Chapter 9: Lenne, the blitzer?
When I woke up, Lenne was still collapsed over me, her mouth near mine and her hands on my chest, sleeping peacefully. Last night, though we didn't manage to stay awake long enough to do anything other than kiss, was the best night of my life. My beautiful songstress. My wonderful summoner. How much I love you. I stroked her hair gently, each strand of that velvet, that silk, moving by my touch. It was so soft. She was so soft. She was so delicate. "Mmm..." She moaned, still fast asleep. "Shh..." I whispered gently, carefully pulling her closer. I was in luck as she did not awaken. "I love you." I quietly whispered, still unable to tell her while she was conscious. She smiled a bit and I wondered if she'd heard me. Impossible... but that thought gave me some comfort.
"Uh..." Lenne arose, "Hi there." She was groggy as she woke up. It was an hour later and I had been awake that entire time, admiring the resting form of my love. "Good morning." I said softly. She pushed herself off me and took in a deep breath to greet the morning. She stretched out her arms and proceeded to pull me onto my feet. I helped out, doing a sit up. Rising to my feet, I yawned a little. Lenne straightened up my collar and I touched her face with both my hands. She looked so beautiful.
"Hey! I almost forgot!" I exclaimed, perking up. "You were gonna try blitzball yesterday, remember?" I asked, looking at her with a fiendish smirk. She groaned, "I thought you would forget." It was evident she really didn't think she could play. "I'm sorry m'lady, I tend not to forget things like that." I curtly replied. She groaned again. "C'mon, don't chicken out." I said, pushing her to her room so she could change into some blitzball worthy clothes. What that meant was that she needed to put away her pretty songstress clothes and break out the sweats... Hehe, girl sweats were designed to look hot, too. That put a nice big grin on my face. I shoved her into her room playfully and shut the door. "Hurry up..." I chimed, skipping back down the stairs.
A few minutes later, Lenne came down in a nice blue and green sweatshirt and pants set. She had a white T underneath and the entire outfit looked great on her. "Let's go!" She exclaimed before gulping. I couldn't help but grin at her. She was just so cute when she was nervous.
We took the scenic route to the stadium. The place was empty. I didn't see Kion or Vena or even Rothel. Not even the rookie, whose name I found was Haru, was there. This was perfect. Then again, it must have been due to the time of day. It was still pretty early. I took Lenne to the locker room and brought her to Vena and Kirin's side. I grabbed some of their spare blitz gear and fitted Lenne. She was a little smaller than those two, but the stuff fit well enough. The two of us walked over to my locker and I got out the only part of my blitz outfit that I didn't always have on me, the ball. I tossed the blitzball to her and she awkwardly caught it, literally giving it a bear hug as if she was afraid of dropping it. I smirked at the thought and locked up the locker. We headed back out, this time to the arena. I told Lenne to take a seat on the ring and I went to get the Sphere Pool running.
I jogged up to the control room and pushed a few buttons, entered the code, and watched the arena light up as the electrically induced water began to form into an orb shape. Lenne just stared at the scene in front of her, completely petrified. She looked so cute. I couldn't stop thinking that. Anyway, I got back down there and hopped onto the ring with Lenne. "Ready?" I asked, eager to get on with the fun. "Um, is it too late to be a scaredy cat?" She pleaded. "Yes, definitely too late. Much too late." I grinned, pulling Lenne into the water with me.
Lenne floated around, taking in all aspects of the Sphere Pool. "You can swim, right?" I laughed, moving around the cool waters swiftly. "Shuyin." She frowned, trying to catch up to me. With a small smirk, I abruptly stopped and allowed Lenne to crash into me. I hugged her and said, "Ya know, that's a good tackle you got there." "Shuyin!" She pouted, slapping my chest playfully. I swam back over to where we impacted and retrieved the ball that she dropped. "Okay. First things first. To score, you need to get this ball into one of those two triangular goal fields. You can throw, kick, punch, butt, or just about anything to get it in." I said, sounding like the coach I had respect for. I shuddered, remembering whom he'd replaced himself with. "My son will be a fine coach. Listen to him carefully. You just might learn something." I recalled him saying before leaving us with that idiot. "Okay." Lenne said shakily, refocusing my attention. "Right. Show me what you got." I answered, giving her the ball. She took it, swam back a little and tried to hurl the thing into the goal. This proved to be very unsuccessful as I saw the ball glide slowly back to me. "Take note: throwing the ball like that is not a wise maneuver." I stated, trying my best not to laugh while sounding like a textbook. I passed the ball back to her. She caught it, thought for a moment and then tried to punch it into the goal. She held out the blitz ball and socked it good. However, as I saw the shot slowly stream into the goal, I noticed that Lenne was holding her wrist. She hurt her hand with that stunt. "Okay, perhaps you should try kicking." I said, swimming to her to examine her fragile wrist, "You're fine." She hadn't injured it. I swam back to retrieve the ball and passed it to her again. "Be a little more careful and know your own limits." I instructed. I didn't really want her to hurt herself. She looked at the ball and thought about what was the best move she could use on it. This time, she chose to get a bit fancy, attempting to use my opening move back in the championship game. She put the ball off to the side, moved to her side and spun, kicking the ball on her return. I was a bit skeptical. She was trying too hard. Boy was I in for a shock. That ball speeded right past my stunned face and into the goal. "Hooray!" She yelled, celebrating in the water. "Wow!" I muttered, clapping slowly from my surprise at her success.
We played around some more, Lenne improving little by little. In fact, she even blocked three of my shots and I wasn't even going easy on her. Of course, after about five or six hours of practice and playing, I guess that was to be expected.
"I think you might be ready for..." I began. "What? What do you think I'm ready for?" She asked nervously. What was wrong? She should have built up enough confidence after all that, right? "...The Jecht Shot..." I finished. Her eyes shot open in horror. "What?!" She sputtered. "You heard me. Here let me show you." I said, grabbing the ball in Lenne's hands. I moved a good distance away, head-butted the ball out of the water, followed it, and started a back flip. On my way back down, I kicked the ball hard and it flew into the goal. I landed, turned, swam to the ball, grabbed it, and swam back to my girlfriend and blitzer in-training. "Your turn." I said, handing over the ball. "Okay..." She softly said, closing her eyes as if to give herself a quick boost of confidence. "You'll do fine." I assured, smiling at her.
I watched on as Lenne put the ball on top of her head. She closed her eyes and didn't move a moment. "You can do it!" I yelled. "Uh!" She shouted, launch herself out of the Sphere Pool. She had strong legs. That was a must for the Jecht Shot. The ball and herself were above the Sphere Pool as I continued to watch. She performed a back flip and hit the ball dead center. Yes! She did it! I watched the ball fly to the goal and hit it right on the money. Lenne landed back in the Sphere Pool and swam to me. "I did it!" She squealed, overjoyed. "Yea, I know. I knew you could." I said, looking at her happily. She had performed the Jecht Shot perfectly on her very first try. Not even I managed that. She was certainly something special. Of course the ball didn't have the same speed as when I performed it, but who cares. This was her first time and she pulled it off. That had to be the Spiran world record for best debut play.
"Do you mind if I try that again?" She asked. There's that confidence. I knew she'd get it sooner or later. "Go right ahead. I'm still gettin' over the first time you did it." I said, getting the ball for her. I passed it to her and she went to perform it again. WHAM! The ball smacked into the goal yet again. She just performed the Jecht Shot twice, successfully, on her first time at blitzball.
We exited the Sphere Pool. "I have to tell you. When I was a little girl up until high school, I was a gymnast." She admitted, "I think that's why I was able to do your move that well." I smiled. "Who cares as long as you did it on your first try? That is good enough for me." I said, looking back into the water.
The two of us made our way back to the locker room after I had put the pool back into storage. I put the blitz ball away and locked up my locker again. Then, we went to return her gear back to the girls' locker room. I heard the shower running, which meant that either Vena or Kirin was there. "Hey, I never introduced you to my friends. I'll do that now. I'm sure one or both of the girls are around." I said. Lenne nodded and smiled, putting her gear on the rack that I had found it from.
Suddenly, a singing Kirin, stark naked, walked out of the shower. Opening her eyes, she screamed in synch with the two of us. I covered and averted my eyes. Lenne blushed, I could tell. "SHUYIN!" She shrieked. "I'm s- sorry!" I stammered, blushing even more than Lenne. "Shuyin? Aren't you gonna introduce me?" Lenne asked, her embarrassment showing through her voice. "Oh, right! Lenne, this is Kirin. I'll just step outside so you two can talk." I said, my eyes still covered. I quickly ran out of there and let Lenne talk to her.
A few minutes later, they both came out, Lenne wearing some new threads, Kirin's clothes. "Sorry." I said, blushing profusely. "It's okay." Kirin said. "Kirin told me that you told her your real name, too." Lenne said, sounding like she wanted an explanation. "Well, you see, Kirin has been a friend of mine since high school. I tell her everything." I said, trying to get at the fact that Kirin was actually more than just a friend to me. "Oh. She's your best friend?" Lenne asked. "Well, Rothel is my best friend." I responded, "Kirin is more like..." "I'm like a sister to him." She interjected. "Oh, that's nice." Lenne said, smiling at me, "And here I thought you were completely alone. I'm glad you had her." "Yea, I guess you're right." I said, putting a hand through my hair. "Hey! If you guys aren't doing anything later, wanna come to my place?" Kirin asked. I looked at Lenne. "That would be great. Would you mind if Shuyin invites the others? I'd want to meet all his friends." Lenne replied. "Well, like Shuyin, I don't really trust the other guys to that extent. Sorry." Kirin answered. "Okay, well it's settled. Me and Lenne will meet you at your house at let's say 5 o'clock?" I suggested. "That's perfect." Kirin said. "Then, we'll see you then." Lenne stated with a smile.
We waved bye to Kirin as she was going into train. I noticed that she ripped off the clothes she had on, again. I wondered why she didn't like clothing. I guessed it was just a quirk. In any case, I had to think up something for me and Lenne to do until 5. "So what do you want to do?" I asked her. "I don't know. I like Kirin. She's very nice. I asked her why she was singing and dancing out of the shower without a towel on. She told me she liked being in the nude. It made her feel free. I wonder." Lenne said, wanting to talk about my friend some more. "Oh, that's why? So I was right. It's a quirk." I said. "Yea. Didn't she ever tell you about that?" She asked. "You have to remember that I never saw her nor any other girl like that before." I told her. "You mean that was the first time you saw a naked woman? Oh, poor baby." She laughed. "Not funny. That really freaked me out. I didn't expect her to just prance out like that. Vena never would." I said, hanging my head and playing with my fingers. Lenne giggled. "You know her this well yet she never told you that little personality quirk of hers. You've never had a broken shower and had to share with her in college?" Lenne asked. What kind of question was that? Did she really want me to have taken a shower with Kirin? "What?! Never! You make it seem like I was married to her. Then, that would be okay. Either that or it was with you, but even then it would be a little awkward." I said, traditional values speaking. I knew all too well that modern society didn't really have too many restrictions for things like that. I was always what my friends called, "a prude." "Well, in my honest opinion, if I really needed a shower, I'd take one with a guy if I knew him well. Like you. I wouldn't mind taking a shower together with you." She stated simply. I was really not comfortable with this conversation anymore so I decided to find ANYTHING that I could change the subject with. "Hey! Look over there! Wild Chocobos!" I said, running at the massive birds. "Hey! Wait for me!" Lenne yelled, running after me.
I chased one of those yellow birds down and hopped onto it, seriously scaring the poor bird to death. It ran like crazy and I struggled to stay on. Lenne calmly approached one and it mounted her onto it. That was a skill I'd have liked to have at that moment. The thing I was on went crazy. Finally, I had no choice but to jump off of it, for fear of giving the poor creature a heart attack. It ran away from me, crying the whole time. I felt a little bad for what I did to the poor thing. Meanwhile, Lenne was calmly riding her Chocobo around the entire field. "Hey!" I screamed, "Can I get a lift here?" "What's the magic word?" She giggled. "Not funny!" I shouted as she picked up some speed. "Hey!" I cried. "Haha!" Lenne smirked, enjoying me run after her. At last she stopped, but I couldn't in time. I smacked right into the bird's big butt and it was off again. "Argh..." I grunted, giving up and lying on the grass. "Hehe..." I heard Lenne laugh as she jogged back, letting her Chocobo roam free again. "Grr..." I playfully growled. Lenne just laughed.
We continued onward. The city's shops and malls were fast approaching and Lenne noticed something that caught her eye. "I'll see you in a little bit okay?" She asked. "Okay, but why? Where are you going?" I responded. "It's a secret. Just meet me here in an hour or two." Lenne said, running off. I shrugged and roamed around. I saw an arcade and couldn't resist taking a peek... an hour-long peek.
"Yes! They have Soul Ripper 2! I'm so gonna kick some ass!" I shouted, hurrying to get some tokens. People stared at me, but not for my outburst. They were just staring because I was Tidus. I was used to it by then. It was unavoidable. I put in my tokens and started up a game, picking my favorite character, Mirth. That character was strong and fast, a perfect combination. I fought against a few opponents, randomly chosen by the computer and got to the final boss in no time. "You are so going down, Belthazor!" I exclaimed, pointing at the screen. The fight started and I dodged most of the guy's attacks, being the cool and calculating fighting game player that I was. "Eat steel!" I yelled at the bits of computer data that formed my opponent. In no time at all, I had beaten the game. I didn't even need a continue. I quickly input the letters 'T' 'D' 'S' for the record name. It was in the top slot. "Yes! The best record!" I grinned. I turned and everybody there wanted an autograph. "Okay, okay! Take it easy! I've only got two hands!" I said, signing one blitz ball after another. I was done about five minutes later, thank goodness. I actually loathed having to give so many signatures. It was tiresome.
Then, this girl walked up to me and said, "I challenge you to a game of DRR. If I win, you take me out. If you win, I'll give you a kiss." DRR, or Dance Revolution Remix, was this dancing game that I had never dared try... that is until now. After all the time I spent with Lenne, songstress extraordinaire, I had no doubt in my mind I'd win. "Sure. You're on!" I said, not a trace of nervousness in my voice.
We got onto the dance pad, one for each of us. We put in our tokens and chose a song. I picked this really nice one from this Carime cartoon show that I liked. We started. At first, it looked like she was gonna win. I had a rough start. However, towards the end of it, I was dancing circles around her. I just let the music flow through me, like Lenne had said. Afterwards, the girl shook my hand. "I didn't know you could dance like that." She said, stunned a little, "Well, a deal's a deal." And with that she gave me a big kiss on the lips that I wasn't prepared for. She didn't seem to mind it, though, so I let her finish, thank me, hug me, and walk away with her friends, giggling like a bunch of imbeciles. I rolled my eyes a little. "I'm sure glad Lenne isn't like that." I whispered to myself.
An hour was up and I had already played through several fighting games like Terren, Dream vs. Square, and one platform game, Zero. Terren and Dream vs. Square was nothing compared to the Soul Ripper series, though. That was a real fighting game. However, when it comes to true games, Square comes up with the best of the best. They mostly made RPG games, though, and those you could only play at home. I had a GameSphere, or otherwise known as, the GSH. Square chiefly made games for that system, which I was eternally grateful. Anyway, although that is my favorite company, Soul Rippers was my favorite fighting game and, just the same, Zero was my favorite platform game.
"Hey, Shu... uh, Tidus..." Lenne said, coming back to me when I reached the meeting location. Her hands were behind her back, holding some kind of bag. She'd bought something. "What's in the bag?" I asked. "C'mon! Let's go." She replied, avoiding my question. We walked side by side all the way to Kirin's house. I kept trying to get her to tell me what was in the bag, but she kept it away. We reached the door to her house and Lenne looked around. "Okay, here." She said, handing over the bag. "Why now? Why couldn't I see before?" I asked. "Too many people were around. They might have noticed us and the interviews would have been endless." She responded. "That's right. You're so clever." I said, smiling. She smiled, too, and signaled to open the bag. I did and found a box covered with velvet. "I think you'll like it." She said. I opened the box. It was a chain. There was a locket attached to it. On the back, the phrase "In eternal bonds I'll cradle you; never let you go. Always together from now unto forever. To Shuyin, with all my heart and soul, Lenne." I read aloud. "Lenne..." I said, a tear sliding down my eye, "I love it, and it's true. I'll never leave you." "I knew you'd like it. And look, it's your team's symbol, too." She said happily. I kissed her and she knocked on the door.
A few moment's later, Kirin opened the door, wearing a robe. "Come in. I'll be right back." She said and hurriedly ran upstairs. Lenne giggled a little and walked in, pulling me in with her. We went to her living room and I sat down on a recliner. Lenne decided to stand for a while, looking around at all the pictures Kirin had in the room. "Who's this? I see him in a lot of the pictures." She asked, pointing at a person in a photo that was perched on top of Kirin's SV. I walked over. "Oh that? That's Jurama. He's Kirin's current love interest." I said. "Oh. He's pretty good looking." She said, admiring the picture in a playful manner. "Oh? Is that so?" I inquired, putting my hands to my hips. She giggled and we heard footsteps drumming down from the second floor. "She's back." I stated, flailing my arm out to greet my friend's presence. "Hiya, guys!" Kirin called, running over to us, "Admiring my photos, I see." "Jurama is a very handsome man." Lenne commented. "Thank you. I picked a good guy." She smiled. "So, now that we're all settled, what shall we do?" I popped in. "Let's just talk. You didn't tell me you had a girlfriend, Shuyin. I want to get to know her." Kirin said. "I'd like to know about you, too." Lenne added. "It's a girl thing, Shuyin. You wouldn't understand." Kirin joked. "Uh huh." I sarcastically replied, smirking at the both of them. They giggled and ran off to Kirin's room. "Oh, and by the way, I've got a VidStation. You can play!" Kirin called back, still running with Lenne.
Yay! I get to play more video games while my two female friends chatted about girly stuff. Looking at the VidStation system, I frowned only because the graphics of the system was in no way as up to date as my GameSphere. I mean the FMVs were just as good, but the gameplay was not so crisp. I guess it didn't matter. I quickly grabbed the controller, threw it onto the couch, and took a look at the available games. Cool, she had Time Crush. It was an RPG I had wanted to play for a while, but it only came out for the VidStation so I was out of luck. I really didn't want the system. Anyway, I put in the game cube and turned on the system, taking a seat on the couch I threw the controller on before. The intro to the game was brilliant, continuing off from Time Elapse, a classic. I was playing as the main character, a girl named, Rippa, and I had to stop some guy from using the Chrono Track. That item was something that allowed the user to traverse the fabric of time and across all the dimensions within that period of time. My first battle began and it was already turning into a very exciting story. I played it non-stop.
After I beat the game, Lenne and Kirin came back, laughing the entire time. The ending FMV was showing and I was thinking about how fast I went through the entire game. Usually RPGs were very long and I still finished in about seven hours. Anyway, Kirin and Lenne were back and saw me watching the ending. "Whoa, you finished that entire game?" Kirin asked, utterly shocked. "Yes, yes I did." I replied, stunned a little, as well. "Why is that so shocking? I thought Shuyin was a gaming nut." Lenne inputted. "It's shocking because RPGs take at least a good week to complete, if you're lucky. This guy just completed it in seven hours." Kirin explained. "Wow!" Lenne replied, baffled.
"So what did you guys talk about anyway?" I asked. "We chatted about girl stuff. We talked about you a lot, too" Kirin answered. "I wanted to try out her quirky thing, also." Lenne added, blushing. "Yea. Shuyin, your girl has got some bod. You're really lucky." Kirin chimed, whistling at Lenne who blushed more. "Wow..." I said, blushing as well. "Oh gosh. Look at the time. It's almost 1 o'clock. You two should probably get going. I don't want to be held responsible for you collapsing in the middle of the street." Kirin said.
"Make sure you take care of this one, Lenne. He tends to drift in his thoughts, sometimes. I wouldn't be surprised if he fell off the road on his way home." Kirin warned, looking at me with a cocky grin on her face. "Yea, sure, Kirin. As if." I said, picking my chin up to look upset. Lenne giggled a little and said goodbye to Kirin. "Bye!" Kirin said, shutting the door after waving.
"I like her. She's a great person." Lenne said on our way home. "Yea, I know what you mean." I agreed. Lenne made sure to hold onto my arm tightly to make sure I wouldn't stumble off the road like Kirin warned. I had to admit, I was completely out of it. I probably would have walked right off the road without Lenne there.
We reached my house and Lenne walked me up to my bedroom. I collapsed onto my bed, falling asleep right there. I didn't even have the energy to get Lenne to my guest bedroom.
When I woke up, Lenne was still collapsed over me, her mouth near mine and her hands on my chest, sleeping peacefully. Last night, though we didn't manage to stay awake long enough to do anything other than kiss, was the best night of my life. My beautiful songstress. My wonderful summoner. How much I love you. I stroked her hair gently, each strand of that velvet, that silk, moving by my touch. It was so soft. She was so soft. She was so delicate. "Mmm..." She moaned, still fast asleep. "Shh..." I whispered gently, carefully pulling her closer. I was in luck as she did not awaken. "I love you." I quietly whispered, still unable to tell her while she was conscious. She smiled a bit and I wondered if she'd heard me. Impossible... but that thought gave me some comfort.
"Uh..." Lenne arose, "Hi there." She was groggy as she woke up. It was an hour later and I had been awake that entire time, admiring the resting form of my love. "Good morning." I said softly. She pushed herself off me and took in a deep breath to greet the morning. She stretched out her arms and proceeded to pull me onto my feet. I helped out, doing a sit up. Rising to my feet, I yawned a little. Lenne straightened up my collar and I touched her face with both my hands. She looked so beautiful.
"Hey! I almost forgot!" I exclaimed, perking up. "You were gonna try blitzball yesterday, remember?" I asked, looking at her with a fiendish smirk. She groaned, "I thought you would forget." It was evident she really didn't think she could play. "I'm sorry m'lady, I tend not to forget things like that." I curtly replied. She groaned again. "C'mon, don't chicken out." I said, pushing her to her room so she could change into some blitzball worthy clothes. What that meant was that she needed to put away her pretty songstress clothes and break out the sweats... Hehe, girl sweats were designed to look hot, too. That put a nice big grin on my face. I shoved her into her room playfully and shut the door. "Hurry up..." I chimed, skipping back down the stairs.
A few minutes later, Lenne came down in a nice blue and green sweatshirt and pants set. She had a white T underneath and the entire outfit looked great on her. "Let's go!" She exclaimed before gulping. I couldn't help but grin at her. She was just so cute when she was nervous.
We took the scenic route to the stadium. The place was empty. I didn't see Kion or Vena or even Rothel. Not even the rookie, whose name I found was Haru, was there. This was perfect. Then again, it must have been due to the time of day. It was still pretty early. I took Lenne to the locker room and brought her to Vena and Kirin's side. I grabbed some of their spare blitz gear and fitted Lenne. She was a little smaller than those two, but the stuff fit well enough. The two of us walked over to my locker and I got out the only part of my blitz outfit that I didn't always have on me, the ball. I tossed the blitzball to her and she awkwardly caught it, literally giving it a bear hug as if she was afraid of dropping it. I smirked at the thought and locked up the locker. We headed back out, this time to the arena. I told Lenne to take a seat on the ring and I went to get the Sphere Pool running.
I jogged up to the control room and pushed a few buttons, entered the code, and watched the arena light up as the electrically induced water began to form into an orb shape. Lenne just stared at the scene in front of her, completely petrified. She looked so cute. I couldn't stop thinking that. Anyway, I got back down there and hopped onto the ring with Lenne. "Ready?" I asked, eager to get on with the fun. "Um, is it too late to be a scaredy cat?" She pleaded. "Yes, definitely too late. Much too late." I grinned, pulling Lenne into the water with me.
Lenne floated around, taking in all aspects of the Sphere Pool. "You can swim, right?" I laughed, moving around the cool waters swiftly. "Shuyin." She frowned, trying to catch up to me. With a small smirk, I abruptly stopped and allowed Lenne to crash into me. I hugged her and said, "Ya know, that's a good tackle you got there." "Shuyin!" She pouted, slapping my chest playfully. I swam back over to where we impacted and retrieved the ball that she dropped. "Okay. First things first. To score, you need to get this ball into one of those two triangular goal fields. You can throw, kick, punch, butt, or just about anything to get it in." I said, sounding like the coach I had respect for. I shuddered, remembering whom he'd replaced himself with. "My son will be a fine coach. Listen to him carefully. You just might learn something." I recalled him saying before leaving us with that idiot. "Okay." Lenne said shakily, refocusing my attention. "Right. Show me what you got." I answered, giving her the ball. She took it, swam back a little and tried to hurl the thing into the goal. This proved to be very unsuccessful as I saw the ball glide slowly back to me. "Take note: throwing the ball like that is not a wise maneuver." I stated, trying my best not to laugh while sounding like a textbook. I passed the ball back to her. She caught it, thought for a moment and then tried to punch it into the goal. She held out the blitz ball and socked it good. However, as I saw the shot slowly stream into the goal, I noticed that Lenne was holding her wrist. She hurt her hand with that stunt. "Okay, perhaps you should try kicking." I said, swimming to her to examine her fragile wrist, "You're fine." She hadn't injured it. I swam back to retrieve the ball and passed it to her again. "Be a little more careful and know your own limits." I instructed. I didn't really want her to hurt herself. She looked at the ball and thought about what was the best move she could use on it. This time, she chose to get a bit fancy, attempting to use my opening move back in the championship game. She put the ball off to the side, moved to her side and spun, kicking the ball on her return. I was a bit skeptical. She was trying too hard. Boy was I in for a shock. That ball speeded right past my stunned face and into the goal. "Hooray!" She yelled, celebrating in the water. "Wow!" I muttered, clapping slowly from my surprise at her success.
We played around some more, Lenne improving little by little. In fact, she even blocked three of my shots and I wasn't even going easy on her. Of course, after about five or six hours of practice and playing, I guess that was to be expected.
"I think you might be ready for..." I began. "What? What do you think I'm ready for?" She asked nervously. What was wrong? She should have built up enough confidence after all that, right? "...The Jecht Shot..." I finished. Her eyes shot open in horror. "What?!" She sputtered. "You heard me. Here let me show you." I said, grabbing the ball in Lenne's hands. I moved a good distance away, head-butted the ball out of the water, followed it, and started a back flip. On my way back down, I kicked the ball hard and it flew into the goal. I landed, turned, swam to the ball, grabbed it, and swam back to my girlfriend and blitzer in-training. "Your turn." I said, handing over the ball. "Okay..." She softly said, closing her eyes as if to give herself a quick boost of confidence. "You'll do fine." I assured, smiling at her.
I watched on as Lenne put the ball on top of her head. She closed her eyes and didn't move a moment. "You can do it!" I yelled. "Uh!" She shouted, launch herself out of the Sphere Pool. She had strong legs. That was a must for the Jecht Shot. The ball and herself were above the Sphere Pool as I continued to watch. She performed a back flip and hit the ball dead center. Yes! She did it! I watched the ball fly to the goal and hit it right on the money. Lenne landed back in the Sphere Pool and swam to me. "I did it!" She squealed, overjoyed. "Yea, I know. I knew you could." I said, looking at her happily. She had performed the Jecht Shot perfectly on her very first try. Not even I managed that. She was certainly something special. Of course the ball didn't have the same speed as when I performed it, but who cares. This was her first time and she pulled it off. That had to be the Spiran world record for best debut play.
"Do you mind if I try that again?" She asked. There's that confidence. I knew she'd get it sooner or later. "Go right ahead. I'm still gettin' over the first time you did it." I said, getting the ball for her. I passed it to her and she went to perform it again. WHAM! The ball smacked into the goal yet again. She just performed the Jecht Shot twice, successfully, on her first time at blitzball.
We exited the Sphere Pool. "I have to tell you. When I was a little girl up until high school, I was a gymnast." She admitted, "I think that's why I was able to do your move that well." I smiled. "Who cares as long as you did it on your first try? That is good enough for me." I said, looking back into the water.
The two of us made our way back to the locker room after I had put the pool back into storage. I put the blitz ball away and locked up my locker again. Then, we went to return her gear back to the girls' locker room. I heard the shower running, which meant that either Vena or Kirin was there. "Hey, I never introduced you to my friends. I'll do that now. I'm sure one or both of the girls are around." I said. Lenne nodded and smiled, putting her gear on the rack that I had found it from.
Suddenly, a singing Kirin, stark naked, walked out of the shower. Opening her eyes, she screamed in synch with the two of us. I covered and averted my eyes. Lenne blushed, I could tell. "SHUYIN!" She shrieked. "I'm s- sorry!" I stammered, blushing even more than Lenne. "Shuyin? Aren't you gonna introduce me?" Lenne asked, her embarrassment showing through her voice. "Oh, right! Lenne, this is Kirin. I'll just step outside so you two can talk." I said, my eyes still covered. I quickly ran out of there and let Lenne talk to her.
A few minutes later, they both came out, Lenne wearing some new threads, Kirin's clothes. "Sorry." I said, blushing profusely. "It's okay." Kirin said. "Kirin told me that you told her your real name, too." Lenne said, sounding like she wanted an explanation. "Well, you see, Kirin has been a friend of mine since high school. I tell her everything." I said, trying to get at the fact that Kirin was actually more than just a friend to me. "Oh. She's your best friend?" Lenne asked. "Well, Rothel is my best friend." I responded, "Kirin is more like..." "I'm like a sister to him." She interjected. "Oh, that's nice." Lenne said, smiling at me, "And here I thought you were completely alone. I'm glad you had her." "Yea, I guess you're right." I said, putting a hand through my hair. "Hey! If you guys aren't doing anything later, wanna come to my place?" Kirin asked. I looked at Lenne. "That would be great. Would you mind if Shuyin invites the others? I'd want to meet all his friends." Lenne replied. "Well, like Shuyin, I don't really trust the other guys to that extent. Sorry." Kirin answered. "Okay, well it's settled. Me and Lenne will meet you at your house at let's say 5 o'clock?" I suggested. "That's perfect." Kirin said. "Then, we'll see you then." Lenne stated with a smile.
We waved bye to Kirin as she was going into train. I noticed that she ripped off the clothes she had on, again. I wondered why she didn't like clothing. I guessed it was just a quirk. In any case, I had to think up something for me and Lenne to do until 5. "So what do you want to do?" I asked her. "I don't know. I like Kirin. She's very nice. I asked her why she was singing and dancing out of the shower without a towel on. She told me she liked being in the nude. It made her feel free. I wonder." Lenne said, wanting to talk about my friend some more. "Oh, that's why? So I was right. It's a quirk." I said. "Yea. Didn't she ever tell you about that?" She asked. "You have to remember that I never saw her nor any other girl like that before." I told her. "You mean that was the first time you saw a naked woman? Oh, poor baby." She laughed. "Not funny. That really freaked me out. I didn't expect her to just prance out like that. Vena never would." I said, hanging my head and playing with my fingers. Lenne giggled. "You know her this well yet she never told you that little personality quirk of hers. You've never had a broken shower and had to share with her in college?" Lenne asked. What kind of question was that? Did she really want me to have taken a shower with Kirin? "What?! Never! You make it seem like I was married to her. Then, that would be okay. Either that or it was with you, but even then it would be a little awkward." I said, traditional values speaking. I knew all too well that modern society didn't really have too many restrictions for things like that. I was always what my friends called, "a prude." "Well, in my honest opinion, if I really needed a shower, I'd take one with a guy if I knew him well. Like you. I wouldn't mind taking a shower together with you." She stated simply. I was really not comfortable with this conversation anymore so I decided to find ANYTHING that I could change the subject with. "Hey! Look over there! Wild Chocobos!" I said, running at the massive birds. "Hey! Wait for me!" Lenne yelled, running after me.
I chased one of those yellow birds down and hopped onto it, seriously scaring the poor bird to death. It ran like crazy and I struggled to stay on. Lenne calmly approached one and it mounted her onto it. That was a skill I'd have liked to have at that moment. The thing I was on went crazy. Finally, I had no choice but to jump off of it, for fear of giving the poor creature a heart attack. It ran away from me, crying the whole time. I felt a little bad for what I did to the poor thing. Meanwhile, Lenne was calmly riding her Chocobo around the entire field. "Hey!" I screamed, "Can I get a lift here?" "What's the magic word?" She giggled. "Not funny!" I shouted as she picked up some speed. "Hey!" I cried. "Haha!" Lenne smirked, enjoying me run after her. At last she stopped, but I couldn't in time. I smacked right into the bird's big butt and it was off again. "Argh..." I grunted, giving up and lying on the grass. "Hehe..." I heard Lenne laugh as she jogged back, letting her Chocobo roam free again. "Grr..." I playfully growled. Lenne just laughed.
We continued onward. The city's shops and malls were fast approaching and Lenne noticed something that caught her eye. "I'll see you in a little bit okay?" She asked. "Okay, but why? Where are you going?" I responded. "It's a secret. Just meet me here in an hour or two." Lenne said, running off. I shrugged and roamed around. I saw an arcade and couldn't resist taking a peek... an hour-long peek.
"Yes! They have Soul Ripper 2! I'm so gonna kick some ass!" I shouted, hurrying to get some tokens. People stared at me, but not for my outburst. They were just staring because I was Tidus. I was used to it by then. It was unavoidable. I put in my tokens and started up a game, picking my favorite character, Mirth. That character was strong and fast, a perfect combination. I fought against a few opponents, randomly chosen by the computer and got to the final boss in no time. "You are so going down, Belthazor!" I exclaimed, pointing at the screen. The fight started and I dodged most of the guy's attacks, being the cool and calculating fighting game player that I was. "Eat steel!" I yelled at the bits of computer data that formed my opponent. In no time at all, I had beaten the game. I didn't even need a continue. I quickly input the letters 'T' 'D' 'S' for the record name. It was in the top slot. "Yes! The best record!" I grinned. I turned and everybody there wanted an autograph. "Okay, okay! Take it easy! I've only got two hands!" I said, signing one blitz ball after another. I was done about five minutes later, thank goodness. I actually loathed having to give so many signatures. It was tiresome.
Then, this girl walked up to me and said, "I challenge you to a game of DRR. If I win, you take me out. If you win, I'll give you a kiss." DRR, or Dance Revolution Remix, was this dancing game that I had never dared try... that is until now. After all the time I spent with Lenne, songstress extraordinaire, I had no doubt in my mind I'd win. "Sure. You're on!" I said, not a trace of nervousness in my voice.
We got onto the dance pad, one for each of us. We put in our tokens and chose a song. I picked this really nice one from this Carime cartoon show that I liked. We started. At first, it looked like she was gonna win. I had a rough start. However, towards the end of it, I was dancing circles around her. I just let the music flow through me, like Lenne had said. Afterwards, the girl shook my hand. "I didn't know you could dance like that." She said, stunned a little, "Well, a deal's a deal." And with that she gave me a big kiss on the lips that I wasn't prepared for. She didn't seem to mind it, though, so I let her finish, thank me, hug me, and walk away with her friends, giggling like a bunch of imbeciles. I rolled my eyes a little. "I'm sure glad Lenne isn't like that." I whispered to myself.
An hour was up and I had already played through several fighting games like Terren, Dream vs. Square, and one platform game, Zero. Terren and Dream vs. Square was nothing compared to the Soul Ripper series, though. That was a real fighting game. However, when it comes to true games, Square comes up with the best of the best. They mostly made RPG games, though, and those you could only play at home. I had a GameSphere, or otherwise known as, the GSH. Square chiefly made games for that system, which I was eternally grateful. Anyway, although that is my favorite company, Soul Rippers was my favorite fighting game and, just the same, Zero was my favorite platform game.
"Hey, Shu... uh, Tidus..." Lenne said, coming back to me when I reached the meeting location. Her hands were behind her back, holding some kind of bag. She'd bought something. "What's in the bag?" I asked. "C'mon! Let's go." She replied, avoiding my question. We walked side by side all the way to Kirin's house. I kept trying to get her to tell me what was in the bag, but she kept it away. We reached the door to her house and Lenne looked around. "Okay, here." She said, handing over the bag. "Why now? Why couldn't I see before?" I asked. "Too many people were around. They might have noticed us and the interviews would have been endless." She responded. "That's right. You're so clever." I said, smiling. She smiled, too, and signaled to open the bag. I did and found a box covered with velvet. "I think you'll like it." She said. I opened the box. It was a chain. There was a locket attached to it. On the back, the phrase "In eternal bonds I'll cradle you; never let you go. Always together from now unto forever. To Shuyin, with all my heart and soul, Lenne." I read aloud. "Lenne..." I said, a tear sliding down my eye, "I love it, and it's true. I'll never leave you." "I knew you'd like it. And look, it's your team's symbol, too." She said happily. I kissed her and she knocked on the door.
A few moment's later, Kirin opened the door, wearing a robe. "Come in. I'll be right back." She said and hurriedly ran upstairs. Lenne giggled a little and walked in, pulling me in with her. We went to her living room and I sat down on a recliner. Lenne decided to stand for a while, looking around at all the pictures Kirin had in the room. "Who's this? I see him in a lot of the pictures." She asked, pointing at a person in a photo that was perched on top of Kirin's SV. I walked over. "Oh that? That's Jurama. He's Kirin's current love interest." I said. "Oh. He's pretty good looking." She said, admiring the picture in a playful manner. "Oh? Is that so?" I inquired, putting my hands to my hips. She giggled and we heard footsteps drumming down from the second floor. "She's back." I stated, flailing my arm out to greet my friend's presence. "Hiya, guys!" Kirin called, running over to us, "Admiring my photos, I see." "Jurama is a very handsome man." Lenne commented. "Thank you. I picked a good guy." She smiled. "So, now that we're all settled, what shall we do?" I popped in. "Let's just talk. You didn't tell me you had a girlfriend, Shuyin. I want to get to know her." Kirin said. "I'd like to know about you, too." Lenne added. "It's a girl thing, Shuyin. You wouldn't understand." Kirin joked. "Uh huh." I sarcastically replied, smirking at the both of them. They giggled and ran off to Kirin's room. "Oh, and by the way, I've got a VidStation. You can play!" Kirin called back, still running with Lenne.
Yay! I get to play more video games while my two female friends chatted about girly stuff. Looking at the VidStation system, I frowned only because the graphics of the system was in no way as up to date as my GameSphere. I mean the FMVs were just as good, but the gameplay was not so crisp. I guess it didn't matter. I quickly grabbed the controller, threw it onto the couch, and took a look at the available games. Cool, she had Time Crush. It was an RPG I had wanted to play for a while, but it only came out for the VidStation so I was out of luck. I really didn't want the system. Anyway, I put in the game cube and turned on the system, taking a seat on the couch I threw the controller on before. The intro to the game was brilliant, continuing off from Time Elapse, a classic. I was playing as the main character, a girl named, Rippa, and I had to stop some guy from using the Chrono Track. That item was something that allowed the user to traverse the fabric of time and across all the dimensions within that period of time. My first battle began and it was already turning into a very exciting story. I played it non-stop.
After I beat the game, Lenne and Kirin came back, laughing the entire time. The ending FMV was showing and I was thinking about how fast I went through the entire game. Usually RPGs were very long and I still finished in about seven hours. Anyway, Kirin and Lenne were back and saw me watching the ending. "Whoa, you finished that entire game?" Kirin asked, utterly shocked. "Yes, yes I did." I replied, stunned a little, as well. "Why is that so shocking? I thought Shuyin was a gaming nut." Lenne inputted. "It's shocking because RPGs take at least a good week to complete, if you're lucky. This guy just completed it in seven hours." Kirin explained. "Wow!" Lenne replied, baffled.
"So what did you guys talk about anyway?" I asked. "We chatted about girl stuff. We talked about you a lot, too" Kirin answered. "I wanted to try out her quirky thing, also." Lenne added, blushing. "Yea. Shuyin, your girl has got some bod. You're really lucky." Kirin chimed, whistling at Lenne who blushed more. "Wow..." I said, blushing as well. "Oh gosh. Look at the time. It's almost 1 o'clock. You two should probably get going. I don't want to be held responsible for you collapsing in the middle of the street." Kirin said.
"Make sure you take care of this one, Lenne. He tends to drift in his thoughts, sometimes. I wouldn't be surprised if he fell off the road on his way home." Kirin warned, looking at me with a cocky grin on her face. "Yea, sure, Kirin. As if." I said, picking my chin up to look upset. Lenne giggled a little and said goodbye to Kirin. "Bye!" Kirin said, shutting the door after waving.
"I like her. She's a great person." Lenne said on our way home. "Yea, I know what you mean." I agreed. Lenne made sure to hold onto my arm tightly to make sure I wouldn't stumble off the road like Kirin warned. I had to admit, I was completely out of it. I probably would have walked right off the road without Lenne there.
We reached my house and Lenne walked me up to my bedroom. I collapsed onto my bed, falling asleep right there. I didn't even have the energy to get Lenne to my guest bedroom.