The Cross
By: ShuRei c/o Kurogame
Kurogame: At last! You've finally posted up on !
ShuRei: Actually, this fic came from my previous account in …
S.A.: But at least you remembered to upload even one of your stories
ShuRei: Hey! It was hard for me to think of a new scene for a story y'know?!
S.A.: Hai hai, I accept your excuses…
ShuRei: pouts darn!!!
Kurogame: Anyway, what happened to that "Ron" guy or something?
ShuRei: Oh, I heard he's your friend now…
S.A.: Kuro, let's just stop talking 'bout him and go on with the story
Kurogame: Very much appreciated
Hiei: Now, she burst out
Ron: Better not do it again, Kuro-chan… it's very scary! brings out a shield
S.A.: Please!! Just leave me alone!
Ron: You can't make me; it's Shu-chan and Kuro's story, you hear?
S.A.: growling
Kuro: Right on!
Shurei:smirks But Ron, please stop calling me 'Shu-chan'? It really doesn't suit me…
Sanzo: Just go on with the fic…
Shurei: Alright already! By the way, this is just a story before my original one in which is "The Summer Classes" Please enjoy reading the rest of the fic
Kurogame: Don't forget: R&R!
Italicized words – speaking to themselves or thinking
Amillowave only refers to the penname of the group…. -
Chapter 1: Sakura
It was the entry of a bright and sunny start for the humans and demons living together in Earth. All was fine and peace reign throughout each passing day. But there was one thing brewing inside the well-known school, Shinagawa High, for in it, there were two bickering students. Both of them are doing their habitual process of pissing off each other each and every day of their lives.
"Give me back my lunch!" a voice belonging to a girl began to empower.
The guy sticks out his tongue, "Why would I give this precious and delicious-looking meal to someone who only shows brutality over and over again to me?" then he just quickly ran around the school yard, showing the girl an absolute goofy and irritating face. Then, she got mad.
She was walking steadily now, approaching the blue-haired boy, eyes twitching and a vein popping out of her head. From there, she released a sudden blow, which hit the young man's jaws. And there, she grabbed her lunch pack off his grubby hands.
"Itte!" was his shout after the shot.
The moderately innocent female was rather staring back, looking at him badly upset and left the guy but before she could do it, the boy held her wrist and prevented her escape.
"Y'know, you've quite become stronger. It seems that you've been serious in that old man's training." And he gave off a scarce yet rather sweet smile.
"Yeah, I think you're right" she responded.
"But things will get complicated if you try harder, Naoru" the lad mumbled those words.
"Huh?"
"Nothing!"
"Just repeat what you said, Ryu!"
"I said NOTHING!" He angrily shook. "You shouldn't take his lectures seriously" Ryu glared at her eyes and look down.
"Why is that so? Because you're not in a good relationship with your brother?" she placed her arms behind her and crossed her fingers while unleashing a sly appearance.
"Just please try to shut your trap even for a second'
Naoru's left eyebrow ahs now been raised to the upper level of her face, and she pouted.
Ryu gave off a heavy sigh and prospered a deafening silence between the two, leading a gap and thought about his memories of years ago, years before the present situation. All the while, in his coarse-textured hand rests his favorite pendant, which is shaped and had an engraved symbol of the cross, which he also took a swift turn to be able to see it and he gazed upon the entity of the sky, the same color as his own locks of hair of which he wore the same swollen appearance as he had met the one whom he had now as a dear friend and an arch rival… Naoru…
Flashback
It was only 3 years ago. Naoru didn't actually come in the Tetsuhiro's dojo just to strengthen her own power but to build up her own physical skills to be able to inherit their own fighting school. Naoru, on the other half possessed the skills of an intelligent entrepreneur, not a successor to the clan's dojo. But the spirit of wanting to obtain that thing grew stronger and it led her to do constant training at the other dojos. She spent her childhood days, training, without the presence of her family for they died in a terrible tragedy while the rest of the Akiyama clan was been murdered and the person who did it was never identified. Only a few people survived in that assassination and they were the ones who held responsibility of the fighting school. And that's the reason why she persuaded herself to keep on maintaining her duty. That's the time when Ryu's uncle became interested in her plot and raised Naoru like his own. But the time also came when that man passed away and his last word was to go to their main branch, which was currently being run over by the Testuhiros. And that is also the time when the two persons met.
It was actually the time of Spring when she first entered it…
She journeyed from Osaka right straight to Nagasaki, without anyone's accompany. From time to time, she earned basic skills of martial arts by challenging dojos and also doing some part-time jobs for her to make exceptional money for her trip. Because of this, she had dropped out greatly in her studies but this case didn't even bother her a bit, probably because her perseverance had kept her running straight into her formerly goal: To achieve the Akiyama dojo at all cost. After 4 grueling months, she was able to step just in front of her designation, because she didn't bother to think of what to say to the owner when Naoru arrived at that place…
"Hello! Anyone here?" the innocently cry from the lass floated throughout the fresh morning's silence.
Naoru was right in front of the abeyant-looking structure, with roofs varnished in the shade of sepia while next to it stands the majestic and strong sakura tree. The dew was breaking through some of its leaves and a gust of light wind sprayed through it. This created an invisible vacuum and shook off a few pink rustling particles to the roughly-colored ground. By looking at that scenery, it reminded her of the incident when she watched her family go on that tragedy; it was also the season of Spring and she also missed a whole lot of things in her guardian's company… Just then, walking steps sounded her ear. When she faced what's behind her, a boy with blue hair surrounded her view, carrying a grocery bag. He seemed calm but still facade a preserved raging soul because of his ominous red eyes that seems more like blood rather than a beautiful bloom of rose. As the time compresses, he gets closer in meeting the person at the entrance spot.
His eyes crossed the sapphire-like embalm eyes of the young lass. They first showed emotionless faces but after a few minutes had passed, they both showed a simple smile at the same time… And their late reactions were to laugh it off. But then, the guy tops it up with a common question, given to Naoru.
"May I ask of you what is your name and your purpose in going all the way here?" he stated.
"Uhm, My name is Akiyama, Akiyama Naoru. And I came here to meet the owner of this dojo."
"Oh, I see. He's not currently in this place. He just took off a vacation last week and he won't be coming back."
Her face lowered down in a bit of disappointment, "Then, I'll just come back here another time" She quickly turned a stance backward but before she can continue it, her wrist was held tight by the young man, "You don't have to return to where you came from"
"Eh?"
"You can just stay here, if you'd want"
Naoru's faces changed into a puzzled one, "Who the heck are you anyway, trying to invite me into the Tetsuhiro's residence?"
The fiery-eyed lad again scratched his head even harder and also laughingly said, "Because I AM a part of the Tetsuhiro clan. The name's Ryu; and I am also live in this place"
"Ryu!? You mean the master's only brother?"
"No. It's just brother-in-law." His face now turned emotionless.
"Even though it's like that, I'm very sorry for my extreme rudeness, Mr. Tetsuhiro-san!" she repeatedly bowed down her head nonstop, simply appearing like a total idiot, rather symbolizing the lost of her sanity.
"Oi! You shouldn't act like that!" the lad screamed with a sweatdrop.
"But you're to be respected. I heard that you're the only one to avail the throne of being the next successor of this dojo" she apparently added to her previous remark.
"Oh!"
"But I also heard that you failed almost up to twenty times in beating your master"
"He isn't my master, you hear?" Ryu's eyes were now half-open, appearing dim then he took a few steps nearing to the gate of the building, "If you only came here to make fun of me and keep blabbering about that idiot, then you're free to leave!!" he took several footsteps in reaching the midsection of the gate.
"Hey! I'm not 'blabbering' about him and will you please stop for a moment? You were the one who offered me a place to stay!" Naoru pulled his arms with full force, trying to prevent him from coming inside.
"Shut up and leave!" he turned away.
"I won't let you…" again, she repeated her previous action but… It only got worse.
…the sound of falling objects…
Naoru's brutal strength (Shurei: no offense, S.A.!!) made Ryu's hand lose his grasped onto the bag's handle and its contents scattered onto the lightly tanned ground and got the two surrounded by it.
They both showed an eccentric stance and released a sweatdrop.
Naoru, on the contrary, felt alarmed of how she was behaving in front of a stranger and hurriedly picked up the things that fell out of the plastic bag. Ryu, he too was also embarrassed on how he reacted towards his guests and felt guilty so he also scrambled his feet and collected his stuff back. They were continuously doing it until it only came up to one piece, which was a bottle of ketchup (Shurei: I have absolutely no idea why I came up with that example!). Naoru raged for it and so did Ryu. The fortunate news: they both had a hand on it The UNfortunate news: their heads both collided with each other.
While the two insane-like creatures tried to regain their normal consciousness, they both realized that the lad's hand was over the girl's and when he tried to face her, Naoru's eyes glowed with mystique, implanting the emotion onto the guy and their eyes had met at the same accurate time. Then they felt kinda insecure with themselves but didn't realize of their gestures occurring just now; they had a staring conversation. Both of them had a knack of a hastening heartbeat and their faces appeared emphasized, in a funny hue of beet red.
Just then, a pair of females walked by the dojo and from there, they'd witness the two teenagers' actuations. They began to whisper gossips to each other, regarding the PDA of the current crowd residing near the dojo gate.
Naoru, having seen those actions decided to tear off her eyes to the male and grabbed the bottle of ketchup in a jiffy. Then, she handed it to the disturbed buyer, her face looking down with a sign of tinted red still present onto her rather complex cheeks and her long beige hair locks falling downwards, meeting her bust point.
The guy also felt slightly flattered about what they are doing just now.
"You shouldn't have to be formal to me" he tried to joke her around, just to forget about that darn incident they had. He placed his right hand over the other edge of the container and shook his head off.
'Why am I acting like this? Am I hesitating to talk seriously to her?' this thought comprehend himself of what his behavior is going into.
He thought of one more time, 'But this is the perfect chance to befriend a female, a type of specie that I never tried to have friends with before', then he stopped there.
"Uhm, hey Ms. Akiyama, please proceed into our, I mean, my humbly house. Make yourself at home and take a rest" he suggested.
"But-", she tried to resist but it became useless. The young man pushed her along the way and they both entered the simple yet fascinating structure of Japanese culture.
"Ryu? Hellloooo?" the blue-eyed lass repeatedly waved her left hand in front of the male's face.
His eyeballs had maximized to its fullest and he realized that his mind was drifting into space again. Ryu dispersed those significant incidents that had happened in the past and stopped the constant waving of Naoru's long-length fingers in front of his vision. As he was about to remove it without even saying a word, the beige-haired girl leaned forward and tried to checked if the boy was feeling alright, rather himself. So she looked up into his blazing eyes to tell whether he was still in this world. And it turned out that they had the same thing that happened when they joke each other, they started a game of gazing into each other's pair of eyes but this time they end it with a simple and enchanting charm of the smile.
"I'm really glad that I met you, Naoru" he straightened his position.
Naoru held the Ryu's right fist with the one she used in giving him an uppercut and flashed the same glow of her eyes, and…
…sound of the school bell ringing…
"Oh well, I guess we have to go back to classes..." she giggled.
"You're right…" he responded.
The rustling sound of the leaves still sounded so clear in their minds and this made Naoru think of something in the present…
"My bento box!!!" three huge veins were popping right out of her head.
Ryu, still holding the lunch which belonged to Naoru, suddenly turned a few inches away from her and prepared his stance… To return back to class and escape from her terror.
And it continued to rain hundreds of cherry blossoms that grew out of nothingness and with the help of the gushing wind; it swayed to the sky as the relationship of the two friends grew closer…
Shurei: That's all I can think off
Ron: I say it's rather…Uhh…
Kurogame: Never mind the reaction, that's the readers' job
Sanzo: Why did this chapter end like that?
S.A.: It's kinda… Short!
Shurei: That's why there's an potion that let's you add more chapters, you lamebrain!
S.A.: Nani!?
Sanzo: hugs S.A. It's not worth it…
S.A.: stops from sabotaging Shurei
Ron: snickers and looks onto Kuro
Kurogame: It's nice to have your own keyboard!! smug
Hakkai: Minna-san…
Goku: It's time to eat!!
Gojyo: Kono baka saru!! spanks the gaki's head
Hakkai: Uhm, they meant 'please R&R'
Sanzo: -ch … what a liar…