Chapter 1.
"GIVE BACK MY RITSUKA!" my mother threw at vase full of flowers at me. I dodged it quickly and heard it smash onto the wall. I ran up to my room, barricading it with my chair. I whimpered as I looked at my cell. Stompings could be heard from the staircases. I fumbled with my cell as I tried to call my fighter. I got the dial tone.
'THUMP THUMP'
The door was shaking furiously. "I WANT MY RITSUKA BACK! MY RITSUKA WOULD NEVER DO THIS!" my mothers sobbing voice called from the other side of the door.
I sat on my bed, hoping the door wont open. I tried calling Soubi again. Hitting the right numbers. It rang for a bit, before a calm voice called out.
"Hello?" calm as ever. I sighed, loving that voice. I stayed like this for awhile. "Hello?" his voice panicked.
"RITSUKA! COME BACK! PLEASE!" my mother yelled.
"Ritsuka-kun?" Soubi said.
"I'm here." I said. Wanting to hear the lovely voice on the other end of the line again. "Come get me, please?" I pleaded. Tears were rolling down my face. I walked to the door, holding my weight against it. "Please." I whispered and hung up. I felt my door vibrate, my mom was still out there trying to open the door. I patiently waited. I heard the clacking of shoes walking away. I thought I was okay till Soubi came here. Or so I thought.
In a few minutes, something made a a hole in my door. It looked part of a hammer. I panicked.
"Come out, dear. Mommy has something for you." My mothers so called sweet tone rung through the door. I looked at the window, that was my only way out. I rushed to it and climbed out into the balcony. I looked back, there were more holes. I looked down the balcony, it was a far jump but my feet would be hurt since I didn't have any shoes on. I climbed over hoping I would land safely. Thankfully, I did, but now, my feet are a bit tingly and they are stinging. I didn't care, though. I ran towards where Soubi's place is.
Before I knew it, I had bumped into someone.
"Sorry." I said, running again, then being held back. It was my fighter, Soubi. Tears rolled down as I hugged him. He was panting, he mut have ran as well. I put my head to his chest, his heart was pounding furiously.
"You must be tired, want a piggy-back ride back to my place?" he said.
"I'm not a kid anymore." I was 13 now, teenager now. He smiled but still turned his back facing me. He hunched over so I could climb onto him. He carried me back to his place.
From outside his pad, I could hear the Zeros fighting.
"Youji! Give that back, I was watching that!" Natsuo, the fighter, said.
"I have a friend over, hope you don't mind." he said as he opened the door. What I saw was to be expected. Natsuo was on top of Youji while Youji held his hand as far away from Natsuo. In his hand was the remote for the television. He walked in, I was still holding onto him.
"I'm back." he said. The Zero's looked at us.
"Ritsuka!" Natsuo hopped off of his sacrifice and Youji jumped up. Soubi put me down. Both of them tackled me down to the floor. I fell with a thump. Tears formed.
"Owie." I whimpered. They both looked frightened.
"Uhmm, sorry?" Natsuo said, trying to comfort me by patting my head. I smiled, a little one. "HE SMILED!" he grinned from ear to ear. I propped myself up, looking at Soubi trying to hold in his laughter.
"What you laughing about?" I glared at him.
"I'm not laughing." he said a little chuckle came out of him. I saw someone at the table, it was a girl. "This is my friend from school." he said.
She looked nice. Around Soubi's age. She had dark blue-ish and black hair it was mid length and layered. She had side bangs, she still had ears. Which were a dark greyish blue. Her tail was a bit on the fluffy side. She has brown mysterious eyes.
"I'm Shikei Konomura. You can call me Shikei, though, if you like." she smiled sweetly. That was a nice name.
"I'm Ritsuka Aoyagi." I said.
"Don't you have school in the morning." Youji said. "Why are you here?"
"Do you not want me here?" I said. He shook his head.
"I'm just wondering, you're never here on a school night." he said.
"Personal issues." I mumbled. I looked onto the table. There was wires, metal, chemicals all over. "Whats this?" I asked out of curiousity.
"I want to be an inventor, so i'm trying to make a transporter." Shikei-san said. Soubi was preparing dinner for me since everyone already ate. The Zero pair were still fighting over the remote.
"Isn't there already a transporter?" I asked again. She looked at me.
"Well, I haven't seen one with my very own eyes, so no, there isn't." She said. Wiring two wires together.
"Whats your reason to make a transporter?" I said. I sat on the chair, interested.
"I want to transport to another time in another dimension somewhere throughout the world. I'm interested in other dimensions throughout the galaxy." she said, wiring another color to another color. "This thing right here," she said pointing to a little glob of silver, "This is mercury. It will help the device work. Of course, I have aluminum batteries, too, just in case. And here," she passed me some protection goggles. "This is so nothing will get into your eyes." she smiled.
"I know what these are used for, we have these at school in our Science Lab." I said, putting them on. I heard fizzing from the stovetop. I looked, Soubi was probably making something healty for me to eat. He turned away from it, grabbing a pot from the cupboard and put water into it.
"Is there anything I could do?" I asked. I was interested in helping. She looked at me with a smile.
"You want to help?" she said. I nodded, "Okay, you can start by putting a coat on, some of these things could burn." she said pointing to the chemicals. I nodded, looking around for a coat. "You could use Soubi's for now, if its not a big deal for him." I looked at him with the cutest eyes ever. He smiled and pointed to the chair where his coat was. I grabbed it and put it on. "Okay, now, wire blue and red together." she said.
"How do I wire them?" I asked. She grabbed some sort of sciccors. Then she cut off a bit of the plastic that surrounded the wires, there was probably a little less than a centimetre of wire sticking out. She did that to the other wire.
"Just wind both of these together." She did the same to her wires. "Like this," Shikei put both of them together and twisted and winded them together. I followed her actions.
"I don't get that." Natsuo and Youji were behind me. I looekd back and ther confused and dumbfounded face. I looked back at the wires.
"Now you could attach them to here." She said, making an opening in the little black thingy. I put the wire into it. There were four of them. There was three in already. She must have been doing this before I came here.
"Ritsuka, dinners almost ready." he said, "You should go wash up."
"I don't wanna. I wanna help Shikei." I said. I watched her put the other wire into the slot. He chuckled. Putting my plate onto the counter top.
"It's right here if you still want it." he said walking into the living room. He snatched the remote off the Zeros, but they didn't pay no attention to it. They just groaned and went into their room.
"How long have you been working on it?" I asked.
"About three years. Failed many times with other devices, but I'm pretty sure this will work." she said. "I been working on this one for two months." I was amazed, she could keep at it for as long and she won't give up. "I won't give up until I transport somewhere." she smiled gleefully. She took the mercury and mixed it with something else.
"Whats that?" I asked again.
"Zinc." she said, carefully putting the syringe into the mercury tube. It didn't really make a difference. She put the tube into aluminum tin foil. It burn through. "Oh dear..." she said, hoping it didn't burn the wood. luckily it didn't. She grabbed an empty syringe and pulled the handle back, she made sure there wasn't anything left on the table. Arms wrapped around me.
"You look so cute, wearing my coat." Soubi said. Shikei looked at us, shocked. I reddened up a bit. She smiled to her self and went back to working on the device.
"Is there anything else?" I said. She looked around the table.
"Uhh, could you go into my bag and find some screws, nuts, and bolts?" she said. I nodded. "Its that bag right there." She pointed to a duffel bag. I opened it up, found a lot of things. "It should be in a ziplock back." she said. I looked around, finding neat thing.I searched, there were side pockets. I opened them up. I didn't find anything, so I opened the other side. I found a zip-lock bag full of screws. So I assumed this was the one. I zipped back all the zippers and went to the table. I passed her the zip-lock bag and she opened it. Soubi was sitting on the other side of Shikei. I yawned.
"You should eat before you go to bed, Ritsuka." Soubi said, smiling.
"I don't know where to sleep." I said, hoping he wouldn't say , 'you could sleep on my bed with me' but also secretly thinking he'd ask.
He smiled and went into another room.
"Hey!" I heard Youji whine. "We're still using that room!" he said pouting and crossed his arms.
"Well, you could sleep in the living room." he said, kicking them out of the room.
"Uhm, Soubi?" I said a bit uneasy. "Can't I sleep with you?" I asked innocently. He smiled.
"Are you sure? I could sleep on the floor if you want." he said.
"I want to sleep with you." I said again. "In the same bed." I mumbled. Shikei chuckled. I looked back. She looked at me.
"What are you two to eachother?" she said.
"Uhmm," I shuffled my feet, looking down and back at Soubi. He just watched me, it didn't look like he was going to say anything. "Uhh,,-"
"They're Loooooveeeeerrrrrrrrs~!" Youji sang out smiling.
"Shut up." I said, looking down. I felt an arm wrap around me. On both sides. The Zeros were holding me.
"He and Soubi has something very special." Natsuo said, smiling. Shikei looked at me.
"Aren't you too young to be dating?" she asked. I looked down.
"Are you almost done that thing?" I said, changing the subject.
"Just about. Should take a few more days, I have to put the wires in, get the battery zone, and then add chemicals to make it work. Should take less than a week." she said smiling.
A week passed by already. It was a Monday morning, I had school. I haven't been at home for awhile. Shikei-sensei has been staying at Soubi's. I knew so much about Science from her. It became my favourite subject in school.
"Ritsuka-kun~!" a tall breasted girl came up to me. I smiled as I greeted my friend.
"Hey, Yuiko." Her hair flowed. Her smile huge, showing her teeth. She was wearing a belly shirt, again. And a skirt.
"Yuiko-san!" Yayoi came up to greet Yuiko and I. "Hey Ritsuka." he panted giving me a smile.
"I tried calling you the other day, your mom said you weren't home. Where were you?" Yuiko said, a bit concerned.
"Oh, I was late, I was at Soubi's." I lied, not the part where I had been at Soubi's but I implied I went home just a bit later.
"Oh." She said looking down.
"Let's get to class before Shinonome-sensei writes us down as absent." I said running to the school building.
School went by fast, I couldn't wait to get to Soubi's. As expected, when I walked out, Soubi was standing at the gate smoking a cigarette.
"Soubi!" I yelled, "You aren't allowed to smoke around the building!" I said, grabbing the smoke from him and throwing it to the ground and stomping it out. "Some kids are irritated by it, even the teachers." I said. He smiled.
"So, your concerned about everyones health?" he said, crouching down to kiss me. "I missed you today. You never left my thoughts." there he goes again, with the sweet words that race into my brain and to my heart. I pushed him back.
"Quit it already." I said, looking down with a blush.
"Is that an order?" he smirked. I looked at him.
"Ritsuka-kun!" Yuiko ran towards me. "Hello, Soubi-san." she said smiling cheerful like her usual self.
"Hi, Yuiko, how was your day?" Soubi said, being his politely self.
"It was good. Hey, Ritsuka-kun," I looked to her, "Want to come over to my place? My parents are going out for the evening and I don't want to be alone." she said, a little of scaredness in her voice. "Soubi could come, too." she said again.
"If Ritsuka wants to, then okay." he said.
"Isn't Shikei-sensei supposed to be done her project today?" I asked, I wanted to see it.
"Actually, she hasn't finished it yet, but it will soon be done." he said smiling.
"Okay, lets go to Yuiko's then." I said, grabbing both of them by their arms and leading the way to Yuiko's place.
"Want to play a board game?" Yuiko offered. I said yes, Soubi joined in, too.
Half an hour into the game, my stomach growled. I blushed embarrassed.
"Are you hungry?" my fighter said. I nodded. "Is it okay if I make us something?" he asked Yuiko. She nodded with gleam in her eyes.
"Is Soubi gonna make something sweet?" she asked joyful. He nodded. "Okay!" she pumped her fist in the air. Soubi got up and went into the kitchen.
"We're continuing the game without you, Soubi!" I yelled. I rolled the dice, five dots appeared before my eyes. I moved five spaces ahead and Yuiko grabbed a card.
"You can move ahead the same amount of numbers you rolled if you answer this question: Who was the first man to walk on the moon?" Yuiko said. She didn't know this one. I thought about this hard and long. I knew Shinonome-sensei talked about it during astrology. Something about Armstrong? I don't know, it was something like that. Then it clicked into my head.
"Niel Armstrong!" I yelled, pointing at her. I smiled. She looked at the answers that were upside down from her view.
"You're right!" she said. It was an educational game. A few more questions, and I won. Yuiko looked a tad bit upset, but she almost made it.
Soubi came into the living room with some cake.
"Cake! Yay! Thanks Soubi!" Yuiko happily nommed on her cake.
"Thanks." I said, taking a spoonful.
When Yuiko's parents came home, they weren't surprised to see me and Soubi here.
"Hello Aoyagi-kun. Agatsuma-san." Yuiko's mom said. "You guys can go now if you'd like." She said in her motherly tone. It reminded me of my mom, which isn't so motherly.
"Ah yes, we'll be on our way." Soubi put on his coat and handed me mines. I put in on.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Ritsuka-kun!" Yuiko waved at us. I waved back. I walked out the front door and headed to the sidewalk, Soubi walking by my side.
When we got to Soubi's place, I could hear yelling and screaming. Soubi ran to the door and opened it. Inside, Youji was hitting things at Natsuo, but he just stood there. It didn't really hurt him.
"WHY WON'T YOU DIE!" Youji said grabbing the closest material and threw it at Natsuo.
"NOT THAT!" Shikei yelled, seeing her device being thrown at Natsuo. Something triggered the device, which made it work. Everything was now white, it felt as though we were falling.
"Natsuo!" Youji tried to get to him. Hugging him, tightly. "I jinxed it, please don't die!" he said.
Suddenly, we were somewhere. It didn't look like our place. We were in a huge room. We looked at each other.
"YOUJI! BAKA!" I yelled at him. He looked at me.
"It's not my fault." he said, shrugging.
"Of course its your fault! You were the one who threw that little thing at Natsuo!" I said. He looked at me, and back at Natsuo.
"Ritsuka, why not you take your anger out on me?" Soubi said, I looked at him.
"Ahh, there he goes being perverted again!" Natsuo and Youji said in unison.
I looked at Shikei, who was too absorbed into looking around. I looked around, too.
"Soubi, where are we?" I asked. Soubi looked around.
"I believe we are in a dining room." he said. We saw people at the dining room. "Excuse me, but might I ask where we are?" he said to a man dressed in a butlers uniform. He looked at all of us. I looked at the dining table, it looked like it has eight chairs on each side. At the end, I saw a little boy around my age, wearing a black eye patch. He was dressed funny, not like us.
I was getting scared, i felt my cat ears move down and my tail flopped. "Soubi, I wanna go home." I said, getting close to my fighter. The butler was looking at me funny. Well, all of us. He had a look of, shock.
"Nice place you got here." Natsuo said, looking around. It looked elegant. Fancy. Nothing like the houses back at home. I looked at the dining table once again, the little boy was looking at me. There were other people, too.
"Ahhh," a boy came up behind me. He patted my head. "Are these real?" he said patting my ears. I looked at him, a bit scared.
"Yeah." I said. He beamed, he was wearing a white shirt and beige shorts. He had fluffy blond hair. Another one came behind him, a chef. He whispered in his ear. Soubi held me, alert of these people. They all didn't have ears, even the little girl in pink. She had blond hair.
"Are they all adults?" Natsuo said to his partner.
"Well, they have no ears, so I guess they are." Youji shrugged.
"It worked." Shikei smiled. "It actually worked!" she laughed. I looked at her funny, but still encouraging her by laughing along. She started jumping, "IT WORKED! THANK YOU YOUJI!" she hugged Youji. She was jumping against him. She gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"Where are we?" Soubi said once again to the butler.
"You are in the Phantomhive estate." the butler said smirking at us nekos.
