Disclaimer: I do not own Blue Dragon or any of the characters used in the story (except one of course)
In a field of white flowers, a girl lay still. Her eyes were shut. A young adult slowly walked over to her and looked down. Her silver hair flowed in the wind. Her beautiful blue eyes looked down upon the girl on the ground.
"Rita," said the silver haired woman, "It's time for us to return." The girl opened her eyes. They were a very dark brown.
The sun shone down through the window. It was so bright. Shu just had to open his eyes. It's been one whole year since he saved the world...again. But this time, he didn't lose Blue Dragon. No one lost their Shadows. That was the best part. Shu had his best friend back.
Shu sniffed the air. It smelled a lot like bacon and eggs. He got up and got dressed. He wore a whole new outfit now. It consisted of denim shorts, a red t-shirt, and some leather shoes. He took his leather bag from off of the rack, and slipped it on. He ran to the kitchen to find his roommate, Bouquet, cooking breakfast.
"Good morning, sweetie!" she said happily. Shu smiled, trying to hide his gritting teeth. He was still annoyed that Bouquet would call him that. She still had those fantasies of them having babies together and all of that other gross stuff. And he hated it. But he didn't want to hurt Bouquet's fragile feelings.
"Morning, Bouquet, what'cha cooking?" Shu asked. Bouquet took the pan off of the stove and put the bacon and eggs on a plate.
"Your favorite! Bacon and eggs!" she said, smiling. Shu couldn't help but smile.
"Thanks, you're the best!" Shu said. Out of the corner of his eye, Shu could see that Bouquet was blushing and smiling like she always would when he said something like that to her.
"Oh, and don't forget, you'll be going to the school that Kluke teaches so that you can show the kids your Shadow," Bouquet reminded. Shu gulped.
"Um, I am?"
"Did you forget! No wonder you woke up so late! You should go now then, before you miss it. It would be embarrassing to come in late."
Shu hurriedly ate his food, then ran out the door as fast as he could. While he was running, he overheard a couple of women talking about him.
"I can't believe that today is the day. The day that Shu saved the world."
"Yeah, it's been exactly one year. You know, apparently, that same boy and some other children sealed some sort of darkness about three years ago."
"So are you saying that the boy saved the world twice?"
"Yeah, aren't we lucky to have kids like him in this world! Say, what happened to his other friends?"
"Well, his girlfriend…" Shu gritted his teeth, "...lives with him. She's his roommate"
"What about the other girl?"
"Oh, that would be Kluke, right?"
"Yeah, her!"
"She teaches at a school nearby. She teaches those kids who are poor and unfortunate. You know, the ones with no parents mostly."
"That's so sweet. Oh, and I heard about Jiro. Apparently he lives in a cabin in a nearby forest. He trains most of the time, but he visits every now and then."
"And isn't there also that little boy from the Devee Clan? What was his name...Marumaro, I think. Where has he gone off to?"
"He's back at his little village."
"Wow, you know, I never realized we knew so much about these kids."
Shu couldn't agree more. What were they, stalkers? How did they know so much about everyone? But he had no time to think about that now, he had to get to Kluke's school!
Shu had arrived at the school just in time. Of course he had to make a grand entrance and did some fancy moves. Kluke looked so embarrassed. He always did this kind of stupid stuff, thinking it would impress her. "Alright, kiddos, you ready to see something awesome?" Shu asked. Kluke couldn't help but smile. She sat next to Andropov, a boy who currently lives with her. He used to have many broken bones, but they have all healed up, and the former Independent Flying Squadron member could walk perfectly.
"Alright, we're ready!" Shu said loudly. He started to glow blue. His shadow started to form a dragon. Two seconds later, Blue Dragon emerged from Shu's shadow. "Tada!" Shu shouted. Blue dragon gave a thumbs up. Some of the children started to cry, others were marveling at the sight of a giant blue dragon.
"Hey kids!" Blue Dragon spoke in a menacing voice. The kids that were already crying started to cry more. Kluke gave a nervous smile to Shu, signaling that maybe this was a bad idea. But he knew that this was a brilliant idea.
"Don't worry, he's not gonna hurt you. He only hurts bad guys. He wouldn't dare touch a child!" He reassured
"Unless they really annoyed me!" Blue Dragon growled, eyes glowing menacingly red. Now all of the children were terrified.
"Blue Dragon!" Shu shouted. That's when Kluke started to think, maybe this really wasn't such a good idea. Her face flushed red. But not because she was embarrassed, but because she was mad…very mad.
"Shu, get out of my classroom!"
Meanwhile, atop of a mountain, not far from the city, two figures stood tall. One with long silver hair, and the other with shorter shoulder length hair. A brunette with brown eyes.
"Zola, are you sure they're here?" Rita asked. Zola just looked about the city with hopefulness in her eyes. She never answered the question with words, but her look was enough to answer Rita's question.
"Well, I'm excited to see everyone again!" Rita stated with sparkles in her eyes. Zola glanced over at her and smiled.
"I'm glad. I also cannot wait to see everyone once again. It's been a long time. A very long time."
And with that, they both started down the mountain trail.
Shu was walking back home, a frown stuck on his face. He couldn't believe that Blue Dragon would ruin his chances with Kluke. Again. Everytime Shu goes and does something to impress her, Blue Dragon has to go and do something to make her mad. He wondered how much Kluke hated him right now.
He opened the door to his house and fell atop of his couch, face first, eyes closed. He heard Bouquet's footsteps behind him. He didn't look up though, because last time that he did, she was in a towel, and Shu still wasn't ready for that kind of stuff, even though she does that kind of stuff all of the time.
"Bouquet, I'm not in a good-"
"Um, Shu. We have a visitor." Her voice shook a little.
Shu pushed himself off of the couch and crossed his arms with his eyes still closed. "Well, tell them to go away!"
"Well, Shu, it's nice to see you too." The voice was all too familiar. Slowly, Shu opened his eyes. There she was. Zola. Plain as day. She was wearing a brown button up shirt and khakis that were scrunched up at the bottom due to her brown hiking boots. On her right hip was a sword sheath. It looked a little different than her old one. It was a little wider, and straighter.
Tears started to stream down Shu's face, and he could see that Bouquet was having the same reaction. "It can't be…" Shu stuttered. Zola gave a warm smile. She walked over to Shu and she stood only an inch or two away from him. She wrapped her arms around him, giving him one of the best hugs that she could manage. Shu couldn't help but hug back.
"Zola!" he cried out. He just sat there and hugged Zola for as long as he could.
Zola sat down on the couch quietly, her hand in her lap. The whole room was quiet. Shu was sitting next to her, and Bouquet was leaning up against the wall in front of them. Nothing was said for a long time. That was until Shu asked, "How?"
Zola shifted her eyes towards Shu.
"How what?" was her reply.
"How are you here?"
"I've been wondering the same thing," Bouquet added.
Zola looked back at the floor. "I can't tell you."
Shu shot up from the couch. "Why not! You just come barging into my house and you can't even tell me why the hell you're here, or how you got here! You've got some nerve!" He started to cry again.
"Oh, honey, do you want to go take a bath with me?" Bouquet said. She had come over and started to hug her so called "fiance". She was still in her night gown, and Zola could see that Shu felt a little uncomfortable when she did so.
"No, I want answers. And not some stupid ones like 'Oh it's a secret', or 'Oh, it's best that you don't know'. Cut the crap Zola, just give me a real answer!"
Zola's hands balled into fists. "I don't know," she whispered. Shu untensed a bit.
"What?"
"I said I don't know." She said a little louder. Shu just stood there, jaw dropped. Bouquet was still holding on to him. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Bouquet let go of Shu.
"I'll get it!" She tried to say in a happy tone. It came out sounding sadder than it should. She walked over to the door and before she opened it, she tried to put on her best smile, and to be honest, Zola thought that she did pretty good, considering what just happened. She opened the door, and Rita was standing there with some groceries, and a few other stuff as well.
Rita smiled one big happy smile. "Bouquet, it's so great to see you again!" Bouquet looked puzzled.
"I'm sorry, do I know you?" she asked. Rita barged in. She set the groceries and other stuff down on the coffee table and smiled.
"Of course you do, don't you remember me?" Bouquet blinked a couple of times, thinking real hard.
"I'm sorry, I really don't remember meeting anyone like you. And I remember everyone that I meet."
Rita's smile started to fade, but she tried to fake one, trying not to look hurt. She turned to Shu. "What about you, Shu, do you remember me?" Shu shook his head, looking puzzled himself. Zola had to save Rita before she burst out into tears herself. She had expected them to remember her, at least a little. She stood up and walked over to her.
"Shu, Bouquet, this is Rita. She's a friend of mine."
"Zola, why don't they remember me?" Rita asked. She gripped onto her purple dress. She must've gotten it while shopping, which hurt Zola a little, because she had made a cute white dress for her all by herself. Sure, it was her first attempt at sewing a dress, but she thought it had looked nice. She even had put a little flower at the corner. But she had to admit, the new dress looked pretty good on her. It's base was a nice lavender color with a darker purple ribbon wrapped around her waist, like a belt. She was wearing black slip on shoes that looked comfy and easy to run in. She also fixed up her hair. For the most part it was straight. But at her neck, some of her hair curved a bit, as if it was trying to make a necklace. It didn't actually go all around her neck to make a necklace, but that would look weird anyway.
She smiled at Shu and Bouquet. Glancing at both, she noticed something. Shu was smitten. He took a good look at her, and he had instantly fell for her. Bouquet was jealous. She was red hot in the face.
"So, Rita was it? How are you today?" She said patting Rita on the back, and really hard too. Zola could see that Rita was a little hurt by it.
"I don't believe it. You really don't remember me." She stuck her hand into the neck of her dress and pulled out a necklace. It was a coppery color, and in the shape up a messed up circle. But not the whole circle. More like a third of a circle. Around the circle edge was many swirly designs. There was a word engraved in it. "Forever".
Something seemed to click in Bouquet's mind. She ran upstairs in a hurry, saying nothing. Only seconds later she came back down with a similar pendant. Hers fit on the top left of Rita's. Hers said "Best".
"Kluke has one too. Where did you get this?" Bouquet asked, baffled.
"I made them. All of them. I made sure to make them fit together uniquely, so that they'd always stand out from the rest." Bouquet put a hand to her mouth. She was shaking a little.
"Who are you?"
Shu had decided that the whole group needed to be here to hear the explanation of who Rita really was. So he had gone out to go get everyone. In the mean time, Bouquet was making dinner. It was pretty quiet the whole time Shu was gone. But once they all heard the door open, they all rushed over to it to see everyone with Shu. Including Jiro.
Rita smiled, and ran over to him to give him a big hug. "Jiro! I missed you the most! I'm so glad that you're here. You're smart and handsome, tell everyone who I am, please~!" Jiro looked startled and confused.
"I-I'm sorry, I don't think I know you," he answered.
"Not you too!" She whined, looking up at him. He had gotten a lot taller since the last time she saw him. And he had such big muscles! They were so noticeable, due to his dark green tank top. His lighter green pants were scrunched up at the bottom like Zola's, only he had tall leather boots. But as much as she wanted to drool over Jiro, she wanted to figure out why no one remember her.
She glanced over at Kluke, who looked just as confused as everyone else did. But she couldn't help but ask.
"Kluke? Do...do you remember me?" Kluke shook her head.
Rita's eyes started to well up. Bouquet went up next to Kluke and whispered something in her ear. Whatever it was, it surprised her. Kluke reached into the pocket of her blue outfit and pulled out a pendent, similar to the one that Bouquet and Rita had. The third and final piece. They all looked at their pendants, then they fit them together. They fit perfectly to make a perfect circle. "Best Friends Forever"
"I don't remember," Kluke said, her hand to her mouth. She looked at Rita, who was about ready to cry herself, "I don't remember who you are. I'm sorry."
Rita disconnected her pendent from the rest, and due to chain of reaction, the other two girls disconnected theirs as well. Rita was so confused. No one remembered her. There was only one left to ask.
"Where's Marumaro?" Rita asked. Everyone looked at each other, then looked around the room.
Shu, being the good best friend that he was, ran outside with a worried look on his face. "Marumaro!"
Whew! First Chapter COMPLETE! Hey everybody, how are you? I'm great, thanks! So I've had this idea for this story for a long long time. I absolutely love the anime Blue Dragon, but it's pretty obscure, and it makes me very very sad, because it's a great anime! I hope this first chapter will make you all want to watch it, because if not, there might be spoilers ahead! Reviews are always appreciated.
Thank-you
~OfferJoy
