"You know, this healthy weirdo-food isn't actually that bad." Rin said, considering, picking another piece of spicy chicken out of her stir fry and swallowing it in one go, grinning slightly at Kata, who smiled.

"Glad you think so."

Kata took a sip of her tea, watching as Rin chugged her can of Diet Coke. Then Kata said,
"By the way, Rin, do you have any plans for today?"

"Huh?" Rin asked, looking up at Kata, a slight crease in her forehead, "What?"

"You got a letter this morning." her aunt elaborated, pushing a letter toward Rin, "Quite early this morning. But I decided I want to live and didn't wake you up."

"Good choice." Rin muttered, picking up the letter, her eyebrows raised in sceptical curiosity.

Deftly snatching a knife off the counter, she sliced the top of the envelope open carelessly, yanking the letter out and nearly ripping it. Scanning it with green eyes, Rin's expression remained mutual as she read the following words:

To Rin Furishine,

It has come to our attention that you finished an official Angelic Layer match on Saturday at 1:03pm and have since then been registered an Angel Card. This means you eligible for the upcoming Angelic Layer Tournament, beginning on the 25th of May, six days from today. The address is being sent to you. The tournament begins in the afternoon. You should try to arrive for about 11:30.

Kindest Regards,
Tokyo Angelic Layer management.

"A tournament, huh?" Rin asked out loud, rolling up the letter and tapping it against her palm. She read the letter again, frowning at the mentioning of an 'Angel Card'.

It must be that bastard Mihara's doing…

Kata looked up, her head tilted slightly to one side.

"Tournament? For what?"

"Angelic Layer," Rin replied, nodding to Iolanthe, who was 'sitting' on top of the breadbin, one hand on the floor to stop her tipping over.

Rin wasn't sure why, but she liked to carry Iolanthe around with her. Not in her hand, obviously, because Rin considered that to be just too childish for words, but having her in her bag made Rin feel like she actually had someone to talk to, which was ridiculous because Iolanthe was a machine. But all the same...

"So this must be your Angel…" Kata said softly, examining Iolanthe with interest, softly brushing the lavender hair with her fingers. Rin watched, somewhat puzzled at her aunt's reaction. Then Kata suddenly looked back at Rin, "But I thought you didn't like Angelic Layer."

"I don't," responded the black-haired teenager, picking Iolanthe off the breadbin and stuffing her carefully into her canvas bag, "I still think it's complete over-hyped shit and totally stupid."

Kata looked confused.

"But then...why are you going to the Tournament?"

"I owed somebody a favour." Rin said, a cross between a smile and a smirk on her face. Then she left the room, leaving a bewildered Kata standing foolishly by the breadbin.

Six days passed, and Rin had bid Kata farewell and set off for the contest. Iolanthe was stowed away in Rin's bag, her head just poking out of the top. Rin had, as usual, dressed as though there had been a powercut that morning. Dark purple shorts, green-and-black knee-length socks, red converse trainers, lime-green tank top, and blue shoulder bag.

She was heading for a bus stop she had discovered whilst exploring the area around her aunt's house. According to the paper she had been sent, it would take her straight to the Angelic Layer Stadium, since Rin was new to Tokyo.

Seeing the blue-silver bus swerving gracefully around the corner, Rin hurried for the stop, hoping it wouldn't provoke her asthma too much. She was in such as rush that when she reached the bus, she had yet to take her purse out of her bag. Getting in, she accidentally jabbed somebody with her elbow.

"Hey, watch it!" piped up a shrill voice.

"Watch it yourself, fat ass," retorted Rin, without even turning to look.

Really, it was hardly Rin's fault. The bus was early, for one thing, and it was positively jammed with people. If somebody was going to get a little huffy over and accident, Rin wasn't about to apologise. And so Rin manage to blur into the crowd, finding a tucked-away empty seat, and then proceeded to stare out of the window, her mind drifting away with the clouds…

The bus stopped by the Stadium later, spitting out a small crowd of people, most of them gabbling excitedly about Angelic Layer. Rolling her eyes, Rin stomped the rest of the way up the concrete steps towards the doors.

Dozens of other people, mostly around teenage though there were some kids and adults too, were milling around in the building. Inside, it was very modern and pristine-looking. The floors consisted of polished blue tiles and the walls were mostly white or glass. Rin looked around, biting the inside of her mouth.

"Where the hell am I meant to go in this crazy place?" she asked out loud, holding the map between her hands. Suddenly, someone barged into her, and Rin stumbled, the map tearing in two.

"Watch it, moron!"

A boy of around sixteen was the speaker. He had spiky, dark red hair, dark grey eyes and was wearing a dark brown denim jacket, a black T-shirt which had some writing on that Rin couldn't make out. Along with jeans, red-and-white trainers and two purple sweatbands on his wrists, he looked fairly ordinary to Rin, but she could see a human-shaped item in the pocket of his jacket.

"Watch it yourself, asshole." Rin replied, glaring blankly at him. He looked slightly surprised, as people often did after being the receiver of Rin's 'in-your-face' insults and deadeye stare. But then he simply smirked.

"You talk big for a rookie, don't you? If you want the kiddie league, it's over there." he said, pointing.

Rin jerked her head, eyebrows raised.

"And who are you meant to be? The champion? By the looks, I'd say dead last."

"Kado Yatsukoji." responded the boy, eyeing Rin, "Don't expect you've heard of me since you're such a novice."

"Rin Furishine. And you'll be hearing that name a lot more from now on, loser." Rin smirked, and stalked off, head raised defiantly.

Kado watched her leave, head tilted slightly to one side and eyebrows up.

"Yeah, I just bet I will." he muttered, before turning and walking away in the opposite direction.

Rin was still seething after Kado had left, feeling a little foolish but struggling as hard as she could internally not to look self-conscious. This wasn't as difficult for Rin most of the time, since she already attracted weird looks because of her clothes, hair and general attitude.

"Hey!"

Rin turned around so see a girl standing behind her. The girl had shoulder-length light brown hair (it was difficult to judge the length correctly as she had it up in two buns at the side of her hair, tied there with sunflower scrunches) warm hazel eyes, a cute vest-top with a pink chibi-star on it, blue leggings and trainers. In a small bag, an Angel with wavy blue hair poked out.

"Are you new?" the girl inquired, tipping her head to one side. Rin nodded.

"Me too! I just found D-7. What room are you in?"

"I'm in the same as you." Rin replied, feeling she should try and be a little sociable, "I'm Rin, by the way."

"I'm Kohaku," the other teenager smiled. She pulled the small doll Rin had spotted out of her bag. "This is Akira, my Angel."

Akira's hair seemed to be held back in a messy, spirally ponytail. The outfit consisted of a strange shiny turquoise kimono/dress, which had jagged sleeves that had been torn artistically off so the Angel's arms moved freely, small red gloves on her hands. The top and bottom half of the blue thing separated by a jet-black ribbon. Legs came out from under the shiny, knee-length material, finished off with what looked like purple pumps which had an extra thick sole.

"She's cool." Rin told Kohaku, unable to think of much else to say.

Fumbling in her own back, she brought out Iolanthe. Kohaku studied her with interest, particularly at the boots and blue strips.

"I like her! You kind of went for the aero-dynamic look with the leotard."

"Something like that." Rin shrugged, not wanting to admit she had picked the leotard solely because it looked good and because it was already easy to alter.

"So, where's D-7?" Rin went straight to the point in asking, "I've been looking for it but some jackass barged into me and I lost my map."

"This way." Kohaku grinned, and walked off.

Rin followed, stuffing Iolanthe back into her bag. While Kohaku seemed nice, Rin didn't like showing people her Angel for some reason. It seemed to make Iolanthe feel less special, private. Rin liked to think that Iolanthe was solely hers, and not just something for others to gawk at. She knew thinking this way made her sound like a child who had a toy she didn't want to share, but it was how she felt. And, in retrospective, she kind of was.

"Um...here it is." Kohaku mumbled, pushing open the door and going inside. Rin followed.

Six people looked up as she came in. Three girls were all sitting in red leather chairs, all of them with expensive-looking clothes that were obviously designer, and they were all flicking heavily made-up eyes at Rin, possibly finding it difficult to take in her had-a-fight-with-a-washer outfit. Two boys were talking to each other over a table, excitedly holding out their Angels, though Rin spotted a little girl with pink strap-on shoes and wispy blonde hair sitting next to one of the boys.

Pretending she couldn't see any of them looking, Rin strode over to where Kohaku had parked herself, picked up a random magazine and pretended to read. The boys returned to their conversation, their interest in the new girl fading. The three girls however, had not.

"Excuse me."

An overly sweet voice suddenly interrupted Rin's half-assed reading. Dropping her magazine in mild surprise, Rin looked up. The designer-clad girls had moved from their comfy red chairs and were standing in front of Rin and Kohaku. The girl with the shortest skirt, long spiralling blonde hair and most perfectly applied lipstick was the speaker.

"Huh?" Rin asked, her voice sounding slightly muffled and even a bit gormless.

"Well...are you meant to be in here?" she asked sweetly. Rin blinked.

"Leave her alone, Reiko," Kohaku mumbled into her lap. The girl, Reiko, shot Kohaku a haughty and condescending look.

"I wasn't talking to you, Kohaku." she told her, pronouncing Kohaku's name mockingly, "I was talking to..."

She looked at Rin expectantly.

"Give me your name and maybe I'll give you mine," Rin responded, eyeing Reiko with distaste.

"Hey! Don't talk to Reiko like-" butted in the girl to Leiko's right, a red-headed girl with hair in plaited bunches, but Reiko waved a hand imperiously,

"My name is Reiko Jubi. But as I was saying, are you...supposed to be here?"

"If this is room D-7, then yeah." Rin answered coldly, bending down in her seat to pick up the magazine, flicking it open importantly.

"You didn't tell Reiko your name." the girl on Leiko's left with short black hair said bossily. Rin looked up, raising her eyebrows.

"Furishine."

"Your name is Furishine?" asked the black-haired girl with slightly flared jeans incredulously.

Rin's eyes flicked slightly to Kohaku, who was looking from at Rin with something like admiration on her face.

"No, that's my last name. I don't feel like telling you my first name." Rin replied frostily, holding up the magazine on purpose up to her face so Leiko was blocked from view.

The boys were now looking over in interest, feeling the tension in the air, and even the little girl looked up.

"Hey! Don't ignore Reiko!" the girl with orangey-red hair squeaked.

Talking from behind the shiny magazine, Rin said,

"Well if I don't ignore her it means I have to listen to her annoying voice."

"What did you just-" started one of the girls (Rin couldn't see because the magazine was still in her face) when suddenly, a bell rung.

"Attention please! Could Aimi Buburu and Kohaku Tanaruchi please head for the arena? Their match is about to begin."

Reiko and the black-haired girl turned to look at the flustered auburn-haired girl.

"That's you, Aimi," Reiko informed Aimi bossily, "We'll be watching you." Leiko then turned and regarded Rin with her brown eyes haughtily, "And we'll finished this later, Furishine. Come on, Sorako."

And with that, Reiko and the black-haired girl left the room, the latter glancing behind her. Rin, sighing, stood up as well; turning to face Kohaku and pretending Aimi wasn't still standing there.

"Thought they'd never leave." Rin said to Kohaku, who smiled widely.

"That was really something, Rin! I haven't seen someone tell Reiko where to get off for a long time!"

"Eh, whatever, I don't care about them," Rin shrugged, looking at Kohaku, "You do, though, right?"

Kohaku nodded, looking almost ashamed.

"She's in my school... And, well-"

"Yeah. I had those in my last school." Rin nodded. Then a door opened in a corner of the room. A woman looked out, spotting Aimi and Kohaku.

"You two need to come with me now," she informed them, "The Arena's this way."

"I'd better go." Kohaku said as Aimi went toward the woman. "Wish me luck!"

"Trust me," Rin snorted, tossing her head in order to flick her bangs out of her eyes. "You won't need it."

And with an eye-roll and a slight wave, Rin left, heading for the stadium.

Typical Rin, eh? Enemies as soon as she walks through the door. Place your bets on who she's up against, the arrogant Kato, bitchy Reiko or somebody totally unexpected? Who knows?

Keep reading for the next chapter! (Which will HOPEFULLY be in soon!)