Hi, everyone X3
I've finally succeeded in finishing the second part of the Hunter-series! Yay! I'm actually very sorry that it took that long, but I just couldn't get to an end and so i ended writing 7 pages which is pretty long for someone like me. Well, I hope you'll like the second art as much as the first one. ^^
Ah, maybe it should be said that I still refuse to accept that neither Spitfire nor Yoshitsune dies . . . so, I just ignored these facts and mixed up the story line a bit. (I'm not a great fan of Ine, but i really like the Tool Toul To-girls X3)
HAVE FUN!
The Enemy's Strategy
Ine Makigami had never been a woman who would accept any kind of defeat that easily. She had always gotten the things she wanted and she never had had a problem with reaching out for them. But still . . . still, that girl had declined the noble offer of the Pledge Queen with a straight 'No'. Ine angrily bit her pencil. Damn. . .
Plan A was busted!
She bit harder . . .
"Makigami-sensei?"
. . . the pen broke under the force of the Ine's teeth.
She looked up with a grumpy look on her face and saw Kururu standing in the entry of the Pledge Queen's office.
"Yeah, what is it, Kururu?", she asked while clearing her throat and, trying to get the splinters of the pen out of her mouth.
"Uhm . . . sensei, Kimiko-chan fainted again", the young tuner of the Storm King explained her appearance.
Ine sighed and rubbed her eyes. "'kay, maybe she just should go home. The girl is the youngest member after all, her body isn't used to the pressure of the work by now."
Taking a deep breath and Ine stood up from the chair behind her desk.
"I'll take a look at her; please bring her here."
"Yeah", Kururu answered, she shortly nodded then turned around and headed towards wherever Kimiko had fainted.
Meanwhile Ine threw the pieces of the broken pen into the garbage can and collected the papers which were lying scattered all over the desk. There were sketches of 'How to get Yayoi Nakayama joining Tool Toul Too'-plans on the different papers and Ine had to admit that a few of them really were pretty stupid. She had to grin while looking at a certain sheet of paper before throwing it into the garbage.
"Well, I guess kidnapping won't be a solution", the Pledge Queen mumbled to herself.
After a while – Ine had cleared her desk – Kururu came back, helping a tiny, pale girl to stand. Her light-blue hair was put into a pony-tail.
"Hey, Kimiko-chan, how are you?"
The girl called Kimiko raised her view and Ine could see that her eyes were half-closed. She sighed while Kururu helped Kimiko to take place in the seat in front of Ine's desk. Kimiko kept pushing herself too far.
"Kimiko", Ine started with a calm but strict voice. "You know that your body isn't used to the pressure of the work as a tuner yet."
The girl swallowed and bit her lower lip. She avoided direct eye-contact, but after a while she finally looked up at Ine with a different expression in her eyes.
"I-I know, Ine-sensei, but I don't wanna disappoint the king whose tuner I'll become one day." Her voice was strong and every bit of the former weakness was completely gone. Ine couldn't help but smile and patting Kimiko's head. That girl really was something special; not only because of the fact that she was dreaming of becoming the Rumble King's tuner. Ine would have never expected that this perverted Yoshitsune would ever get a female fan.
"A-and working here with these very nice girls – it's so much fun that I lose track of time every day", Kimiko continued while the shining light of admiration started burning in her eyes. "They're so amazing and I'm learning so much that I would stay all day long ith them if it'd be possible."
"I'm glad that you enjoy it that much, my dear, but please give it a rest . . . just for today. Otherwise you'll just make the other girls worried."
Kimiko nodded in acceptance and carefully stood up. Kururu supported her by leaving the office and Ine leaned against her desk while looking at the seat where Kimiko had set just a moment ago.
That blue-haired girl had joined Tool Toul To just a month ago and she was the youngest member, too, but she developed great fighting spirit in spite of her weak physical form since then.
Ine felt a soft smile appearing on her lips.
"What a weird girl . . ."
It was that moment that an idea was born in her mind; she recalled the things Kimiko had said about working with the other Tool Toul To-members and suddenly the soft smile turned into a devilish grin.
"The new Flame King doesn't have tuner yet . . .", she mumbled while taking place behind her desk and grabbing another sheet of white paper. She found a new pencil in one of the drawers. "I won't give up, Fang King."
Plan B!
Yayoi enjoyed the nice weather lying on the grass next to the sports field where Kogarasumaru was training when Emily suddenly called her name.
"What's up?", she yawned and looked at her best friend who was standing on the running course and waving at her.
"We've run out of water!"
Yayoi raised her eyebrows in confusion.
"What the . . .", she mumbled , but then asked out loudly:
"I've just bought six bottles two hours ago, what happened to them?"
Instead of answering Emily just started grinning like hell and spotted with her finger at the place next to Yayoi. Yayoi turned her head sideways and stared at a pair of naked feet; she raised her view and discovered Agito standing beside her with dripping blue hair and a pretty pissed off look on his face – wait! Dripping hair?
Suddenly the tuner recognized that not even the Fang King's hair was dripping of water, his shirt seemed to be glued to his body and his face and arms were covered with little, shining water drops as well.
"Could you bring me a towel, too?", Agito asked with a dangerous calm voice.
Yayoi simply nodded because she had to fight back the laughter which was about to break out of her mouth.
"'kay . . .", Agito mentioned before turning around and slowly walking away from her and towards the sports field where Ikki, Kazu and Onigiri tried to hide themselves behind Buccha. The bigger one of the pig-brothers seemed to want being hidden by something as well as he saw the dripping Fang King approaching towards him.
"Guys, you have three seconds to tell me where you hid my ATs, otherwise I'll fuckin' toture you till you tell me where they are anyway", the blue-haired teen shouted and hold up his right hand with showing three fingers.
A giggle finally escaped Yayoi's lips as she stood up and headed towards the school-entrance to get some more water from the nearby supermarket. "These childish kids", she mumbled.
Five minutes after Yayoi had left a well-known voice entered the school ground.
"Hey, everyone! How is the training going?"
Agito slowly turned his head towards the source of the voice and he really hoped he'd be hallucinating, but Ikki's "Hey, Kururu!"-call crushed his hope. He sighed and turned around completely to face Ine Makigami who had somehow become his greatest enemy – or at least it felt that way.
"What kind of fucking business do you have here?", he growled at the Pledge Queen, but Ine was a woman who had stood up to many men in her life, so she wasn't affected by the Fang King's obviously aggressive mood.
"Hey there, Fang King . . . did you loose a bet or something –oh, or did Yayoi-chan threw you into a pool when you tried to kiss her?"
The girls of Tool Toul to giggled as a light-red blush appeared on Agito's cheeks when he realized that he was still dripping wet. It also didn't help the situation at all that Lind was laughing his ass off in the back of Agito's mind.
"No, but it's not your business anyway and you haven't answered my question yet."
Agito had to try hard staying calm, but he wouldn't loose to this snail-bitch because of such a childish matter as pride.
Come on . . .your pride has always been your weak point!, Lind mentioned with a wide grin on his face. Agito gritted his teeth.
"Well, the Flame King still has no tuner", Ine answered matter-of-fact.
"And no Regalia", Agito responded copying Ine's matter-of-fact-voice, but she immediately shot back:
"You're missing your Regalia as well . . . as it seems."
As Agito didn't say anything Ine just passed him and headed towards Kazu. The girls followed her and –
"Oh, why is Ine-san here?"
The Fang King snapped out of his angry daze and turned his head to look at his tuner. Yayoi was carrying a sixpack of water-bottles and an rolled-up towel. She recognized Agito's look and handed him over the towel. "Here you go", she mentioned smiling. Agito grabbed the towel and started to dry his hair.
"You haven't gotten your ATs back yet?", she asked when they started heading towards the grass next to the sportsfield where Yayoi had been lying before. They both sat down and Yayoi placed the water next to her feet; Ine hadn't recognized her return yet and somehow Agito felt glad about the fact that Yayoi didn't seem to feel the urge to welcome the Pledge Queen.
"No, I was just about to beat it out of these idiots when this bitch showed up."
"You really can't stand her, right?"
"Oh no, how'd you get that unrealistic idea?" An sarcastic tone entered Agito's voice which made Yayoi laugh. She held up her hands in a defensive gesture and mentioned:
"Okay, okay . . . but what really interests me is why she doesn't like you anymore – I mean back when you were in the hospital after the fight with Behemoth she was all over you?"
Agito slightly grimaced because he didn't like the memories of that stay in the hospital.
"Who knows . . ." He simply shrugged and started rubbing his face with the towel.
Ine suddenly recognized that Yayoi had come back from wherever she had been and now she was sitting next to Agito in the grass near the sports field.
Plan B gets started!
"Hi, Yayoi-chan!" She waved at the tuner with her most professional smile and slowly approached to the two teenagers although one of them obviously wanted to kill her.
"Hello, Ine-san. How are you doing?", Yayoi friendly answered.
"Oh, the business is going just fine lately . . ."
"So, why are you here today?"
"Well, the Flame King is still missing a tuner, right?"
"Ah, I see."
Yayoi smiled. Ine smiled back. The small-talk was over. Silence . . .
Agito grinned while hiding his face behind the towel and Ine gritted her teeth unremarkable while trying to think of a possibility to continue this conversation which was a crucial part of Plan B. The only one who had no clue what was going on behind the scenes was Yayoi herself, but she did clearly recognize the upcoming tension. And why was Agito grinning like that?
"So, the girls who you have brought with you are possible candidates for becoming Kazu's tuner?" Yayoi's voice did shake a bit, but she felt that if she continued talking to Ine the tension would somehow disappear. At least that was what she hoped would be happening.
"Ah, yeah, that's right . . . I've picked them after studying the data of Kazu's latest fights."
"That's . . . nice."
Yayoi had no idea what she should say, but her mind was screaming at her 'SAY SOMETHING!'; so she did.
"Uhm, but Kazu still doesn't have gotten the Regalia back from Sano, right?"
Ine didn't answer right away and Yayoi almost felt that scaring tension crawling up her spine again.
"Yeah, that's right . . . but as soon as he gets the Regalia back it's the most important matter that it gets tuned properly."
"Ah, I see . . . by appointing someone as his tuner now it'll make the first tuning a lot easier because they know each other already quite well."
"You got that right, Yayoi-chan." Ine felt a great relief because the conversation worked out just fine.
"I hope you've brought girls who can fight", Yayoi mentioned smirking. That comment made Ine's relief being exchanged by confusion.
"Fight? Why do they have to be able to fight? The king is the one on the battlefield and the tuner sup-"
"Nah, that's not what I meant", the Fang King's tuner shook her head still grinning. "Every girl who wants to become Kazu's tuner has to get past Emily."
Yayoi spotted at the place on the sports field where Kazu was surrounded by the said members of Tool Toul To. Emily was standing nearby and Kururu seemed to be having a hard time to held her back and to convince her not to kill the tuner-candidates.
A chuckle escaped Yayoi's lips. She drew her legs to her body and placed her chin on top of her knees.
"That's what I meant, Ine-san."
"I-I see."
Ine's voice was shaking which made a satisfied grin appear on Agitos lips. He had placed the towel on his head and had bended it a bit forward; this way the hanging towel covered his face and he didn't have to pretend drying his face anymore.
"But how are you doing, Yayoi? It's been about three weeks since you had visited the headquarter of Tool Toul To."
Yayoi swallowed and felt a sudden killing intent growing next to her where Agito was sitting. She was pretty sure that he was listening to every word of their conversation.
"Well, I'm doing fine, too. I scored high points in my latest exams."
"Oh, that's great to hear . . . did someone help you with your studies?"
"Y-yeah."
I guess it's not a good idea to tell her that it was actually Agito who had helped me, Yayoi thought and decided to keep that detail a secret. Well, it sounded like some old clichee, but to be honest Agito was quite smart. Okay with the competition of Ikki, Kazu and Onigiri I wasn't that difficult to be smarter than the rest of the team. In the beginning Yayoi had planned to study with Emily, but she had been totally distracted when Kazu had suddenly asked / begged her to help him. So . . . Agito had been kinda the last choice.
"That's nice", Ine mentioned and cut Yayoi out of her memories about the study-lessons and how she had had to explain her mother that there was nothing wrong with Agito's left eye and that he wasn't her boyfriend. Her mother still didn't believe her . . . in both topics.
"Ah, Yayoi-chan, would you come with me? I'd like to introduce you to the other girls."
Yayoi blinked a few times, but finally stood up and mentioned:
"Sure, why not."
When Yayoi stood up Agito had to fight down the urge to pull her back to the ground. He didn't want her to go with that damn snail, maybe she would kidnap her after all and he didn't even have his ATs to follow them –
Man, calm down . . . you're really freaking out just because of that girl? That's really interesting!
Great, now he had caught Lind's interest.
-Just shut up, Lind, it's none of your business, Agito mentioned nerved. But Lind wouldn't be Lind if he would give up just because his little brothers told him to do so . . . he was bored anyway and this seemed to be fun. Well, teasing Agito was always fun.
Come on, it's nothing you have to be ashamed of.
The oldest of the three personalities grinned amused.
-Damn it, what the heck is so damn difficult to understand about the fact 'it's none of your business'?
The words did cut through the dark mind and caused the bars of Lind's mental cage to vibrate. His grin only grew wider and became more furtive.
Well, let me out for ten minutes and I'll make it my business.
Lind felt the glare of his little brother and an amused chuckle escaped his lips while he calmly leaned against the bars of his cage with his shoulder. He really loved teasing Agito.
"You are the Fang King's tuner?"
Yayoi smiled kinda helpless at a girl with blond hair who was about the same age as her.
"Y-yeah, I am. My name is Nakayama Yayoi . . . nice to meet you."
The girl grabbed Yayoi's hand enthusiastically.
"Oh, my name is . . ." She mentioned a name which Yayoi didn't understand in the first place because that girl was talking really fast and of which she was pretty sure that she'll never be able to say it right. She looked at the excited girl with confusion.
"Well, nice to meet you . . . uhm?"
"Ah, don't worry, everyone says that I've got a difficult name; it's just fine if you call me Nana."
"Nice to meet you . . . Nana."
Nana seemed to be very happy and Yayoi got the feeling that she was mistaken for some kind of V.I.P..
"Are you getting along with the Fang King?", another girl with brown hair and blue eyes asked. Her voice was soft and friendly.
"Uhm, yeah . . . I guess you can say it that way."
"Wow, really? I mean there's the rumor that he's an absolute cruel and bossy person."
Well, that's not only a rumor . . . , Yayoi thought, but she decided not to tell these girls about Agito's caring attitude when it comes down to protecting Akito or something else. In the end he'll just blame her for spreading the rumor that the Fang King had become soft and friendly.
"I've gotten used to it."
"Wow, you're so amazing", Nana mentioned and Yayoi recognized that she was still holding her hand. This situation was weird and she finally got an idea what Agito was talking about every time he mentioned that he didn't like being surrounded by people.
Had these girls been ill the day she had visited the headquarter of Tool Toul To?
"Nana had had to stay at home because of a cold when you've visited us three weeks ago."
Ine suddenly appeared on Yayoi's side and smiled at Nana who nodded excited. Yayoi kept smiling helplessly because the girl really was a nice one and she didn't want to hurt her feelings by telling her to let go of her hand.
"Nana, don't you know that grabbing someone's hand too long is unfriendly?", a calm voice next to Yayoi mentioned. Nana did let go of her hand immediately.
"Ah, I'm so sorry, Yayoi-san! I'm just very excited to meet you in person."
"N-no problem . . . Nana."
Nana turned around and headed off towards Kazu again. Yayoi turned her head to see who had "saved" her. Next to her stood a girl who was a little bit shorter than herself with long black hair and dark eyes which didn't really have a clear focus.
The girl smiled at her.
"Hi, my name is Kana and I'm the Thunder King's tuner."
"I see, you are Nue's tuner. Nice to meet you."
Yayoi did put forth her hand and Kana grabbed it firmly, she also did let it go after a short moment.
"I have to apologize for Nana's behavior, but she really adores you for becoming the tuner of someone with such a . . . uhm, rather difficult personality." Kana smiled softly.
"I kinda had the idea it'd be this way", Yayoi laughed in response. "But being Nue's tuner isn't that much easier either, I guess."
The smile of the other tuner became sad and her gaze dropped down to the ground.
"Yeah, it somehow is . . . he's not the kind of person who accepts and trusts other people easily. He doesn't like the tuning even after a hard fight, but at least all I can do is trying to get the tuning done faster . . ."
"But I've heard you already are pretty fast."
"Compared to others that may be right, but it's still not good enough for him. Anyway, I won't give up trying and maybe one day he'll like me . . . I mean he's still pretty young for being a king." The sad look had vanished from the girl's face and Yayoi felt that she already liked that girl pretty much.
"But how about you, Yayoi-san?" Kana grinned slightly. "How is it going on with the Fang King?"
Yayoi grimaced and mentioned.
"Sometimes it's terrible, but at other times I'm really glad to be his tuner. You see . . . some days he just disappears without any note and shows up three days later when my nerves are already at their limit-"
"Oh I know what you mean because in the worst case I can't see Nue-san for weeks."
"Uh, that sounds bad . . ."
"Yeah, but working with the other girls makes the days going by faster."
Ine observed the conversation of the two tuners from the place were the other girls had gathered to talk to Kazu; Emily was standing next to the blonde boy and seemed trying to pierce every girl with her look, but at least she didn't try to beat them anymore.
Anyway . . . Ine didn't really pay attention on what was going on next to her. She just felt absolutely fine with seeing that Plan B had been put into action quite fine. Bringing Kna with her had been the greatest idea ever – so she thought – because Nue's tuner was that kind of person who everybody wants to hug at the first sight, well, except of Nue.
Kana would be the bond between Yayoi and Tool Toul To, Kururu would strengthen that bond because she was by Ikki's side as often as possible. This way Yayoi would be a member of Tool Toul To in no-time.
I'm so damn good, I can't believe it myself, the Pledge Queen thought while a satisfied smile appeared on her face.
Agito was watching the scene as well. He had removed his wet t-shirt and had laid it on the grass next to him to let get dried by the still brightly shining sun. The towel was still hanging down from his head and covering half of his face.
"Bitch", he muttered because he knew damn well why Ine had brought Kana along.
The blackhaired girl was a king's tuner as well and she could tell Yayoi all about how a king's tuner was treated as a member of Tool Toul To. They were special among the other girls and Ine paid extra attention on them.
Tch, first these freaking fangirls and now . . . mah, it just sucked like hell. But still, Yayoi had refused to join Ine's team after the first visit at their headquarter, right? Why the heck should she change her opinion now? He bit his lower lip as he turned his view a bit sideways to see Ine's reaction to the conversation of the two girls.
She was satisfied . . . of course she was satisfied, everything just went according to her plan-
PLAN?
Agito felt like something pretty hard had hit his head. Fuck, she had planned all this.
You really are damn slow.
"Shut up, Lind."
Oh look, now it seems like they're exchanging their call numbers.
"I said you gotta shut up your stinking mouth!"
Agito sighed after that emotional outburst because he already knew that it wouldn't show any effect on Lind. "I should have stayed in bed this morning", he simply mumbled, but he kept watching Yayoi who waved goodbye to Kana and started approaching towards him.
"Hey there, are you scared of a sunburn?"
Agito looked up as Yayoi had stopped in font of him and had lifted the towel as much as it was necessary for her to see his face.
"Something wrong with that?", he shot back.
Yayoi just smiled and shook her head.
"Not at all, but I guess your hair won't dry very fast this way." She grabbed the towel and took it away from him as she sat down next to him. Agito watched her closely and finally asked carefully:
"So . . . what did you discuss with these girls?"
"Uhm, nothing special."
The Fang King raised one eyebrow and his tuner sighed.
"I just gave Kana my call number . . . we decided to meet during summer vacation."
"Aha . . ."
Yayoi finally grinned because of Agito's still sceptic look and she mentioned with a teasing voice:
"Come on, are you still scared that I would leave you?"
He absolutely was, but . . .
"Of course not, you've already told me that you denied their request."
. . . he would never admit it.
"Well, if that's the case then let's get back to your real problem: Where are your ATs . . . and where's your t-shirt?"
"Oh, I've just remo-"
Agito had turned his head towards the other side where he had laid down his shirt on the grass. The thing was that there was no shirt anymore, just an empty piece of grass looking up at him and he almost got the feeling that it was laughing at him. His view flew over the sports field to identify a possible thief, but he couldn't find any evidence.
Silence. No ATs, no shirt and no idea where they could be.
"Someone's so definitely going to die today."
"'kay, this way I'll go talk to Kana a bit more . . . just call me when you're done with the murder."
"WHAT?"
Yayoi laughed out loud and that moment she was absolutely sure that becoming Agito's tuner had been the best decision she had ever made.
Meanwhile Ine recognized Kana who was approaching towards her.
"How did it go, Kana-chan?"
The said girl raised her view and smiled broadly at her leader. Hope began to grow in Ine's chest. Did Kana succeed and made Yayoi joining the team?
"Oh, it was a very nice talk. We decided to meet again during summer vacation; maybe she can help me to get along better with Nue-kun."
Ine's heart dropped immediately. She looked at Yayoi who had already taken a seat next to Agito again and now was laughing pretty hard.
The Pledge Queen sighed.
Plan B . . . busted – somehow!
Well, that's it for the second part and in spite of the fact that my hand hurts after writing that much i really enjoyed and hopefully you 've enjoyed reading it as well.
LEAVE A REVIEW! ^^
By the way, I have the feeling that the conflict in this oneShot is kinda missing, but i just like it more to let Agito and Yayoi tease each other . . . uhm, what do you think about it? ^^
Bye FreakyPumpkin