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Speaking of the game section, two of the darts and shooting gallery owners were in a bit of a tizzy.

Most of them had been run dry by a 5'8 half-dog demon. This 5'8 half-breed had black haired that was in a boyish fashion. His eyes were the color of honey, but other then that, there wasn't really anything interesting, romantic, etc. about him. Other then his name, which was rather odd . . .

Kin had been good at the shooting and darts kinds of games. The darts were the product of hours of practice trying to beat his father at the game. He wasn't sure how he did so well at shooting, but why question why one was good at something?
Kin had won several things but he had disturbed them among some wide-eyed children that had gathered around to watch him at one stall.



Though for once she was on her own, browsing the games section when she had come upon a crowded darts game. Darts she was interested in, it involved throwing a sharp (more or less) pointy object how could she resist? She made her way over, her blue overcoat flapping behind her as she noticed there was already someone there dominating the game.

Dominate was an appropriate term.

The owner of the stall had been through the dart and shooting whirlwind that was Kin Inutaisho before. So that owner, being a good natured person, was calling out what parts of the dart board should hit next. And as Kin made 8 out of every 10 shots, the owner would give a toy to one of the children that had gathered about.

"Hey! Anyone think they could give Kin some competition?" the owner called out in jest. There was a ripple of laughter through the adults.

Kin's ear twitched, he really wanted someone to challenge him. But if he turned around he knew that the words would die in his throat. So he couldn't really taunt someone into playing the game with him, as Wolf could have done easily.

She couldn't help it, it would be nice to have a challenge like that without having to deal with her more... fanatical relatives. Lin sauntered through the crowd and stood beside Kin, she was like an imp next to him. She was just shy of five feet, if it weren't for her curves she might have been mistaken for a child.

"I will," she told the owner.

There were more ripples through the small crowd, first of shock then of amusement. Though were two drunken cries of "You go girl!"

Kin immediately perked up at the prospective of a challenger. His ears wiggled and turned towards the voice. True to his genetic nature, he looked like a puppy about to get a belly rub.
He was a little disappointed at her physical appearance, but he gave her an uncomfortable smile. He really wasn't a people person like his father.

The owner chuckled, "Well, well! Step up on little lady!" the owner paused to wink at Kin, "What's your name, sweetheart?"

Honestly did she look like a sweetheart type. Well unfortunately the answer was yes, Lin's large eyes (she never seemed to out grow them) and full lips made her 'sweet', which might explain why she couldn't glare to save her life.

"Lin," she replied before glancing a Kin, "It isn't much fun to do a game by yourself."

Kin tried to say 'Yeah', but when nothing came out, he just nodded his head and tried his best to smile at her. It looked more like a grimace.

"Lin?" Without waiting for a confirmation, the owner announced her name, "To get Lin warmed up then, how about we start--" the stall manager paused and turned to Kin, "Or for you, a restart," the crowd started to throw out suggestions. "So how about it, sweetheart? Just want to test yourself on the regular throw first?"

The half-breed hoped against hope that she would be an actual challenge . . .

Lin held out a hand for a dart, she grinned mischievously, "Sure, I'm sure I can handle a test throw."

At least to know how much the darts would weigh, this wasn't going to be like her knives after all, and darts had to be thrown differently.

The owner grinned and handed her a brightly colored yellow plastic dart. He dropped the of the darts into something that might have once been an Easter basket and placed it between Kin and Lin.
Kin's eyes glittered in anticipation. He crossed his subtlety his fingers, in hopes that the girl was any good.

"Alright, first, let's see if you can get close the middle sweetheart," the owner gestured towards the dartboard as he took of Kin's successes and a few misses.

It was light, at least compared to holding a throwing knife which was pure metal. So it was a bit odd at first to hold it, she weighed it in her hand for a moment or two before holding it between her fingers. She looked over her shoulder briefly, not at the people, but she was paraiod when she did things like this.

If she missed, she prayed Vincent would not be behind her, the stupid sadist basard.

Then, quick and hard she threw the dart, hearing the thud of it hitting the dartboard a moment later. It landed not dead centre, but it did land within the bullseye.

Kin's ears flew up in surprise, a grin spread across his face like the plaque, she was good! He grabbed a dart from the basket and let it fly. Kin's dart didn't hit the bullseye either, it landed on the outside of the bullseye rim. All cuddled up right next to Lin's dart.

To say the least, the hybrid was pleased. The darts and things always seemed to do what he wanted them to do, if he didn't think about it and just went with it.



She had a feeling he was doing that on purpose, and Lin eyed Kin for a moment, but could not help but grin. This was going to be fun, at least she thought so as she picked up another dart.

"Do this often?" she asked quietly as a fling of her wrist the dart flew landing to a near perfect hit.


"Yeah," Kin said through the side of his mouth. He picked up another dart, aimed, and fired. It wasn't as a perfect of a shot as his last one, because he had wanted it to get closer to Lin's dart . . . but he hoped his intention was obvious.

He was challenging her.

"I practice a lot," he added, quietly, still talking out of the corner of his mouth.
The hybrid cocked one ear to the side and the other stood straight up. He placed his hands on the stall wall as he waited for Lin to take 'her turn'.



"So...." Lin considered the dart, her last one was too close to the centre to get a bullseye right on, she picked another dart up, "You practice throwing things, I practice throwing things, we might need to spice this up a bit."

She considered it, did she dare try? Hell yes, after all what was life if she wasn't going to give herself a chanllenge or two. With a hard throw the dart cut into the air, and hit.... right on the back the dart that Kin had last thrown.

"Have any ideas," she looked at him.

Kin's eyes glittered gleefully. That was an acceptance to his challenge. His hands strayed towards the basket, but he quickly pulled it back. No reason to get too excited.

The dog-human hybrid chewed on that for a moment. "Your name," he muttered quietly, "Three letters right? Like mine. Could spell our names with darts," It would be fair. But only if her name really was three letters . . .
He gave her a questioning look, suddenly realizing that Lin may be like his mother, not able to write English.



"Only three letters long," Lin replied, "With probably only a one letter difference from your name."

It was weird how that turned out actually.

Kin grinned sheepishly at that. "Yeah, weird huh?" she was easier to talk to because she was so much shorter then he was. He didn't have to worry so much about eye-contact.

The owner relied the challenge to the rest of the audience while he separated the darts into two baskets. "Alright you two," he placed the two dart baskets in front of his new money-makers. "Here's out it goes. Three darts for the long parts of each letter okay?" the owner drew on a piece of paper, in case the instructions weren't very clear. "Two for the short, see? Like for the stick-outs for the 'K'. Two darts for the 'I' and a dart just far up enough to be the dot. Then one dart for the middle letter of the 'N',"

The owner gave them both a friendly smile. "Ready?"

While Kin and Lin's little 'greeting' had been going on, the owner's spouse had started to take bets on who would win this little venture. The betting was out of this world, but it seemed a little more than necessary.


"If he does, he probably forgot he even has them," Donovan told Ren honestly, "The security reports are all the same these days, always the same kids getting into trouble, they just all get filed away until we need them."

Lin mused on this, she had a it a bit easier than Kin, the only letter in her name that would give her trouble was N, but the K in Kin's name would require an extra dart and at an angle.

"Ready," she replied clearly as she picked up a dart.


Kin winced, the 'K' was going to be sooo hard to do. He almost regretted thinking up this challenge. But that's what made it a 'challenge' right? Doing something that was harder then what you were used too?
"Ready," he too picked up a dart.

"Ready . . . steady . . . go!" The owner yelled and the crowd cheered.

Kin had expected a '1,2,3' count, so he hesitated for a moment. Then threw his first dart. The bottom part of the 'K'.



She started at the bottom as well, for no other reason than to mark the invisible line in which her name was to be darted out. Another quick throw to the top, another to the side. Lin's brow furrowed as she focused on trying to make it as perfect as possible. It was always a habit of hers, one that Vincent would whack her upside the head.

In battle there was no time for perfection, but this wasn't a bad, it was to write her name with darts and she was going to be as perfect as possible!

Kin wasn't trying as hard to be perfect, he just wanted it too look like letters. This was something that had never really attempted before. Sure, he had done 'K's in darts on a board. But never for a challenge . . .

Three darts flew as fast as he could get them pick them up. [Which wasn't very fast, as he was fumbled for a moment with the second dart.] His 'K' was done. The he set to work on the 'I'. He was a little off-center as he started with the bottom again. It was closer to the 'K' then it should have been.



Lin was in the middle of her 'I' one would think she would be onto the end, but as stated she wanted it to be the best it could be. So she was sacrificing a bit on speed, not a lot, but enough where the advantage of her name left them on sort of even ground. Even though she just finished the 'I' with a shaky dot (wasn't quite on the mark as she would have liked) before starting the N.

Kin was only a dart ahead Lin at that point. The dot of his 'I' was perfect, but the entire letter was far to close to the 'K'. It looked like an extension of it.
He worked on the 'N' much slower. He hit his mark up until the dart used for the downwards slash for the 'N'. He winced at how far his trajectory was.


Lin eyed the slash, this was the most annoying dart out of all the ones she had done so far. The idea in her mind was to pick a spot, imagine a nice target on it and then hit it. Which after the dart had landed she thought, it was going to be a squished looking N. Still, with one more to go, all she had to do was finish off with a dart to mark it off.

Kin half-grinned, he was almost done. The good-feeling hormones that pulsed through his body blocked everything but the dart in his hand. The area The hybrid hardly had time to break out into a toothy grin as his last dart stuck into the carpet covered wall with a small resounding thud.

It wasn't perfect by any means. The 'K' and 'I' looked almost like a crazy form of a 'G' if one squinted and tilted their head just right. The 'N' wasn't symmetrical, but it was obviously an 'N'.

He glanced over at Lin too see how she had done.

It was official the N looked quite squashed indeed, though it was an N, the problem mainly was on another sense it could be mistaken for a rectangle if people didn't know how to connect the dots. Though the L and I turned out, but those were the easy letters.

Kin stared at Lin's letters, all and all she had done very well. Unlike his, her 'I' was spaced out enough where it wasn't connected to her 'L' [ or in his case, 'K'.] .
It pleased him to know that they both had screwed up on the 'N' a little bit.
"You did good," he smiled at her, brown eye glittered with childish glee.

The now enlarged crowd was yelling out who they had thought had won. The sides seemed to be pretty even on the issue.

The owner's spouse was still collecting bets here and there. But for now, it seemed to be at a stand-still. Who had won?



"So did you, after all you got the more difficult letter," Lin replied studying their work.

Kin was more sure of himself, so he had been faster than her, she thought to herself, and she spent too much focus on how it should look even though she had the easier letters.

"This might be a tie," Lin added absently.


"Thanks," he muttered out of the side of his mouth.
Kin nodded his head, there was a question on the tip of his tongue. But he worried about how it sound if he voiced it. He didn't want her too think that he was trying to pick her up or something, "Wanna go do something else for a tie-breaker?" He winced at how . . . TV-show dorky that sounded. He wasn't looking for a girlfriend, he was just a little too excited at finding someone challenging.

The owner was a little surprised but he called out what the two had decided.

There was a collective groan that rippled through the gamblers. But a single voice whooped, "Thanks Kinny, Lin!"

And Kin face-palmed and even the insides of his ears turned red. Great, now he was going to hear all about this on the next school day. A classmate just had to gamble on him and Lin having a tie . . .

"Thanks, it was close, I'm glad for the challenge," Lin smiled back.

The summer air brought some late night butterflies, not moths... she learned from observation and the fact she never attracted them, the difference between moths and butterflies. Normally the winged creatures weren't out so late, but with Lin around it was different. One particularly white one brushed against her landing on the side of her head like a hair clip. Someone was commenting on how the fireworks hadn't started yet.

Which she thought was odd because of course they wouldn't have started by now.

She turned to Kin, "Do you know if there had been any changes made to the fireworks this year?"

Kin's jaw dropped slightly at the sight. He had never really seen butterflies in the nighttime before, he realized as the white butterfly pretended to be a clip in her hair. He could just make out the little hairs on the butterflies wings and how the strange tube-like mouth that butterflies had was also fuzzy-looking . . .
"H-huh? No, I didn't,"

Embarrassed, he paused and pulled out his cellphone, "But my class prez is on the fest committee, want me to check?"


"Please," Lin replied looking up at him eagerly.

She wasn't aware at all she was giving him the wide eyed puppy dog look. How could she? She never would do it on purpose, after all she would claim that she never did cute. Though she did it very well.

"I've never seen fireworks before."


Kin was a little taken aback by that, but he pushed the speed dial [he was on Prom committee and the class prez had taken the 'liberty' of confiscating phones and setting the speed dials.] and waited as it rang, once, twice, thrice, he didn't look Lin in the face at all.

"Raven? It's Kin . . . uhhh . . . you uh, wouldn't happen to know . . . about the fireworks?" he asked hopefully, waiting for an answer. "O-okay, thanks, bye. Yeah, Monday," he punched the off button.
"She said that uhhh . . . somebody spread a rumor about the fireworks going off somewhere else . . . they're still in the same place . . ."

Lin looked thoughtful, "Now why would anyone do that? It sounds a bit silly to me... it's not like there's anything to gain from that."

At least to her, unless the person wanted a good seat or something like that.

"Though I guess that's good since it means no fighting for seats at the moment..." she added as an after thought.

Kin wasn't sure what to say too that last statement, so he just nodded dumbly.

"Were you gonna watch the fireworks-with-anybody?" if she wasn't, he would invite his [or at least he hoped was,] his new friend to sit with him and his parents. Kin knew that his father would be extremely towards her, as he was with almost everyone, like a dog. His mother was a different story, as she was unpredictable, but he was often 'playing the gentlemen' and bringing girls around. So maybe she would behave.


. . . several paces away a small group of girls stood hiding behind a stall. The owner of that stall was not really happy with those girls, as their stalker-aura was driving away customers.

Several of the girls had cameras and all were watching Kin like he was wet, sweaty, and naked.




Lin thought about it, should could say she was going to watch with her parents, but she was sure her parents would want to watch the fireworks alone. She had heard that Triton was around, but she had no clue where he was. So, the answer was probably a no.

"No, I really didn't plan to watch with anyone, I mean... I have family here, but they're all doing their own thing," Lin explained to Kin.

She somehow got the funny feeling she was being watched, but she couldn't quite understand why. Lin looked over her shoulder thinking it was Vincent (after all the guy was enough to make most people paranoid after a while). She looked back at Kin.

If Lin had been looking hard she would have noticed there were daggers being glared at her back. She had no idea what she had stumbled upon being home schooled and all.

Kin tried to see whatever it was that Lin had looked at, but he didn't see anything except a few girls in his class. They were all too far away for him to be polite, besides, some of those girls were strange.

The dog-human hybrid wet his lips absently, "Then you wanna sit with me and my folks? You don't . . . you don't have too, but . . . better than being alone though right?" Kin smiled, "I think my mom will behave, hopefully,"

He wanted to ask who all her family was, but he couldn't help but feel that was too intrusive. Kin knew that he didn't have his father's grace when it came to social situations.

At the momentary sight of his pink tongue, the girls who were hiding in plain sight all began to squeal quietly. Two girls had to be given a tissue from a large stash that was in another's backpack. Another had to take quick and desperate breaths from her inhaler.

The self-proclaimed leader of the group announced that she had caught the action on tape. But the 'b***h' was in the way. And had everyone seen that uncomfortable smile? That 'b***h' was obviously stuck onto him like a ice to skin!

The group now began their sport of synchronized-glaring.




Lin couldn't help but giggle at Kin's comment, to normal might it might have been considered a flirting gesture, but she couldn't help it. It sounded like something she would say about her father behaving. She looked up at him with smiling eyes.

"I'd like that," she told him, "And I'm sure your mother will be fine."

His mother can't be any stranger than her family at best she could be like her mother... at worse she could be like Grandma Mi.

Kin's ears flattened slightly at her giggle, afraid that she might be making fun of him. He hated it when girls did that. Especially the girls at school who did that. They would just laugh at him . . . probably for how pathetic his social skills were.
"Uhhh . . ." his left ear cocked to right, "Yeah okay--!" he paused as his brain tried to understand what his ears had heard. "They're starting! C'mon!" he paused before grabbing her wrist, a bit rougher then he should have, "Sorry!"
It was an apology for both the rough handling and for touching her without permission. . . . where did trait get that from?

Several fangirls considered Lin's giggle as an attempt to flirt with their precious Lord Kin grounds for a fight. Fortunately, for who was relevant, several of the older girls were able to calm those brash underlings down.
This would call for a plan of action.

. . .

And then Lord Kin grabbed the 'b***h's hand and ran off.


"That's okay," Lin replied hurrying so she would be dragged along, it was a good thing she was use to walking along side elves otherwise she might have had a bit of trouble, "They're starting after all, so we better hurry before all the seats are taken up."

The dog-hybrid didn't respond, but only kept a firm grip on her wrist as too not lose her as he lead them towards a massive road block of bodies that were trying to get to a good spot themselves.
Kin was somehow able to maneuver them threw the quickly thickening crowd. He made it too a small valley between to hills and stopped, "Here?" he yelled across the boom of fireworks that seemed so much louder to him. The little valley they stood in was obviously an old creek bed, the smooth stones and the springlings of grass.



. . . and left behind were only frozen husks . . . "Lord . . . Kin . . ."


Lin looked around and smiled, this place was certainly nice, "Perfect," she replied.

She chose a spot of springy grass to sit down on, the nice thing about black pants was that she didn't have to worry about grass stains. She patted a spot beside her, she could almost feel the light of the fireworks against her skin.

Her smiled was wide, probably because she didn't have that strange feeling of being watched anymore.

Kin sat down Indian-style on the ground next to Lin and leaned back. His ears were back to save them from the crackling boom and shrill whistles of the beautiful display. Firecrackers were a treat for the sense of sight, not sound.

Lin blinked a few times, adjusting her eyes to the absent of light as the ghost of the fireworks danced behind her eye lids. She took a deep breath, not realizing how much she had been mesmerized by it all.

"That was amazing," she murmured, "I wonder how that's done."

In true Lin fashion she couldn't help but think of the question that came to her mind.

"Hey," she looked up at Kin, not wanting to have the fun of the festival over quite yet, "Want to go get sparklers to make a wish?"

Kin blinked back the black spots that were dancing around the corners of his eyes. The finale's lights had been a little brighter then what he was prepared for.

Kin's eyebrows knotted together, "Wishes on sparklers?" He had never heard of such a thing before. Sure he had played with sparklers every year of from the time he could hold one to probably two years ago but . . . "Okay,"

Lin grinned as she got to her feet, brushing whatever dirt there was off the back of her pants. After all she didn't want grass to be stuck there, that would be a bit embarrassing. Then she held out a hand to help Kin up, even though really he was taller than her (way taller).

"Yea, it's a game my brother told me about. The idea is that you hold sparklers with a group of people and whoever's goes out the last will have their wish come true!"

As she was telling him this... she could kind of feel that funny tingling along her spine, the one that told her she was being spied on.

Kin took her hand lightly, but pushed himself off of the ground, careful not to pull or tug on Lin in anyway. He released her

Lin had a reason to feel that way, the Lord Kin Fanclub had recovered and had been watching the fireworks as well. Though from atop the left hill of the little valley. Only the Fanclub had been waxing poetic about how Kin was more beautiful then fireworks, as he wasn't fleeting.

"It's not fair . . ." sobbed a junior member, "I would have wanted to watch the fireworks with Lord Kin!"

A large portion of the group were using all of their synchronized glaring practice on Lin. There was a chance that Lin might spontaneously cumb

"It's alright! Lord Kin is a wonderful, spectacularly gentle person, he must only be humoring that b***h!" an older member pronounced as she tuned a rather complex listening device. The device must have done what the older member wanted it too, because she let out a quiet 'aha!'.
The other members all gathered round the device, hoping to hear the conversation.


"That's cool," Kin said as he brushed all of the dirt and whatever else off his backside. "Does it uhhh . . . work with just a--few people?" he inquired out of the side of his mouth. His ears lay flat on his head, he had caught the scent of a large number of girls that he knew. If he was remembering right, then those were some of the girls that would look at him and giggle when he passed . . .
"Wonder where you buy them around here?"

Some of the older members all turned back into husks but the younger members were confused . ..

"As long as there is just one other person, it'll work fine. So with just the two of us it'll be okay," Lin assured him.

She looked thoughtful for a moment, where would they sell that sort of thing? Probably at some knickknack stall where they sell things for kids or couples to keep as memories or something like that.

"There's a stall I believe close to the game stalls that sells them. I noticed a lot of couples going to get them before the fireworks, along with whatever knickknack the seller could convince the girl she would want," Lin rolled her eyes, "Honestly, I don't understand why any girl would go for some cheap imititation that looks tacky when there were some geniune items that would no doubt last longer and looks nicer right selling in the stall next to them."

Kin smiled at that, "I think . . . I think my dad would say that stall owner . . . was a good businessmen. 'Cause, um, good business is selling people stuff they wouldn't normally buy," Sasanaemaru could have explained it much better then that, but his dad wasn't around at the moment, was he?
"Well, uhh . . . let's go," he pointed back at the festival grounds. "I'll bet that people will have already some . . . and I'll sniff them out," he poked his nose.
He turned on his heel and began walking backwards, to make sure that Lin would follow.

The older members were all now officially freaking out. So much in fact that the junior members had no idea what to do, so they just sat back and watch their Lord walk away with the b***h.
"Should we follow them?" asked a junior member as she pointed towards Lin and Kin.
"Yeah, I mean, that's what the Fan Club does right? Follow and protect," answered another. The Juniors left the Seniors to recover their wits. Hopefully they would catch up soon.

Strangely, it seemed that the junior members were a little less obsessive and insane then the older members.

Lin nodded at this as she followed Kin towards the stalls that would probably still be selling the sparklers. She had to admit, Kin was probably right about that, but she thought it was silly.

"Probably appealing to a girl's sense of romance," she told Kin, "For no other reason can I think why a guy would get it for her. At least that's what I'm told about couples, I think it's quite odd. My Dad gets Mom simple things and she always says he's very thoughtful."

She wondered how he managed to do with that without ramming into anyone. Probably skill of some sort, she also had to wonder if maybe Kin knew anything about fighting or weapons.


Kin's talent of walking backwards was as much luck as it was skill. "My dad does that too!" he paused to spin on his heel and walk correctly next to Lin. "I mean he uhh, he might go out and get her candy or something," he paused to think about it. Kin couldn't really remember anything that his father had gotten his mother, only the fact that he did on a regular basis. "My mom never says he's thoughtful though, but well . . . I can always tell," he sniffed at the air absently. "Uh, kind'a," On the side of the makeshift road was a dealer selling things such as antique swords and Kin's walk slowed, but he forced himself to keep on.

The Junior members weren't far behind. Though what they were planning was hard to tell, they were no weapons in plain sight. Only cameras, both still and moving.