Heya, sorry for the long delay of no updates, been very busy lately with school, so now i managed to get this chap up! Oh and here there are two characters i will add to the story, one was an idea i had but Projekt-z got her down, the second is another character i've been thinking of. Anywya enjoy!

Chapter 9: Festival

Takashi looked around at the closet, looking for some clothes to wear for the night. Since Kasumi was going he thought about wearing something nice for the occasion, then again it was going to be a warm night, still a jacket wouldn't be a bad choice to bring. Takashi now looked at the choice of jackets, between his school uniform jacket or the one with the hawk emblem over the heart.

Takashi looked back and forth before deciding on taking the hawk jacket. 'I wonder if Zell's having the same problems as me?' Takashi thought as he began to change.

"A festival at Takashi's school?" Ayane asked Zell he went to the bathroom. The house Ayane lived in was a regular two-story, complete with two bathrooms, a bedroom and a guestroom, a kitchen, living room, basement, etc.

"Yeah, I didn't want to disappoint him, plus this will help me keep an eye on Kasumi too" Zell said from the bathroom. Ayane cringed a bit, she wanted to fulfill her father's wish, but at the same time, part of her didn't want to hurt Kasumi or see her get killed, mostly from Hayate wanting her back safely.

"If you don't want me to go I'll cancel," Zell said suddenly from behind Ayane, having wrapped his arms around her. Ayane tensed and tried to get out of the hold, but she eased up a bit and sighed.

"No, go and enjoy your night, I'll be ok," Ayane said softly to him. Zell sighed and kissed Ayane's cheek softly before letting go of her.

"I'll try to," he said and left a blushing and dumbstruck Ayane on the couch, wondering what had just occurred.

"Well looks like this year's culture Fest. Is going well, wouldn't you say Taka-kun?" Shinji asked Takashi as he bit into the Teriyaki. Takashi was staring off into space, as if in deep thought about something.

"Yo Takashi!" Shinji said, bopping him aside the head, causing him to snap back to reality.

"Huh?" Takashi blinked as his mind returned to reality.

"Dude you've been zoning out a lot since we got here, what's going on, anybody home?" Shinji asked as he knocked on Takashi's forehead, forcing the teen to push his friend into nearly falling into a boiling grease vat.

"Whoa, dude you nearly deep-fried me!" Shinji said as he rose his arms to stop any more hostile behavior.

"Sorry man, I've got a ton on my mind," Takashi apologized.

"Is this about those rumors about you and Fumiko? Dude just embrace it man, that way you might actually get her to be your girlfriend," Shinji stated.

Takashi sighed and made a mental chuckle, oh if only he knew how close he was to that. The whole rumors of Takashi and 'Fumiko' recently being a bit closer to each other than usual sparked questions and later rumors about their relationship. The kunoichi in disguise had told them that she thought Takashi was familiar to her and when questioned about it over the period Takashi was gone she had remembered of a childhood friend that was exactly like Takashi, and Takashi remembered the same.

Ironically she was telling the truth, but thankfully she never spoke of her ninja side so the others took that as truth. 'Weird how she's telling the truth but hid her ninja heritage…guess she's really good at hiding things,' Takashi thought.

"uh, yeah sure, let's go with that…" Takashi shrugged. While Shinji jumped and said 'I knew it!', Takashi looked around. Almost a lot of the school came for this, and a few other people who were apparently the parents or relatives of students, some of the guys wore modern clothes and some girls wore yukatas or kimonos, actually, some of the girls Takashi chatted with were there in kimonos, and he had to admit they looked good.

Still, one thing nagged at the back of his head…well two actually: Where were Kasumi and Zell?

"Whoa…check that out…" Shinji said as he looked in the distance. Takashi looked and nearly gaped when he saw who was coming. He saw that Zell was coming in a black hoodie with the zipper all the way down to show a black shirt with three red slash marks on it as part of the design, but it was Kasumi…eh… Fumiko who got the attention.

The kimono she wore was…well…colorful to say the least, it was a light pink color with a dark blue obi sash tied in a cute bow. She even didn't have her glasses on, which Takashi knew was a great risk, anyone could've found out she was the famous Kasumi and her secret would've been blown, strangely the girls were amazed by her appearance, not even caring she didn't have her glasses on or not.

"Hello Takashi, Shinji, Kenichi," Kasumi bowed politely.

"Wow…you look amazing Fumiko…" Takashi said with a blush on his face.

"Damn Fumiko, where'd you get that?" Shinji said, ogling her kimono.

"This? Oh it was just something I had saved," Kasumi said, a little tint of pink on her cheeks.

"Yo Takashi, can I talk to you in private?" Zell asked the teen. Takashi nodded and left Shinji and Kenichi alone with Kasumi.

"What's wrong?" Takashi asked.

"Listen, while we were coming here…I sensed that something was following us…it's another of the zodiac kids from Donovan's side," Zell said coldly.

"Alright, want me to warn Kasumi?" Takashi asked.

"Just get the others out of here…I'll go get the one that followed us," Zell said and disappeared. Takashi nodded and went to Kasumi and the small group gathering around the kunoichi.

"Hey uh Fumiko, you wanna go walk with me and the others?" he asked her. She nodded and the group left to go walk around.

Zell reappeared at the top of a building and looked at the hooded figure before him. "Found you…" he said coldly. The hooded figure turned and lowered the hood, revealing to be a girl around his age, she too had the same gold eyes as Takashi, but Zell saw despair and anguish, not to mention darkness in them. There was also a sense of bloodlust coming from her body, the eyes flashed for a second as the girl sneered.

"Zell, how long has it been…5…maybe 6 years since we met?" the girl asked in a British accent.

"Dora Gon…I guess Donovan didn't stop Project Z after he casted me aside when he deemed me a failure, huh?" Zell asked as he pointed an all-black blade at her. Dora Gon smirked as she removed the robe, revealing that the left side of her body was covered in scales of a dragon with a dragon's left arm to match.

"Nope, me and Hebei are just one of the new batch he made," Dora Gon smirked and charged at Zell.

'Hebei too? Wait, if she's here…oh shit, Takashi!' Zell realized just as the dragon woman charged and slashed her dragon claw at Zell, forcing him to block it.

Takashi lifted his head up, sensing something was wrong. 'What's this feeling just now? It feels like…darkness…' he thought.

"Taka-kun? You alright?" Kasumi asked him when she peeled away from the others.

"Huh? Oh yeah, just needed some air is all," Takashi said, not wanting to worry her. He then looked at the others, noticing they were busy chatting or eating with the other students. Takashi smiled a bit then sighed, once he graduated he was going with Kasumi, Tarou and Zell to train for the DOA tournament, assuming he got an invitation. He'd never see the others again, all the times they play video games at the arcade, hung out and did stuff together, he'd never be able to do that anymore.

Takashi was glad the others didn't look at him, it hid the sorrow Kasumi could clearly see in his eyes. Takashi gently felt the warm hand of Kasumi wrap around his hand and her head gently resting on his arm. A small smile graced Takashi's face, silently thanking her for her company, before holding her hand back.

Takashi went back to the others with Kasumi and enjoyed the rest of the time with them, yet he kept having a bad feeling something bad was going to happen. Soon only some people were left as the festival was drawing to a close, Takashi and his friends thought about hitting the hay, yet Takashi still felt edgy about something.

"Yo Taka, we're all heading to your place later, right?" Shinji asked him.

"My place? Why my place?" he asked him.

"Well it's been a while since we hung out there, and since school's gonna end and graduation coming, we got to get ready, plus we might not get the chance to hang out and stuff like we used to," Kenichi said as he walked up to the two. Takashi suddenly felt something nearby, a dark presence that seemed to be slithering around them.

"Takashi, what's wrong?" Kasumi asked him, noticing his expression.

"There's…something here…" he said. Suddenly they hear a girl scream and they saw that a little garden snake slither on past some girls, who were screaming like bloody murder when they saw it, causing the men to sweat drop.

"A snake? You're all scared of a snake?" Takashi raised an eyebrow at this. A much more deeper hiss, but from something much larger, stopped everyone dead in their tracks. Takashi slowly turned his head as he saw the biggest snake he had ever seen right before him. The sudden appearance of the snake made him freeze, for one he never expected a snake to appear that big…the other was that he knew who it belonged to and realized what he sensed before.

'This snake…no…this means that he's' Takashi quickly shot the others a look that said 'run!' as he turned to the snake.

"Takashi!" Shinji called.

"Run! Get everyone out of here!" Takashi yelled, unfortunately he didn't see the other snakes slither out of the shadows of the stands and coil around everyone, constricting them in their grips.

"W-what the hell?" Shinji yelled as he was getting constricted.

"Get off me you freak!" Kenichi said as he struggled to break free.

"Help!" Daichi called as his snake was constricting him faster. Takashi cursed under his breath as he tried to find a suitable weapon to fight with. A dark chuckle came from around the area and Takashi's blood ran cold in his veins, he recognized that chuckle a mile away.

"…you…" he snarled and slowly turned around. Before him was the same person he encountered 5 years ago, who looked like he hadn't aged at all. He still had the same eyes, same pale skin, even the same dark green hair that looked to be black in the right light.

"Takashi…Kaido…been a long time since we saw each other…my my you've grown," the man said with a forked tongue slithering in and out of his mouth.

"Hebei…I can't believe you show up now…" Takashi growled as he stared at the man who took his father from him all those years ago.

"Yes, well I got my orders to see if you're ready, so how about a game? You need to beat me before my snakes squeeze the life from your friends, beat me and you'll get them back, fail and…well I think you get the point, so, shall we?" Hebei said as a snake coiled onto his arm, hissing at him.

Takashi got angrier as the fames on the torches burned brighter, as if to manifest his anger.

"Taka…shi…" Shinji gasped.

"Taka…" Daichi strained as the snake coiled around him tighter.

"Taka-kun…" Kasumi whispered as a tear fell down onto the ground. Takashi saw it and got more enraged, then pulled out his katana that he hid in his coat and unsheathed it.

"You're fucking dead Hebei!" he yelled and charged at the snake-man.

And here is where the story kicks off! Hebei and Dora Gon emerge from the shadows to attack Zell and Takashi, with two people from the past now back, what will the outcome be? Stay tuned for the answers! R&R plz!