Book Jumper
Chapter 3: Cherry Blossom Winds
A groan escaped Marissa's lips as she stared at the scene in front of them. They were in a country she and Rachel recognized immediately.
"Outo!" Rachel cheered. "That means we're in the Tsubasa books!" Maia facepalmed.
Lizard bit her lip. "Um, guys?" She pointed ahead. "Who are they?"
Lined up on the streets were a bunch of maids giggling like schoolgirls. "Welcome to Outo Country!" they cheered in unison, spreading their arms dramatically toward the busy city with cherry blossoms flying. Marissa blinked.
"If you don't want to be suffocated by fangirls, please, start running." Too late. They had surrounded them and was ushering the four to a large building.
"This way, this way!" they exclaimed. Rachel started laughing.
"You're actually ENJOYING THIS!" Maia yelled, attempting to be heard over everything.
Rachel kept laughing. "We're in TSUBASA!" Marissa responded to her outbursts with a sigh.
"Geez Rachel, if I had known this was going to happen, then I wouldn't have brought the friggin book over."
"YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN!" Rachel was spinning as she went they entered the building, singing the tune to BLAZE. The lady at the front desk smiled peacefully and asked them straight out.
"What are your names?" She took out a clipboard with four application forms. Marissa started to reach for the papers, but Rachel beat her to at. She started writing furiously in the names section.
Once Maia looked over, the brunette sweatdropped and muttered to herself. "Are you really doing that?" she asked. Marissa glanced at the names.
"NO! NO! NO! NO!" she yelled. Rachel just cackled hysterically and ran around with the clipboard, escaping from her friend's wrath. Eventually Rachel managed to hand over the forms to the desk lady, finalizing the names. Marissa stopped and glared at Rachel. "I swear, I WILL fork you when we get back home." Lizard and Maia just looked at the two arguing girls with confusion written on their faces.
"Eh... Rachel, what DID you put on the forms?" Lizard interrupted.
Rachel smiled evilly and started to list their names. "Obviously none of us would know how to write in this country's language. So I just used Fai's idea here and drew out our names! Lizard, I drew a lizard for you. But they're most likely going to take it as Tokage." She pulled out the doodle of a gecko.
"Maia's Pisces Star, after that troll thing she's obsessed with..." She had drawn the constellation of Pisces.
"Marissa is Raindrop..." A single drop of rain.
"And I'm Phoenix!" She herself had a flaming bird.
While Maia jumped for joy yelling "Homestuck for the win!" and Elizabeth sighed, thankful that it was at least one of her aliases, Marissa grumbled. "Why Phoenix?" she couldn't help but ask.
The short ravenette folded her arms. "Online I go by GoldenMyth, so I decided to use a mythical creature. Dragon just sounds too manly." She returned the applications to the counter and let the attendant read over them.
She giggled. "You even filled out your jobs?"
Nodding, Rachel read the jobs out loud. "Pisces-chan and I are going to be oni hunters, and Raindrop-chan and Tokage-chan are going to deliver things to people." Lizard tilted her head.
"I think this will be fun," she said. Marissa nodded and cracked a smile.
"Yeah. We have GOT to go to Cat's Eye sometime." A collective agreement from all of them. Maia spoke up.
"First we need a place to stay."
Rachel thought for a second. "And Pisces-chan and I will need weapons for oni-hunting. Can Raindrop-chan and Tokage-chan get a place for us?"
"Sure." Marissa sighed. "Just don't go too crazy. With them." The group continued outside. They were still wearing their Code Geass clothes, so Tokage decided to call up Noelle to fix that.
"Hey, can we get new getups? I like these people's style."
In the Real world
Noelle scoffed. "You guys obsess over these things way too much," she said into the mic, only to hear Rachel screaming back at her.
"IT'S TSUBASA!" Noelle winced at the sound.
"Jeez! Shut up!" There was laughter in the background and Marissa talking.
"Just get the clothes."
Appearances:
Rachel: A white blouse with a blue jacket and a big red ribbon, a short blue skirt, a pair of white socks, and black shoes. She has a golden and icy blue hawk for an animal partner, like Yuzuriha and her dog.
Marissa: A purple dress similar to Souma's, except with red elbow-length sleeves, and a raindrop symbol on the back. Sandals, a red headband, and a black armband with a cherry blossom symbol.
Maia: Red T-shirt under a black shoulder cape with golden arm cuffs. A bright blue, green, and pink skirt, and brown tennis shoes. The cape has the mark Feferi uses in raspberry color.
Lizard: White knee dress with a large green ribbon at the waist, short sleeves, and a green squiggly line at the bottom. Gray sandals and an armband that matches Marissa's. Her hair is in a ponytail with a green ribbon.
In Outo Country
The four girls clothes transformed as if made by pixels. Marissa smirked.
"Alright. Now we're ready to go." They headed out of the administration building and into the virtual society.
A few hours later, Marissa and Elizabeth managed to find a decent house with three bedrooms, and a pull out couch/bed to sleep in. They all had their 'wallet's' and were ready to face the country of demons and flower petals.
Farther away in the streets, Rachel and Maia found a familiar sight. "Hey! It's Syaoran and Kurogane!" Maia said, grinning. Ahead of them they saw two of the protagonists of the series currently taking on the most embarrassing nicknames ever in existence.
Rachel put on a cat-like smirk as she pointed to a pair with a dog leaping down the greet the first two. "And Yuzuriha, Kusanagi, and Inuki the dog." The hawk perched on her shoulder ruffled his feathers contently. In her head Rachel decided to name him Halt.
The brunette turned to stare at her friend. "Wait. How do you know that?"
"X/1999! The most violent manga series ever!"
"...Right..."
"EEEVERRRR."
Maia threw her hands up in defeat. "Whatever! Let's go see them!" They started toward the growing band of hunters. Halt decided to fly by his master's side.
The first part of the conversation the pair heard was from girl Rachel labeled as Yuzuriha. "Oh! You're the ones who just became oni hunters!"
Surprised, Syaoran and Kurogane asked how they knew. That was when Maia joined in. "Word gets around about new oni hunters, straight down to the name!" She laughed when the other hunters jumped at her voice. "By the way, we're Pisces and Phoenix. Nice to meet you all!"
"We're oni hunters as well," Rachel interjected. Her hawk landed on her shoulder again and dug his claws into her skin lightly. "And this is my hawk. His name's Halt." Shaking her head on the sidelines, Maia kept her mouth shut. She didn't even want to know...
Kurogane twitched. He was clearly unhappy about the interruptions. "You said something about our names. What do you mean by that," he grumbled.
Suddenly, Rachel's expression became mischievous and knowing. It reminded Syaoran of the Dimension Witch Yuuko. "Really? You don't know your own name? How silly of you, Little Puppy and Big Puppy! It's almost as if someone chose the names for you without asking permission!"
Before she even finished her statement, Kurogane was off and running down the road. The others quickly followed without questioning anything. Maia and Rachel shrugged. Might as well head to Cat's Eye.
Marissa raised her fist and let it bang on the door. "Delivery!" she called loudly. It wasn't long before a grinning blond man came out to respond.
"Eh? We didn't order anything," he said thoughtfully. He was suspicious, but hid it well behind a cat-like smile.
Lizard adjusted the heavy box in her hands, replying, "We know that. The City Hall told us to get this tableware to Cat's Eye though. Can't have a cafe without dishes and stuff, ne?" The blonde man, laughed in response
"Of course!" He smiled happily and opened the door even wider. "Why don't you come in! I've never seen you around!"
Marissa shrugged. "We're new. Just got here earlier today. I'm Raindrop. This is Tokage," she introduced themselves. As she finished, a jade-eyed girl (only a little older than them) appeared from a little bit away. The girl smiled.
"Oh! You didn't tell me we had visitors," she softly exclaimed as she turned towards the jumpers.
Elizabeth grinned back. "Hello there! Nice to meet you." Her happy expression fell into one of confusion as the blonde giggled and started twirling through the room. "Um... what's wrong with him?" The jade-eyed girl glanced at him and back.
"He's very... interesting?" Marissa facepalmed. Then took in the cafe in it's whole. Noticing a wooden board with a half finished cat face on it, she went over to examine the sign. The young maid noticed and scratched the back of her head nervously. "Oh.. Um that's our sign. It's not finished though." The giggly guy gave a start.
"That's right! I need to finish that!" Quicker than possible, he ran over to the sign and started painting. Then he looked up. "I wonder if they've noticed yet..." Elizabeth tilted her head.
"Noticed what?" As if on cue, the door slammed open and a brown haired boy and a tall red eyed man entered.
The blonde looked up. "Welcome back!" The jade eyed girl echoed after him. The boy smiled nervously.
"We're back." But you could barely hear him over the raven-haired man.
"YOU! HOW DARE YOU GIVE ME THAT RIDICULOUS NAME!?" he yelled, drowning out every other noise. Marissa and Lizard flinched. They heard Noelle whisper.
"Did not realize it would be that loud." The two girls tried to stifle laughs. Luckily it wasn't noticed.
Eventually, the blonde mage managed to quiet Kurogane so he could explain. "The girl working in the City Hall said that we can use pseudonyms. But I don't know the language of this country. So I drew this!" Fai whipped up a picture of a big dog and a small dog. "The names become Big Puppy and Little Puppy!"