Another Day for Takishima Kei

Kei woke up with a start. His head was throbbing, he felt faint. This was very abnormal for Kei Takishima who rarely ever got sick, when a normal person in his place would have myriads of times over. Kei glanced at the clock and sighed. It was four am; it would still be another three more hours until he saw his beloved Hikari. She is probably the reason for this headache as well. Kei stared at the picture of her that he secretly kept at the side of his bed. Its frustrating, everything else I do goes well. It was true, he could do anything perfectly without even trying; he could get anything he wanted, anything that is all except her. Why do things never go well between Hikari and I? She was just so dense, and he hesitated to declare his tremendous love for her in case it broke the little connection he had worked hard to build with her over the years. It was his most precious thing, and so he treated his relationship with Hikari more delicately than anything else in his life. He sighed again and forced himself to go back to sleep.

Morning came for Kei finally, and he got ready in less time than humanly possible and headed out the door. He wanted to be earlier than Hikari this morning as well, just so he could see her cute expression of defeat and determination when she found out he had beat her to it. Kei quickly checked in on the Takishima business to make certain everything was in order, than after checking the stocks for the day and making the proper investments and shorts he decided to walk to school and enjoy the early morning breeze. Really, for Kei there was no need to go to school, he had already completed several University majors in most fields of Business, Mathematics, Medicine, Engineering, Sciences, Arts, Humanities, and several languages. At his young age he had even written several published PhD's on innovative topics and was on first name relations with the most highly regarded researchers in the world in their fields. Kei never talked about himself, so no one knew. To him this was pastime; he was bored so he had decided to kill time in this way. Everyone who had known him a sufficient time inquired what he was doing attending a high school and found out the only reason someone like him went to Hakusen, was for Hikari, that is everyone but Hikari. It was obvious to his research mates, the impenetrable Takishima who was often thought of as a robot instead of a human being always softened without fail slightly at the mention of the topic, however brushed it off smoothly with a cold shoulder saying, "this is irrelevant, and none of your business."

Kei walked into the greenhouse to be greeted with Akira's disgusted glare. He ignored it as always, and searched for his beloved, only to be disappointed. He quietly made his way to his usual seat and opened and started working away ferociously at his laptop to pass the time. After examining several new thesis's and expanding on a few himself, he was dismayed to find Hikari had still not arrived in the hour he tried his best to keep himself distracted. He grew worried but of course his face remained its characteristic neutral of indifference. To inquire he forced himself to talk to Akira who was lamenting about the late arrival of a new baking magazine she had subscribed to. "Where is Hikari?" he asked her. "Oh you can talk, can you?" Akira replied and glared back. Then she put on a worried expression and looked towards the greenhouse door, "my darling angel Hikari…where have you got to?" At the utterly useless reply Kei decided to check up on Hikari by going to her house, if she was sick he would do what he could for her and then go help out at the Takishima business in London for the day as his father always begged him to. After all he couldn't steal Hikari from her parents, no that would only make things for their future impossible. He always had to keep himself in check with her, exercise his patience. But he was already at his limit and he felt himself straining with the pressure of his emotions, this only served to irritate him.

As he headed towards the door, Tadishi came in and said "yo..Kei, your leaving already?" Kei walked past, giving Tadashi a slight nod of acknowledgement. Tadashi looked around, "figures, Hikari isn't here. You know I wonder what she would say if she found out that you never come to school when you know she isn't here" he said in a nonchalant manner. Kei's death aura came out around him from nowhere and Tadashi shrunk back into the shadow in fear, "you will do well to be quiet, goodbye Tadashi" Kei threatened with an absolute zero look on his face. Afterall, he couldn't let anything jeopardize his relationship with Hikari. He didn't know for certain how she would react, hence, needless information was best to be kept silent. He wouldn't let her see or hear anything that she disliked.

As he walked away from the greenhouse towards the trail leading to the school building, Hikari came into sight. She gave him a big warm smile, and his headache vanished almost instantaneously. "Hey, Takishima good morning, what are you doing?" "Good morning second place, shouldn't you be minding your own business" he replied with a smile and his usual attitude, unknown to her that she was the only one who could bring that smile to his face. A vein popped on Hikari's forehead, "what did you say? And when I was only greeting you too! Say that again you bastard!" "Second place, second place, second place. What can I say, second place is second place" Kei replied in a teasing manner laughing. "Just you wait Takishima! I will beat you in this afternoons test, I stayed up until four studying just for this!" replied Hikari her big black eyes he wished to melt into staring at him with hard set determination, her flawless cream skin glowing, her beautiful raven long hair waving in the wind and glistening from the sun. She was completely oblivious of the effect she had on him. But he felt a surge of anger when she didn't take care of herself due to their competitions...So that's why she is later than usual today. Deafened by his own anger at Hikari's careless treatment of her body he screamed, "HIKARI! Go to sleep at nine every night!" Hikari flinched back from the anger and swore she saw an angry dragon at Kei's back. Seeing Hikari's shocked expression, Kei immediately dispelled his anger and cursed himself silently for losing control like that. "Anyway, I look forward to our test later" Kei gave a small reassuring smile to Hikari and walked back to the greenhouse with her. Hikari could only wonder, what's up with him?

What was this test on again? He searched through his memory. Okay May 23rd, there is a mid-term test on synthetic organic reactions. Although he knew, he knew everything that could possibly be on the test as he had went through the entire Hakusen curriculum within the first week of his first year, he made every certainty that he did not lose in any way. His rivalry with Hikari was all he had with her; he would not forgive himself if he lost that in anyway.

The test came, Hikari looked at Kei and made his heart skip a beat, she smiled and threw a punch of enthusiasm and said, "good luck Takishima!" "You too, second place" Kei replied. Hikari fluffed up in anger and shouted, "how many times do I have to tell you not to call me that!" Kei just laughed. He went through the test in five minutes; it only took so long since he wasn't able to write any faster than that. But finishing 20 pages of writing in five minutes was already beyond humanly possible. He then went on to scan the test thoroughly for any mistakes the teacher might have made creating it for another two minutes; this would serve to help him later just in case. The rest of the three hours he settled in his chair and watched his beloved from the back, a seat he had specially picked for himself to do just that. Almost two hours later Hikari finished satisfied with her test and glanced back to see how Takishima was doing. She saw him staring directly at her, she turned crimson red from the intensity of his stare. Catching Hikari's eye Takishima gave a slight smile which came across to Hikari as a smirk. Hikari whipped her face back around fuming in anger thinking, that bastard, he is making fun of me again!

After the test, Kei went back to the teacher, as he always did, to find the results before Hikari could. He went through every pain and trouble to ascertain he was first. His only thread of connection to Hikari was his rivalry, it was the only reason she gave any of her attention to him. If I lose that, no..I will never allow for that to happen. He walked in. The teacher looked up expectantly, "of course Kei you got full points this time as well." Kei didn't care, he was more interested in Hanazono's score since he knew the only way she could not lose was if she tied with his score. "And Hikari?" He asked, expressionless. The teacher responded, "Hanozano-san also scored perfect points." Kei smiled proud of her, but he couldn't allow a tie so he began convincing the teacher for extra points as he had done countless times before when he found out Hikari had also received perfect scores. "I believe I deserve extra points since I did finish the test in five minutes, and I found three mistakes as well question 19, 21, and 32." After being pointed out to and admitting each mistake in turn the teacher sighed defeated slightly ashamed of his mistakes, after all he did comb through the test three times to make certain Kei wouldn't catch any mistakes this time. Sighing once again the teacher reluctantly gave Kei his extra points.

Hikari came running to Kei with a huge smile. He looked up and smiled, he had been waiting for her to come to him all day. Although he knew she only came to him to show him her score because of their rivalry, he was still happy she was running to him for something. He wished he could just take her and run away with her right there. Instead he gave her a nod and said, "what is it Hikari? Don't run around so dangerously." "I got perfect points on the test!" she said positively beaming and bouncing thinking she had finally beat him; she looked him straight in the eye, "what did you get?" Kei caught Hikari looking straight at him and for a moment he couldn't speak, but in a millisecond before humanly possible to notice he gained his composure back and replied "oh me? Perfect, plus five points, looks like I am first again...second place" adding extra emphasis on the last two words. Hikari's eyes widened in shock. "Screw you!" she shouted realizing she had been beaten yet again and since he had even said second place which hurt. Kei's eyes widened slightly...If only. He watched her longingly with loving eyes and a distant sad expression while she looked at him again with her usual defeated and yet boundlessly determined ones.… What I wouldn't do for her. ..for her to be mine. Hikari, the only women I'll ever love.