"Fight! Fight! Fight!" The crowd demanded blood. Her heart was pounding out of her chest. She was about to die. Never to see her mother, safe and lonely, back on Earth. Never to find out where her father and brother went, or even what happened to their pilot. She was going to be killed in a coliseum full of aliens that were craving her blood. All because she went searching for answers. Curiosity killed the cat, she chimed at herself.
"Your up!" One of the alien's robotic soldiers told her, calling her out of her mental ramble. She whimpered as the soldier held out the half sword, half battle axe for her.
"Let's go!" He pushed her up and out of the corridor the second she took hold of the weapon. The lights of the stadium blinded her as she stumbled into the arena.
When her vision cleared, what she saw standing in the middle of the arena puzzled her beyond belief. Wasn't she supposed to be facing the Champion? Standing in front of her was none other than the pilot of the Kerberos mission. Takashi Shirogane was standing in the rink with a robotic, prosthetic arm and yellow glowing eyes. Eyes that were looking at her with an intention that was unknown to her.
"You ready to fight, little birdie?" His voice called out to her. That was not fully the voice of her brother's best friend. This voice had a deep, dark undertone. One that matched the glowing eyes perfectly. They were both something that scared her. She was in disbelief that this man was Takashi. This man was more than capable of killing her in the blink of an eye and ready to do so at any moment.
For a split second his eyes went back to those of a normal person, white and full of shock, than instantly faded back into yellow as he sent her a sly grin.
"Let the fight begin!" The second the announcer started the match, she knew she was going to die. She knew that she, Katie Holt, was about to be killed for sport by Takashi Shirogane.
"Oh, well fuck. Um…..I'm gonna run now so, bye!" She took off running. There was no way in the universe she could beat someone like Takashi in combat. Sure she could run but that was basically it.
Ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump! She didn't know what was going to kill her first: an evil Takashi or a heart attack.
As she looked back to see where he had gone she realized just running wasn't going to help. He was already gaining on her. He was less then ten feet away. She took a sharp left, slid into a wall then took a right around a pillar. She then jumped behind a wall that was close to her.
"Oh come on little birdie, hiding isn't going to do you any good, and you know it!" He was playing with her! She opened her mouth to send him a sarcastic remark than thought better of it. It would have given away were she was hiding. She slapped her hand over her mouth and tried to think of a way out of here. Than it hit her. She didn't have to beat him, she only had to survive until the time limit ran out. She had a plan.
She was using her weapon as a mirror to peak around the corner. She saw Takashi looking around every pilar and wall that he came across. She started to doubt her plan. What if he saw through it? What if things didn't go as planned? What if she wasn't quick enough? What if- "Found you!" He was siting on his hind legs like a cat, hunched over, on the wall above her.
"Gah!" She shot backwards. Well that defiantly wasn't what she wanted to happen. She hoped that she would have at least another thirty seconds to find another place to hide. Just as she went to dash away he grabbed her long, filthy hair. She knew she need to cut it. It was down by her waist and it was constantly getting in the way. Without a second thought she spun and cut it with the alien weapon. Now it hung just below her shoulders. Takashi was left sitting on the wall with a handful of her hair. His eyes were wide and full of surprise. He hadn't expected her to cut her hair with ease. She's a strong girl, Kuro. She is Matt's little sister and the Commander's daughter. Shut up Shiro! You won't hurt her, I won't let you. When have you ever been able to stop me? … Right, never! So just sit back and enjoy the view. Takashi had been so absorbed by his thoughts he lost sight of her. He looked back down at his left hand, his real hand, to find that he was still holding on to her hair. He gave a wicked grin and shoved it into his pocket. He always took a memento from each battle or victim he had.
He bounded off the wall and broke into a run the second his feet hit the ground. This little birdie is fun! His laughter sent chills down Katie's spine. The second she cut her hair she took off running. She ran around as many walls and pillars as she could. The battleground was a maze. She had been analyzing the layout when Takashi jumped up on to the wall.
She might not be the most physical fighter being held captive but she was sure as hell one of the smartest ones. The arena was a circle and they had only been running (She was running and he was hunting but still) around maybe a third of the arena indicating that it was a lot bigger than she had originally calculated, but that gave her even more room to run and hide.
As she rounded the next wall she flattened herself against the wall and tried to steady her breathing. There was no way to calm her heart so she just listened to it. In a strange way it was relaxing. She had been tuning out the crowd since the beginning of the fight. Now that she wasn't so close to Takashi she aloud herself to breathe. The crowd was shouting and booing. They came here for blood and all they'd seen so far was running and hair cutting. My hair. She ran her fingers through it feeling all the knots and the end. It had always been so hard to run her hands through it before. She actually liked it now. To bad I'll probably be dead soon, I would have loved to show this to Mom. She had always told her that short hair was really easy to take care of.
"Come out, come out where ever you are!" He had taken a lot longer to call out then she though. Almost as if he had taken a break from trying to kill her. She knew that was to good to be true.
Katie gripped the handle of her weapon tighter. She didn't know how much longer she had to stall and she hopped that it would end soon. She really didn't want to have to fight with Takashi but if this battle lasted much longer he would surely find her again and she knew that she wouldn't get lucky twice.
Stop this! Please, I'm begging you, don't kill her! Shiro you must really care about this girl. You're never this talkative in a battle. Hmm…all right I'll think about NOT killing her, if you promise me something in return. Name it. I want more time in control outside of battles. What?! You are already in control of me when anything violent comes up and I know you have been taking control when I sleep. Well if that's how it is then I guess this little birdie is going on our list of sins. NO! You…you can have more control out of battles, okay? Just don't kill her. Hehe, Shiro you have got yourself a deal.
"Hey little birdie? I've got something to tell you. I'm not going to kill you. Probably just hurt you a bit, but that's it." Is that supposed to make me feel better?
She knew she couldn't trust him but something defiantly different. Maybe it was the he sounded. It was almost like the real Takashi Shirogane's voice. Nothing was menacing about it. she took a chance and took a peak at him. He was just standing there. He even put his weapon down.
"How do I know I can trust you? I mean you were trying to kill me, like a minute ago?" She hated being wrong and she couldn't make a wild guess even if her life was at stake. That was just how she was. Yet that's what I just did.
"Don't worry, little birdie, I made an arrangement, of sorts, with Shiro. I keep my promises, so to speak. I swear you will make it out of this arena alive." With the way he was implying this, Katie didn't know what to think. But that wasn't really what was on her mind.
"Who is Shiro? I mean, I know you are Takashi, right? So did I miss something?" She was completely lost. The way he was talking made it sound like he was saying that he talked to another, actual person.
"Don't worry, sweetie, you'll find out in good time. I have a feeling that we will be seeing a lot more of each other." Right as he started to talk to her, he was already stalking up to her. All sense of reason seemed to leave her there. She didn't move. She didn't make a motion to stop him from getting any closer. She just let him come right up to her. He was three feet away when he took a swing at her. But it was only his hand, for he had dropped his weapon when he started to 'reason' with her. She raised her forearm to protect herself, completely forgetting that in her other hand was a weapon. Then all she saw was darkness.
"-ey! Hey are you alright?!" She could make out what someone was saying but shouldn't quite tell who it was. Her head was ringing. What happened? Where was she? The last thing she remembered was that she fighting Takashi in an arena.
"Oh shit, Takashi!" Katie shot straight up. She remembered was that Takashi had struck her. On instinct she brought her hand to her face to hold her cheek. It was still puffy and hurting but was obvious it had been some time since she was struck. Wait if her cheek was this swollen then it most have been hours since it happened.
"Y-yeah?" Came a very unsure voice. Katie looked over to where the voice came from. It was Takashi.
"GAH!" She screamed as she jumped away from him. What was he doing here? Wait, where is here? She looked around as to where they where. She was sitting on a cot in a prison cell. He was kneeling beside the cot, looking worriedly at her. She looked back at him. He was looking at her with those beautiful dark gray eyes of his. Wait dark gray? Without a second thought she reached out to move his tuff of white hair to get a better look at his eyes. They aren't yellow any more! "Your eyes." She breathed out.
From the moment she reached up to touch his hair, he just froze. To scared to make the wrong move and scare her. Call him selfish but he wanted her to like him. No one would talk to him, let alone get close enough to touch him. Not after Kuro pulled that last stunt. He ended up killing someone just waiting to get into the arena. Not to mention she was his best friend's little sister and his commander's daughter. So he just sat there as she played with his hair and examined his eyes. She had this gleam in her eyes that were telling him that she was trying to figure out something.
By now his face was pink to his ears. But yet he just sat there, waiting till she either said something or jumped away from him once again. When she spoke of his eyes it seemed that she finally realized what she was doing.
"S-sorry!" She squeaked and held her hands up in a surrender motion. He blinked a coupe of times as his hair fell back on to his face. He looked at her in an owl like way. Eyes wide and full of something that she couldn't quite figure out.
"It's fine." He shot her a sweet and sincere smile that made her heart clench in a painful way. Is this really the same man that I was fighting against mere hours ago? No that's not possible, this is the real Takashi Shirogane. So then who was trying to kill me then?
"Are you okay, Katie?" He was really concerned about if she was okay or not, because if she wasn't, it would be Kuro's,and unintentionally, his fault as well.
"Yeah. I'm as good as a prisoner of an alien race gets." Her voice was laced with sarcasm. She sighed out and let her shoulders drop. Is she mad at me? Or Kuro? She doesn't look like she is in any pain. He was looking at her with real concern. Why is he looking at me like that? OH! Shit!
"No, no, no! I'm good! Um, sorry, sarcasm is kind of my go to when I don't know what to say." She had a sprinkle of pink on her cheeks. She then gave him a goofy, awkward grin. That simple action made Shiro feel as if his heart was about to jump right out of his chest.
"So, um, Takashi what happened?" She really hated not knowing what was going on. Then another question dawned on her. I wonder how he has been holding up? I mean he has been held prisoner for over two years.
"Well, um, that's a funny story…." He coughed into his fist and flushed another shade of red. When he looked up at her, she was just starring at him with a puzzled look.
"If you want to know I'll tell you but I have to know what the last thing you remember is?" He seriously hoped she didn't remember that he nocked her upside the head.
"Um well the last thing, I think, is when you hit me." Well that plan just went out the window. How do I explain that?
"But" She continued. He looked back at her hopping that he wasn't about to be labeled as Monster in her book. "I think I know why you did hit me. You were trying to save my life, right? I mean at one point you did say you weren't going to kill me." Kuro actually said that? Yes I did! You should be thanking me Shiro, I had to do a lot of explaining to keep her alive. The fact that Kuro had just spoken to him had seriously surprised Shiro. Kuro usually didn't talk to him, like well, a person. It was usually right before something bad happened.