A Forest on Fire (KuramaxOc)

Ch 4: Introductions

For the better part of an hour Shuichi Minamino showed the girl around the school. She was particularly interested in the school's library, which held so many books she doubted she would ever be able to read them all! He assisted her in filling out a form for a library card, and she quickly maxed out the number of books she was allowed to take as a new student. A few historical accounts, and a rather interesting fictional novel about something called a dragon!! She couldn't wait to read that one!!

Shuichi watched the girl with great amusement as she flitted from one shelf to the next, making little squeaks of excitement whenever something new caught her eye. He was shocked to learn how little she knew of myths and monsters, but given her true age, as well as isolation he supposed it made sense.

He kept an eye on the time as she searched the shelves to her hearts content, and nodded to classmates as they filtered in through the school. Many gave the girl odd looks, and a few of his female classmates cast glares in her direction, but the little vixen was oblivious to them all.

He breathed a sigh of relief to see the dean's plan seemed to be working so far. There had been announcements made to each class in his grade regarding a new transfer student from a remote country. The school had seen the previous two students ask to be sent home quickly due to the way some of the female students behaved to outsiders here. The dean had made it clear there would be a no tolerance policy this time.

Eventually, he moved to tap her on the shoulder, motioning to a clock on the wall. "I'm afraid time runs short. If you'd like, we could come back after class, or I could take you to the public library if you'd prefer. It's only about a fifteen minute walk from here, and has much more to... offer..."

His words dwindled off as he watched the little fox's eyes gleam in barely contained excitement. Yoko stirred within him, and he had to swallow back a growl as the demon's thoughts clouded his own vision.

"You mean there's a place with even more free books than this???" Yumiko asked, her eyes pleading for his words to speak truths. She was already overwhelmed by the amount of knowledge in this admittedly small library, though to her it's few shelves were a vast wonderland compared to master Genkai's tiny selection, which took up all of four mid-sized bookshelves, and were mostly historical accounts.

Shuichi gulped as he searched for words, trying to keep a firm grip on his composure. 'Kami's grace she's adorable...' He thought before speaking again.

"Why yes, if you have time today we could stop by. There's also a lovely pastry shop just across the street as well, but for now we should really get to class."

"That's sounds wonderful! Mako did say I didn't need to be back until dark, so I'm sure he wouldn't mind!"

He helped her take her selection to the front, and carried the stack of books cheerily up the stairs to classroom 1-A.

"Here we are," he said as he reached to open the door with one hand.

"Oi! Minamino, let me get that for you!" A tall boy wwho had short black hair with far too much grease so that it stuck up in peaks, and dark brown eyes called out as he raced to help the red-head whose tower of books had started to tilt.

"Ah, thank you Kenji. Miss Sayo, this is Kenji Ryumura. He's in our class, and a member of the archery club. Kenji, this is our new student, Yumiko Sayo."

"Oh? I thought it was weird to see you hanging out with a girl!" He teased while holding the door open for the two, which earned a small chuckle from the red-haired boy. He turned to face her once they had entered the classroom.

"It's nice to meet you miss Sayo. You got real lucky to get assigned Minamino as your guide! I've been a guide before but it was awful!! You have to go to all these meetings, and show up early and stuff, it was definitely a drag!"