Chapter 4
It was about midnight when Miyu left the dorms. She didn't expect anyone to notice her departure-after all; Suzuki was snoring too loudly to notice anything. Shivering, Miyu pulled her jacket tightly around her. The air wasn't cold, it was, in fact, a rather warm night, but she shivered anyway.
She stood outside the towering old castle, her school, Gakkou-Mahou, and slowly approached it. To a Muggle, the school would have appeared as a traditional Shinto shrine (undergoing repairs), perched carefully on a towering hill. Any wizard would and could see the school in its full glory-the magnificent castle that shot straight up into the sky, dark walls shining dazzlingly against the bright sunny sky, but no visible doors.
As Miyu approached the castle, two towering, majestic crystal double doors appeared and swung open welcomingly. Miyu smiled, comforted at the familiar sight, and hurried inside.
The school was just as she remembered it. The marble floors, that were bewitched to show a scene of some sort, tonight presented a beach, the water lapping up the shores and the sanding creasing under wherever you stepped. The walls were decorated with pictures; the people inside the paintings taking a nice snooze. Miyu moved quietly down the halls until she reached a crystal, spiral staircase twisting up for what seemed like forever. As Miyu climbed the steps, she closed her eyes gently, thinking almost desperately of her destination. When she reached the third step, it took on a silvery glow that flared out and surrounded the small seeker, consuming her completely before vanishing.
The glow reappeared in a hallway on the 4 floor. The silver died down, allowing Miyu to step free of the shining aura, her lips molded into a smile. She was going to see Hana!
She turned to what appeared to be a blank wall, and looked for the odd brick. Aha! She ran her fingers along a slightly darker gray brick than the rest of the pale gray stones and softly sang the song:
"Sing the song, softer, softer,
So you don't get lost,
Make the time longer, longer,
Or pay the frightful cost."
With a faint whisper of wind, the brick transformed into a red wood door, which she hastily stepped into, for the door would disappear three seconds after being touched. As Miyu stepped into the painfully familiar common room, she noticed how little it had changed. Sure, somebody had ripped off the sign on Miyu's favorite fluffy chair that read, "Miyu sits here!", but besides that, nothing was different.
What did I expect? For them to grieve losing me? Miyu asked herself, climbing a wooden staircase to the girls dorm, and pushing through the various curtains along that way. She stopped in front of a black door with golden letters that spelled, Seventh Year Students.
"Hana!" she hissed, tapping her gently snoring friend, who opened her eerie emerald green eyes at once.
"Miyu?" she asked, only the tone of her voice giving away how sleepy Hana was.
"Yes!" Miyu gasped, smiling broadly.
"Oh, hey…" Hana said vaguely, her eyes darkening with evil interest, though. The tall Japanese girl reached under her pillow, obviously trying to hide this action with her body, but Miyu wasn't fooled.
"What are you doing?" Miyu asked.
"We've all been hoping to see you, Miyu!" Hana said creepily, and pulled a silver box with a red button on it. "Hoping very much!" she pressed the button.
An alarm call sounded throughout the room, and probably from the other dorms as well. Through the ringing bells, Miyu could hear Hana's voice magnified to yell, "Miyu, the newest Professional Quidditch Player is in the seventh year girls' dormitory! Please come get autographs."
"Han! What is this?" Miyu cried, clapping her hands to her ears.
"Will you sign my sheet's, Miss Miyu?" Hana asked, taking a quill from her bedside table and offering to Miyu as the alarm still rang. Suddenly there were dozens of girls all over, asking for the same thing: Miyu's autograph!
"I admire you, Miss Miyu!"
"You are the best, Miyu-san!"
"I looooove you!" came a chorus.
Miyu shook her head as her old classmates pressed in on her, suffocating her. This wasn't what she wanted. She yelled out and tore through the crowd to the door, and pushed it open.
The common room and staircase was filled with all students.
"Get AWAY FROM ME!" Miyu screamed, losing patients.
"Guys, get away from the newbie! Hey, no pushing! I know your mother, Mr. Kiyosko!" came a new, very familiar voice, and Miyu saw Millie fighting through the crowd with ease. "Lean forward!" The American Quidditch player yelled to Miyu.
"Don't carry me!" Miyu protested.
"Fine." Millie agreed, and turned to leave, ignoring the crowd pressing against her, trying to steal her clothes.
"No, wait!" Miyu gasped, and Millie turned and picked up the reluctant new idol. Millie carried Miyu out of the dorm easily and together they sprinted down the halls to the grounds, where, as soon as they made it out of the gates, they turned and apparated.
A split second before leaving the grounds, Miyu saw hundreds of students running after them. Then she was in the 'Girly' Dorm.
"Thanks," she panted, sitting down.
"No prob!" Millie said, relaxing. Miyu wondered what was wrong with this picture. They were just sitting in the 'Girly' Dorm, the lights on and the girls no doubt in the living room. Wait. It was still just after two o'clock.
"Millie, how did you know I was gone?"
"Ah. I was waiting for you to ask. See we wouldn't have known if Suzuki hadn't falling out of bed and knocked over the ladder. So as we put it back, we realized that through our groaning and complaining and light's turning on, you hadn't stirred. So… yeah, you get the drift."
"Oh," Miyu said, shamefacedly.
"But come on, Miyu!" Millie said in annoyance. "You are really bad at sneaking out! You didn't even put pillows under your covers!"
"Does this mean I'm not in trouble?" Miyu said hopefully.
"Kid, you were in trouble."
"Yeah, I know I was!" Miyu snapped. "But I mean, with the team."
Millie stretched and yawned. "Well, Sato came looking for you. He said something about training. Anyway, we told him you were out on a walk so he's probably out looking for you or something."
At this, Miyu yelped and scurried over to the closet she had claimed as her own the previous night, digging through for some cloths more appropriate for Quidditch practice.
"Whatcha getting all worked up for? He only came a few minutes ago…" But Millie didn't get to finish for Miyu was already out the door.
Izumi grinned, as she entered the room just after Miyu left. "It's always like this the first practice."
Millie just groaned and began to change slowly- as she glanced out the window, she saw Miyu sprinting down the walkway, broom in hand.
XXX
"Millie!"
"Sir!" Millie said seriously, saluting Sato importantly.
"How many times must I ask you not to call me that?" Sato groaned, exasperated. "Hit a bludger at something, I want to see if you need practice."
Millie shrugged, took aim at a particular bludger and whacked it with her bat as hard as she could.
Millie, who was fond of beating up various members of the team, crowed in jubilation when the bludger hit the destined target: Sato's nose.
"Oh my gosh, have you hurt him?" little Miyu squeaked in alarm, speeding over to where Sato was fixing his broken nose.
"Still have a lot to learn, young grasshopper." Izumi teased.
"Yeah, Miyu," Kato laughed. "In Quidditch, we're a family. When one person gets hurt, we're here to laugh at them and bring it back to haunt them for the rest of their miserable lives."
"I am the proud sponsor of 87 inside "accident" jokes!" Millie said importantly, puffing out her chest.
"And I like to punch the guys when they think they can cop a feel!" Suzuki said, marveling at her flexed fingers.
"It's a pretty rough life, all in all," Sato said, his broken nose healed. "But we always have fun."
"Like this!" Millie yelled, and punched Sato in the face, breaking his nose for the second time that morning.
Miyu stared at him for a moment, and then giggled, if unwillingly.
"Oh - " Millie cursed in English as Sato regained balance and shot her a murderous glare. "This means payback from Hell."
"Millie, you have kitchen duty, clean up duty, and laundry duty for the next week!" Sato yelled. Millie gasped in anger, stole the quaffel from Izumi and threw it at Sato's face.
Millie had thought that by now, Sato would have the sense to dodge flying balls hurtling at his face. But he allowed himself to be smacked in the face for the third time.
"Millie, enough!" he growled, once again healing his nose. "I want you to practice seeking today. You've obviously had a little too much experience in the beating department."
"Seeking!" Millie moaned, obviously resentful. She glared at Miyu in dislike, causing the young woman to flinch visibly.
"Yes, seeking. You're going up against Miyu, so get to it. I let the snitch out awhile ago." Sato briefed her. "Now get to it," he blew on a whistle, the piercing noise echoing through the Quidditch field.
Miyu mounted her new Firebolt and took a deep breath before she kicked off. Millie had already rocketed into the air, quick as ever, and was zooming around in all directions, eyes sweeping the field for golden.
Miyu followed, alert for the tiny ball, but she lacked speed; the Firebolt was still new to her and hard to maneuver-adding speed would just result in her totally losing control and embarrassing herself in front of the whole time and Sato.
Thinking of Sato made Miyu blush, though she was unsure why, and she quickly shook off this emotion in time to notice Millie had spotted something. She was speeding toward the ground, snatching at the air in front of her.
Miyu speed off towards her and immediately wished she hadn't. She had forgotten that she rode a Firebolt now, and the overwhelming speed nearly sent the girl into a wall. She took a few moments to recover before taking off, more slowly, towards Millie-only to find the girl stopped and screaming out in frustration about losing the snitch.
Miyu sighed and examined her surroundings closely. There was no gold amongst the green and white of the stadium, so she glanced upward. On some rare occasions, Miyu had found the snitch floating over the stadium, hidden in the blue of the sky.
This was on of those times. The snitch was a few meters directly above Millie, and Miyu dove towards it. Millie immediately caught on and pulled her broom upwards, grabbing at it.
The snitch then decided it was going to move. It swayed sideways, then took off, both girls closely behind. Miyu reached out, as did Millie, but the beater also sped up, closing in on the tiny golden ball. Miyu followed her act, the speed again shocking her but she kept control, her fist wrapped around the broom so tightly her knuckles were beginning to turn white.
Finally Millie decided to loss the girl. She bumped into her, causing the tip of Miyu's broom to point down and, at full speed, Miyu plummeted toward the ground. The tiny girl yelped and pulled out of the dive, just in time to watch Millie close her fingers around the golden ball.
"That wasn't fair!" Miyu cried, cheeks red with the embarrassment and disappointment of her defeat.
Millie shrugged. "Quidditch isn't fair. Get used to it kid." She landed and strode off, Miyu following, shoulders hunched and fists clenched.
"Why did I agree to this in the first place?" She fumed. "I should never have joined the school team! All Quidditch does is ruin my life!" She was oblivious to the fact that Millie overheard and had a reply ready for her.
XXX Sato's POV XXX
Sato's head was bent over his diagrams, pencil in hand and ready to use. But nothing was coming to the captain's mind. It had been a long, long day and he was stressed.
First he had had to convince Joyaung, the headmaster, to excuse Miyu from the rest of the year. That had gone well, for the headmaster was ecstatic that Miyu had accepted a job in the Quidditch department, for she had turned down many. Why, Sato had to wonder. Miyu didn't seem to enjoy Quidditch as much as the rest of the team, and Sato wondered if he should be proud or not that he was able to get her into the Quidditch profession.
Next came investigating Mitsune's threat. Sure enough, the Quidditch store downtown had refused to sell him the part he wanted, leading up to a heated "discussion" with the shop manager. The seeker's threat hadn't been empty. And lastly, conflict was growing within the team.
Sure, Kato and Suzuki had always hated each other with a passion, but they had never stopped to scream at the other mid practice. Topping that, ever since Miyu had lost to Millie, she had refused to talk to the brunette, and Millie didn't seemed to happy when Sato asked about Miyu's skills at lunch. He suspected that the two had had an argument of their own that had created a wedge between them.
And all of this was in time for their first match.
Sato scowled and surrendered his pencil to the desk. How was he supposed to think of strategies now? Sato smacked his head repeatedly on the desk in frustration, hoping some idea would come to his mind. He was interrupted by a small knock on the door and the timid voice of Miyu calling him.
"Come in," Sato called, and Miyu entered, dressed in a casual black sweater and jeans, a outfit much similar to the one Natsumi always selected. She was blushing, which wasn't rare for Miyu. The girl always seemed embarrassed around the team.
"Sato, are you okay? You didn't leave with the others to go to dinner and you didn't eat at lunch and, well, you seem upset. Is something wrong?"
"Nah," Sato told her. "I'm just a little frustrated. You know, comes with the job." She nodded. "Anyway, why didn't you leave with them? I'm sure you'd be hungry after practice."
"Well, I wanted to stay here and study for awhile. I mean, I know I'm not in school anymore and I don't have to, but I don't want to end up stupid like M-" She cut off abruptly, a hand clasped over her mouth.
"Like Millie? Because she's not as stupid as she seems- she just lacks patience." Sato finished. Miyu nodded; still clearly shocked she had even thought such a thing. "Did something happen between you two? You and her have been avoiding each other lately since morning practice."
Miyu sighed. "We got into a little argument. It's nothing big. You don't have to worry about it."
"That's good," Sato replied, but sure Miyu was as far from right as possible. "You want to get something to eat? I know a place on the corner that's not to crowded…"
"Yeah, food sounds good." Miyu said quietly, as if dazed, and Sato had to wonder what had happened between her and the beater.