Welcome to [K] A Toast to the Kings. A made-up story that follows the whereabouts of the 6th King based off of the [K] anime series by GoHand x Gora. The first part of the story begins on the day of the Ashinaka High School incident. There will be time skips in order to catch up to what is currently happening, but that won't be for a while. For now, you can enjoy delving into the daily lives of the Clan so it will be a slow start for this story. Enjoy~
K: Dance of Kolors
(Part 1 of A Toast to the Kings)
December 19th
"The typical medieval sword. You have the pommel, handle, quillion, ecusson, annelet, fuller, forte and foliable."
Fujisaki Subaru was explaining the anatomy of a sword to Wakaba Yuu and Iida Raeno, as they continue pasting on phototypesetting, carefully cutting out text and gluing them in speech bubbles. Eh? Is this guy serious? Raeno thought.
Iida Raeno was a tall young man with jagged light brown hair and hazel eyes who has been an Iridescent Clan member for a year now. Wakaba Yuu was a short but slender woman who had light ash blonde hair and dark amber eyes. She was also a Clan member of almost a year, making Raeno her senior and the two got along quite well.
Today was the deadline for Subaru to turn in the last twelve pages for his manga's weekly release, but he was a little behind and had five more pages to go. He was finishing up his featured page, which was an incredible drawing of his protagonist wielding an elaborate greatsword, while his assistants were cleaning and inking his other pages.
"The pommel is a counter weight and secures the hilt to the blade. The handle is the lower portion of the weapon, next, you have the quillion, which is used for parrying and binding up the opponents blade, ah, it is also known as the cross-guard!" He continues and Yuu looks up at him, frowning, and Raeno sighs, annoyed but continues pasting, letting the mangaka babble on.
The two editors were irritated that their artist had fallen behind schedule, since the printing company demanded his finished manuscript that day.
"The ecusson is the metal center, or bracket of the handle guard, and the annelet are small loops intended to protect a finger wrapped over the guard. Then, you have the fuller that gives the sword both strength and flexibility, following that is the forte which is the lower portion of the blade which has more control and strength and does most of the parrying. Last, the foible, which the the tip of the sword and is the weakest part of the blade, however, it has the most agility and speed-"
"SHUT UP AND FINISH YOUR WORK!" The entire room shouts at Subaru and he begins crying, quickly drawing and apologizing.
"Seriously, you need to focus, sensei." One of his assistant grumbles and Subaru fixates his glasses, quiet tears falling down his cheeks.
"It's too quiet. I had to." He answers, sobbing.
It was almost the holiday break for Spire Publishing, but with the printing and intermediate companies are closed and deadlines have been moved up...save for a few particular authors who were able to get their deadlines extended.
I'm ready to head home. Yuu thought, rubbing her eyes. Raeno can tell she was exhausted, everyone in the room was and he was surprised he hadn't cut himself with his x-acto knife yet.
A few hours had slowly passed and it was a quarter till six, the sky had turned a dark gray-blue color with a strip of yellow at the horizon.
"I'M FINISHED!"
Subaru lefts up his featured page in excitement, revealing to his editors of his final piece and they examine it.
"Yeah, it's great! Let's get this back to Spire." Raeno nods in approval.
"Good work everyone. Please stay safe over the holiday." Yuu adds as she cleans up shredded papers and snaps on plastic caps over the x-acto blades.
"Ahaha, I finished." Subaru sighs with relief, slumping in his seat, fatigued and his assistants cheer happily.
The editors rush out from Subaru's home after bidding farewell and checking over the manuscripts. They call for a taxi, heading back to Spire Publishing to meet with the printing company, preparing themselves for chaos.
"You can rest if you want, I'll wake you up when we get there." Raeno says to Yuu and she shakes her head, rubbing her hands together for warmth.
"No it's okay, I'm fine." She huffs and he shrugs his shoulder, thinking how stubborn she was.
The sky was cloudy and it looked like Tokyo Metropolis was going to expect snow. The two editors rushed the taxi driver to take the quickest route to Spire, who was already doing his best to steer clear of traffic, until they reach a red light and were stuck for a while.
Raeno was staring out the window, feeling sleepy from the heater in the taxi, until he hears a loud tap on the glass, startling him. He focuses in on the person, wiping down the glass even more and his eyes widen.
"Takahiro-san?!" He says loudly, rolling the window down quickly to greet the person.
"What?! Shizuka-san?!" Yuu shouts and shoves him aside to see Takahiro Shizuka, chairman of Iris Corporation, and a woman of high respect...after all, she was their King.
The Iridescent King.
Her light, shimmering periwinkle hair was loosely curled, well, the half that was long anyways. The left side of her hair was cut in short choppy layers, some strands hugging her cheek and neck, while the right part of her hair remained long, cut in a diagonal way, starting with shoulder blade length from the left and gradually becoming longer to the right, reaching her hip. Her jagged bangs were swooped to the right, partially hiding her rainy colored eyes.
She was wearing black leather gloves. A fashionable gray hooded coat made entirely of polar fleece. It had a lapel neck design for further warmth and around her waist was a small black and gold belt. She was also wearing white skinny jeans and brown high heel boots that reach under her knees. Latched onto the back of her heels were her trademark silver revolvers with a small golden charm at the grip. The two editors assumed she was hiding her other pair under her jacket, since she always had four with her. Speaking of which. Overall, the set of guns were named 'Anonymous', but individually, they were crowned the names Artist, Story, Editor and Author, befitting to a King who rules over the art and media culture.
"What are you up to at this time? It's really cold out." Yuu asks and Shizuka smiles, waving at the two.
"Just having dinner tonight." She answers as the taxi begins moving when the traffic lights turns green. "Happy holidays." She smiles, bidding farewell as they take off.
"Ah, you too, Shizuka-san! Hope to see you sometime!" Yuu shouts waving her arms and hanging halfway out the window. She sees Reno pulling her back into the taxi and gives a small chuckle before a large truck pulls up behind them and she couldn't see them anymore.
She turns away and continues to her destination down the crowded sidewalk. Christmas was in the air, wreaths hung on lamp posts, lights wrapped on trees and bushes and it seemed like the city had started to put out displays of over-sized ornaments and other decorations to fit the holiday feel.
Shizuka shouldn't keep her friend waiting, but she couldn't help looking around a bit, feeling nostalgic, before quickening her pace, heading towards Maison Blanche, a French and Japanese restaurant and bar located near the shores of Tokyo Metropolis, allowing customers to have a beautiful view of the ocean and beyond.
After a while, she finally made it, slipping through the dark entrance to be greeted by a hostess who recognized her without a question. The restaurant was bustling and very warm as they head over to an elevator. In a few minutes, they had reached the top floor, which was quieter, save for the soft sound of music playing in the background. There were tall glass windows in the room, to the left you can see the ocean and there was a large balcony where people could also eat at, but it was closed since it was winter; however, there was a table placed nearby the glass doors to the outside area and sitting there was Asahina Yayoi, who was waiting for Shizuka, looking through the menu trying to decide what to order.
She was a tall, twenty-seven year old woman with shoulder length, slightly curly brown hair that is swept to the side by a brown scrunchie, in a loose ponytail. Her eyes are brown with a slight reddish tint. She was wearing a black shirt under a navy blue blazer, matching dress pants and black heels.
She hears the sound of metal clicking on the floor and she recognizes that her friend had arrived.
"You're a bit late, you know? Luckily, I haven't ordered anything yet." She speaks, hearing Shizuka laugh.
"Ooh don't be like that, Yayoi-san!~" She says cheerfully as she sits down in front of her, taking off her coat and gloves and handing them to the hostess. Strapped around her lower waist were two handguns, which she unstrapped and placed in the chair next to her.
Yayoi was like an older sister to Shizuka and have been friends since they were in high school, meeting when Yayoi was a senior and Shizuka a freshman. After a few years, Yayoi was working with her aunt at the Tres Spades Hotel and Casino, and Shizuka had been chosen as the 6th King. She followed her into the world of art and media, becoming Shizuka's first Iridescent clansmen as well as the managing director of Iris Corporation, headquarters to the Iridescent Clan.
"You're lucky I'm a nice friend, so what took you so long?" Yayoi asks, watching Shizuka place a glass prism on the table, a habit of hers.
"Hmm...I saw Yuu-chan and Raeno-kun heading back to Spire and decided to say hello." She answers with a soft smile, rotating the prism, but grimaces when a rainbow spectrum didn't appear with the lighting being off and the sky cloudy. She gives up and then opens her menu to browse the dishes. "They looked exhausted."
"Well, we're hounding down authors who have deadlines this week after all and tomorrow is the last day until we close down everything too." Yayoi answers as the hostess returns with Shizuka's drink.
"Are you dropping authors who can't make it?" She asks.
"You know that answer already," Yayoi grumbles, but explains anyways, "As always it depends, so I have some people on standby just in case." Yayoi answers and Shizuka takes a slow sip of her water. "Other than that...things are going smooth for the company, so you don't have anything to worry about during the break, just don't forget about the party Ito Yukina invited us to. "
"Ah, that's right, what would I do without you?" Shizuka teases and Yayoi sighs, but gives a chuckle, realizing that her friend hasn't really changed. "Also, has everyone turned in their wish lists for Santa?"
Yayoi laughs, "It sounds very childish when you put it like that, but no, not everyone has turned in their name for your Secret Santa game. I left a list on your desk of people who are hesitant, but, knowing you, you may not remember some of them. So, to make it easier for you, I categorized the names in the company and departments they're assigned to, that way you don't go running around everywhere. I also put their cellphone number down as a reference."
"Haha, it'll be fine. I can always ask around, but good, good." Shizuka begins feeling excited. "But you should know, I like to meet up with people in person."
"Yes, I know. You like to see people's faces, I get it, but the number is there just in case." Yayoi says.
The hostess returns to ask if they had decided on anything to eat and they order. After she leaves with their menus in hand, Shizuka leans back in her chair, turning her head to look out the windows, eyeing the calm sea.
"So, I'm glad I haven't gotten any hospital calls from you...I'm guessing things have been going well when you're out of the office." Yayoi speaks, stirring the ice in her drink around with her straw. "Some of your clansmen think you're doing shady stuff, you know?"
"Well, they're not entirely wrong." Shizuka has a soft grin on her face again while Yayoi furrows her brows at her, feeling uncomfortable. "I'm just kidding." She finally says, nearly giving Yayoi a stroke, but was relieved to hear that.
"I hope you don't betray my trust in you, but...just don't do anything too dangerous. You'll put the company at risk." She says and Shizuka snorts.
"With you holding the base down, there isn't anything to worry about." She sneers with confidence and Yayoi sighs but she couldn't keep a straight face at the King and smirks.
The hostess returns, followed by a few other people carrying their food and other goods. One of them is the owner of the restaurant and was more than pleased to have Shizuka eat at his restaurant and the two exchange small talk while their dishes were served, along with other wares, like wine, that were on the house.
After they leave, Shizuka had just finished pouring red wine into Yayoi's glass, humming Fly Me to the Moon. It's shame she won't remember them if we come back here again. Just like the last time. She thought, raising hers to Shizuka after she finished pouring herself a drink. "A toast." She says.
"A toast," Shizuka repeats, raising hers and their glasses clink, "to the Kings."
