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Kai-Ro sat cross legged floating in mid air as he meditated by the small water fall. Small koi fish were swimming about in the pond and Kai somehow, enjoyed their company.
Hearing a small shift of wind, he opened his eyes and looked around for a moment. Seeing no one, he lightly closed them again while letting a small trail of energy from his ring slither to the light switch. He cut the lights then dove at the intruder.
"Kya!" Kai lit his ring to see a girl about his age rubbing at her head, "Itai yaru! (Ouch!)" A small backpack was tossed to her side and her hat, which made her look as if she had cat ears, was slanted crooked.
"Who are you??"
----
"I'm very sorry, desu! I didn't mean to come into here!" the girl said rubbing behind her head bowing slightly, "You see, I was looking for my new school and I got lost."
"New... School...??" The league members were all sitting in the conference room when Kai brought the girl up to them. Superman, Warhawk and Merina seemed to be amused at the thought of her passing through the security system. Micron was distressed at the thought of a child being able to walk in unnoticed through a system he programmed himself and Barda and Terry, were just annoyed that she would not speak plain english.
"Hai! My name is Meru Toji. Nice to meet you, desu." she smiled with a small bow. Barda rubbed at her temples in annoyance.
"How could you mistake this tower as your school?" she said.
"Calm down Barda." Superman said then turned to Toji, "Which school were you being enrolled in?" Toji rummaged into her orange vest pocket and pulled out a piece of paper.
"The Metropolis art school." she said scratching at her neck, which had a kind of collar around it.
"..." Everyone stared at her, "Metropolis, has an art school...??"
"Hai desu." she replied dusting off her dark green uneven pants, one leg was longer then the other..
Terry scratched at his head for a moment, "Now that I think it, I think there's one down the street."
"So how come we've never noticed it...?" Barda asked.
"Because, you guys never go out..." Terry replied then using a nearby pen, drew a small map on a piece of paper then handed it to Toji, "Here, this outta get you there."
"Ah!!" Toji smiled wide bowing again, "Thank you." Superman smiled.
"Kai, could you escort Miss Toji back down to the front door?" he asked. Kai nodded taking small flight as a green aura surrounded him and he floated out the door.
"Come with me please."
Toji smiled again, "Ok!!" she quickly jogged after him as she waved to the other league members, "Ne, you were almost about to shoot me when you jumped on me huh, desu?"
Kai glanced back at her slowing down his floating speed, "One can't be too cautious, especially in these times." he replied, "I apologize for my impertinence."
"Oh, it's ok yaru, I've gotten used to it, yaru." Toji said then gave her forhead a gentle smack, "Ah, gomenasai. I started saying yaru again, sorry for my rudeness."
(Ending sentences with Desu shows respect.)
"You seem to be of Japanese origin." Kai said, "Or perhaps chinese, from your accent."
"Eh? Yes, my mother was chinese, and my father was from japan, desu."
"That's a very odd combination."
"Heh heh, yes. Not alot of people notice my accent, so how can you, desu?"
"You casually end your sentences with Yaru, that's a more chinese dialect, am I correct?" Kai asked. Toji smiled with a nod.
"Hai, and since you can understand me, I'm sure you're also from chinese origin, desu?" she asked. Kai hadn't even realized she was speaking in complete chinese, the translation in his mind being automatic. He had to smile slightly at this and nodded.
"Yes." Toji chuckled, her smile widening.
----
When they reached the door, Toji bowed.
"Thank you desu, sorry for the trouble." she said.
"Don't worry, besides, seeing Micron so flustered over his work was quite... Amusing." Kai said with a nod. Toji smiled nodding as well and hefted her backpack over her shoulder.
"Well, good bye then desu!" she said with a wave and quickly ran off. Kai watched her almost skipping down the street and turned to return to his meditating. He would have to go and feed those fish, he was responsible for caring for them since he spent most of his time in that room and...
A loud crash and a few screams interrupted his thoughts and he swivelled back to look outside at some people down the street jumping about. He rose his eyebrow and quickly went to investigate.
"What happened here...?" he asked. The storekeeper practically threw himself onto Kai sending shivers down his spine. It wasn't unusual, just... very strange.. Plus he never liked this department store what-so-ever.
"THANK GOODNESS!! The billboard over my shop fell ontop of someone!" he cried, "She was looking at a piece of paper and didn't realize it was falling!" Kai pryed the clingy man off and formed a hand with his ring to lift up the board. Underneath...
"Eh, yo?" Toji greeted weakly raising her hand in greeting. She quickly crawled out from under the board and dusted herself off, "Yipes, that was dangerous yaru..."
"I'll say, you're one lucky kid!!" the store owner said and threw himself at her, "PLEASE DON'T SUE!!" Toji smiled peeling the man off with her foot and taking a step back.
"I managed to roll into the ditch in the sidewalk to avoid being flattened, it's ok, yaru." she said, "See? I'm perfectly fine!"
SPLURT!!
A small gush of red started to leak down from her forhead and everyone jumped back.
"AH! BLOOD!! HER HEAD IS BLEEDING!!"
"Eh? No no no, I'm fine, really!!" Toji grinned and reached her hand into her hat and pulled out a small squished red... thing... "The tomato I keep in my hat got squished, I'm fine." she used the back of her arm to wipe the juice off her face.
"Why on earth... Why do you keep a tomato under your hat?" Kai asked as he lifted the billboard back up. Toji seemed to think about it.
"Well, I remember my mother telling me that if I kept a tomato under my hat then it'll one day save my head!" she said and looked at her wrist, "Nyah!! I'm going to be late at this rate!! Thank you Kai-dono, good bye desu!" she said and ran off again.
Kai heaved a small sigh as he took a seat on a large stone by the pond in his usual meditation room. He crossed his legs, lightly set his hands in his lap and took a deep breath closing his eyes.
Clear the mind, breathe deeply... Do not let any distractions bother--
BLEEP BLEEP!!!
Kai's eyebrow twitched at the towers sirens blaring and heaved a heavy sigh.
"Hey Lantern! Trouble downtown! Get out here!" Warhawk was calling over the intercom. Kai hopped off his rock and after tossing some food into the pond for the koi fish, flew out.
----
Downtown was a mess, some explosion happened and buildings were crumbling, cars turned over, the usual scenario. Constructing a large car jack, Kai watched as some civilians quickly ran off from under the crumbled wall.
"GL, civilians in your area, some of them are inside a burning building, think you can get to them?" Superman's voice asked from the communication link.
"I'll be right on it." Kai replied quickly flying around a skyscraper to reach the building. After diffusing the flames, he created a slide for the people to escape, "Done."
"Us too." Warhawk called.
"Great, now that we cleared the attacks up, we can start cleaning up." Superman said.
"Whoo hoo, the most fun part of this job..." Batman sighed sarcastically. Kai sighed as well, withdrawing his ring energy and landing lightly on the ground.
As soon as his ring energy left the building, it suddenly started to crumbled and tilt over. Kai threw a pair of giant hands to hold the building up and catch any falling pieces.
"Hurry hurry! This way!"
'No way... This has to be my unlucky day...' Kai thought watching as a yellow cat hat bobbed along the crowd directing them away.
"Kai-dono! Please hold it up for a little longer yaru, This is the last batch of people desu!" Toji shouted. Kai would've slapped himself in the forhead if he wasn't so busy.
CRACK!!
A chunk of the building started to fall and Kai tried to catch it.
"Run, now!!" he yelled. Toji looked up at the chunk, then at a couple still fleeing. She planted her feet and took hold of a small handle protruding from her backpack. Just as the chunk almost fell on top of them, there was a loud hollow sound and another crack as the chunk was blown in half.
"Ne... Abunaizo... (Dangerous...)" Toji seemed to murmur shouldering an electric guitar, "That almost flattened us yaru." A cat like smile curled onto her lips.
Feeling a load being lifted off, Kai watched as Micron pushed the building into place and as Superman and Barda sealed it, or at least tried to stabalize it. As soon as that was settled, Kai turned to a smirking Toji, who was rubbing at the corner of her guitar.
"You're suppose to be in school." he said. Toji rubbed behind her head.
"Well, all of this started to happen before I even made it there. Plus..." she pointed an accusing finger at Batman, "Bat-sama's map made no sense yaru!!"
"Oh so it's my fault your missed out on your classes?"
"Nyaah... I scuffed my guitar... Last time I use it to hit a rock..." Toji sighed rubbing at a small peel in the paint of her dark blue guitar.
"Are you ignoring me?!"
"Who wouldn't?" Warhawk snickered, "Alright, we're done here. Let's get going." Suddenly he was knocked over by a blast of energy.
"What the-?!"
"Warhawk!" Merina slid down beside him. Warhawk sat up rubbing the back fo his helm.
"Arg, dammit who the hell did that?!" he growled.
"Get down!" Kai cast a shield in front of them as more blasts of bright energy lashed at them. A shadow whizzed past him and a loud revving was heard.
"Oraah!!" the loud hollow sound resonated again as Toji's guitar collided with the side of a person's face sending them crashing into a building. Barda fired off her power rod and the person wearing white armour veered away dashing among the buildings.
"Fast little bugger isn't he..." Batman said. Toji skid back beside him.
"Hit the gem on the helmet, if you can knock it off it'll revert to normal yaru!" she said and pulling a string on her guitar causing it to rev again, vibrating like a motor.
"Got it." he nodded. Throwing a storm of batterangs, they exploded against eachother and the armoured person dashed out into the side of a building. Just before it could even make contact with it, Superman slammed his fist into the side of the person's head sending him bouncing off the ground. The armoured person staggered up and tried to jump away but was stopped when Kai stopped him with a clamp. Warhawk swooped down and reached out to grab the gem off.
"W-wait! Don't-!"
"Grah!!" Warhawk flew back into Kai as an energy wave blew him back. Toji jumped after the escaped armoured person and with another loud ring, slammed her guitar up against it's head.
It crumbled and layed limp on the ground. Toji breathed a sigh and as she rummaged in her bag, pulled out a kind of metal thermos and caught a small shiny object into it.
"I should've warned you that you can't touch it... Sorry, yaru." she said with a smile, "Is everyone ok yaru?"
"Y-Yeah..."
"You seem to be here for more then school, what're you doing here really?" Warhawk asked. Toji looked at him bewildered and smiled.
"I AM here for art school."
"Well that was a poor lie." Kai said standing up from the rubble.
Toji sighed, "Yes, it is." she said, "My art classes, officially start tomorrow, not today. I am sorry for critisizing your map Bat person, yaru."
"What was that... THING we just fought?" Barda demanded. Toji kicked at the empty white armour.
"Resonance. Old memories of light and sound waves channelled into a solid form." she held up the thermos and showed the small red gem glowing inside, "This is their energy source, the red ones are for common ones. It kinda works in a weird color coded scale." She tucked the thermos away.
"So, you came here to chase them down?" Merina asked.
"Or maybe your trying to clean up a mess you made!"
"Warhawk, calm down." Superman said, "You seem to know alot about these, care to fill us in?"
"They plan to make an army, take down anyone in their way, absorb and destroy all of life as we know it. Yaru." Toji said darkly, "The usual."
"And she can smile while saying all of this from the top of her head..." Batman said, "Creepy..." There was a slight beeping and Toji looked at her watch.
"Whoa! It's already 4:30? I need to get back home! My little brother's gonna worry!" Toji cried and after stumbling about for a moment, managed to tuck her guitar away and hurry along the broken roads, "Good bye!!"
"Hey wait a sec."
"Eh?" Toji turned around and Superman handed her a kind of pager looking thing, "Yaru...?"
"Just don't throw it away ok?"
Toji smiled, "Ok, Yaru!"
----
"Are you sure that was a good choice Kal? For all we know she's the one causing all these things to show up." Barda said as they retreated into the tower.
"Don't worry, if she's the problem then we simply have to lock her up right?" Clark said taking a seat.
"That would suffice." Kai said also taking a seat, "Although, I don't think she's the source for all of this."
"I agree, she seemed very nice." Merina smiled as the rest of them joined the conference table.
"I think she's insane, with all that smiling..." Terry grumbled, "She's like, a happy psycho... Or a hippy."
"Just because you're the prince of Emo doesn't mean she has to be one of your followers." Warhawk shot.
"You've never faced the Joker up close..." Terry retorted, "So, why only prince?"
Clark snorted, "We all know that the other Batman will forever be the King of Emo." A chuckle went around the room, "So, does everyone want to rest on the decision?"
"I think I shall." Kai said, "I can finally get some meditating done."
"Same here."
"Alright then, meet back in a while when you're all ready." Clark said.
----
What to do what to do...
Kai listened to the soft trickles of water from the small water fall beside him splashed into the koi pond. He'd thought about his decision since the night before after getting some rest and recharging his ring.
Meru Toji, she almost seemed too nice... Rare to see any of that nowadays. Still... She would be useful for data...
Rubbing at the back of his neck, Kai sighed walking back into the conference room. Everyone was already gathered there.
"Well Kai, what do you say?" Clark asked. Kai looked at the others and nodded. Clark grinned, "Then it's settled." He pressed a few keys into the board and over the speakers there was sudden screaming.
"NYAAN!! HOW DO I TURN THIS THING ON YARU!?!?"
"It's on Toji." Clark called.
"Oh, hello, yaru."
"We have a request," Clark looked back at the team, "Would you like to join our league?"
There was silence from her end and after a moment...
"I'm actually in the middle of class, but I can come as soon as schools out. That'd be about..." there was a pause, "Twenty minutes yaru."
"Sending someone might be faster." Terry said.
"That's-! Not a bad idea... yaru..." Toji confessed, "I have no sense of direction yaru..."
"Ha, I knew my map was right!" Terry laughed in triumph.
"We'll send one of us to pick you up then, good?"
"Okay yaru! Uh-oh, I better turn this thingy off... yaru..."
There was a click and Clark sighed.
"Well, it's official." he said, "Who wants to go get her?"
Everyone looked slowly to the back of the room, where Kai was standing.
"Why me...?"
"You two seemed to be getting off on a good start," Warhawk said, "What with all the... Yaru's and Desu's you guys were discussing."
"Ah, so you were eavesdropping."
"I've never seen you smile so sweetly! In fact, I've never seen you smile at all." Merina teased.
"Make that eavesdropping AND spying..."
"Now you look angry again."
"We meerly overheard." Clark said.
'Oh, him too...' Kai thought dully. He was suddenly dragged towards the door, "Huh?"
"You can't go pick her up like this, come on!" Merina grinned, "We're finding you something to wear."
"But... I'm fine the way I am..."
"Dude, you scare everyone enough as it is." Terry said.
"I...Do?"
"Yeah, not only do you have a scary Mr. Pro-wrestler face, you also have a ring that can obliterate anything you point it at." Terry pointed out, "So, I think a diguise works here."
Mr... Pro-wrestler...? Of all the things to compare him to...
"Terry! We're going through your closet! Ok?"
Warhawk jumped up, "I'm there!"
"You REALLY want to go through my stuff?!"
"Do I not get a say in this...?!"
Barda and Clark watched as the three of them dragged the unwilling Kai out and chuckled.
"Still like children." Barda smiled.
Clark grinned, "Yeah."
A/N: Yeah... First JLU/Batman fic. I'm more used to writing in First person POV... Hey though, minor characters need love too. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this!