barged in and was now standing in front of the group of strangers in only a towel. But on the other hand, without his outdated clothes or skull he wore, he looked completely human but for the blue hair, which they would just assume was dyed. He certainly looked a lot more human than the bath's other two occupants anyway.

When he recognized the girls, he knew that the rules of karma were working in absolute balance against him right then, as he realized that their roles had been reversed almost perfectly from the event at the hot springs on Gyuuki's mountain.

The only thing that was different was that they weren't trying to kill him like he had done with them. He marked another point up on the lucky side of the scoreboard, because without his attire or dozens of huge, hungry youkai behind him, it seemed like they didn't recognize him. If they had, he was pretty sure that the scenario would have played out in reverse perfectly – except there would be no onmyouji to rescue him like they had been.

Since Yura had improved so much in her skills since the time she had barged into the Nura bath looking for youkai, the girl had been able to sense that there were three demons in there this time before they had entered. She hadn't been completely sure, but her awareness gave her the feeling that they were all male and she had slapped her hands over her eyes before the doors were even open.

The other humans quickly blushed and averted their glances politely when they realized they had barged in on someone bathing - whereas Mezumaru was currently staring at them in shock, unsure if he should hide, cover himself, get angry, or just say 'screw it' and use his youki to vanish in front of them.

"We're terribly sorry. We thought we heard some small youkai above the ceiling run in here." Kiyogutsu and the others chorused in a variety of embarrassed apologies to him.

His eyes grew wider at the mention of youkai, but he tried to keep calm and get them out as soon as possible. "…Uh… ok." He made a small shooing motion with his hand and his expression changed to clearly send the message, 'Ok then, what the hell are you still doing here? Get lost.'

Along with the continued mumblings of apologies and politely excusing themselves, Mezu's youkai hearing could make out one of the girl's voices saying to someone next to her in a hushed tone, "Isn't that the blue-haired person that fell out of the tree earlier? I guess it really wasn't a girl after all."

Mezu's eye twitched, after the events of the last few hours, he couldn't hold back all of his anger at hearing that. However, he did his absolute best to keep most of it in check since he knew killing the girl wasn't an option if he wanted to keep living under Rikuo's rule – or just keep living period.

His eyebrows creased in offended fury, "Of course I'm not a girl! If that's what you thought, you could at least have the decency to say it where I can't hear you!"

He heard the girl squeak in embarrassment at being heard and the youkai's fists clenched angrily at his sides, which brought his attention to the bar of soap he still had in his hand. With barely enough thought put into the action to lessen the strength of his pitch so as not to kill her with it, he threw it in the direction of his offender.

"Mezu? Is that y-" Gozumaru came around the corner of the door to the bathing room just in time to get beamed right between the eyes with the bar of soap, which had luckily flew right between the humans at a speed that knocked Gozu flat on his back.

The blue-haired youth spared a brief second to thank his luck that it hadn't hit his intended target. Because from the looks of it, even the gentlest throw that his youkai anger could allow would probably have broken the human's neck.

Mezu brushed past the humans into the hall to make sure Gozu wasn't hurt too badly, simply out of years of habit, before remembering that he was still mad at the other. Worse yet, he remembered the images he daydreamed of his partner and the fact that he still only wore a towel.

His face turned pink, and seeing that Gozu was mostly uninjured except for a severe headache, he crossed his arms and frowned down at his fallen comrade.

"Serves you right for what you did to me." On the surface, he was referring to Gozu dropping him out of the tree. But secretly, he meant it to include making him feel confused, the embarrassing thoughts that had been brought to his mind, and that he was suddenly thinking of his partner in an all around new way that he wasn't sure if he was comfortable with.

He stomped back into the storage area of the bathroom and retrieved his clothes and stormed right past the group of humans with his belongings in his arms, intent on getting dressed somewhere else.

Gozumaru was just getting to his feet, clutching his throbbing head in pain as the other stomped on his foot for good measure when he walked passed him.

"Ow!" He grabbed his foot with the hand that wasn't holding his head. "What the hell's wrong with you? This isn't how you usually are when you're pissed off at me."

Mezumaru kept walking down the hall, calling over his shoulder loudly, "Well you don't normally dump me out of a tree then disappear right afterward for a few hours."

"I don't see how disappearing after I drop you out of a tree is any worse than kicking your ass out of it on purpose and then pounding you into the ground. You don't act this pissed off when I do that!" He hollered back at the other's still retreating back.

Mezu stopped to turn around near the end of the hallway long enough to shout at the top of his lungs. "Go to hell Gozu!" Then turned right back around to continue his mad walk.

"I'm not going to hell unless you come with me!" Gozu roared back at his partner as the other finally reached the end of the hall and turned the corner to disappear from sight.

He stood there with his fists clenched and glaring at the space he'd last seen Mezu but it wasn't long before he was reminded he wasn't alone by one of the humans in the hall behind him.

"So, you guys have a lover's quarrel or something?" Maki asked bluntly.

Yura suddenly smacked her forehead with a loud slapping sound. She seriously wanted to tell these people the truth about Rikuo, those living in his house and youkai in general so they could know just how often it was that they did things that could have got them killed, kidnapped, or eaten. If it wasn't for her and Rikuo and his orders to his followers, the Kiyo Cross Squad would have been dead countless times over in just the time she had known them.

Gozu made no move but for to turn his head to the side so he could glare at her through one eye. "What did you say?"

"No need to get upset with me." She waved her hand dismissively, as though she had tons of experience dealing with classmates who got defensive about their crushes or person they were dating. "I only ask because of that weird thing you said."

He didn't ask her to elaborate on what she meant, but his menacing glare turned darker and his youki that he had begun to release without the humans noticing started to pour more freely. This made Yura hold up a talisman from her spot at the back of the group and shake her head in a warning to him that went unnoticed by the others.

He snarled a little, showing just a glimmer of his fangs at her but made no change to his youki or posture other than that.

Rubbing her arms a little at the unusual drop in temperature, Maki chocked up his attitude to a guy who just didn't want to hear an outsider's opinion and continued on with her explanation.

"I mean, that thing about going to hell was kinda weird if you were just friends who were mad at each other. Most people say 'If I'm going to hell then I'll drag you down with me,' or something along those lines."

She didn't move her hands from around her arms but pointed one of her fingers lazily at him, "But you said 'I'm not going to hell unless you come with me,' which sounds a lot more like a lover's suicide pact than a death threat if you ask me."

Gozu felt like he'd been doused in ice water. His eyes widened in shock and he unintentionally turned enough to stare at her with both eyes and though she couldn't see it, his level of youki output dropped like a rock.

She suddenly took on a look of comprehension and grinned widely at him, "Oooh~… You didn't realize how you really thought about him until I pointed out what you just said and what it sounded like did you?"

Gozumaru didn't make a move or say anything, but he started to look a little paler and just a bit frightened. They could see that his thoughts were running rampant now. Just a few words from Maki had opened the gates and all the bulls that had been kept hidden, came charging out to run wildly through the streets of his mind.

When he still said nothing, she smiled and gave a small wave to him. "Well, we can see you have a lot to think about now. So we'll be on our way." With that, the blonde led the way down the hall, the others following her for lack of knowing what else to do.

As they walked away, Kiyotsugu could be heard asking, "Maki-san, what exactly were you talking about back there?"

"Just BL, don't worry about it."

"BL? Isn't that the phrase you used when we had the story of Jami told to us?"

"Kiyotsugu-kun, you are completely oblivious to anything not related to youkai aren't you?"

Their conversation got harder to hear over Natsumi's giggling as the group walked further away.

From their hiding spot, Kubinashi and Ryoutaneko could hear that the humans had finally left. While they had been keeping themselves from being seen, they had eventually had to surface for air. When they did, they noticed that all the Kiyo Cross Squad's attention was focused on Mezu and Gozu, so they decided it was probably safe enough to at least keep their noses above water so they could breathe. The edge of the set-in tub had hid all but the very tops of their heads and Ryouta's ears, which he had flattened as much as possible.

When they were positive the group wasn't coming back the duo climbed out of the tub. Looking down, Kubinashi could see four long cuts in the forearm that had been previously uninjured from the tree fall.

"Damn it Ryouta! That hurt a lot worse than when you bit me." He picked up one of the drying towels and wrapped it around the fresh wounds. The cuts were so deep that if he were human they would be spilling blood everywhere.

"I'm sorry Kubinashi! You know I didn't mean to!" The feline apologized and looked terribly ashamed.

When the blonde had dunked Ryoutaneko's head under the water to hide, the demon cat automatically scratched at him with his razor claws to get free. However, he had only gotten one strike in before Kubinashi caught both of his arms to keep him from inflicting more damage and calm him down.

Kubinashi sighed and smiled at his friend. "It's alright. I know you didn't do it on purpose. I'm just frustrated that I've been getting injured nonstop since the game of shoji we never got to play."

Ryouta felt a little better at hearing that he wasn't the main cause of the blonde's anger, but he still felt guilty for being unable to control himself.

The two of them dried off and got dressed, with Kubinashi leaving off the items that covered his forearms since he would need to get healed by Zen again.

When they finally left the bathing room, they were stunned to find that Gozumaru had never left his spot in the hallway, around the corner of the door. They didn't know it, but he hadn't moved at all since the humans left.

Kubinashi tilted his head and quirked an eyebrow at the oddity of Gozu not being loud and obnoxious period, let along imitating a statue. He and Ryoutaneko had only heard very little of what had been said in the hall while they were hiding, so they had no idea why the youth was behaving so strangely.

The blonde snapped his fingers in front of Gozumaru, trying to get him to come out of whatever trance he'd fallen into. "Hey Gozu, you ok?"

The brunette blinked rapidly at the snapping fingers in his face, finally realizing he wasn't alone. His bewildered look swiftly turned angry and he glared at Kubinashi. "What did you hear?"

Kubinashi was thrown off by the question, "Huh? You mean what was said while we were hiding? Not much really. Just you yelling something about pounding Mezu's ass into the ground and both of you screaming at each other to go to hell. Ryouta and I were a little too busy with our own problems to really pay attention."

At Kubinashi's words about 'pounding Mezu's ass into the ground' and with Gozu's mind set in a different mode of thinking thanks to Maki, a wave of new images he'd never thought of before assaulted his brain. He had said the original words himself and knew full well that it was meant as 'beating Mezu up' but his mind twisted it around anyway and made him hear 'screwing Mezu senseless.'

The blonde became a little concerned as Gozu's face reddened darkly. "Hey, are you all right? You sure are acting weird. You should probably see Zen to make sure you're alright."

Gozu was able to bring himself back out of his dirty thoughts enough to snap angrily. "I'm fine!"

Kubinashi backed up with his hands in front of him to show he meant no harm. "Alright! Jeez, no need to get so angry."

The youth glared heatedly at him and was able to gather himself and his out of control thoughts enough to stomp off down the hall, in the opposite direction that Mezu had gone.

The other two were left started after him in confusion, "I wonder what's got him so upset."

"Who knows," Kubinashi turned to go in the opposite direction Gozu had. "Those kids of Gyuuki's both act pretty weird."

AN

What's this? Gozu/Mezu before any Kubi/Kuro? Well, I felt it fit in perfectly at this time and it gives you guys something to tide you over for now :3

I know Ryouta was acting kind of weird... but have you ever tried giving a bath to a cat that hates water? I don't think it's really that much out of character for a demon cat to act like Ryouta did.

Next chapter: Kubinashi finally meets 'Karina'!

Please review!