A/N: Hiya…this is me--obviously--with a Megaman fic…How I came up with it? I was just sitting in front of my computer one day being bored and then my mind started reeling with things to write. My former interest in Megaman came up, so I decided to stick with that. The actual story came to me quite easily…Chaud Blaze has always been one of my favorite characters, and I started to wonder about his past, since it seems he's had a hard past or something due to his solitude. Not too much of the plot will be revealed in this first chapter, but you will later on. I already have the next few chapters in my head already, quotes and characters and scenes and everything. I just have to write them down. That's the hard part. " Chaud has a more sentimental side to him in this fic. Beware (LOL). This is my first fic, please be kind…Constructive criticism will be taken kindly and with much gratitude, as well as praise and the like. Yeah, flames too, but nothing too harsh…I've only been writing a while, you know. Eh, but anyway…on with the story…
Disclaimer: If I owned Megaman along with its wonderfully awesome characters and the like, I would have sent all of you goodie bags. Seeing as you haven't gotten one, take a guess. (And those math problems aren't mine, either…)
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"Hey, Chaud, get up…"
Silence.
"Chaud? Hello!"
…slight snoring.
"Chaud! Chaud!"
"Hrmm…? Eh…leave me alone…"
"Chaud, you moron, get up! You're going to be late for school!"
Chaud Blaze groggily opened his eyes and stared at his bedroom ceiling. It was still beige and blank, like it always was. Sometimes he wished that something more interesting would happen in his life--sure, he liked Net-battling and all, but it was as if that was all that happened in his life at the moment. He closed his eyes again and pictured a big ocean in his head, with him surfing through the waves effortlessly.
"CHAUD! Are you even listening to me! You're gonna--"
"Shut up, ProtoMan, I can hear you perfectly well…"
ProtoMan, Chaud's NetNavi, sweatdropped inside Chaud's PET, while Chaud threw the covers off of himself and walked out of his bedroom, still thinking of surfing.
While Chaud was in the kitchen opening the refrigerator, ProtoMan muttered to himself, "Lately it's been like I could've lived with Lan and gotten the same results…"
If anyone had been standing outside of Chaud's home at the moment, they could have heard a refrigerator door slam very hard, and an ultra-loud scream of "I HEARD THAT!"
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"Stupid alarm clock…"
"Chaud, you don't have an alarm clock."
"Yeah, well, starting last week I've been waking up half an hour later than usual." Chaud kicked at a pebble on the sidewalk. He watched it skid smoothly across the pavement, but once it hit a crack, it took a sharp left and landed itself in the bushes.
"Don't blame me…I have to force myself to scream at you for that extra half an hour."
"…"
"Woah, hey--watch the light unless you want to get squashed!" ProtoMan warned him from inside his PET.
Chaud looked up. He had been lost in his thoughts the last few minutes and had unconsciously stepped into the pedestrian walk when the sign clearly said, "DO NOT WALK". Chaud took a step back before a bypassing truck could honk its horns out at him.
"And I haven't been paying attention to the walk signs. It's like my mind's been clouded or something, you know?" Chaud scratched his head.
"Well, now that you say it, actually…it might be true. The way I see it you've been procrastinating a lot on your homework--but then again you're always procrastinating one way or another."
"Eh, shut up, will you? Before I battle with Lan and tell him to delete you. Just don't talk for a few minutes; I'm almost at the school, already."
"Suit yourself. I'll be resting for the rest of the day, so don't talk to me, either." ProtoMan disappeared into the background of Chaud's PET.
Chaud didn't reply, but instead ran across the pedestrian walk while the sign still said "WALK". He took a short rest on the sidewalk curb before preparing to use the last of his energy from that morning (he hadn't eaten much breakfast; just half a bowl of cereal) for running all the way to DenTech Academy. Luckily for him, he made it just in time before the bell rang--and the wrath of the principal. He had been late once, earlier in the year, and the principal had screamed--or more like, yelled at, lectured, and death-glared at him for an hour and a half about being late. Chaud flinched as the scene came swimming back in his mind. He shook it away as he climbed the cold, gray steps of the school and pushed the door open to the third-floor hallway. Chaud walked to the end of the hall and then turned right, facing his classroom door. He took a breath and then turned the doorknob, pushing the door forward.
"Hey--hey!"
The door was locked. Chaud cursed silently and waited for a few moments to see if anyone had heard him. After about half a minute of standing there stupidly outside the classroom, he pounded his fist on the door two times and called, "Morning…is anyone here?"
"Hai, Chaud…you can stop banging my head now, you know…ow…"
Chaud looked down at where his fist was. It was, in fact, on the head of Maylu Sakurai, his fellow classmate and the best friend of Lan Hikari his human best friend, anyway, who he hated to the end of the world slight exaggeration there, but Chaud doesn't really see much in Lan from what I've seen. However the whole class was staring at the two now, including Lan who had veins popping out of his head. Chaud slowly lowered his fist and muttered, "Sorry…"
"I-It's okay…although that did kinda hurt…" Maylu was rubbing her forehead and grimacing at the pain. Chaud muttered another apology before quickly heading to his seat the back of the room. He watched as Maylu went back to her seat, still rubbing her head. Chaud felt a slight pang of guilt for a moment; however it was washed away when his teacher, Ms. Kihara, announced that they were going to have a pop math quiz.
Not surprisingly, groans were heard from every student with the exception of class nerd Yuuro Anzai. He was grinning broadly, his thick-framed glasses sparkling.
A fellow friend of Lan's, Yai Ayano, raised her hand and whined, "Why do we have to take another pop quiz!" The others around her muttered in agreement. The class had already taken 4 pop quizzes in the past 9 schooldays, and today's quiz would make 5.
Ms. Kihara huffed slightly. "It's nearing the end of the semester, my dear students, and you do have your tests coming up in a few weeks from now"--everyone flinched at this news--"so giving you pop quizzes every now and then will be good for your brain. Now stop muttering, everyone, and get your pencils and erasers ready!" Ms. Kihara clapped her hands together and picked up a large pile of papers from her desk.
"'Every now and then'?" Chaud repeated solemnly. He cursed under his breath as he pulled out two pencils and an eraser from his pencil case, twitching madly. Around him, people were doing the same--except Yuuro of course, who looked as though he were going to burst if he didn't get his paper soon.
"Now, now, everyone, that's enough talking…As usual, I will give a stack of papers to the people in the front row and they'll pass them back, face down. Do not turn your paper over as it will result in an automatic zero. Cheating and the like are strictly prohibited, so don't think you can get away with any acts. Now, the papers…"
Ms. Kihara passed the papers around, and the people in front passed them back. Chaud was in the very back of the room so his paper didn't come until the very end. He looked at the seat to his left, which was empty. He wondered if anyone was going to be filling in that seat anytime soon. However his thoughts were shaken away as Ms. Kihara's husky voice filled the room with anxiety with just one word:
"Begin."
Chaud closed his eyes for a brief moment, and then opened them again. He looked at the problems on his quiz paper and his mind immediately started to blank out. 'Pull yourself together, you idiot; you don't want another fail…' he thought. He focused his eyes on the first question and started to read.
"1. A farmer grows 252 kilograms of apples. He sells them to a grocer who divides them into 5 kilogram and 2 kilogram bags. If the grocer uses the same number of 5 kg bags as 2kg bags, then how many bags did he use in all?"
Chaud looked at his paper, trying to see if anything would pop out of it to give him a hint, any hint. He started to scribble on his paper furiously, and after a few minutes of thinking and writing and erasing came up with the grand answer of 72 bags. He had no idea how he got his answer, but shrugged it off and moved on.
The next 3 problems were much easier, and the following wasn't as hard as the first one. However, at question 18, he got stuck.
"18. You're on a high bridge one mile long. In fact you are 3/8 of the way across. If your life depends on it, you can sprint at 10 miles per hour (mph). Indeed your life depends on it, because you look behind you and see a train coming. If you run back to the beginning of the bridge you'll jump out of the way just in time - just as the train reaches the bridge. If you keep going across the bridge you'll reach the end of the bridge just in time, just as the train reaches the end of the bridge. How fast is the train going?"
Chaud sat in his chair with his mouth slightly open, and his mind reeling with numbers. He tried to find a way to solve it, or at least get a hint on how to, but even after minutes of hard work he couldn't come up with anything. He sat back and thought, 'Is this problem even at 7th grade level?' He tapped his pencil impatiently, and desperately, against his desk. After this question were just 2 more to solve, and then he'd be done! He flipped his paper over and started to calculate how far he'd have to go for each situation and where the train might be. He worked fast even out of his nervousness, although Ms. Kihara's proclamation of "15 more minutes!" made his heart beat even faster. At barely 10 minutes left, he wrote down a very hasty "40 mph" and then moved on to the last two questions.
'At least these aren't as hard as number 18…'
Chaud solved the last two problems with ease and then sat back and sighed. Even with only 5 minutes left of the period, many of the students were still working. To his great entertainment, Lan was stuck on 18, and he was clutching his head in agony. At 2 minutes' time Chaud still had his eyes on Lan who was writing as though his hand was on fire. However Lan finished his test with just 30 seconds left, and Chaud cursed silently in his head.
'Damn…I really thought the little shrimp wouldn't finish the test…that Maylu girl must be tutoring him…'
Ms. Kihara announced the test over, much to Chaud's relief--although to the great disappointment of many others. Most of them hadn't been able to figure out number 18, and had looked to the point of tears when Ms. Kihara declared, "This quiz is over!"
Yuuro, or Yuuro-baka as Chaud liked to call him, said grandly to the class, "I finished the test without any trouble at all! How about--"
"Yes, yes, Yuuro-kun, we all know very well of your capabilities." The class, for once, actually gave their teacher a smile of thanks for shutting Yuuro up. "Now will everyone please pass up their quiz papers to me?"
Chaud handed his quiz paper to the kid in front of him, a burly boy called Dex. He was another one in Lan's friend circle, although Dex was rather stupid in comparison to the rest of them. Chaud snickered lightly.
"Kihara-sama, may I please be excused?"
Maylu had her hand up in the air and was waving it slightly. Ms. Kihara stared at her for a moment before asking, "What for, Maylu, dear?"
"I need water, Kihara-sama."
Ms. Kihara raised an eyebrow at the redhead before proclaiming, "Alright, Maylu, you may go. Take someone with--"
Knock knock.
All eyes swiveled over to the door. Everyone forgot about Maylu's need of water for a moment. Ms. Kihara eyed Serra Hutchkins, a small girl with a mountain of golden hair who immediately stood up and made her way to the door. Despite stubbing her toe on Yai's desk she grabbed the brass doorknob anyway and pulled the door open (all hopping on one foot). The principal, Mr. Hayashi, came in, who looked as though he had something special to say to the class. The students immediately straightened up, and perked their eyes open.
"Well, good morning, class. You must be wondering what I am here for, aren't you?" A few heads nodded, and Ms. Kihara cocked her brow for the second time in a minute. "I'll just be talking to Kihara-san here, and then I'll be on my way. Don't worry, she'll explain everything soon enough." With that said, he motioned to Ms. Kihara, who dropped the quiz papers on her desk and followed Mr. Hayashi out into the hallway. As the door closed behind them, the whole class got tense and started talking.
"You think maybe we're getting something special from Mr. Hayashi?" Yai whispered loudly to Serra.
"Or maybe he's come to talk Kihara-senpai into giving us 5 worksheets of extremely hard math problems every day!" Yuuro exclaimed brightly how can anyone say anything like that brightly!. Everyone took some time to give him a good five seconds of death glaring before resuming their conversations.
"Y-You think m-maybe were in t-t-trouble or s-something?" Dex wringed his hands in nervousness.
"Nah…and if anyone was, it'd be just you," Maylu teased, smirking at him. Dex still looked nervous anyway, despite the laughter that echoed throughout the room.
"Hey!" Lan cried, gaining the attention of everyone in the room, even Chaud's. "I think that we might be getting a new student today!" Lan suddenly stood up and posed very weirdly for those of you watch Naruto, imagine the way Gai-sensei poses, but in a position not as awkward. Most of the students threw this idea away, but a few heads did nod in agreement to Lan's prediction. Chaud, however, was a bit torn. He sat in deep thought as everyone else chattered around him.
'I really do hate agreeing with Lan, but it does make the most sense out of all of their suggestions…I mean, I've been sitting here in the back of the room for about a month and a half, and it certainly wouldn't hurt if someone filled in the seat to my left. Hopefully if anyone does, though, it's someone new…I've never taken much liking to anyone else in this class…"
Chaud shook his head, washing those thoughts away. What was he, desperate for friends? He hadn't had any real friends since he was 6, when his best friend at that time moved away and he'd lost all contact with her when he moved to DenTech City not long after. His mother had died when he was 8, and his father was at home maybe twice a month after that tragedy. All of the time that he'd been at DenTech, he had told himself that he needed no one--which was why he had been very solitary all of those years. Sure, sometimes he went around with Lan and his friends, but Chaud couldn't really call them his friends. He'd always tried to recall who it was that had moved away, because he couldn't remember her face, or her voice--heck, even her name had left him. All he could remember of her was that she'd been about 8 months older than him--her birthday was on April 22nd, and his was the day before Christmas. Chaud sighed and sat in silence again. However this thinking was interrupted when the door opened once more, and the whole class straightened up.
Ms. Kihara entered the room, and it seemed that Lan's prediction had been correct after all because in came a girl with Ms. Kihara. Ms. Kihara started talking, and the class was actually as silent as an empty cemetery at midnight, which was highly unusual. Chaud looked around the room and saw that all eyes (except Ms. Kihara's) were resting on the new girl and that no one was really paying the slightest bit of attention to their teacher. Chaud then decided to look at the new girl as well, but once his eyes met hers, he couldn't look away. His mind was suddenly full of all of those shattered memories about his lost friend he had been trying to remember for so many years.
But his friend wasn't lost anymore, at least not in his eyes.
For there she was, right there, in front of the room.
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A/N: cough Not a very good chapter for a story start, is it? sigh Anyway, the name of the girl in Chaud's memories will be revealed next chapter, and her past connection will Chaud will also start to unravel in the upcoming chapters. Or at least I hope it goes that way. sniff You'll meet the rest of her family soon as well, maybe next chapter. LOL I had no idea this chapter would turn out so long. Irony is funny…
Anyway, on a totally different note, does anyone know whether Lan and Chaud are the same age? I know that in NT Warrior Lan, Maylu, Dex, Yai and Tory (and Shuuko too?) were 10, but Chaud's age was never revealed. Or, at least, I never found out. I always thought that he was at least a year older than Lan and his friends. Nyah…but anyway, whatever Chaud's age was, I made him the same age as the others. In this story they're around 12-13, and all of them are in the 7th grade if you haven't already picked up that fact earlier on. Also, since I don't know exactly where DenTech is situated in, let's just say for argument's sake that it's in Japan. This way they're also all in their first year of middle school. Yes, for those of who didn't know, middle school in Japan starts in 7th grade and last 3 years. High school is 3 years also, from 10th through 12th. You learn something new everyday, ne? ;
By the way, those extra characters are mine (meaning, in this chapter: Ms. Kihara, Mr. Hayashi, Serra Hutchkins and Yuuro Anzai)…since their roles in the story are really minor, however, you can take them. But please send me an e-mail or ask through a review or something. I don't want their names popping up in someone else's story without my permission or credit…although Yuuro-baka will probably be appearing in the story sometime in the future. X
And…as a last note, to avoid confusion, the next chapter rewinds to 6:30 that same morning, at the house of the new girl. I'll still be putting up a small notice though for those of you who don't read these notes. Stick around, those of you who are actually reading this. Hisaki-chan has tons planned for these upcoming chapters…