Visits and Trials

Disclaimer – I only own whatever you see that is not in the anime/manga Air Gear.

OoOoO

Kaoru agreed to her challenge and spent all of Sunday training for it. Although she only had one day to train, she was already at the top of her game.

Akito was secretly watching her from his room window as she dashed around the house and attempted different skills and tricks. She showed promise and had a lot of potential. The way she rode, you could tell she was trying to forget, just to forget about everything, life reality, gravity, physics, she defied everything when she was ready, she wasn't that good yet, but he could imagine her being that good soon enough.

He watched her as she rode around the house, marvelling at how much she seemed to be enjoying herself. He could've sworn that one and two times she must've forgotten about the training and was just having fun.

She'd been training from eight o'clock in the morning, and it was now noon. Akito decided that he'd go down and ask her if she was hungry.

Akito climbed down the stairs and skipped to the front door. "Akito-kun, where are you going? It's almost lunch time." Ringo said as she glanced away from Deko King.

"I'm going to ask Kaoru-chan if she's hungry." Akito called back as he stepped through the front door.

Akito closed the door behind him and smiled brightly as he watched Kaoru sore past him without even realizing he was there. He grinned as he thought of how much more beautiful she was up close and had the urge to just tackle her, but decided against it. She didn't seem like the tolerant type.

Akito waited until she came around to the front before calling her name and watching her skid to a stop just in front of him.

"Oh! Hey, Akito, what's up?" Kaoru was out of breath. She stood in front of him, bent over with her hands on her knees.

"Lunch is almost ready. Maybe you should come in and eat with us." Akito ran a hand through her hair and giggled slightly as a lock of hair almost curled itself around his finger. It got knotted and he had to carefully pull it apart to get it off. "You've been training since morning, aren't you tired or at least hungry?"

"Nah I'm fine…" Kaoru said taking in a deep breathe as she straightened up and stretched. Akito raised an eyebrow as he listened to her stomach grumble in the middle of her stretching.

She froze for a moment, then laughed sheepishly and scratched behind her head saying, "Ok, maybe I am a bit hungry…" She had a light stain of pink on her cheeks and Akito found that he liked that.

I'll have to find ways to cause that more often…

You are a sick bastard you know that

WHAT!!! How could you say that!!! I'm passionate!!! There's a difference!!

Whatever…

They walked into the house with Akito hanging off her arm and burying his nose in the crook of her neck, which made it hard to walk so she shoved him off when they reached inside while switching his eye patch.

There was only so much of Akito that she could take at once, but with Agito, they could fight for days on end and she'd never get tired of it. Akito was steadily falling for her and everyone saw it. It was as if he were graduating from Ikki, to a real girl.

They sat down at the table where Mikan and Ringo were tying Ikki to a pole and suspending him over a fire with his pants half down. Agito and Kaoru both silently decided that they didn't want to know why.

They all eat in peace as they completely ignored Ikki's screams for help. It wasn't until they had finished eating that the spark was lit between Agito and Kaoru.

"It's ok, I'll wash up it's the least I could do. I didn't even help make lunch." Kaoru said as she took the plates from Mikan.

She was headed to the kitchen when Agito said, "It's a good thing you didn't, who knows what kind of shit you'd cook up. You definitely don't look like the cooking type."

"I beg your pardon!! Care to say that again, Limp Dick?" Kaoru swivelled around with the plates in hand and both Mikan and Ringo feared for their China.

"The Fuck did you just call me!!" Agito flamed up as he stood up and balled his hands into fists.

"You heard me, I said that you, have a limp dick." Kaoru smirked as she knew she hit a soft spot.

Agito was so enraged he hardly got to say anything before she continued, "And not to mention you've got the most feminine looking ass I've ever seen on a guy, of the little there is to see anyway." Kaoru smirked as she continued to tease him and watched him blush as he remembered how she came to know all this.

OoO Flash back OoO

Kaoru stepped into the shower, still with her towel on and arrange her toiletries to make sure she had easy access to them while taking her shower.

She was about to take off her towel when she heard the door burst open and watched with a mixture of anger, amusement and embarrassment as Akito ran into the bathroom, stark naked shouting that he wanted to take a shower with her.

Kaoru knocked him out smoothly and quietly using a basic technique in Karate to make sure that he wasn't hurt and called Ringo and asked her to take him back to his room for her.

During all of this, Kaoru just couldn't help but notice certain things; it wasn't exactly her fault really.

OoO End flash Back OoO

Agito cringed as he remembered the terrible event and was about to throw a come back when Kaoru said, "But, all that aside I really don't feel like fighting today. I plan on going to visit Hikaru after I wash the dishes."

Kaoru had already turned into the kitchen by the time he heard all of what she said.

Agito blinked and wondered if that was why she'd spent the whole morning riding around the house like that.

When Kaoru came out of the kitchen she barely registered the words, "Think fast" before she caught the pair of ATs that flew her way. Kaoru blinked as she looked over at Agito who was waiting for her by the door with his ATs on.

"Unless someone shows you the way then you'll just get lost like the dumbass that you are so come on." He was out the door before she could really respond.

Kaoru smirked and said, "So what you care whether I get lost or not? I never thought you to be the sentimental type Agito."

Agito Scowled and said "Shut up!...Akito begged me to." The last part of the sentence was barely audible, but Kaoru caught and honestly thought it was cute, odd but cute.

She hurriedly put on her ATs and headed out the door after Agito. Ringo and Mikan smiled as they watched the whole thing and told Ume that they'd tell her when she was older when she asked what was going on. Of course, they didn't hear why they were leaving so they completely misunderstood.

OoOoO

Kaoru and Agito rode in silence for once as he led the way to the town's hospital. When they reached the hospital they substituted their ATs for regular shoes.

Kaoru walked up to the woman at the front desk and said good afternoon.

"Good Afternoon dear, how may I help you?" She was short and probably in her mid fifties. She had salt and pepper hair that was only shoulder length and dead straight.

"I'm here to visit a Hikaru Taishou." Kaoru said almost choking on her sister's name.

"Hold on one minute please." She said as she turned her spinning chair around to face a file cabinet. She sifted through the files until she found the right on and took it out to find the room number.

"You must be her sister, Kaoru Taishou, am I right?" She said with a smile as she looked up from the file.

"…yes" Kaoru said softly keeping her head straight and her expression soft. She watched as the woman put the file back and closed the file cabinet. She turned back around in the chair and gave Kaoru a number and some directions to the room. The room number was 305.

Kaoru and Agito made their way through the corridors in an awkward silence. When they reached the room, Kaoru spook to him for the first time since they left the house. "Thanks for bringing me here, but I'll be fine from here on. You can go back to the house now." She didn't look at him, or wait for an answer as she opened the door and stepped inside, closing the door behind her.

Agito never got the chance to throw a few choice words at her as she closed the door on him and just sighed instead. Agito scratched the back of his head and started down the hall way.

Agito what are you doing! Aren't you going to stay and make sure that she gets home alright?

She said to leave her alone so that's what I'm doing

Since when do you take orders from her!! Go back!

I'm not obeying her!!! Fuck, I just figured she needed her space, and she can't be that much of a dumb ass, she must be able to find her own way home.

But…

She has a lot on her mind, you're just adding to her problems.

…am I really?

Jeez!! Just forget about it!!! Fuck

…

OoOoO

Kaoru leaned against the door with her eyes closed. She wasn't sure if she was ready to see her yet. The real meaning of all that had happened hadn't quite hit her yet, but she supposed that it would hit her sooner or later, so why not just get it out of the way, and move on to the next step.

Kaoru opened her eyes slowly and looked around the room. It was your classic stark white hospital room with all the equipment and buzzing machines on one side, a bed in the middle and drawers with god-knows-what in them in front of them.

There was a bedside table to the left of the bed with a small empty vase on it. How stupid of me, I come to visit my sister and I don't even bring any flowers or something…

Kaoru sighed as she took a step closer to the bed and examined her sister. She swallowed hard as she looked over her. The sheets covered her up to her hip, but she could still see where they had amputated her right leg and could also see that at least her left had survived. From what she could make out of the imprints of the sheets, they had cut just above the knee.

She looked at her face and arms and noticed a few stitches here and there and one and two bruises on her face. Kaoru reached out and brushed back a lock of hair that had fallen into her face. Her face seemed so peaceful, almost as if she was only sleeping, as if she would wake up any minute now and tell her that this was all just a bad dream.

Kaoru grabbed the chair that was beside the bed and pulled it up closer. She took one of Hikaru's hands and held it in her own. Kaoru could feel the tears welling up in her eyes.

She held her head down as she cried into her sister's dead unmoving hand. Her hand was cool, not warm, but not cold either. It made her cry harder as she thought of the possibility that she may never wake up again.

Kaoru sat there and cried for at least two hours straight until someone came in and said that visiting hours were up.

Kaoru had thought that she was only there for two hours, but when she went outside, it was almost pitch black.

This would pose a problem, the town looked different, very different at night, and she doubted that she would find her way to the house.

She instead settled for just riding around the place until she fell asleep somewhere. She didn't really care at the moment. She was tired and felt terribly dehydrated from all the crying she did.

She stopped by a convenience store and found that's she was lucky enough to catch it just before it closed and bought a bottle of water. She downed the bottle and felt a little bit better and had more energy.

She decided that she would do some midnight riding before she found somewhere to kick it.

OoOoO

"Agito, why did you leave her at the hospital, what if she got lost!!" Ringo said. Everyone had gathered in the living room due to Kaoru's mysterious absence.

"Oh Fuck! So this is my fault now!"

"Yes it is!!" Mikan shouted as she drove her fist into the table, leaving a dent in its metal exterior.

"She could be lost and trying to find her way home, what if she gets kidnapped!! Or raped!!" Ringo shouted as she slapped her hands on the table, but not quite as forcefully as Mikan did.

"Alright, I propose that Shark boy here must go and look for Kaoru-chan! If he does not, then he must swear his virginity to all of us!!" Ikki shouted as he put his leg up on the table.

"Wha…" Poor Agito hardly got to say anything before the entire group picked him up and literally threw him out the front door.

Agito got up and cursed profusely for about fifteen minutes before heading out into the streets, not intended to be subjected to give up his virginity to anyone.

He sighed as he rode off into the night and kept an eye out for her. He decided to go to the hospital to see if she was till there, only to hear that's he'd just missed her.

He cursed under his breath as he headed away from the hospital in the general direction that was home. She must've known at least what direction to go in.

He noticed the closed convenience store and figured that she might've come here to get something to eat or drink before it closed, so he might be on the right track.

He wasn't even sure why he was looking for her in the first place. He soon found that it would take a very long time to find her as he continued to ride around the streets looking for a wondering girl that didn't look like she knew where she was going.

He did, however, find something else that proved to be very interesting. There were scares on the buildings. Scares that he'd never seen before and they looked very fresh, as if the person had only just pasted through here.

He doubted it was her, but decided to take a chance and followed them. He was shocked to find that, it was actually pretty hard to follow the scares as they winded through the streets and back alleys, going up unto the roofs of houses every now and then. He was really beginning to believe that he was mistaken; there was no way that these scares could've been made by a newbie. She didn't have that much promise.

He however, he was proven wrong when he found were the scares stopped and stood, shocked as he looked down at Kaoru, fast asleep in the grass. They were on a gentle slope and it looked as if she was about to jump from the top of the hill, but maybe she got too tired and decided to just take a nap, but ended up falling asleep.

Agito took a moment to go over the scares that he'd followed and noted that he was actually out of breathe a little. He shook his head and decided that he'd ask her about it later.

He bent down and shook her shoulder to wake her. She didn't budge. He tried again.

She mumbled something incoherent and then turned over unto her side. Agito gritted his teeth together, his patience wearing thin. He kicked her in the stomach shouting for her to wake up and was completely shocked when she caught his leg and swung him around and slammed him into the ground.

She had caught him off guard and managed to do some damage. He stood up with a grunt and a couple curses as he examined the small cut on his upper arm and the bruise that came along with it.

He was about to explode when he noticed that Kaoru was still fast asleep. His jaw dropped as he watched her turned over unto her back and mumbled something in her sleep.

He sighed heavily and cursed himself for being so soft. He continued to curse under his breathe as he bent down to pick her up. He gently slung her over his shoulder and sighed again as he thought of how tired he was.

He ignored the extra weight and rode off. He took it easy on the way home, not bothering to do any fancy tricks just grinding a few times here and there but that was all.

By the time he got back to the house, he was exhausted and literally dropped Kaoru on the couch when they opened the door for him.

Ringo protested but he didn't hear her as he headed straight up to his room and to bed.

OoOoO

Agito opened his eyes and wasn't too surprised to find Ikki in his face; Akito must've woken up and gone to his room. Agito scooted backwards away from Ikki only to bump into something else, something softer than Ikki could ever be.

Agito slowly turned over and actually screamed when he saw Kaoru's face about one inch away from his own.

Agito shot up and out of the bed for two reasons. One was because Kaoru had some how managed to end up in the same bed as him, and the second reason was because he finally noticed that Ikki was stark naked and wide awake.

"I am glad that you have awoken to my manly glory!! Come, breakfast is served, and though I believe that…" Ikki however, never got o finish as Kaoru, half awake, planted her foot hard on his bare ass and said, "Shut up, I'm trying to sleep…",then rolled over to face the wall.

Ikki cried out in pain as the shock wave from the kick reach his groin. He clutched his area and literally rolled out of the room to his own where he attempted to recover.

Agito was still only half awake, so all of this flew by him without really clicking until Ikki was already half way to his room, then he exploded, "WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!!!"

Kaoru shot up and out of the bed shouting something like "I didn't do it!" And blinked twice before realizing what was going on.

"Oh…good morning…" She said while sitting back down on the edge of the bed and stretching her limbs while a long yawn escaped her lips.

"Good morning!?!?! What the Fuck are you doing in my room in the first place!?!"

"Uhm…good question…" Kaoru said as she put her index finger on her chin and looked up at the roof as if looking for an answer.

Agito sweat-dropped and cursed under his breathe before saying, "Just get out!!"

"But it's about time for school anyway, we might as well get ready." Kaoru said as she stood up and began taking of her shirt while heading to the door.

"GAH!!!! What the Fuck do you think you're doing!!??!!!" Agito shouted as he threw up his hands to cover his face as he attempted to shield his eyes and to cover his blush.

"Just look the other way, jeez." Kaoru said calmly as she opened the door and headed to the bathroom with her shirt already off.

Kaoru took a quick shower and put on her uniform. She headed down to the dining table and found that she was the last one there.

They ate breakfast, and as per usual, it was chaos. By the time they were ready to leave for school Agito and Kaoru were already diving down each others throats.

Kaoru had decided that she'd had enough by the time they reached the school gate and instead opted for putting up with Akito's strangeness. It took a while to get past his defences, but she eventually managed to switch the patch.

Akito latched unto her arm as usual and they entered the school in peace. When they reached the class, rumours of how Akito must've dumped Ikki spread like wild fire. All the girls that were originally After Akito, lost their hopes, since he was actually latching unto a girl this time, and all the guys that thought Kaoru was good looking and sought after her when she came on Friday, felt a surge of anger toward Akito.

The day went by rather quietly if you exclude the team and their stupidity, Agito and Kaoru going at it, after Kaoru had had enough of Akito's mush after he attempted to 'examine her body for any scratches or injuries' after she had tripped and fallen down the stair due to some girl with a grudge, for the fifth time, Onigiri desperately trying to get a look at Kaoru's panties (he had put her at the top of his list as the only girl whose panties he'd never seen before), and Buccha stealing out of everyone's lunch when they weren't looking.

Soon it was time for Kaoru to face her trial. She had brought a change of clothes in order to be able to properly ride. She had also brought her headphones and her Ipod chip.

She stepped out of the changing room and headed to the front gate where everyone from the team and Ringo were gathered.

"Are you ready to challenge me? Do you really think that you can defeat me, Baby Face!!?" Ikki said as he cracked his knuckles and looked down at her.

"I was born ready." Kaoru said as she turned up the volume on her head phones so that everyone could hear.

It was set up like an F class Dash, but it was just Ikki against Kaoru. If she won, then she could join the team, if he won, then she'd have to strip naked in front of everyone and stay that way 'til they got home, so she had extra motivation.

Emily, was the one starting the race. "1!" She said, holding out the coin, ready to drop it.

"Hey Ikki, have you ever heard this song before?"

"2!"

"No, but how is that more important than this race?"

"True, true…" Kaoru smirked at that.

"3!" The coin fell. As soon as Kaoru heard the coin drop, she sped off.

The track was the fence around the school, she had been practicing her grinding yesterday a lot so she was good, but Ikki was still in the lead.

She was right on his tail for most of it, and Ikki could've sworn that he was going slower than he thought he should be.

He didn't pay much attention to it, until he heard her music get louder. The song ended and another one started and he suddenly felt off balance. He caught himself just in time and managed to stay on the railing, but unknown to him, he'd actually slowed down quite a bit.

Kaoru took this chance and went to full speed. She was catching up to him fast and had no intention of stopping when she was inches behind him. Instead Kaoru jumped clean off the fence and soared high over his head.

Ikki looked up in awe as he watched her flip and twist in the air. The trick tore a girlish squeal out of her lungs as she landed back on the railing in front of Ikki. She continued forward, and Ikki tried his hardest to speed up, but couldn't seem to go any faster.

Before he knew it, they were back at the starting point and Kaoru had won. Ikki landed hard on the floor and panted slightly. "What the hell…was that!!?"

"Hehe…want me to explain it to you?" Kaoru said as she noted the confused expression on everybody's face.

"Well, here's what happened. You felt like you were going slower than usual right?" Ikki nodded slowly, listening intently to her explanation, dying to learn a new trick. "Well, you're actually pretty good, you shouldn't be able to even tell that you're going slower than normal. It was the music. Whenever someone hears a song for the first time, their brain tends to focus on it, whether they know it or not. In turn, this makes time seem as if it has slowed down. Also, the nerve impulses sent to your muscles get a little distorted and they don't perform as well as they should. So what I did, was I played this music loud enough for everyone to hear, and it's from Italy, so I know you've never heard it before." Kaoru grinned proudly as she finished her explanation.

The others made awed sounds of approval and shock that she'd thought of something so unique.

The only two that didn't seem excited were Agito and Ringo. "Agito-kun, doesn't this all sound familiar?"

"Hn…" Agito grunted his answer as he continued to stare off into space, deep in his thoughts.

"Doesn't it remind you of that team that's supposed to be a legend? The "Singing Rain"." When Ringo said that, Agito's head shot up as he ran this information over in his head.

He remembered everything that the man from "Red Fraction" had said and tried to put two and together. None of it made sense to him though. How does she know the secret Techniques of the "Singing Rain". Could it be that her parents were the missing two from that team…no that can't be right, if that was the case, then she would know more about AT than I do, and there's no way she could've been acting this whole time…It's too perfect. That guy mentioned something about their Emblem too; he said that she had it. But when she saw the picture…she didn't know what he was talking about. None of this adds up!!

I don't think Kaoru-chan would've lied to us about anything, why would she?

I don't' know…but we don't have time to be wasting on this, looks like we have yet another moron-member to train.

That's not nice Agito!!

Since when have you known me to be fucking nice?

…

"So what did you think?" Kaoru suddenly appeared in front of Agito, startling him out of his thoughts.

"It's nothing special." He lied.

Kaoru pouted and smacked him on the arm which started up an argument between the two.

"Oh and just what's that supposed to mean?" Kaoru said as she stood akimbo in front of him.

"It means that you are UN-IM-PRE-SSIVE." Agito spoke to her as if she was a retard, really, really slowly.

Kaoru's hair literally puffed up as she fumed over what he said, she, however, never got the chance to retort as Ikki butt in and dramatically presented her with a Kogarasumaru Emblem pin.

"Now, you're a part of the team! of course you'll have to try your hardest to keep up with me but, we'll understand if you can't even begin to comprehend the genius that is I" Ikki said as he stood up proudly, an imaginary wind blowing his supposedly stiff and spiky hair.

"…Right…whatever." Kaoru said as she pinned the Emblem to her jacket and smiled.

"Wow!! Congrats Kaoru-chan!! You're one of us now!!" Kaoru squealed as Emily hugged her while congratulating her. Soon enough the whole team was surrounding her along with Ringo-chan as they congratulated her. Kaoru felt like she'd never felt before. She and her sister never really had many friends when they were younger, just a few, but they never showed her his much love.

Kaoru smiled and laughed with everyone, and even decided to not kill Onigiri too thoroughly when he groped her ass.

Agito watched on the sidelines and smirked before switching the eye patch so that Akito could join in the fun.

Kaoru frowned slightly as she watched Agito switch the eye patch. That boy needs to lighten up!! He's too young to be so up tight…

Akito immediately latched himself unto Kaoru's arm. "Kaoru!!! That was so cool!!!! You're the best!" Akito leaned forward and quickly pecked Kaoru on the cheek, earning him a blush, and a bitch-slap.

Akito stumbled back a little and then fell to the flour unconscious while everyone else went on about their business as if it hadn't even happened.

OoOoO

Kaoru sat down on the bed clad in nothing but an over sized t-shirt and underwear. She stared out of the window and sighed.

I am member of Kogarasumaru now, but…was that the right decision? Maybe it would've been best not to get them involved. But they aren't involved, to them, this up coming match is just a match, a battle over territory and parts, they don't have to know anything about my parents being murdered or how they've threatened to kill Hikaru.

Kaoru nodded to herself as she thought about all this. That's right, I'll just get the information I want out of them after we win the match, and then after that, I'll quit Kogarasumaru, and leave to get myself some answers. Kaoru sighed as she realized that if she continued to be such close friends with them, parting would be very hard when the time came. She'd have to be a bit more distant if this was going to work.

Kaoru sighed for the hundredth time the night and looked over at her bedside table were a digital clock stood, the numbers flashing neon green at her, announcing that it was currently two thirty-three am.

She stared out at the window and watched the stars. The moon had already retired for the night but it was still beautiful.

Kaoru smiled and quietly hopped of the bed and grabbed her ATs. She quietly stepped out of the room and tiptoed down the hall.

She was just about to reach Ikki's room when the door creaked open and he stepped out.

Kaoru froze and watched as he walked passed her with his eyes closed and headed into the bathroom. Kaoru held back her chuckles as best as she could while she headed down the hall and down the stairs before he came back.

She reached the front door and as quietly as possible, she slipped through it and headed out into the open air.

She'd found that riding was the only way she could really get away from things. She could forget all these trials and tribulations, even if just for a little while, so that was what she intended on doing.

However, it does get on one's nerves if you find that there seems to be something following, or rather…someone…

OoOoO

End...REVIEW!!!!plz...Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed! ^.^

JA NE