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6. Another Day Another Trouble

Well after that day the next day in Tokyo was pretty tame. I didn't beat anyone up, and didn't have to actually do anything that strenuous. I did hit the gym they had available to guests and ran for awhile. It wasn't something I normally did but I hated staying still and in a room doing nothing. I did end up hanging out with Jessan and filled him in on the details of the previous night. He also about choked when I told him how much I'd be getting paid.

I just shrugged though, the shock had worn off for me and I was looking forward to this a bit. It was something to use my abilities towards something that was actually practical. Even so I tried not to think about it so much because I didn't want to start thinking about the bad things that could happen from this. I just had to distract myself from the thing and focus on something else.

"So how's your riddle/poem thing going with that... what was his name? Tokama? How's it going with those and him?"

He snorted at me as he put down his glass of water, "It's To-MAK-a, Zeke, and it's going well, he's figured out the second and third poems and I'm going to make plans to see him this Friday afternoon." He smiled feeling so happy about it but I still couldn't see why he was so excited about this, it wasn't like it was that special, but then again I was a tad jaded.

"Well whatever man, what are you doing for the rest of the day anyway? Wanna hit a park and hang out some?"

"Nah, I got to finish this poem for Tokama, I want to write something special for him before I meet him. I'm sure you can understand that."

"Yeah I suppose, but I'm not that much a romantic as you are, man, but if you don't wanna hang out in the parks I guess I'll just leave ya alone for that." I got up and stretched out, it was a bright sunny day and while not the kind of day I particularly liked it was still worth going to a park to lounge about if nothing else.

"Well ok, Zeke, I'll see you tomorrow then, and nice going getting that job. I'm seriously impressed with that."

I thanked him for that and walked off from his house, it was nice to feel the sun warm my fur as it did. It was nice and sunny, a few clouds in the sky to add to the sky, and there was a light breeze blowing. I had decided to wear a tank-top with a button up shirt today over it and since I left it unbuttoned it fluttered a bit when the wind blew past me.

The park wasn't that far from Jessan's house and when I got there it seemed fairly empty. Didn't matter to me though, that actually was a good thing. With less people around it meant that I could relax and just think freely and maybe work on some of my poems that I had on my PDA. I got it out and started to type away when I smelled the scent of some humans approaching. I couldn't tell much from them yet, but there was one human among them that seriously needed a bath.

"Well, well, well... Lookie what we got here, fellas. Another of those fur covered freaks. Hey, fuzzy, why don't ya go chase your tail or somethin'?"

'Great, another bonehead Japanese punk that I'm going to have to pound the hell out of,' I thought to myself as I kept pushing buttons on my device. I wasn't going to start anything yet, but I could tell from their approaching scents and their language that it was quickly going to escalate and turn violent.

When I didn't reply to their taunts they got closer and one of them hit me in the back with a small rock.

"Hey what'sa matter, puppy, can't speak human or are ya just too stupid to talk?"

I turned and looked behind me, there were seven guys in total and the one that likely threw that rock and had been taunting me was a large kid, he was fairly tall and had large arms, but really that's about all that he had going for him. I could tell by the way he held himself that he wasn't a threat, he didn't have a firearm and so long as that wasn't an issue I wasn't worried about him or his cronies.

"I can talk just fine, thank you, I just don't like talking to people who's IQ is lower than their shoe size. Now why don't you go along and keep walking before you start something that is only going to end up with you and your boy band wannabe friends in a great deal of pain?" I stared them down and snorted at them. They thought they could take me on because of numbers, but that thought was going to be quickly extinguished, along with the idea that there's more to strength than just numbers.

I put my device away and got down onto the ground and looked around at the young guys that started to encircle me. The leader was staring right at me and was looking very angry at how defiant I looked at him.

"What did you say to me, Fuzz-face? Do you know who I am?! I'm the guy in charge here, and I don't like your kind comin' around and stinkin' up the air with your foul smellin' fur, now beat it before we beat the hell out a' you!"

I barely moved from him saying that. I raised my arm and took a whiff of myself and while I smelled like a wolf it wasn't that offensive, especially from someone who couldn't smell me. I only did that though to taunt him some as I then sniffed at him and covered my nose.

"I'm terribly sorry, but I think it is you that is stinking up the air around here. Now why don't you go back to Osaka, and take these air head cronies of yours with you."

He took a step back and looked really surprised at what I said, "How'd ya know I was from Osaka, you son-of-a-bitch? And how dare you fuckin' say that I smell worse than you! When I get done wit' you, you ain't gonna be able to even drag that sorry tail back to whatever hole you crawled outta!"

I just shrugged, "I could tell by your accent, it's not that hard to figure out, especially with how you tarnish your language with such vulgarities and mispronouncing words. If you want to fight though, go ahead and try." I glared at him coldly and waited for him to make the first move.

He fell for my taunt, thankfully enough, by lunging at me and trying to throw a punch, but I managed to duck it easily and was about to give him a hard upper cut to the chin when someone else joined in the fray.

"Are you such an idiot that you can't even remember what I told you yesterday?" This new guy had grabbed hold of this big guy's neck and tripped him. They both hit the ground hard and the guys went to help their leader. One of them started to swing at the kid but he managed to roll back and kicked him right in the gut. The kid seemed pretty good, but I wasn't going to let him have all the fun, especially after I saw one of those thugs grab the guy and hit him in the face hard enough to draw blood.

I ran up to the guy and after twisting him around threw a punch straight into his face hard enough to send him spiraling down to the ground. The kid was bleeding and I wasn't about to let someone defend me and get hurt. I hated the scent of blood and it really brought out the worst in me.

I looked over at the guy that had hit this new guy who had this weird white hair that went down to his shoulders, and when I looked at the white haired boy something seemed familiar about him. I thought for a moment but someone grabbed my shirt and tried to throw a punch at my face.

I just barely heard the guy say "Look out" before I felt it. I managed to get out of my shirt twist it around the guy's neck and then kicked him in the back so hard that as he let go of the shirt and fell with a thud to the ground. I heard another guy coming from behind and jumped up into the air and spun around to kick him square in his head. Thankfully the guy was a bit shorter than the rest of the others so it wasn't that hard to do.

I started to growl loudly at the rest of these guys that were just starting to recover from the blows we both had dealt. I didn't think of myself as much of an actor but thanks to my brother Skye, I was at least able to intimidate people like these guys. They saw that they weren't a match for me, and this other guy apparently, and so they started to run off scrambling to get away as fast as possible. If they'd had tails they would have definitely had them tucked, and while I was upwind of them I could faintly detect the fresh scent of urine. I guess one of them had wet themselves.

I looked back at the kid and then started to walk back to my place at the table I'd been sitting at before I had been interrupted. These stupid prudish humans were going to be the death of me at this rate, or the death of my freedom in Japan. If this kept up I was going to get a record for assault before I could even vote.

"HEY!"

I heard that kid again calling out to me followed quickly by the sounds of his footsteps following after me.

"Hey, where are you going, can't you at least say 'thank you' to me?"

"No." I scuffed at him, that was pretty arrogant of him to say and if he thought I was going to thank him for that he was in for a rude surprise.

"I just helped save you from those guys, though!" The guy growled at me and I turned around to see him just now wiping the blood from his face.

"I didn't need your help, and I didn't ask for it neither!" I glared back at him angrily and growled softly to tell him to back off before I turned back around at sat at the table. I took a few calming breaths and then reached into my pocket. My PDA was gone though and I started to look around the area when I saw that white haired human holding it and reading it to himself.

I quickly rushed over to him and grabbed the thing back from him before he could read anymore.

"Hey!" Good lord this human was annoying me more than those punks did.

"This is mine, and you have no business reading anything on it!" I started to walk away when I heard him call out to me again.

"Jessan Koga-san?"

That's where I knew this guy from. Jessan had told me that the kid he was writing to had long white hair, and since that was such an uncommon thing it had to mean this was the human that he had started to fall for.

"Hmph, so you're the little human that's gained the attention of Jessan." I looked back at him and he seemed offended, I guess my lack of those Honorific things insulted him for some reason or maybe it was my choice of words.

"So... You're not Jessan-san?"

"Nope." I sat back down, I was being pretty cold towards this guy, but I didn't really want to get involved in this. This was Jessan's thing and I didn't want to be a third wheel to any of it.

"But... you are the one who wrote the poems didn't you?" MAN this kid was annoying the hell out of me right then. I'd just had to fight off seven guys with this guy around and now he was standing there talking to me when I was trying to subtly tell him to get away from me. I guess I still had a lot to learn when it came to expressing my wants from just my body language.

"No, I didn't," I figured if he wanted answers I'd give him what he wanted, maybe then he'd leave me alone. "That was Jessan again, for some reason he prefers to do things himself, for which I'm grateful. I just taught him how to write like that about a year ago."

"So then... where is he?"

That was it, I couldn't take his annoying questions anymore, I stood up and glared at him starting to feel my hackles rise up again as instinct to fight from the blood in the air fueled my rage.

"I'm not gonna tell you! I'm not even sure I can trust you and there's a slim chance of that changing anytime soon." I was furious with this guy, he wanted to get information from me while he still smelled of blood. To those predator type furs with a strong sense of smell, like myself, it is considered very rude to talk to them with the scent of blood on them. For some it made dormant instincts rise up, for most others it was just a strong offensive smell that few people liked. I was among those that hated the scent and smelling blood just made me angry and want to fight at the slightest provocation not that that was anything new.

"Well you can trust me to keep your secret." He said sternly and I looked back at him with narrow eyes wondering what he was up to.

"And what secret would that be?"

"That you're a hybrid."

"How the hell do you know that?!" I looked back at him and tried not to get even more frustrated than I already was at that point.

"Your stripes are showing and wolves don't have any stripes. I'm just guessing but I'd say that you're only half wolf. Your ears are also too rounded for a wolf and your claws aren't visible too so I'd guess they were retractable. Also your reactions to the fight seem pretty movement based but you could just be seriously trained well."

I blinked and then noticed that I hadn't put my shirt back on after that fight and that my arms and neck were exposed from the tank I was wearing. That's how he'd seen my stripes since those were the biggest signs of what I was to most.

"DAMN IT ALL!" I swore in English as I went to collect my shirt and then put it back on before anyone else could see me like that.

"I might also say that you're half Bangle tiger since that's the most common type."

I smirked to myself, "Hmph, Siberian actually and I have to admit I'm impressed." I let a smile cross my face for an instant before I started back towards my bench. "Jessan's certainly found himself a real catch this time."

The kid walked over to me and sat next to me, damn this guy wasn't going to leave me alone at all.

"So you wanna talk about it?" He said that in a kind tone but I had no idea what he meant by it.

"What's to talk about I'm part timber wolf and part Siberian tiger, that's all there is to it."

"I meant about your past, and why you seem so depressed now, but it's ok if you don't want to share, I just thought it had something to do with your heritage is all."

"Will you leave me alone? What makes you think I'm depressed anyway? And even if I am, it's none of your business." This Tomaka guy was insightful and it was starting to get annoying.

"I know it isn't any of my business, but sometimes people need to talk about their past before they can move on."

I sat there pondering that for a moment, it was hard to move on from the past but I was starting to move on and change. Matt was a clear indication of that if nothing else.

"Can I read your poem at least?"

I sighed in defeat, this guy wasn't going to leave me alone until I either left and lost him or he gave up and left. I handed him my PDA and he read it softly to himself, I hated how he said it in short bursts and how he looked at me after every stanza, but while he was looking at me I was noticing him. That white hair of his was natural. I couldn't smell any bleach on it, no color at the root of the hair showing, and there was no visible damage from any chemical that might have lightened his hair to that shade. This was a curious thing, it meant either he had a medical condition that made his hair unable to produce melanin anymore to make his hair colored, or something traumatic had happened to him that had caused his hair to go white from it. Either way it wasn't my business but I rubbed my left shoulder anyway in frustration as he finished my poem and handed it back to me.

"You're a pretty good writer. I guess your past is pretty dark huh?"

I had to smile at that, anyone who complimented me on one of my so-called talents always got a smile from me. I didn't say anything but I did manage to get a sniff of his scent, despite the scent of blood still being on him. It was a calm scent, and wasn't all that unpleasant. I guess if Jessan really did like this guy I should give him the benefit of the doubt and at least try to be nice to him.

"Heh... You're something else, I hope you realize." I stood up and offered my paw, "My name is William Ezekiel Thomson, but you can call me Zeke."

Tomaka took my paw and smiled at me, "Tomaka Hiragowa, but my friends call me Mak." He then proceeded to tilt his head a bit, "William? That's a western name isn't it? You speak such good Japanese I thought you were local before you told me your name."

"My first name is German if you must know, and before you ask, I'm an American, not German. My heritage beyond my parents is random so I won't go into it. So what are you?"

He looked up at me confused and I just rolled my eyes, "Something is different about you than most people in this city, you rushed to help me and I've never had that happen to me before."

Tomaka just looked away and shrugged, "I have a dark past." He didn't look me in the eyes, I could tell just from what he said that I was likely right about his hair being shocked white but I didn't need to hear about it, nor did I really care to either, hearing it would just cause problems for me that I couldn't solve easily within a month's time and I had more pressing matters to attend to this week anyway.

"So..." After a moment Tomaka looked back at me and rubbed the back of his head looking as if he was trying to decide on rather or not to keep talking. I'm not sure if I was intimidating him now from what I'd said or what but he kept on anyway. "You have a... uh... a girlfriend?"

I smirked, "You suck at trying to change the subject, but no I don't and I'm not gonna pry anymore, you got problems and I don't have the time to deal with 'em so best to move on."

"So are you gay?" I jerked back and snorted as he chuckled, "I guess that's a yes."

I rolled my eyes, this guy was insane, "Come on," I pocketed my PDA and buttoned my shirt up to the top third button and started to walk with my tail swaying behind me. This kid was trouble, but maybe not bad trouble so I decided to do my friend a favor and push him into the deep end of this romance he was slowly moving into.

As I was walking away I noticed he wasn't following me. I looked back and motioned with my head for him to follow me.

"You want to meet Jessan or what?" That certainly got his attention, the guy got up and ran up to my side. The dude really was skinny now that I got a better look of him.

"So... you're a wolf/tiger?" Lord this guy was a talker, it was almost annoying but I kept up a straight face to keep from making him tense.

"I'm called a wiger, and since you want to be so talkative; mind telling me who those jerks were?" We were walking along slowly enough. The streets were pretty empty despite the clear day, I would have thought more people would be out on a day like this but perhaps most people were at work or something.

"Oh they're just a bunch of pricks from my school. Hitomi-san is their leader, the tall one you know? And well..." He looked away for some reason, I knew what he was going to say but I didn't see any reason for him to be hesitant about it. "He's got this thing against people with fur."

"Huh, figures... seems a lot of humans in this city do." I shrugged but what came out of his mouth next surprised me, which doesn't happen that often.

"Don't do that!" He snapped at me in a rather strong tone, I looked over at him and stopped as I studied him.

"Don't do what, pray tell?"

"Don't categorize!" The kid was pretty forceful with this, despite me being bigger than him and more capable than he could know, he was actually trying to force me to submit to some idea of his. "I never say 'fur' I say someone 'has fur', I don't like categorization. There's enough dividing in this world of ours without it."

He turned to me and started to shout at me with very angry tones "NEVER think of yourself than being less than human! I've met hundreds of people in my life and several I'd never call human but none of them were specified between those who have fur and who don't! Labels give birth to prejudice," he paused a moment and looked down at his feet. "You are human, don't ever forget it."

I thought about what he said for a moment and could only roll my eyes before popping him on the back of the head.

"OW! What was that for?" He rubbed his head and looked at me with a bit of annoyance.

"For being just about the biggest fool on the planet. I don't want to be involved in your philosophies or care to hear about them." He started to look angry again but before he could open that over eager mouth of his I put up a finger to his face, "BUT you should tell that to Jessan. I think he'd appreciate it more than I do."

"Speaking of...?" I looked over at him again, at the rate his mouth was going we'd never get there if we kept stopping to talk, "Why are you taking me to see him? I thought I wasn't going to see him until Saturday?"

"Well that was the initial plan and as far as he knows it still is, but I'm sick of the guy slowly walking into a relationship. He takes such baby steps in this junk and I've finally had it. He's going to get pushed into this relationship he wanted to start so much."

"But... Is there more to this than I know right now?"

"My Lord you are a persistent and annoying one aren't you? Ok, listen fast buddy we're almost there and my patience with talking is wearing thin, just be glad you don't smell like blood anymore or we'd be brawling it out right now." He blinked and then got that angry glare he had when he was talking about Furs and Humans a moment ago.

"So listen, Jessan was only putting you through this stuff to see if he could trust you, to find out more about you and your beliefs and what not. He does this a lot for some reason, he'll find a guy he likes and message them, find out about them, and see if they follow those so called poems of his, and if they do he gets with them."

The kid halted and stared at me in shock. He almost looked hurt from all that I'd just told him, but I didn't see why he would be hurt from it.

"So this is just a sick game to him? I'm just a puppet for his twisted pleasure? How many other guys has he done this to?"

"No, Mak, you're not a puppet to him and I think you're about the fifth person he's done this to." I looked at him and saw he was about to turn and run, but I decided to break the good news to him before he could.

"But you're the first to have passed his tests. All the others failed. They tended to be arrogant, mean, or straight. You're the only one that's had any good nature of any kind. This wasn't a game to him, he just is really inept at asking questions in any other way than this way he knows."

The kid continued to ask me questions about where I was from and what I was doing here, the kid was real curious about things for some reason, and when I said I would only be around for a few more weeks I almost spit at what he said.

"So only a couple more weeks? That's a shame I wanted to see more of you."

Damn this Tomaka guy was getting on my nerves and I punched him in the shoulder and snorted at him, "You're about to meet Jessan to see if you want to go out with him, don't be thinking about me like that!"

"I can't help it if you're cute," he shrugged and I jerked and pinned my ears a bit, this guy was really getting under my fur. I could tell from the corner of my eye that my actions got a huge grin on his face and that only ticked me off more.

"So I guess you like Furs, huh?"

"You could call it a passion." He shrugged as we walked along, he seemed pretty easy going for someone with such crazed ideals but who was I to judge.

"Well yeah, anyway I've got someone back home so don't be getting any ideas."

He kept on the small talk asking questions about Matt, and what the place I was from was like. He kept up on that stupid label issue about 'Fur' and 'Human' though which was annoying to me, but I wasn't about to start a fight about it, especially since we were so close to Jessan's house. I went up to the door and started to knock. I knew this was going to be an issue for Jessan, but it was high time he did things right for a change. If this went bad there was nothing I could do, but if it went good then all the better. Either way we'd find out quickly enough as the door opened and then quickly slammed shut in our faces.

I guess it wasn't going to be good.