Welcome to another chapter!

I would like to thank MoonliteSonatina and lunatarimoon for faving and alerting the remake, I remember you guys from 'Fear of Fire'. Hopefully, you will enjoy this chapter :)

Song I was listening to: Sakasama no Chou - SNoW

So, what do you guys think about Suzuka so far? I think that she's a bit of a bore :P We can't all be perfect, right?

Trick 2: Seven Samurai

Suzuka frowned. "Sora-niichan, stop buying cup Ramen!" Her yell rang throughout the apartment. It was early in the morning, as usual, when she normally went to skating practice. Before leaving the apartment, though, she always prepared some food for the day, for the both of them. The petite skater knew that she wasn't a bad cook. She wasn't amazing, but her food was tasty. So, why in the world did the annoying man keep buying instant Ramen like some college student?

"Suzu?" The sleepy voice came from Sora's door, as he finally showed his face. He was in his chair, as always, hair messy and still in his sleepwear.

"I left dinner ready yesterday! Why did you buy cup Ramen?" Suzuka advanced on the older man, seething. She got up so early every day, just so she could make sure that he had proper food, and he didn't even care to eat it.

"Eh?" Sora looked confused, yawning. "Cup Ramen?"

"Don't act dumb!" Suzuka yelled, picking up the garbage bag from the floor and opening it, to show the numerous empty disposable cups.

"Ara! I've been caught!" Sora lowered his head, his bangs overshadowing his eyes, hiding his next intention from the teenager in front of him. "I guess I'll…" He murmured, Suzuka's eyes narrowing at the words, expecting an apology. But, this was Sora Takeuchi. He didn't do apologies. "Run away!"

There was no time to react. She had learned of her adoptive brother's moves a long time ago, yet Suzuka had always been powerless against him. The movement of his fingers against the wheels of his chair was perfect, precise and impossibly fast. In an instant, he was gone from his previous position in front of her, now screeching to a halt on her left as he pushed the wheelchair beneath him on only one tire.

"Sor-aaaaah!" His name, a hope to stop the mischievous man, ended in a scream as Suzuka's uniform skirt flew up.

"Kamikaze technique: Takeuchi Sora Version 2!" He yelled out, laughing as Suzuka attempted to smooth her skirt down and hide her underwear. "Tha' won't do, Suzu! Ya can't just let any man look at yer cute, frilly panties!"

Suzuka managed to compose herself, seething as her skirt finally obeyed her. "I don't let anyone look at my underwear!" Her leg shot out towards her adoptive brother at the end of her sentence, showing her clear skill in both AT and skating. "And they're not frilly!" But, Sora danced out of her reach, moving like a leaf on the wind that she was creating. "Sora-niichan!" The petite skater yelled out, chasing him. "Repent!"

"Never!" He ran off into his room, the forbidden territory, and shut the door in Suzuka's face, causing even more rage to fill her. She slammed her open palm on the surface with her momentum, the sound ringing out loudly throughout the apartment.

"And eat your lunch!"

Suzuka glided down the empty street, enjoying the peace and quiet. Her long hair was whipping behind her, as she had put it in her usual hairstyle: two buns with loose ends. It was very comfortable, as it both showed her locks, that she was very proud of, and was easy to keep tidy, as it didn't allow for a lot of tangling. Sora always joked how she just needed a fancy brooch to fake transformation, and she could be Sailor Moon, which Suzuka resented.

Her adoptive brother was most likely the only person who could push her buttons so perfectly. Heck, not even her real brother had been able to do that. Daichi had been more of an overly protective, sister-complex person, while Sora was a little prankster kid in essence. The former would've forced her to wear tights under her skirt, while the latter had simply blown it upwards, just to show her a weakness.

But, in the end, she loved Sora. No matter how mischievous he was, and how immature he acted, Suzuka knew he cared. After their usual banter that morning, while she had been preparing her bag of essentials (not really, more like everything she owned concerning sports), Sora had gotten ready for the day and left before her.

"Oops!" The petite skater instantly switched the weight to her right leg, leaning to the same side to avoid a collision with an unexpected car. She pressed the cold compress to her palm a little better, which allowed her to glance at her phone and tell the time. She was late. "Let's go." Suzuka mumbled, lowering her hips and vanishing from her previous spot on the street, her speed completely blowing through the D-class level.

She knew that Sora cared. It was very obvious. After all, he had even left the cold compress for her hand on the table.

Suzuka walked into her classroom, heading to her designated seat. She placed her bag carefully on the small hook on the side and plopped down into her chair, exhausted. Her legs hurt. Her arms hurt. Her neck was stiff from holding it too still during her jumps. She just wanted to crawl into her bed and sleep in the soft warmth for a while. But, she had class first.

The girl glanced at the digital clock above the door, noting the time. She was early. Too early. "Nothing I can do about it now." She raised her hips a bit, so that she could fish her phone out of her pocket and opened it, putting in her password.

In an almost automatic sequence of movements, her fingers typed out the necessary things to bring her to the Parts War Forum. It was a very familiar site to her, one that she opened on a daily basis. The black background, featuring thousands of different AT parts hidden in the dark design and the white letters with various blue and green hyperlink inserts. It was like home. She navigated through the site with complete ease, searching for the lists of upcoming battles.

"Nothing interesting which is close enough to watch." Suzuka remarked with a disappointed sigh. She logged in, typing her name and code into the necessary fields. After that, the little bio and inbox buttons appeared in the mobile version of the site's menu, and she went to check her messages.

Since she was a solo rider of a fairly strong class, she sometimes got challenged to a match. But, that wasn't the only thing that the Parts War Forum inbox was for. She remembered when she had only just started her AT career. She had sent to many messages to different players, asking them about their preferred riding style, Parts brands or tricks. Of course, not all of them had answered, but some did.

Suzuka had once had a chance to glance at her senpai's account. He had his bio all properly arranged, his messages separated into groups by genre of the question, class of the sender etc. He even had a themed background which his whole team used, along with a theme song. Suzuka thought that it was pretty neat, but she had never taken the time to do that herself.

Her account was plain, generic, with a picture that was taken during one of her matches by another rider. Hell, she hadn't even put it there herself, the anonymous rider had sent it to her, along with a suggestion to use it. Suzuka's inbox was a messy thing, just like the other aspects of her life. This caused her to need more time to check her new messages, as she needed to sift through all the notifications at once.

There were a couple of messages from her senpai, as usual. He was sending her links to different interesting riders or to fights which he thought that she should watch. She opened the first of the long line of matches, linking her straight to the video. Suzuka quickly took out and plugged in her earphones, allowing her to watch the B-class battle in her own little bubble.

Outside of her world, the classroom slowly filled with her classmates. They greeted each other, sitting in groups, chatting. However, Suzuka remained focused on the video. From time to time, she would mumble something like 'messy landing' or 'faster push off', but, she didn't leave her bubble to talk to anyone.

She had never been good at making friends. Ice-skating had built her harsh, always in a defensive mode, and that had severely damaged her social skills. Besides, after spending almost every waking moment practicing the difficult sport, she really didn't have time to make any friends. Suzuka addressed an occasional classmate, but, she didn't otherwise talk to others unless necessary. She preferred to be left alone, to her phone with the cute ghost strap, checking her mail or the Parts Wars Forum repeatedly.

Suzuka didn't mind the silence. She didn't care if she was alone or with others. After all, the only thing that she had heard from her 'friends' at the rink was 'fall' or 'saint'. Of course, she did neither. Those hopes that she would fall during her routine were the highest form of compliments, after all. It mean that if she didn't fall, they couldn't win. Saint. Now, that was another matter entirely. If her good manners made her a laughing stock, than, that was just a mirror, reflecting the girls' from the rink and their own behavior.

She didn't care. Or, at least she didn't show that she did.

Ringo Noyamano sat in her class, clicking her mechanical pencil repeatedly. Once the lead would come all the way out, she would push it against the table, putting it back inside, only to repeat the process. From the small, but very black, dot on the wooden desk, one could tell that the teenager had been doing that for some time now. She glanced away from the board, turning her eyes on the back of her crush's head.

Ikki needed a team.

She still thanked God that he had forsaken the stupid, self-destructive idea of joining Simca's team. But, now that he was determined to make his own, it was maybe even more trouble. She knew that her being in Sleeping Forest, at the very top of the Trophaeum Tower meant that, surely, she would face Ikki in a battle one day. But, Ringo hoped that rather than the fight being as enemies, it would be a friendly test of skills, both hers and his. However, Ikki had a long way to go before he was ready to even look at the current Sleeping Forest.

Her eyes finally leaving Ikki's back, Ringo focused again on the blackboard. There was a whole bunch of mathematical equations on it, which hadn't been there the last time she had looked. The girl placed her mechanical pencil at the top of her page, preparing to write, but then she pulled it back away and kept clicking on the top, pushing the lead out. Her concentration was gone. Before even thinking about the Trophaeum Tower, the Crow had to do something else.

Ikki needed a team.

If she was being honest, she would've probably joined his 'gang' if she weren't in Sleeping Forest already. But, that was only a 'what if' situation. Remembering the numerous fights between Ikki, Kazu and Onigiri about the team name, Ringo almost face palmed. If she were being honest, at the rate he was going, she sometimes wondered whether he was ever going to form a team.

The bell rang and Ringo closed her notebook, without a single word written, and tossed both that and her mechanical pencil into her bag. Remembering Ume's words from last night, she took out a single envelope from inside. Squinting in concentration, thinking of all the good, trustworthy solo riders that she knew the Thorn Queen left the classroom. There was not one name which popped into her head that fit the description. She was more than bummed by the fact that she couldn't help out the boy that she liked.

Obviously, Ringo had been thinking about Ikki's team a bit too hard. She slammed into something, falling back onto the hard floor. The envelope that she had been carrying flew a bit before landing next to the wall.

"Ouch." A girl's voice complained, and the Thorn Queen looked up only to see a petite, slim girl with long pale hair sprawled in front of her. It seemed that she hadn't hit something, but rather, someone. As the girl collected herself and slowly rose to her feet, mumbling something about sore muscles, Ringo tried to recall her face and name. "Are you okay?" The girl asked once the Thorn Queen didn't move for a bit.

"I-I'm fine! I'm so sorry about bumping into you!" Ringo accepted the girl's hand and rose. She's deceptively strong, the Thorn Queen thought, her eyes widening a fraction. She noted the large, blue bag on the floor as the girl picked it up and swung it over her shoulder with surprising ease.

"Don't mind, don't mind." The blonde said in a very modern Japanese fashion, waving her hands in front of her. There was a sweet smile on her face, but to Ringo, it seemed a bit empty. Then, once she made that facial expression, it all clicked.

Takeuchi Suzuka, Ringo thought recalling the quiet girl's name. "You're from 2-3, right? Takeuchi-san?"

"Yes, yes." The girl's eyes went left and right, searching. The Thorn Queen's eyes, battle-worn, recognized the motion immediately. Suzuka was looking for an escape route. "Forgive me, Noyamano-san, but I am in a bit of a hurry." She offered another gentle smile, trying to evade Ringo and leave.

"Ah! Takeuchi-san!" The Queen stopped her. When the petite girl turned, Ringo spoke once more. "You ride AT, right?" That expression… It's familiar. She thought. That smile. After she received a nod, the Thorn Queen finally asked the troublesome question which had been on her mind the whole day. "You wouldn't be looking for a team to join, would you?"

This got Suzuka's attention. Ringo noted the subtle change in the girl's form, as it was becoming guarded, almost hostile. But, there was still a rather relaxed expression on her face. She's good. Ringo realized. Suzuka shook her head slowly, and then shrugged.

"Not really, no." She said, but then her eyes wondered down the empty hallway once more. "I'm really sorry, Noyamano-san, could we pick this up tomorrow? I'm going to be terribly late."

Ringo truly didn't know what had come over her. However, the words spilled from her mouth faster than she could properly form the idea. "Do you want to join us tonight? We're going to go watch the A-class battle in a small group."

The petite blonde was now walking backwards, a look of realization passing her features. "Agito versus Kintetsu Bulls?"

"Yes."

"I'll be there." And then, she was gone, vanishing down the stairs. Ringo stood there for a second, asking herself if she had done the right thing. She knew Takeuchi Suzuka's face from somewhere. That smile. It was something that she had seen quite a few times. It just wasn't connecting. Maybe because Ringo often saw her at school? She knew that Suzuka was a loner, yet, she had never heard a bad word about her.

Ringo frowned, picking up the envelope which had landed on the floor during her earlier collision. It was time to find Ikki. She would deal with Suzuka later.

The crowd was getting bigger and bigger. Ringo scanned all the riders with her sharp eyes for the nth time that evening, wondering where Suzuka was. They had arrived to the Kintetsu Bulls area some time ago, their transport of preference: Ton-chan's car, as usual. If she were being honest, Ringo would admit that she felt a bit bad for the teacher, not to mention that she thought that they were crossing the line a bit. Ton-chan was very nice and very open with her students, acting more like a teenager than them sometimes, but she was still their teacher. And Ringo, being the goody two shoes that she was at school, was very much against breaking the rules.

"Ringo-chan, we're gonna leave you behind." Emily called out to her and the Thorn Queen hurried to catch up with the group. They had decided to choose a high vantage point for their seats, so that they could watch the whole match better. Considering that they had had a ground view of all the other battles that they had watched, this was going to be a treat for the new storm riders. Ringo, she was used to it. She could tell the tricks apart from any spot where the rider was visible from.

"Noyamano-san!" A clear voice rang out just as the Thorn Queen was scanning the crowd once more. "Noyamano-san! Over here!" A petite body pushed through the riders, her blue sports bag getting stuck in the mass and making the girl flail a bit before she managed to get loose. "I'm so sorry for not getting here earlier, my practice ran late." Suzuka arrived to where Ringo was standing, panting with her hands on her knees and head bent. Then, she rose, offering the other girl a gentle smile which seemed to be fixed to her face.

"Takeuchi-san, I'm glad that you could make it." Ringo replied, offering a smile of her own. She was well aware of the group behind her, staring at the newcomer with various degrees of interest. The air was too polite between the two schoolmates who barely knew each other, and it was making Ringo even more uneasy. Usually, watching an A-class battle made her restless enough.

"Ringo." Ikki called out, suddenly sounding quite serious. "Is that her?" He questioned. Suzuka looked a little confused, switching her gaze between Ringo and Ikki. She looked a bit intimidated, and it wasn't just their height this time.

"Ikki, this is Takeuchi Suzuka, the storm rider that I told you about." Ringo then turned to the petite girl, smiling. "Takeuchi-san, I was hoping that you would consider Ikki's team, even though you aren't looking to join a group."

There was a moment of silence, where the candidate for the Sky King stared down at the small skater and then, much to Ringo's absolute shock and rising rage, he pulled out a shinai out of nowhere and swung at the girl. As Ringo yelled out in red-hot anger her leg rising to slam into Ikki, Suzuka's eyes widened a little and she spun away, her hand deflecting the wooden sword from its path. There was another short moment of silence, where the Crow collected himself from the floor and Ringo panted in anger, her fist raised at the ready.

"Shimada Kambei-dono!" Suzuka cut through the tension, giving a formal bow to the, now grinning, Ikki. "It is a pleasure to pass your test!"

"You have much to learn yet, young Katsushiro." Ikki replied, nodding. Then, the two began laughing, causing even more confusion to appear within the group around them.

"I'd prefer to be Heihachi, though." Suzuka sighed, her hands finding her hips. Ringo stared in absolute shock as the whole group simply went back to normal, as if nothing had happened, instead discussing the upcoming match. Sure, the newcomer stayed a bit on the silent side, looking uncomfortable, but she was clearly a part of the team. Ringo smiled and followed them towards their chosen 'seats'. Ikki was going to be a good leader for his team, she was sure.

Watching a Parts War in a group isn't so bad, Suzuka had thought half-way through. Sure, the solo rider, Agito, who was taking on the Kintetsu Bulls was a bit intimidating, as his road was more than aggressive. But, she liked the atmosphere of the soon-to-be team. She had considered Ringo's request quite a bit before deciding to join them during the battle. To be honest, she had spent her entire ballet practice thinking about it, imagining different scenarios.

She's known Minami Itsuki from before. It had been a difficult time for her, as she had just lost everything that she had known, yet, he had been a regular boy at school, teasing the quiet kid. Now, she knew why. She understood. Back then, she had wanted to strangle him half of the time. But, Suzuka didn't doubt that Ikki didn't remember that. When she remembered that time a little better, she recalled that he had pretty much teased everyone he could, including his own friends. She hadn't been anything special.

Yet, it still haunted her sometimes. That is normal, her therapist had said. Everything from that time is going to be amplified. And boy, was it. Those years were blurry. Everything before them as like seen through smoke. She was forgetting her mother's face. Her father's voice. It hurt. It hurt too much to remember. She just wanted silence and peace of mind.

But, Ikki was different now. Slowly, as her nervousness ebbed away, she began to see the Crow, the Storm Rider who had ignited her passion for the skies once again, rather than the kid-bully who had pulled her hair and called her names. Surprisingly, she had found his eccentric behavior and crude comments rather funny and interesting. He really was a my-pace kind of person, and she liked it. Maybe, just maybe, she could bear to ride with this kind of a person.

But, the whole fairy tale group watching with birds and flowers all around them got really messed up when the police arrived. Suzuka felt really bad, for all of the people who were on the scene, but she couldn't risk getting arrested. She watched as the Windstorm G-men began chasing everyone in sight and gave a small sigh, moving backwards into the shadow of the worn-down building.

"Yare, yare." The petite skater reached behind her head, grasping the hood of her dark sweatshirt and pulling it up. "Better to look like a boy than like a girl, now." She giggled to herself and took the chance to run backwards. "I-I sh-should've brought m-my A-ATs." She panted after she was so far away that she could barely see the Bulls' territory. "Sora-niichan would kill me if he could see me now." The petite girl began laughing as she allowed herself to drop to the ground. The sound rang out throughout the empty street, no one being there to witness the look of absolute joy on the skater's face. A few moments later, Suzuka sighed, leaning back on her hands. "Man, that was a bit too exciting for me." She smiled at the dark skies above her. "My legs won't stop shaking!"

Suzuka hurried to school after her morning practice, her ATs safely in her bag this time. She caught the train in the nick of time, as the girls from the rink had locked her out of the changing room, again. It wasn't an unusual thing to do. Figure skating is a competitive sport, after all. And, girls had a tendency to be mean even without any encouragement. Hence, when you put those two together, you got an extreme environment.

Suzuka had grown up in the ice-skating business, though. She was no stranger to those kinds of silly pranks and underhanded moves. After all, everyone did that to everyone. Winning was the most important thing. How you achieved it, didn't really matter. That was one thing that Suzuka really hated about figure skating. She had never resorted to those means herself, but she had experienced them often.

The petite skater found an empty seat and settled herself there. She unlocked her phone (Yo-Ro-Shi-Ku) and played the song of her next choreography. As soon as the sound came from her blue headphones, the girl typed in the URL of the Parts War Forum and logged in. Next, she went to the search bar and put in the names of the last night's battle participants. A report of the events came up as one of the possibilities and she clicked it.

'Agito the Fang King rips apart another A-class team!

Article by Yano Rui

If you haven't been to one of Agito's fights, you have most definitely missed out! This seemingly nice and cute boy is as vicious as a shark. Even with his hands tied behind his back, he performs impossible tricks, without any unnecessary movement which bring him to the victory in all of his recent battles.

Last night, this rising Storm Rider was in the middle of ripping apart the well-known Kintetsu Bulls when the police intervened. The special unit, Windstorm G-men, arrived on the scene as the Parts War was ending, attempting to arrest all the participants. Luckily, most spectators managed to evade the authorities. The arrested are listed below:'

Suzuka clicked the red button with an 'x' on it in the right corner, closing the page. "As expected of Yano." She commented about the AT obsessed blogger and shook her head, sighing. "At least they didn't get arrested."

That's all for now!

I'd love to hear your thoughts, as usual :D

Interesting fact: Suzuka is shorter than both Ikki (167) and Ringo (157), her height being 140cm, and she is only 2cm shorter than Akito/Agito. But, she isn't the smallest in the group, being taller than Onigiri.