******SPOILER WARNING*******
This is my prediction on the continuation of the latest chapter 165. It is more like a story-line prediction than a fanfic, so it's more like a story with few speeches. Will be just a one or two shots. It will start right at the end of chapter 165.
Ah.. and this is my first fanfic, never written one before..so please understand if it's not as good as any others, I'm not experienced after all.
Disclaimer: I do not own SkipBeat or any of its characters! - They were never mine and will never be mine,.. too bad!
*thoughts are in italics*
My Protective Charm
Kuon, in Ren's mind, continued to be consumed by the darkness around him after his last memory brought him to the feeling of himself being drowned by the blood of his dying friend. The blood in his imagination continued to rise up to stain his entire body and his face as well. He looked at his own blood stained body and froze, unable to move.
Ogata and all the other crews had called Ren's name repeatedly "Tsuruga-san..", but to no avail, Ren failed to show any response at all.
Kyoko stood shell shocked wondered why it turned out that way, Ren looked just like he was after the fight with seaweed head.
Yashiro, Kijima and the other cast was in the bus waiting for the scene to finish (Author's note: let's hope that's where they were, since I didn't see them around the area at all because they would have rushed to Ren's side with the director and Kyoko as well, I don't understand how they didn't hear the disturbing car noise and screams that even Kyoko heard from her own set). Because of all the commotion, they got out of the bus wondering what's going on, the car-chase scene should already been finished, but they hadn't seen Ren or Ogata, so some of them got out to check on it.
Yashiro and Kijima saw the gathering around Ren's car and rushed there. They learned about Ren's situation and Yashiro leaned in front of Ren, calling "Ren.. Ren.. what's wrong?", and was shocked to see Ren's expression, still with no response. Kyoko saw that it was not going well and decided to give it a try. She was able to pull him out of that same expression before when they were playing Heel siblings. So she requested if she could try talking to him. She went there and called "Tsuruga-san..?" No response, and she leaned over in front of Ren's face and touched his chest with her palm, and called again "Tsuruga-san.. Tsuruga-san..". They saw Ren suddenly moved with a slight jolt.
In Ren's mind, Kuon was paralyzed, with darkness around him and no way out. Suddenly he heard a little voice in a little spark of light beside him calling "..ru..ga..san".. Kuon wondered who it was and what it was saying.. then a small hand came out in the dark and touched his chest. He jolted a little and felt warm at the spot the palm had touched. The blood stained around the palm dispersed and keep spreading throughout his body clearing out all the stain gradually and Kuon felt warm and relief. At the same time the blood stains was dispersing, more of the hand that touched him was showing and it showed a 6 years old Kyoko with twin pig tails standing in front of Kuon, smiling at him and telling him it's alright. Kuon smiled at her and said.. "Thank you,… Kyoko-chan..".
After giving the slight jolt, Ren's eyes is starting to have a life in it again and recognition showed in his eyes as he stared in front of him. Leaning sideways over the steering wheel is Kyoko in Natsu getup, looking at him with worried face. And at the same time as Kuon in his mind, he smiled heavenly at her and murmured.. "Thank you, ..Kyoko-chan.."
Ren glanced around him and found that Yashiro, Director Ogata, Kijima, and some of DarkMoon crews were watching him with worried face, but all sighed in relief to see him out of his immobilized state. Kyoko, though surprised at Ren's sudden used of her surname, quickly moved out of his way, and straightened back up. She rationalized that Ren must be in delirious state after being snapped out of whatever that was immobilizing him, enough to suddenly call her "Kyoko-chan", so she immediately asked him, "are you alright, .. Tsuruga-san?". He smiled at her, "I'm alright, Mogami-san, thank you for your concern." Then he smiled and addressed the crowd in front of him, "I am sorry for making you guys worry, I am fine now." Everybody was relief to see him okay, but wondering why he snapped out of his state only when Kyoko called him. They made sure that he did not have injuries that he needs to go to the hospital for, which Ren firmly confirmed that he has no physical injuries.
Director Ogata and the crews walked away to take care of other issues resulting from this little incident, since they most likely will have to repeat the same scene again. Director Ogata is concerned on whether or not Ren will be able to redo this scene, or if he should let Ren do it considering his last state. He pushed the thought aside to attend to matters at hand, and thought he could always get a stuntman for Ren if needed.
Kijima glanced at Kyoko in her Natsu getup,… hm, she's a real beauty and more mature just like rumored earlier.. so he walked over to her and smiled at her "Hey, Kyoko-chan,.. I heard you came by to visit us at the bus earlier, and I finally get to say hi to you. How are you doing?" he smiled at her. Kyoko bowed at him and smiled back prettily ,"Good afternoon Kijima-san, I'm doing great, thank you for your concern." Ren narrowed his eyes a little, unhappy with Kijima's sudden interest in Kyoko, but then quickly returned to his gentlemanly smile. Standing beside Ren, Yashiro could hardly hold his amusement at Ren's jealousy.. Let's see what he will do this time, since he can't "hide" her like last time anymore..*snickered*..
Ren greets Kijima "Hi, Kijima-kun. Are they doing your scene next?" .. if not, then please leave.. "Eh? Oh, Tsuruga-kun, glad to see you're not hurt, .. no, not yet, the director is still busy setting everything up."
Kijima returned to Kyoko again, "Kyoko-chan, you really look great in this getup, it looks very pretty on you, and very mature." Kyoko blushed at the compliment, "Oh, thank you.. I'm so happy, This is my costume for the drama I'm working on currently. It's the make-up and the hair-style that makes me looks mature like my character supposed to be…". Kijima stared at her, "hm, I don't think it's just the make up and hair style, there's something else, the confidence you have is…". Kijima didn't get to finish his sentence, because in the matter of few seconds, Ren suddenly grabbed Kyoko and twirled her around, she ended up with her back facing Ren, Ren's right hand is lightly touching the left side of her waist, and his left hand is holding Kyoko's right hand (author's note: the same position at that time in Karuizawa when Kyoko was talking to Sho under the staircase and Ren appeared).
Ren flashed his gentlemanly smile again .."Isn't she? Thanks for your compliment to my kouhai." He emphasized the word Kouhai…"Don't you still have shooting for Box-R, Mogami-san?" he addressed Kyoko. Kyoko who was originally confused with Ren's behavior is suddenly snapped back to attention.. face paled, "NOOOO! my job.. I'm so unprofessional, I'm soooo SORRY, Tsuruga-san." Before she turned around to face Ren and dropped to the floor to apologize, Ren grabbed her arm tighter to prevent her from doing so. Kyoko suddenly remembered something, she glanced around, saw her Box-R director is currently talking to director Ogata, so she sighed in relief.. "Ah.. I'm okay, my director is still here. I just have to return quickly before he leaves here… Thank you for reminding me Tsuruga-san." She then turned around, bowed to Ren and Kijima "I'll be going then. Tsuruga-san, ..Kijima-san" Kijima smiled at her, "Sure, Kyoko-chan.. see you around other time." Ren also smiled, "See you later, Mogami-san."
Meanwhile.. Sudou Yuko, the actress who played Tugumi in Box-R, who had rushed to the DarkMoon set after hearing that Tsuruga Ren might be in accident saw the whole incident with Kyoko, Ren and Kijima. As well as some other Dark Moon casts like Momose-san and Oohara-san, and crews who saw the interactions between those three, were all surprised to see Ren and Kijima were silently battling over the oblivious actress.
Anyway, Tugumi had arrived a little later after Kyoko, she was a slower runner compared to Kyoko super fast dash, plus she was the last one to run out of Box-R set. To top it off, she was stuck in the crowd of bystander, trying to find her way and not sure how to get into the DarkMoon set. Even though it was not a close set, there are still people guarding the area to prevent random fans from mobbing at the celebrities during their shooting. And unfortunately, unlike Kyoko who was part of the DarkMoon cast and was known by all the DarkMoon crews, Tugumi was neither part of the cast, nor was she well-known enough yet as an actress, she had only been in small roles and was still considered a newbie. So she could only watch from a far while trying to search for Tsuruga Ren. When she finally saw him, he was already outside of the car and was talking to Kyoko and Kijima. She was walking towards them when she saw the way Ren held Kyoko in front of Kijima… Eeeehhh? Are those two dating? .. they must be, wow.. lucky for Kyoko-san.. I wish I could date Tsuruga-san too.. Then she saw Kyoko left in a hurry.
Kijima was stunned at Ren's sudden behavior towards Kyoko. But of course he got the message that Ren intended to send to him loud and clear. Those gestures could only mean. "She's mine, back off!" Kijima smirked.. Well, surely the girl doesn't seem to realize it, so the battle is still on.. this is getting really interesting.. "So, Tsuruga-kun, you have Kyoko-chan's personal cell phone number, right?" Ren smiled his gentlemanly smile at him, "Yes, of course I do.. by the way, I have to go discuss the scene with director, excuse me.. " .. It's not like I'll ever give you her phone number..Ren and Yashiro walked away immediately to talk to Director Ogata regarding the scene. Kijima chuckled at Ren's reaction.. Oh well, I guess that's to be expected..
Kijima noticed Tugumi standing not too far from them looking around unsure what to do. Hmm.. that girl, she's wearing the same costume uniform like Kyoko-chan.. maybe she's her co-star?.. "Hi there, are you a co-star of Kyoko-chan?" Kijima greeted her. Tugumi blushed at Kijima, she was happy that a handsome actor like Kijima paid attention to her. She's a big fan of Tsuruga Ren because he's number one on the chart for the most desirable man in Japan, but she likes handsome celebrities in general, and Kijima was one of them, he was not number one like Ren, but still in the top ten list. "Yes, I stared with Kyoko-san as one of her classmates.".. Kijima smiled at her.. good, maybe I can get more information on Kyoko-chan, and most of all, Box-R shooting schedule, visiting Kyoko-chan on set might not be a bad idea, she looks pretty in her costume and I can get to know her better…
5 minutes later and few coaxings on Kijima's part, Tugumi rushed back to her own set blushing at Kijima's praise of how cute she was, but horrified that she would be late back to the set, the director was gone 3 minutes ago, and he actually could run or walk a lot faster than Tugumi could. Kijima, however.. walked away smiling, with a complete shooting schedules for Box-R for the next 2 weeks in his hand, and a couple of phone numbers.
**That evening…at the hotel basement parking lot**
Ren dressed up as Cain was sitting in Lory's giant limo, with a painful expression on his face. Kyoko is in the mobile trailer next to the limo, with Jelly fixing her Setsu make over.
"What's wrong? I heard you had a little incident at DarkMoon shooting location today, did "that" bother you again?" Lori inquired. Ren just looked down, with the same painful and sad expression. Lori sighed.. "I guess it can't be helped, it was a car scene after all."
"So, what's your decision? … regarding Setsu,.. have you told her? I guess you didn't, or she wouldn't be here right now." Lori looked at Ren.
Ren looked up, sighed .."I couldn't say it,… that kind of cruel words," Lori smirked.. this boy, he just admit it out loud, that he couldn't say cruel things to her.. considering he's an actor who should be able to say anything to anybody (just like reciting a movie script).. and he couldn't say it to her.. well, that's a guy in love for you.. *grins*..
"Besides.." Ren continued, "after what happened today, .. I realized that you're right, she's my talisman after all," he gave Lori a small smile, "the most powerful one of all, and I find that I wouldn't be able to live without her now."
Author's note:
Hmm.. that's it for now. I don't really have a plot, that's basically predictions for the next 2 chapters (LOL, I don't think one 30-pages chapter manga could contain that much information, so gotta be two at least).
As for after this.. hm, maybe they (Cain and Setsu) will be back in their hotel room, and we can have other 2nd night comical situation (1st night being Setsu walked in on Cain in the shower), so now.. should Cain 'accidentally' see the content of Setsu's shopping bag? (hint: the erokawa (erotic) panties Kyoko got for Setsu that day?) LOL.. **any ideas on how that will happen?**