PokeContestIkari Story: I Don't Want A Fighter

Chapter 4—Braggart Bartenders and Deluded Dimwits

The time is five thirty at night. Our young friend Hikari is sitting in her living room, waiting for her nonchalant, not so significant other to return home. That way, she could signal to her friends that it was time to prepare for what would be the beginning of triumph for Hikari. It seemed to take forever for the purple-haired man to enter the house, to her anyway, but he did, somewhere around quarter of.

When she saw him, that familiar sense of trepidation began to enter her mind, which led her to not greet him with her usual "Hi Shinji!" She silently observed his stature as he walked in, noting how all of his clothing concealed the large muscle she unfortunately caught sight of the night before.

A night she shall never forget in her young life.

It wasn't a surprise to her, but he didn't even take notice of her presence. Considering, of course, her semblance was quite small compared to his dark, enigmatic one.

As he headed for the shower, Hikari quietly trailed behind him, waiting until he was in the bathroom.

Oh the number of times she prayed to God that he wouldn't turn around…

Unbeknownst to her, his eyes darted back and forth, but did not turn around. His senses were rather irritable, but he felt that after the night he went through, he was just overreacting to the air conditioner or something.

"Hmph…" He quietly grunted before shifting into the bathroom.

When the door shut closed, she slipped into the bedroom, and quickly slipped on a pair of tennis shoes, looking over her shoulder every few seconds. After ruffling her hair, even though she knew Haruka would do countless things to it, she turned around.

Her royal blue eyes violently collided with dark coal orbs of distrust; she yelped, but kept her place. It was uncomfortable for him to be so close to her, but at this particular standpoint, he really didn't care.

He didn't tend to care much when it came to the status quo of life; she knew that all too well.

"Oh, Shinji…don't do that, please." She breathed out, putting her hand to her chest.

He said nothing. All he did was stare at her, suspicion lurking in those black eyes. She looked at the ground, awkwardly staring at both her and his shoes, a stupid smile on her face.

"I'm just gonna…yeah…" She pointed to the door that was behind him.

A strong hand gripped her shoulder. Upon feeling this, she was overcome by a jolt of fear, so she jumped and slammed herself into the wall, eyes wide with apprehension.

Visions appeared in the girl's mind. The sight of punches being thrown to an innocent man's jaw by a guilt-free fist of fury. That fist belonged to the man that stood tall and mighty before her.

How could she not be slightly frightened?

"Pathetic." He thought to himself.

The only sound in the room was her staggered breathing.

As he stared at her, flummoxed by her actions, she began to feel the sense of fear heighten to a place she never knew existed. She also found this act to be a blaring insinuation to him that she knew about what he was doing late at night.

However, this was not Shinji's thought.

"…Where are you going?" He asked in that low menacing tone, inching closer to her.

"I-I'm just gonna go see Kasumi and Haruka." She replied, trying to sound innocent.

As he walked closer to her, she pressed up against the wall more, trying not to look at him. However, Shinji made this increasingly difficult, considering how powerful he was, mentally and physically, before Hikari's fragile figure.

"…This late at night?" He was not convinced by her claim.

"It's not that late." She mindlessly responded, trying to move towards the door.

"Hn."

There was a silence. Hikari tried to avoid Shinji's death stare as much as possible, considering that if she didn't, she'd probably kneel down and tell him the whole truth right there.

But she wasn't going to give in without a fight.

Neither was he.

As she awkwardly adjusted her gaze to other objects in the room, he suddenly took note of the ACE bandage carelessly wrapped around her arm. He also noticed the blood-stained gauze that lie underneath.

"…What did you do?" He asked, glancing at her arm.

Her mouth went ajar a bit when she looked down at her arm and realized she hadn't removed it.

"Oh, umm…I…"

He walked even closer to her.

"You WHAT?"

She flinched. "I accidently dropped a teacup and it cut against my arm…clumsy me!" She giggled at this.

All he did was stare daggers into her. When she saw his fists begin to clench, her adrenaline rushed, and her brain told her to get out of there.

"I'm just gonna…yeah…" She said again, pointing to the door that led out of the room, the door behind him.

She turned and walked away from the tension in the room, trying to be quick. When she opened the door and walked out, she didn't look back at her husband.

Despite the fact she did not gaze back at him, she could feel his rage build up.

There were no amicable feelings between the two at that moment.

Hikari didn't walk, nor did she swiftly walk; no. She ran away from her house, and she didn't look back. Her trademark blue hair flowed behind her as she sprinted to Haruka's one-floor home, that same apprehension in her.

He had to know. Never in her life has she ever been in a situation where he stopped her to ask her where she was going.

Normally, he wouldn't care where she went…

When she opened the front door to see Kasumi and Haruka discussing something, she was overwhelmed with relief, seeing such a peaceful state rather then the one she was just in.

Hikari's physical appearance was one to make Haruka and Kasumi concerned, leading Haruka to run over and embrace the seventeen-year old.

"It's about time! Did he come home?" Haruka asked, surprisingly being oblivious to Hikari's current status.

The girl nodded, looking down at the floor. "He actually talked to me today."

Kasumi stood up and walked over to the two girls upon hearing this. "You're kidding me, right?"

Hikari shrugged, as if it weren't a big deal; but it was.

"He just wanted to know where I was going, that's all." She informed.

Haruka folded her hands in a romantic fashion. "Awww!"

Kasumi hit the brunette on her arm. "No, not 'awww!', that's bad! He MUST know what we're doing."

Hikari's eyes widened. "You think so?"

Kasumi nodded.

"This is what I meant by DISGUISES! Hikari, he won't even NOTICE us in these outfits. Trust me. He's always used to the sweet, innocent little girl. Not the sexy, elegant lady she's gonna be tonight."

"You guys seem to be forgetting about the fact that he doesn't care about anything I do, so it really doesn't matter." Hikari brought up.

So she thought.

Haruka and Kasumi just shrugged it off, and dragged Hikari into the one bedroom that Haruka slept in.

It was lit by a number of small lamps that all had red shades. A queen-sized bed was placed horizontally against the wall, all three dresses lying on it. Next to each dress was one container of eye shadow, mascara, eyeliner, blush, and lipstick that seemed to go nicely with the dress. A pair of heels sat at the bottom of the bed, below where the dress was, along with jewelry.

All that kind of stuff that Kasumi dreaded putting on. Hikari approached the same dress she tried on that day with caution.

If she thought she looked like a slut just in that dress alone…who knew what she was going to look like tonight.

"Come on guys, let's get moving! He's probably on his way there now!" Haruka said, already in her underwear. Kasumi and Haruka copied this move, and soon, all of them were standing there in the dresses, not knowing what to do next.

"Ummm…" Kasumi prolonged.

Haruka, somewhat annoyed, pushed the two on her bed and shoved a pair of shoes in each of their faces. Kasumi rudely grabbed them while Hikari gingerly took them in her hands, observing its features.

Kasumi's were (thankfully) small navy blue flats with one little bow to accent.

She was tall enough, why would she need heels?

Despite Haruka's kind gesture, she still wore a scowl on her face as she slipped them on. The chipper brunette rolled her eyes at this as she slipped on her heels to give her three more inches in height.

Hikari observed the two putting on the shoes, considering that she had never worn ones like these. A little scared, she looked down at the heels again, having second thoughts about this whole investigation. Haruka saw this, and reassured her once again that everything was going to be fine. Biting back her concern, Hikari slid her delicate feet into the black shoe that arched up about four inches. The shoe had a strap design that X-D over her ankle and the middle of her feet. When she stood up, she felt herself stumble somewhat, but soon gained balance. Her first reaction was how tall she felt in them, but then how uncomfortable she was.

The pain showed in her face.

"Haruka, I don't like this." Hikari openly said, slowly walking to her friend.

"Well you're just going to have to deal with it, Hikari." Haruka said, her tone reading irritation.

Hikari sighed and staggered over to Kasumi, whom was also having difficulties walking in the shoes.

"Hey, consider yourself lucky." Hikari commented, glancing down at the heels she immaturely sported.

Kasumi tried to feel empathy, but couldn't, and at the same time, didn't want to. Oh, how she despised those things girls call shoes…

But they knew better then to get on Haruka's last nerve, so they just practiced walking around the room, tripping every now and then.

"You're getting the hang of it!" Haruka encouraged.

Kasumi shot a glare at the brunette while Hikari just frowned. It was very obvious how excited Haruka was about all this.

There was no stopping her now.

After about a half an hour, the three stood in a circle, complete with their outfits, going over their plans for the evening.

Kasumi's whole outfit brought out the beauty in the color blue ultimately, considering that everything she wore was or accentuated the color. The shade of eye shadow was the same as the dress, sapphire blue with some silver, which was accented by the black eye liner and black mascara. Light pink blush lightened her cheeks as a shimmery lip-gloss covered her lips, making them glitter directly under light. After about a minute of disapproval, Haruka took out Kasumi's usual side ponytail, letting her long orange hair flow down her back in sienna waves. Her nails and toes were painted royal blue, and her slightly dangly earrings were blue also. A simple black choker was around her neck, which Kasumi kept tugging at. The outfit was completed by a small blue barrette, slightly pulling back her hair.

There was no doubt that Kasumi was feeling "blue" about all this, though.

Haruka, on the other hand, was all red. The same red dress was now accompanied with red shiny heels that had a three-inch heel to them. The heel was dangerously slim, increasing Haruka's clumsy self to trip. Her eyes were accented with black mascara, and silver eye shadow mixed with a deep pink, creating a sorbet-like color. Light pink blush, like Kasumi's, were delicately rubbed on her cheeks, plus a red/pink lip-gloss. She ditched the dog-ear-like style, and straightened her brown hair so that it was slightly past her shoulders. Her nails were painted red, as well as her toes. Her rose tattoo was certainly showing, which completed the look in an outlandish sort of way.

Hikari felt very, very bad about how she wore that dress. So she could cover up the amount of cleavage it showed, she put on a heavily beaded necklace that was just silver chains. Many silver bangles were on her wrists, gallingly clanging every three seconds. Medium-sized hoops hung from her ears, causing her gentle lobes to get sorer by the minute. Her long blue hair was straightened even more, which made it elongate over her small bust to her stomach. Haruka had accented Hikari's blue hair with a silver glimmering barrette that held back her bangs in an elegant manner. The amount of make up Haruka put on Hikari was what disappointed and embarrassed her the most. Hikari's eyes were lit up with a smoky array of black/gray eye shadow and black mascara. Her cheeks remained the way they were, while her lips were a daring shade of red. Her nails were painted black/silver, both fingers and toes, and Haruka even put glitter on her face.

Hikari felt foolish as they walked out the door to Haruka's car.

"So what are our names again?" Haruka asked as Kasumi drived and Hikari occupied the back seat.

"Uhh…I think mine was Michiko…" Hikari remembered.

"That guy Isi will surely remember you Hikari." Haruka commented.

Hikari immaturely stuck her tongue out at Haruka. "You were Hana, and I think Kasumi was Amaya."

"…Yeah, that was it." Kasumi confirmed after a second of thinking.

The rest of the car ride was silent. Hikari regretted not bringing some sort of jacket, knowing that it gets cold, and that she was not comfortable showing the amount of skin she was as of now.

Pretty soon, the familiar warehouse came into view, and the three were stepping out of the car, Haruka putting on a strut as Kasumi and Hikari still tripped over a little. To their relief, the familiar man named Isi was letting people in; they recognized the sunglasses. When he caught sight of Haruka, he lowered those sunglasses of his, and immediately asked:

"Where's your blue-haired friend?"

Haruka motioned behind her to the young girl that slowly walked up to the door with Kasumi by her side. Hikari caught sight of the man named Isi raising his eyebrows up and down at her before he put his sunglasses back on.

"Go ahead in."

"Thank you." Haruka said before strutting in. Kasumi followed, slapping her hand against her forehead in disappointment of her spunky friend. As Hikari slowly entered, she felt something slap her right on her rear. She instantly turned around, the heat rushing to her face, and saw the man in sunglasses grinning right at her.

"Nice ass." He slyly commented, making her sick.

Upon hearing this, Hikari felt even sluttier, and was incredibly embarrassed by the amount of stares she got. She rushed in, and caught up with her two friends. It seemed like even more people were crowded into the building that night, which made Hikari feel like she was drowning. She started calling out her friends' disguise names, but heard no response over the deafening roar of drunken men and women. Whenever she stumbled in the heels, she found herself grabbing random things to keep her balance, mostly being the chest of other people. Some would push her back into more people, whereas some commented:

"damn, she is really drunk. WHOO!"

Not knowing where else to go, Hikari went to the back of the building, and hugged herself. The feeling of claustrophobia overcame her, thus creating tears in the corner of her blue orbs. Out of the corner of one of these eyes, she saw a large dot of red at the bar, which made her go over there immediately.

"Do you have shrimp again tonight?" Haruka asked the familiar green-haired bartender.

He leaned down to her, resting the side of his face in his palm, looking straight at her. "I do if you tell me what you're name is."

Haruka, in character, flirtatiously smiled at the comment. "My name is Hana, sly dog."

He smirked at this. "I thought you're name was Haruka."

"Some people call me that." She instantly covered up.

"Well can I call you that?"

She pretended to think for a moment. "Sure, why not."

"So, Haruka, you said you wanted shrimp?" He asked, not moving from the position he was in.

"Yes, I did." She said, feeling hunger overcome her again.

"Well, turns out we're out tonight." He said, standing up straight again.

She groaned at this. "Well then, you're useless."

"Aww, no need to hurt my feelings, pretty lady." He commented.

"Do you have anything else that I could eat that DOESN'T involve beer?" She asked, trying to sound annoyed.

"Well, there's something I have that you might like to taste." He said, leaning closer to her then he was before.

She raised her eyebrows. "Really? And what would that be?"

"Well, I'll give you a hint," he began, looking her in the eyes. "It's wet, it's delicious, and it's very hard to resist."

Haruka leaned back a little, smiling wide. "Really?"

Then, he turned around, and grabbed a bottle of Coke, and put it in front of her.

"Really." He replied, smirking at her reaction.

She cleared her throat. "Ahem…thanks."

"No problem sexy."

Haruka rolled her eyes at the nickname as she drank the Coke. She eyed around the building, trying to find her two friends in the huge midst of people. However, she could not see a woman in blue, or a young woman in black.

"Feeling a little lost babe?" He asked, that smug look still on his face.

She turned around, showing her annoyance. "First of all, I really don't care for your sexist nicknames BUDDY. And secondly, no, I'm just looking for someone."

He held his hands up and shrugged. "Whatever, just trying to keep the conversation going, uh…what's your name again?"

Haruka was about to say her disguise name, but then she started observing him. This green-haired man was actually quite the looker. His emerald hair was cut short at the back, but his bangs hung in a suave manner across his similar green eyes. He sported a black wife beater with a pair of dark brown cargos, and a pair of casual black tennis shoes. However, the way he wore it just looked…hot. Haruka soon found herself staring at this stranger, and he realized it.

"Like what you see?"

Haruka gasped in horror upon hearing this, and quickly rebutted. "NO!"

"I don't know what's going on in your mind, but I do believe you were just checking me out."

"I don't know what's going on in your mind, but I do believe you're stupid."

"Rrow! Someone's a little catty tonight." He smirked again, slightly showing his pearly whites. Everything about him was just too perfect. The thought was disgusting for Haruka, considering that she found an individual of the opposite sex who was a flirtatious jerk, incredibly breathtaking to look at.

"You need to stop being so goddamn arrogant." She finally said, sipping her Coke and looking away from him.

"Maybe you just need to become more tolerant." He replied, slightly raising his left eyebrow.

Aggravated, she turned back to him, and got right in his face. "Not to mention ANNOYING."

"You can't be perfect."

"Obviously you can't."

"Whoa, come on man, give me a break! I bent over backwards to give you shrimp last night, and you're attacking me! You might be good-looking, but you really aren't the nicest person." He replied, getting just a little serious.

"I'm not being nice because you're being so smug!" She replied a little too loudly.

"All right calm down. I know I'm arrogant but jeez YOU are irritable beyond belief lady!" He said, touching his finger to her nose. As a response to his action, her face scrunched up with anger. She hated being treated like a little kid with this…whatever the hell he was. With that in mind, she got to her feet and walked off, her nose stuck defiantly in the air while she yelled back to him:

"I DON'T NEED YOUR SHRIMP!"

She had not realized how suggestive that term sounded, but at that moment, she needed to shrug off her sudden anger. The green-haired bartender named Shuu stared at her as she walked away, his eyes lingering in places they really shouldn't have.

"Damn." He muttered to himself, shaking his head from side to side, then proceeding to scrub an already-clean glass.

Haruka passed by Kasumi who was just standing in the crowd, biting her painted nails. She had not caught sight of Hikari ever since they walked in, and that worried her. It would have to be tough to come back to the place where she saw her husband commit such violent sin, especially for someone so young.

"Oh shut up man you aren't tough!" A random man said, drawing Kasumi's attention.

"And you are?" Another man replied.

Kasumi caught sight of the confrontation, and saw a man of high stature fighting with another man who wasn't as tall as him, but he was pretty big in height. The smaller man had black spiky hair that went down to his shoulders. The bigger man had long brown hair that went down to his pecs, and he actually looked very daunting.

The smaller man pushed the bigger man, thus, making him push the small guy back. The black-haired man was about to fling into a wall, but Kasumi had run up to the fight and caught him just before he fell.

"Break it up! Leave the fighting to the professionals!" She yelled to the brown-haired man who just sneered at her as he walked away.

"Geesh…are you okay?" She asked the ebony-haired man.

"Yeah man…I'm used to that." He replied, standing upright and scratching the back of his head.

"Well I guess you aren't really welcomed here then, are you?" She asked, putting one hand on her hip.

"Damn man…guess I hadn't thought of that."

Kasumi slightly smiled at this. "You aren't too bright, are you?"

"I guess not."

She slightly giggled. "I'm Kasumi" She stuck out her hand.

"Satoshi. Trust me, I'm a lot tougher than I look. I swear!"

"Don't worry, I believe you."

"…Thanks."

"You're welcome."

A moment of silence, well, a moment of silence between the two occurred. The place was literally jumping from excitement about the fight that was soon to come. She shyly looked down and rubbed her arm, feeling the blush appear on her face.

When she looked back up, she discovered him eying her body up and down; this immediately disgusted her. Not hesitating one bit, she cupped his chin with two fingers, lifted his head up, and with a smile…SMACK!

…Bitch-slapped him right across the face.

"…Pervert." She angrily mumbled before walking off in some direction, leaving the raven-haired man red with embarrassment.

Her fists clenched and unclenched at her sides as she grumbled about men and how degrading they are to women. (A/N I SMELL A FEMINIST!) As she was doing so, she accidentally bumped into a small figure.

"Oh, excuse me…" She involuntarily spoke, looking down at the person.

"…Kasumi?"

The redhead recognized that voice. "Hikari!"

"Kasumi, I'm starting to regret this. This night hasn't exactly been enjoyable for me."

Kasumi frowned. "You're not the only one, kid."

Hikari lightly smiled at this. "Have you seen Haruka?"

"Last time I saw her, she had that swagger going on."

"The, 'I-am-really-pissed-off-swagger-so-if-you-come-within-five-feet-of-me-you-won't-have-any-reproductive-organs', swagger?"

"Yeah. That one."

"HEYYYYYYY BEST FRIENDS!"

Hikari and Kasumi looked over to where the voice came from, and discovered that Haruka placed her arms around both of their shoulders.

"This is nice, isn't it?" The brunette suggested.

"You tell me." Kasumi mumbled.

"I haven't seen Shinji at all…maybe he isn't…you know…fighting tonight." Hikari suggested.

"If he wasn't fighting tonight, why would he drag himself all the way down here?" Haruka questioned, leaning her face a little too close to Hikari's.

Uncomfortable by her current position, the young girl backed away from her boisterous friend, escaping her hold.

"I just don't know guys. Maybe investigating this wasn't such a bright idea. I'm afraid for my life just meddling with what Shinji is thinking every day. Perhaps it would be best to just…leave."

"Hikari, no. We're not giving up on you."

Upon hearing this, Hikari jerked her head up, her eyes blurry with memories.

"What…did you say?" She asked.

"I said we're not giving up on you Hikari." Haruka repeated.

We're not giving up on you…

We're…not…giving…up…on…you…

I…AM NOT…GIVING UP…ON YOU…

The memories…the incessant memories…

They inundated her mind uninvited.