Chapter 6
Ryo's POV...
I sigh as I sit down to a bench, holding a water bottle in my hand. I take a sip before drowning into my thoughts.
'From what I remember, Kyoko's audition had tree parts, but they also said that the test would chance every year... So it's not sure if this is the same... Oh well, got to run with what I get...But that's not the thing that's bugging me. It feels like I have forgotten something, but what?'
"Mister, is that your real hair colour or did you dye it?" I jump about a foot into the air when I hear high pitched voice RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME.
"SON OF A-! OH, God, you scared me there, kid..." I sigh as I see it's only a little girl. She has a wavy sandy blond hair that is on pig-tails, and she has light brown eyes. She's wearing a teal coloured dress with white ruffles and ribbons. She has this curios look over her face and I see a far too familiar mischievous glint in her eyes.
'She looks familiar.. No way...' I keep my poker face regales to my shock. I'm having a small fan moment again, 'cause it's the God damn MARIA! 'Damn, I knew I forgot something...'
"You didn't answer my question, is your hair dyed or not?" She asks with impatience tone. I rise an amused eyebrow at her. She really is much braver than most give her credit. I'm used to hear insults about my hair, both from adults, children and teenagers, but very few has been brave enough to ask about it, (minus twins). At school, teachers automatically thought it was dyed, and every single time I got a remark about it from my teachers, I had to go through the tiresome explanation that "Yes, my hair is fucking red. Deal with it."
"Nope, this is my natural hair colour. Aren't you scared? Normally kids your age think my hair and eyes are scary..."
'And most adults..' I add in my mind. Really, you would be surprised by how easy it's to scare people with colours alone. She just tilts her head to side innocently, actually confused.
"I don't think it's scary. They are just colours. How anyone could be afraid of a colour? Besides, I think your eyes and hair are pretty!" She smiles innocently at me as she speaks. My eyes widen from shock, no one has said something like that about my hair or eyes, except for twins and my parents. I smirk after a while and chuckle slightly.
"You think so? Well, I think you're way prettier than my hair or eyes." She blushes at my praise, and I laugh. She looks adorable. She huffs and pouts at me when I laugh, thou.
"Hey, no need to get angry." I chuckle before I offer her my hand to shake. "Hi, my name is Ryo Akiyama. Nice to meet you." I smile at her and she glares me slightly before huffing and smirking at me.
"I'm Maria Takarada, Nice to meet you!" I smirked back at her when she shakes my hand.
"Say, how old are you? I have a little sister and brother, but you look way younger than they, and people put a huge show about how 'this isn't a place for children'." I crumble the last part, I'm still angry from before but I manage to hold myself back.
'I have no right to slash out on a child, she has done nothing wrong.'
She blinks before huffing at me again. "I'm not that small! And I'm Five!" I smirk at her as she waves her fist in front of me.
'She sure has some fire in her... And if she's five, that means I'm probably in anime, since Marian was about seven when Kyoko came... Which means her mother should already be dead.' I grimace at that inwardly, I never liked the fact that Maria had to handle such a treatment in such age. 'Probably that old hags fault again...' I shake off my inner thoughts, but I do sent few curses at the Reaper.
"Shouldn't you be with your parents, or siblings or something? Well I'm not one to talk, my siblings are alone somewhere here too.." I see Maria's face turning darker at my question. 'Ah, I hit the bull's eye...'
"My father is in America and my grandfather is busy..." I frown at her.
"Then where is your mom?" I know I'm walking on thin ice, but I have to do this.
"She's dead..." 'Because of me..' it's left unsaid but I can hear it loud and clear. "But I don't want your or anyone else's pity!" I give her a blank look before cutting her off.
"I'm not going to pity you, I just met you. And I would be damned if I did." She looks at me in surprise. But I'm not done. "I should know how it feels, after all, my parents are both dead. I would know how annoying it is when someone pities you." Her eyes widen at me.
"Y-your b-both parents are...?" I just nod. I start fishing my necklace from under my hoodie. And sure enough, I find the silver clover.
"This is all I have left of them." I don't feel any tears, only sadness and nostalgic. I'm somehow over their dead, but it still hurt. I see the way she looks at my necklace in wonder and slowly reaches to touch it, but retreats it like she got bitten. I smile slightly at her.
"It's fine, you can touch it. It's quite pretty isn't it? My mother picked it up, thought my father was against it at first, saying that I probably wouldn't like it, but soon gave up. My mom was quite a spitfire." I smile at the memory of my mom, we couldn't turn her head no matter what we did, when she was set to do something.
Maria nods and gently caress the four leafed clover, I show her the other side and she reads the words out loud.
"Never give up, grow strong and proud. Be anything your heart decides..." I look her into eyes.
"That's how they wanted me to live. That was five years ago, I'm over it now, but it still hurts. But I promised not to let anything get in my way." She looks me in awe, and nods slightly. And then...
"Ryo-nii! Finally! I thought we never find you!" I turn my head to left and see Rin and Ran running towards us. I grin at them, like I just didn't tell a five year old about my dead parents.
"There you two are, what hold you back? I thought you would have found me by now." Rin huffs at me and Ran rolls his eyes.
"Well sorry that we don't have any trackers on you." Ran huffs, Rin bits in with bright smile "Your act was really good by the way!" I smile with pride at that comment. I didn't really get any feedback from the judges...
"Thanks, oh, Maria, these are the ones I told you about. My sister and brother, Rin and Ran. Rin is the one on the left and Ran is one on the right. Rin, Ran, this is Maria, president Lory's granddaughter." They all look at me in shock and I rise an eyebrow.
"What?" Maria opens her mouth, staring at me like I'm an alien.
"I never said who my grandfather was..." My brow rises higher, while I curse inwardly. 'SHIT! WHY DO I KEEP FORGETTING THE IMORTAND STUFF?!'
"Yeah, but your surname is Takarada, and you said your father is away and your grandfather is busy, so I took it that he is your grandfather." They nod slowly at my explanation. Twins shake their heads and turn to smile at Maria.
"Well isn't this a coincidence, we were just talking to him, and he told us about you. We have one question for you, thought." Maria blinks but nods, giving them a go-ahead. Twins give evil smirks...
"Do you like pranks?" I groan when I hear that. 'Of fucking course twins would ask her that...'
Maria smirks back at them, just as evilly. "What do you got in your mind?" I rise my hands up in front of me with a sigh.
"Whatever it is in your mind, keep me out of it. Just you know, I won't come to save you when you two get into trouble." All three just give me monk innocent faces. Then Ran blinks and looks at the clock near by.
"Eh, should you go back now Ryo-nii? You will be late other wise.." I turn to look at clock and my eyes widen.
"WHAT THE FUCK?! YOU COULD HAVE SAID THAT SOONER!" I shout back at twins as I run through the hallway, shocking few workers with my language that I use at the kids and I just hear three of them laughing at me...
'Honestly, those two little shits..' I can't help but smile fondly for them while running.
'Alright, let's see what they have for me!'
~O~
OMAKE! What happened to Reaper?
"HAAAATZUUUUUUU!Sniff...Huh, seems like many of my clients are cursing me today.." Reaper commented.
A man in his mid twenties with bald head and red eyes sweatdropped. He had tattoos all around his head, and piercings in his ears. He wore the same kind of black rope as Reaper.
"That was the fourth hundred in the last hour... Just how many of your targets are miss hits?" He asked in a deep voice while carrying a scythe. Reaper stopped floating and stood on top of a skyscraper, thoughtful expression on her face.
.
.
.
"I honestly don't remember. But that's why you are here Gas! To pretend that from happening again!" She said in a carefree tone. Gas' yaw dropped at his boss, wondering how the hell she still had her job.
"If your curious how I'm still a Grim Reaper, Boss thinks that I would just get in others way in the mortal world, so I just keep doing my work until I fade." Gas sweatdrops again, but hid it behind a chough and took a notebook from his pocket.
"Our next target is 25 year old male boxer, who is supposed to be murdered by his brother." Gas looked up at old Reaper who sighed.
"Seriously, I bet my scythe that Gabriel has given a hand with these dramatic deaths! Boss doesn't have an eye or mind for good theatre..." if Gas was any lesser being, he would have facepalmed at his boss. But he managed to stop himself from destroying any of his much needed brain shells.
"Chough, Boss, target is almost at the spot, we should go now." The old Reaper sighed but nodded and put her hood up.
"You are no fun Gas, maybe I should have just hired that blond kid back then, instead of sending him to a new life... What was his name again? Ah, right, Roy. He was a funny guy, his reactions were hilarious..." She sighs dramatically and soars downwards when she sees her co-workers eye twitching, laughing all the way down.
Gas sighed, praying for whoever this 'Roy' was, since his boss had taken liking to him.
'Knowing her, she would just accidently kill him again if their roads ever crossed...' With those thoughts, he soared to his employer, making sure she didn't take wrong soul AGAIN.
~O~
Huh, done! I couldn't resist to put Reaper here... and she really needs help... Anyway, nice to see you all again! I have had really good winter vacation so far, and I have much energy regales to my sleeping rhythm... Also, I found some time to go see a friend that I haven't seen for AGES and I really had good time with her.
but I still need help with end of audition.. if you would like something special happen, SPEAK NOW!
Ryo: Don't use readers to make your fic! *HE hits me on to head*
Me: AU! YOU SON OF BITCH! AREN'T YOU SUPPOSED TO BE A GENTLE MAN?! AND I'M DESPARED HERE!
Ryo: Doesn't mean you can lazy around.
Me: Huoh, fine, but you have to say that what I asked, if you don't want to get Maria have crush on you..*Gives evil smile*
Ryo: *shutters* Alright fine, Thank you for reading and supporting us! In future, if you have questions for me or twins, you can ask them and we answer in Writers notes. Also, 14fox doesn't own Skip beat or it's original characters, just us.
me: *pats his head* Now, it wasn't so bad was it?
Ryo:*glares at me*
Me:...What did I do to deserve your anger?
Ryo: You made Rin tear up. And your lazy.
Me*sighs*: Anyway, bye!
Edited; 4.7.2017