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By that point, Blade had stopped walking altogether since it seemed like a useless idea to try and lose them without having to break into a full run. He wasn't too familiar with the football roster, but most likely one of the boys was a linebacker. Meaning they were probably pretty quick and if they caught him, he'd be going down. Hard.

It was likely a good thing he didn't as it seemed he was now surrounded. Narrowing his eyes at the group he turned back towards the senior only to have his shirt grabbed. Not letting himself be intimidated here, he stared hard into the other boy's eyes.

"Nothing you can do will ever be considered 'the worst'," he said calmly. Blade didn't make any moves just yet though as he sort of wanted to make sure he knew exactly where all the Hive kids in the area was before he started to actually fight. Awareness of his surroundings in this case would be vital.

"There was a swamp kinda near where we grew up, but nothin' like a big ol'forest. Neat place but ye could get easily lost in it if ye weren't careful," Bent-Tail replied quietly so as to not startle the deer. With herbivores he usually didn't have too much of an issue, but some carnivorous animals were a little attracted to his rodent scent. He was fine with them... as long as none of them actually tried to eat him outright.

At this point, Shun decided to move closer if only to keep a better eye on Mitsu. But if an angry buck decided to come around, there probably wasn't a great deal he could do personally. He had a knife and his own skills... which he wasn't entirely certain how effective they'd be against a five hundred pound hooved beast. Then again... deer still had jugulars and and a heart.

The senior grinned, "That sounds like a challenge, Faryn. I'll be glad to take you up on it." Keeping a hold of Blade's shirt with one hand the senior drew back his other in a tightly balled fist. He aimed to slam his fist in the thief's face. It seemed like the best place to start. The other boys began to swarm around him waiting for their turn.

Suddenly out of no where a pine cone found it's way to the back of the Cajun's head. "Ow, ********." He cursed rubbing the back of his head and turning sharply. His eyes gazed about and then to the forest floor where he found the offending object. With a growl he picked up the pine cone and began to search. "I don't know who threw that but when I find you, you're going to eat every last piece."

"Y...you live in a mansion?" She seemed pretty impressed to realize Desmond lived in such a place. To her, mansions were fairly tale places you see on tv. Her raised voice seemed to alert the deer that there was someone near by. The mother doe raised her head, ears perked as she scanned the forest. Soon her eyes landed on the group of four, frozen as she took them in. For only a moment longer she stayed to watch before she bolted through the forest, her fawns at her side. "Aww," Mitsu pouted watching the deer go. "I was too noisy."

Moving back around the tree she waited for the boys to continue on their way down the trail so she could follow. "So you lived near a swamp?" Mitsu questioned, continuing their conversation. "What's that like?"

"Hey now," Klyde chuckled. "That's getting a little close to being below the belt line." When she turned the question on him he appeared to give it a great deal of thought. Continuing at a steady pace he started to list things off as they came to him. "Well, you're certainly smart, cunning,...maybe a little shrewd." He grinned. "You have a twisted sense of humor that I like and quite possibly the most captivating eyes I've ever seen." He looked to her meaningfully for a moment, wondering how she would take this.

For a split second, as he saw the fist draw back, Blade thought of just taking the hit to try and prove a point. Then he realized what a terrible idea that was. Being held there and so close, he doubted he could get away unscathed, but he figured he could try and do something to retaliate. Moving his body somewhat to try and avoid the blow to some extent, he also launched a punch of his own towards the senior's temple.

He wasn't sure if he connected at all as he ended up taking the punch to the side of his face around that time, which had dazed him. Gritting his teeth from the throbbing pain in his head, he smirked, "Heh. That's it?"

Pretty much because of the punch to the head, he didn't hear the whole bit with the pinecone. He figured it was just one of the goons messing around in any case.

"Dun worry Mitsu, mebbe we'll see more," reassured Bent-Tail before standing up and brushing some of the dirt off himself. As they walked on along the trail. It wasn't too likely that Shun was going to be speaking up much, so he just did the talking for them both.

"Well tis kinda muggy. Most people t'ink the swamp is just dirty and filled wit death, but if ye get into it 'n see beyond the muk 'n potential danger.. tis kinda got tis own beauty," he explained.

"Just hope you don't find one of the bodies the Yakuza decided to dispose there," scoffed Shun before glancing towards Desmond. He wouldn't be surprised if the vampire enjoyed a place like that for occasionally taking someone to for a meal. That swamp was a dark place and had plenty of stories revolving around it that people probably wouldn't think twice.

A very very small part of him, however, had to wonder what the rest of the vampire's sentence was. The rest of him, which was about 99%, really didn't give a ********.

Another pine cone came whizzing at his head, luckily it passed him by. A second was on its way which he quickly brought his arm up to block. With a sneer he looked in the direction the pine cone had come from. Treading softly he started to duck behind trees and move around them slowly hoping to catch whoever the b*****d as that was throwing pine cones. He came up short with the first few trees that he looked around but continued on. He would have screamed and yelled taunts, but he wanted to catch this person unawares.

His punch had hit its mark but so had Blade's. A little stunned the senior growled as his head came back around. "Nope, I'm just getting started." Jerking Blade forward he tried to trip him to the ground. The other remaining two zoomed in like bears to honey and started to throw kicks.

Mitsu had wanted to ask Desmond what he wanted to say, but she had already started listening to what Bent-tail had to say. "I bet it can....be." Mitsu had started to compliment the vision Bent-tail had painted, sure that it could have it's own beauty....until Shun mentioned abandoned bodies. "B...bodies?" A chill ran up her spin. "Y..you mean like dropping them off right? Like a prank?" She hoped though she already kind of knew the answer. It was just wishful thinking.

Suddenly she paused in their walking looking out into the forest. She could have sworn she had seen something move, but as soon as she turned toward it, it was gone. Maybe it was more deer?

Could he not get one simple conversation right? Mental note made. Mentioning eyes and most other features went only a few steps below parents and twilight. "It's alright." He said softly. "I just can't seem to find the right things to say to you." Looking up ahead he motioned her forward. "We need to cut through here." He pointed off the path to what looked to be nothing more than an over grown deer trail.

Raising a brow, Neko watched as Poke stormed about ranting about the girl he had met only a few moments ago. Shaking his head he turned back to Varn. "You go to this school right? Of course your on the list. This isn't a night club." Pleasant as always. Flipping through the pages he found Varn's name. You're with Desmond, Klyde, Ken, Shun, Blade, and Bent-tail. You have one extra because they were running low on tents." Once Neko pointed out the tent Varn could take he was quickly swamped by others.

Stumbling towards the ground, Blade started to scramble back to his feet but received a swift kick to the side as two others joined in. The Cajun was staying back for whatever reason, but it just meant he had one less guy to deal with right now.

Grunting as he took several blows, it seemed he wouldn't be able to get up without being kicked back down. He had a quick fix for that possibly... Reaching out to grab one of the boys' legs, fire flashed around his hand. Yes, magic was restricted out side of class, and using it in the middle of a forest was a bit of a fire hazard, but it was all in the name of self preservation.

At least adrenaline was numbing some things out. Being knocked around, he was sustaining a few bruises, and several small cuts here and there.

"The Yakuza don't do pranks," Shun said rather flatly. He had been there for some of these 'dropoffs', but he wasn't about to mention that. The less people that knew of his ties... the better.

"Ehehe... it dun really 'appen dat often.." said Bent-Tail while trying to reassure Mitsu. He knew what he said wasn't quite true but... she didn't need to know that. Inwardly, he sighed at his friend's bluntness regarding that tidbit.

Both of them soon turned their attention towards Mitsu and Desmond as they seemed to have seen or heard something. Neither had quite picked up on anything, but it mattered little.

"Whatever," mumbled Shun as he went on to walk a little faster anyway.

After a fair amount of walking Klyde finally broke through the trees as they began to thin. Just ahead of them was a moderate sized pool of water being fed into by a small waterfall. The water was clear and cool and the scenery in the surrounding area wasn't bad. It was neatly surrounded by trees, seeming secluded. "This is my favorite place to come. A fair amount of animals come to this spot for water." Just looking at the ground near the water's edge would prove that to be true. There seemed to be a number of animal tracks...some animals they would probably hope to not meet.

Taking a seat on a fallen log beside the pool, Klyde sat back to relax. It was nice and quiet here. Thinking back to their conversation Klyde tried to mull over what to say. "But speaking from before. If you haven't noticed I seemed to be an expert at finding the things that upset you. If I was so worried about it I probably wouldn't say anything but I really want to get to know you better. I like you." He said bluntly. "That's why I'm trying as hard as I am to find things to talk about that don't flare up that look in your eyes." With a sigh he leaned forward propping his head up. "I mean I was hoping....." He trailed off shaking his head. "Never mind." It was a baited conversation if there ever was one.

The sophomore threw one more kick at Blade's side but drew his leg back when his pants caught on fire. "AH!" He began to flail about moving away from the group as he tried to put the fire out. He eventually ran off, too dumb to think of throwing dirt on it or anything like that.

"Magic huh?" The senior growled. "See how well that works for this." Stooping down quickly he aimed another punch at Blade's head, hoping to send his face into the dirt.

The Cajun continued to search, uninterested in the fact that one of his buddies went running off into the woods screaming. He only looked back momentarily before his eyes went back to the bushes. Finally he came to a stop only feet away from where Ken was hiding, clutching the pine cone in his hand so tightly that it was crumbling to pieces. "Where are you?!" He yelled, a stream of french words, curses no doubt, following that phrase.

"N....not that often?" Mitsu suddenly went very quiet in their walk. Her face began to pale at the thought of this place, with the horror movies she had seen the picture she saw was very vivid and disturbing. Soon the lack of blood to her head had her wobbling in her steps so she came to a stop placing a hand on the side of her skull. "I...I think I need a break." There was no harm in admitting that. They would understand.

Suddenly the bushes beside them began to rattle and shake. In an instant there was a blur of tan fur heading right for Mitsu. The next instant she was no longer on her feet, but on her back with Tobi on top of her licking her face.

Being caught unaware she hadn't even been able to scream. She would have it she had the chance, but instead all the air fleeted from her lungs as she hit the ground her face suddenly bathed in slobber. Coughing a bit as she got her breath back she saw that it was Tobi that had assaulted her. "Ah, Tobi?" As she tried to sit up the dog moved off her, it's tail wagging furiously behind it.

With one of the boys gone, Blade struggled to get back onto his feet. Despite his attempts to be alert at first, they had gotten the jump on him. As he turned towards the senior Hive member, the only thing he was met with a mind numbing punch to the head which sent him back down.

It also seemed to be a knock out punch for him, as he more or less stopped moving once he hit the forest floor again with a small amount of blood trickling down the side of his face. His skull wasn't cracked; just the skin split some.

As Mitsu said she needed a break, Bent-Tail nodded and watched her with concern on his face. She looked pale, which wasn't really a good sign. Maybe they were walking too fast for her?

"No worries. Jus' take it easy," he nodded.

Narrowing his eyes at the bush nearby, Shun saw something tan attack the girl. Immediately he had whipped out two switch blades to deal with whatever it was, but relaxed as he saw it was the guard dog of the girls' dormitory. With a sigh, he shook his head to himself and put the two blades away.

"Ah Tobi!" chirped Bent. He normally never got to be too close to the dog but he did enjoy seeing him around.

What did he...

What...

WHAT?

All motion Riyo had previously been doing before had stopped. Even her heart-rate seemed to slow. Her face became deathly pale.

S-she had never been asked that before! What did she do? How did she respond to that? There was no rehearsed answer in her head. No smooth and collected response! ********, ********, ********! If she said yes too fast, maybe he'd think she was some kind of floozy, but if she said no, he'd probably never speak to her again!

What was she saying? It wasn't like he'd asked her to marry him! They weren't going to just throw caution to the wind, quit school, and run away together! this was reality, those things didn't happen, stupid!

But that would mean she would have to do girlfriend things like holding hands with him and... K.. K.... KISS. And oh God, what if things went farther than that! No... NO!

"T-too much~" Her voice was a few octaves higher than her usual calm and composed self as her expression went blank and she fell face first into the body of water in front of her.