Hey Fictioners!
So here's the next chapter of MA, which I promised would be published like, last week... Sorry it's a bit late, but I was working on Code X. Oh, speaking of which, readers who are following its progress, I'll try and have the next chapter up by next week; I'm about a third of the way through writing it. But no promises!
Surprisingly, it was hard to finish this chapter. I planned on writing more, but then realised the chapter would have been WAY too long, and what I wanted to add onto the end will pretty much make a chapter in itself, anyway! So it was a good decision to cut it where I did; as it means I'll hopefully have the next chapter up soon, and I could post this one sooner!
Beware. This is yet another boring chapter. There are bits that I like, but nothing overly huge happens in it. It's really just another set-up filler, peoples. So don't chew me - I did warn you!!
Read on, MacDuffers!
Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Mew Mew. I own Akane, Sachi, Yume, Momoka, and Emiko :)
Dedications...
Story for MewCuxie12 (I think I spelled it wrong again!). Chapter for Mew-Sahara. Thanks for your lovely review! It made me smile hugely :D
ACT ONE - PART ONE - SCENE TEN
"Is she awake?"
"I think she just moved..."
"Yes, look – her eyelids are moving!"
"Akane-chan?"
The voices were growing louder and louder in her subconscious, interrupting the warm haziness of her drowsy mind. She focused her attention on the voices, the sounds of the world around her becoming sharper and clearer. Someone clicked a pen, someone put something down on a hard top – perhaps a glass, or something.
Akane opened her eyes, and found herself staring up at a very plain white roof.
"Hey, she is awake!" Kiseki's voice cried, sounding delighted. Akane flicked her chocolate eyes away from the roof and glanced around the room. She was lying in some sort of bed, pushed up against a white wall. On a plain wooden table beside her was a glass of water and what looked like a half-melted ice-pack. There were several other beds alongside hers, and a bench along the opposite wall. A lady stood behind it, looking at a computer.
And gathered around the bed, their expressions anxious, were Sachi, Sazuki and Kiseki, the three of them still dressed in their sport uniforms.
"Hiya!" Kiseki grinned when her gaze fell upon the curly-haired girl. Akane winced at the volume of her voice, which was piercing to her fuzzy mind.
"Shh, Kiseki-chan," Sazuki scolded sternly. She smiled gently at Akane. "How are you feeling?"
"... What...?" Akane trailed off, very much confused, her voice barely louder than a weak whisper. She pushed herself up in the bed of white linen, propping herself up against the pillows. What was she doing in the hospital ward?
"You passed out in Tech, remember?" Sachi explained. "The nurse said there was a nasty bump on your head... Did you hit your head earlier today?"
Akane thought carefully, running through the day's events in her mind. Then she nodded slowly – her head was still fuzzy.
"Oh, you did?" Sazuki said, sounding both surprised and relieved.
"... In the elevator."
"Oh, right!" Sachi gasped, realisation hitting. "When the lift jolted! The nurse said the bump on your head probably made you feel dizzy in class, and that's why you fainted."
"Oh..." Akane trailed off, thankful that they didn't know the real reason why she'd fainted. The events of the class came flooding back to her in one big gush. She blushed, casting her eyes to the floor, ashamed. She was probably the first student ever to freak out because they couldn't believe what they were being shown and taught.
Her weakness disgusted her.
"She's awake, nurse," Sazuki's voice said, dragging her out of her thoughts. The lady from the computer glanced up, smiled kindly and headed over.
"Good morning," she said brightly, smoothing a crease in her navy skirt. "How are you feeling? Does your head hurt?"
Akane shook her head.
"Are you feeling dizzy or woozy? If I hold up this finger, can you see it clearly?"
Akane nodded.
"So you're not at all dizzy?"
Akane shook her head carefully, ignoring the way it protested and throbbed dully.
"... Okay, well, just have a glass of water and sit a bit longer, then when you're feeling up to it your friends can take you back to your dormitory. Does that sound okay?" the nurse asked. She was a very friendly woman, and Akane felt guilty for not being very polite, but she simply couldn't muster the energy to be friendly. She was feeling too rotten about the episode in class, and far too ashamed of herself.
She nodded silently.
The nurse smiled kindly once more and checked her temperature.
"She's fine; her temperature is completely normal," she said, addressing the trio around the bed. "Just make sure she takes it easy tonight, alright? Don't let her play any sports, and maybe get her to sleep a little earlier."
"Okay," Sachi replied, glancing back at Akane, fighting a smile. She knew the chances of the shy girl getting up and playing a game were pretty much slim to none. Keeping her calm, quiet and indoors wouldn't be a problem.
"Thank you," Sazuki added quickly. The nurse smiled over her shoulder and returned to her computer. The four were silent for a moment.
"Do you want some water, Akane-chan?" Kiseki asked. Akane quietly took the offered glass and sipped from it, keeping her eyes cast to the floor.
"... Thank you," she whispered. Kiseki beamed.
"You scared us, Akane-chan!" she informed the shy girl, perching on the end of the bed and swinging her legs back and forth, her posture slacking. "We were afraid you wouldn't wake up."
"... How long...?"
"Only about ten minutes," Sazuki explained. "You weren't out for long."
Akane nodded slowly.
"Are you tired, Akane-chan?" Sachi asked.
"... I'm okay."
"Let us know when you're ready to head back," Sachi said. "The others are waiting for us in the Library for Study period."
"Sachi!" Sazuki hissed. "It doesn't matter if we miss Study for one night. We can catch up later. We should stay here, with Akane-chan."
"I know... I was just saying," Sachi defended herself. "I don't care if we miss Study."
Sazuki rolled her hazel eyes.
"Well all know that."
"... We can go," Akane interjected quietly, putting the half empty glass of water back on the bedside table and pulling back the bedclothes. She couldn't bear the thought of interrupting her dorm-mates' routine because she wasn't feeling a chipper one hundred per-cent; it made her stomach squirm uncomfortably. She didn't want anyone to sacrifice anything for her. She felt bad enough already about wrecking their Tech class – anymore and she would practically ruin their entire day!
"Akane-chan, are you sure you're feeling fine?" Sazuki asked, concern etched onto her face. Her hazel eyes flickered with uncertainty.
"... Yes," Akane replied quietly.
"No, seriously, Akane-chan... If you're not okay, then we're not going to go anywhere," Sachi said, hands on hips.
"... I'm fine."
She slid out of the bed and stood determinedly where she was, carefully masking the face of discomfort as her head momentarily reeled. Her vision swam for a few seconds before re-focusing, and she turned back around, re-making the bed.
"Kikuchi-chan..." Kiseki trailed off, sounding, for once, unhappy with the current situation.
"... Let's go," Akane said quietly, avoiding their eyes as she made her way to the door and held it open meaningfully. She didn't want to see the expressions on the other girls' faces. She was afraid that she'd look up into pitying eyes, or concerned frowns, or – worst of all – sympathy, none of which she felt she deserved.
Sachi and Sazuki exchanged a frown, both recognising their defeat.
"Come on, Kiseki-chan," Sazuki seemed to sigh. Kiseki hopped off the bed and picked her colourful skates up from where they were sitting on the floor, skipping over to meet Akane by the door, all smiles once more.
They returned to dorm seventeen in a considerably awkward silence – even Sachi and Sazuki weren't talking, for once. Kiseki didn't seem to notice the heavy quietness between the girls, but rather seemed to be in a world of her own; she drifted along the corridor towards their dorm like a floaty fairy, her emerald eyes far away as she thought about... Well... whatever Sato Kiseki's strange mind thought about.
Sachi unlocked the door in silence, and everyone followed her inside. Akane shut it quietly behind them, glancing around the comfortably messy, student-less room.
"Your bag is on the table, Akane-chan," Sachi called from her locker in the wardrobe. "Umeko-san brought it back from Tech for you."
"Oh..." Akane trailed off, wishing Umeko were there to thank.
"We'll only be a few minutes, Akane-chan," Sazuki said, sliding books into her bag, which was sitting, unzipped, at her feet. "We're just getting our stuff for study..."
"... Okay," Akane replied, sinking gently onto one of the striped sofas and watching them silently with soft brown eyes. The momentary peace was soon broken, however, as Kiseki flopped down beside her and, with the biggest, cheekiest grin she'd ever seen, began to pull on her skates. Apparently, wearing them overjoyed her.
"Are you coming to study with us?" Kiseki asked, her blonde ringlets tumbling over her shoulders as she leant over her knees to fasten the clasps. With an irritated grumble, she tossed them back, but she needn't have bothered – it was a waste of her boundless energy – for gravity slowly played with them; they crept along her shoulders and tumbled down in front of her face again.
Sighing deeply in defeat, the little girl sat back up, flashing Akane a cheerful grin and rolling her skates along the floor.
"Are you ready now?"i she asked impatiently. Akane blinked stupidly for a moment before realising she was addressing Sachi and Sazuki.
"Sato-chan, chill out for a moment," Sachi replied, grabbing her black Mew Academy sweats and pulling them on over her sport shorts. "Waiting an extra thirty seconds won't kill you."
"It could," Kiseki argued. "What if I stood at the side of the road for thirty seconds, and I missed the lights changing, so when I decided to walk across the road the traffic was heavy and I got hit by a bus?"
Oh, so that was the kind of thing she thought about.
Sachi gazed at the small girl for a moment, before shaking her head and rolling her dark eyes.
"You wouldn't, because you'd be smart and cross at the lights like every other normal person," she replied.
"But if I was waiting an extra thirty seconds I would," Kiseki pointed out, her expression intent, like she had thought through this all in a logical process.
"Why would you be waiting an extra thirty seconds, though?" Sazuki asked. "If you were waiting for the lights to change, wouldn't you cross when they went green?"
"Not if I was waiting an extra thirty seconds," Kieski answered. Sachi and Sazuki stared blankly at her. Akane fought a small smile at their absurd conversation.
"I don't understand," Sazuki confessed. "Why are you waiting an extra thirty seconds at all?"
"Because Sachi told me to," Kiseki replied.
"You told her to wait an extra thirty seconds when crossing the street?" Sazuki asked Sachi incredulously.
"No," Sachi replied. "I told her to wait an extra thirty seconds while we packed our bags."
"So why are you now waiting thirty seconds before crossing the road?" Sazuki asked, confused.
"Because Sachi said waiting thirty seconds wouldn't kill me," Kiseki explained brightly.
"And it won't!" Sachi snapped.
"Why not just cross when the cars have stopped?" Sazuki asked, frowning.
"Because then I wouldn't be waiting thirty seconds."
"Why thirty seconds?!" Sazuki cried. "Why wait at all?!"
"Because if I wait an extra thirty seconds, I'll get hit by a bus!" Kiseki replied happily.
"Exactly! The bus will kill you, not waiting thirty seconds!" Sachi cried, exasperated.
"Do you want to get hit by a bus?" Sazuki asked, shocked.
"Not particularly," Kiseki replied, shrugging. The other two stared at her with narrowed eyes, like they were looking at an odd piece of artwork placed somewhere completely random and trying to work out what the inspiration could have possibly been for the person who decided to put it there.
"Sato-chan, I do not get you," Sachi said finally, turning back to her bag and zipping it up.
"So, wait," Sazuki said, thinking too much about the wait-thirty-seconds-and-get-hit-by-a-bus thing now to let it go. "You don't want to get hit by a bus, but you're going to stand beside a street until one comes so you can walk in front of it anyway?"
There was a long pause.
"No," Kiseki said.
"Whaaat?" Sazuki whined, looking dismayed.
"I'm going to stand by a street for thirty seconds and then get hit by a bus," Kiseki corrected.
"But where's the bus coming from?" Sazuki asked.
"The road, of course," Kiseki said, pulling a face. "Where do you think buses come from? The sky?"
Sazuki ignored this smart-alecky comment.
"But how do you know the bus will be coming down the street exactly thirty seconds after you decide to start waiting thirty seconds before crossing the road?" she questioned.
"I don't," Kiseki replied simply.
"Then how do you know a bus is going to hit you after you've stopped waiting?"
"Well it doesn't have to be a bus... It could be a car. But a bus does more collateral damage."
"And you want the damage to be collateral?" Sazuki's eyes were wide as saucers.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because then I'm right and Sachi-chan's wrong!"
"Wrong about what?"
"Waiting thirty seconds."
"Before crossing the street?"
"No."
"Then for what? Kiseki-chan, I don't get it!" Sazuki cried. "This is doing my head in!"
"Come on, Sazuki. We're already late for study," Sachi interrupted, tossing the exasperated brunette her bag. She dragged the wardrobe door over and scooped up the dorm key from the table, pocketing it.
Akane rose from the sofa and crossed quietly to the door, opening it and waiting for the others.
"My head hurts," Sazuki moaned as they headed back along the hallway towards the elevators.
"Stop thinking about things that hurt your head, then," Sachi replied. The lift dinged! and they crowded inside, Kiseki eagerly pressing the button and poking her tongue out triumphantly at Sazuki.
"I won!"
"It wasn't a competition, Kiseki-chan," Sazuki replied, frowning a little.
"It's always a competition," Kiseki argued. Both Sazuki and Sachi rolled their eyes. The doors opened and they walked out onto the floor, crossing the white bridge between the pink and green castles. Akane gazed stonily ahead, determinedly refusing to glance down at the tracks that she knew crossed beneath them. She'd made that mistake once already. Her stomach dropped involuntarily, as it seemed it always would when she walked across the bridge.
Sachi informed Akane that they were heading to the library, which turned out to be an enormous room that covered almost the entire fourth floor. They climbed a wide, beautiful mahogany spiral staircase up from the second floor, walking through the frosted-glass panelled wooden doors.
Akane felt her breath catch.
The library was easily the most magnificent room she'd ever been in. It was long and wide, with a high roof and thick Persian rugs on the rich, dark polished floorboards. The shelves and shelves of bookcases stretched away in rows, neatly lined width-ways across the room. In the very centre of the truly massive hall was a round desk – a perfect circle – behind which sat the librarian, a pleasant-looking woman with her thick hair held in its bun by a web-like black hairnet. She was typing at a computer. Her fingernails tapping against the keys was the only noise to break the heavy silence.
The girls seemed to know exactly where they were going; they headed off towards the middle of the room, and turned left at the circular desk. Akane trailed behind them, gazing curiously at the ends of the rows, and at the little brass plates that explained what their shelves contained; many titles ones she'd never even heard of.
Between each row were two large square desks, one at each end, with a light shaped like a Japanese lantern in the middle of the table. The desks were big enough to seat eight or ten students around them, and it was to one of these desks, about halfway down the left aisle, that Sachi, Sazuki and Kiseki headed. Akane recognised Umeko, her head bent over whatever book she was reading.
"Hey, Suzuki-san," Sachi greeted, pulling out a rather high-backed chair and dropping into it, dumping her bag on the table before her. Umeko glanced up, her purple-blue eyes registering who it was that had interrupted her.
"Hello," she replied, as Sazuki and Kiseki joined them.
"Where's everyone else?" Sazuki asked, looking confused as she glanced around, as if she expected them all to come bursting out from behind a shelf and shout 'surprise!'.
"The tenth graders are having a study session somewhere else. The seniors are off doing preparation mid-terms. Mika's studying with Asato."
"Of course she is," Sachi replied sarcastically, smirking devilishly. "In his dorm."
"Nakamura-chan," Umeko said, sounding tired, "You know they're not in a dorm. Just leave them be."
"Ah, you're no fun," Sachi sighed, pouting. "We totally could have gotten out of study session right now to go spy on Mika-chan and Asato-kuuun."
"Don't call him that!" Sazuki gasped, smiling as Kiseki burst into a fit of girlish giggles. "Only Mika-chan calls him that."
"My point," Sachi said, still smirking. "Someone seriously needs to call Cupid. Does he have a cell?"
"So," Umeko interrupted loudly. "Trigonometry."
Sachi groaned and rested her forehead on the table. Sazuki's smile faded a little, the laughter dying out her eyes. Kiseki's giggling slowly ceased, her face becoming uncharacteristically serious.
"Alright," Sazuki sighed. "Let's get it over with."
She pulled her books out of her bag, the others mirroring her, and they opened up their textbooks to the page Taruto-sensei had been trying to teach them from that morning.
"So, where do we start?" Sachi asked gloomily, her shoulders sagging. Akane almost felt sorry for her; she looked so dejected sitting there gazing miserably at her mathematics books.
"Akane-chan, why don't you sit down?" Sazuki offered, and Akane promptly blushed as they all looked at her. She hovered a little, stepping back from the table.
"... I'm okay."
"You're not going to learn this?" Kiseki asked, surprised.
Akane shook her head gently, smiling a little. She'd already learned it. Why learn it all over again?
"Akane-chan took all the notes today," Sazuki explained to the stunned blonde girl. "She learned everything in class."
"Oh." Kiseki's eyes were wide, like she were witnessing some feat being attempted for the first time in the history of mankind.
"Akane-chan, can we borrow your notes?" Sachi asked hopefully, looking up from the desk with big brown eyes. Akane immediately nodded, taking out her book and handing it to the blue-haired girl.
"Thanks," Sachi said, looking elated. "This should make time go faster."
"That's called 'cheating', Nakamura-chan," Umeko pointed out with a frown. Sachi shrugged.
"I'm not copying her answers. Just her notes. So I can either re-write the textbook, or re-write Akane's notebook. Either way, I'm still getting the notes. And Akane-chan doesn't mind, do you?" she looked up again. Akane shook her head, allowing a small smile to grace her face.
"... May I please leave my bag?" she asked politely. Umeko looked up, awed that she'd actually spoken.
"Hmm? Oh, sure... Just dump it over here," she indicated to the empty desk space beside her. Akane quietly removed her bag from her shoulder and placed it on the desk, trying not to make any noise that might interrupt the four girls' writing or break their concentration. She stood silently for a moment, watching them scrawling in the notebooks, glancing up at their textbooks every now and then, occasionally muttering to themselves or erasing something to write it again.
Sachi and Sazuki started discussing applications of equations and which formula to use with which type of problem, and Akane found herself absent-mindedly drifting towards the nearby shelves, gazing curiously at the titles along their spines. They were sitting between the Martial Arts and Machinery (Obsolete) sections, the two long rows surprisingly packed for topics Akane didn't think would be that popular. As she drifted along towards the end of the row she was looking at (Martial Arts), she let her fingers trail along the spines, watching them leave little trails in the faint layer of dust that had settled on the books over time.
"Akane-chan, we'll be here for a while," Sachi called, noticing her small form wandering away from the table. "So if you want to go exploring, you can come back and find us later. We'll wait for you here, okay?"
With a small, silent nod, Akane walked away from where her friends were studying, letting her chocolate eyes gaze around the enormous library, drinking in its endless row of books, its squashy little sofas shoved wherever there was space, its line of high-tech computers along one wall, and its many students huddled in groups around the tables, or curled up on the sofas. It was a decidedly neat place, albeit comfortably cosy, and despite the piles of books that seemed to sit all over the place.
It was the Japanese History section that Akane eventually found herself in, her eyes flicking from one thick volume to the next, skimming the titles of those concerning the history she already knew... The history she thought was the real history.
It was books on the Cyniclon involvement in history that she found herself pulling off the shelves, flicking the dusty pages of, and gazing at the glossy pictures of.
It just didn't make sense. How could there be so much narration that she never even knew had existed?
She was holding an especially thick book, seemingly containing all there was to know about the Human-Cyniclon history when she turned to pull the chair out of the table behind her. She was planning to read away the rest of the time left in her dorm-mates' study session, and was, surprisingly, quite anxious to learn as much as she could – to learn the truth – about the history of the world she thought she'd grown up in.
Except there was already someone sitting at the table.
Akane stood rooted to the spot, staring at the top of the girl's raven head, the ringlets of which tumbled over her shoulders and onto the pages of the notebook she was writing in. Her head was bowed as she focused on what she was studying. There were textbooks spread out all around her; it was clear she had either been here a long time, or was intending to be here much longer.
Sensing the shy girl's gaze, the other glanced up, redoubling when she realised Akane was actually standing there, staring at her.
"Uh... hi," Tanaka greeted slowly, her deep blue eyes narrowed a little.
Akane said nothing, still surprised that she'd managed to completely miss the presence of the smaller girl in the first place. She was normally quite attentive.
"Are... you okay?" Tanaka asked, sounding a little alarmed, but mostly suspicious. Akane blinked, drawing herself out of her stupor. She walked lightly to the edge of the table and gazed down at the lit lantern, wondering what to say.
"Do you... want to sit down?" the black haired girl offered, pulling her books into a closer pile of mess to create some room. Akane blinked slowly and pulled out a chair, dropping into it gently. She glanced up at her dorm-mate, who was gazing back curiously, like she was trying to work out why she recognised the silent girl sitting opposite her.
"What are you doing here?" she asked eventually, tapping her pen against her notebook.
"... I..." Akane trailed off.
"Where's Nakamura?" the other said suddenly, jerking a little in her seat and glancing around, much as Sazuki had done; like she expected Sachi to jump out from behind a shelf with a weapon of some sort.
"... She's studying," Akane replied, finding her small voice. Tanaka snorted.
"Yeah, sure."
Akane said nothing to this. What could she say? By defending Sachi, she would offend Tanaka, a girl who she did not want to get on the bad side of. But by agreeing with Tanaka, she would be lying, an act she simply did not consider to be an option. Besides, it wasn't her dispute to get involved in.
"So... why aren't you studying, then?" Tanaka demanded, glancing back down at her books.
"... I don't need to," Akane replied quietly. Tanaka raised one eyebrow.
"That brilliant, huh?" she said sarcastically. Akane blushed furiously, a deep, rich red, her eyes burning with embarrassment. She shook her head furiously, dismayed that the other girl had misunderstood completely what she had meant, and now probably thought she was an obnoxious know-all.
"N-no... that's... that isn't–"
"Never mind," the other girl waved it off, un-offended. "You're Kikuchi, right? Kikuchi...?"
"... Akane."
"Akane... Hmm... I'm Tanaka Emiko," the raven-haired girl said. Akane nodded. She did know that. There was a lengthy pause, during which both girls glanced from each other to a stationery object somewhere on the desk, and back again.
"So... you seriously don't know what your compatibility match is?" Emiko asked, a certain curiosity in her voice that betrayed the fact that she'd obviously been wanting to ask the question for a good while. Akane nodded.
"That's so... strange," Emiko said. Then she gasped. "I'm sorry! It's not that you're weird... but that it's weird... you know?"
Akane nodded, more to ease the other's discomfort than to actually agree. She really had no idea. Right now she felt like she didn't actually know anything.
"And you really had no idea about... any of this... before you came here?" Obviously another long-awaited question to be asked.
Akane nodded, reddening.
"Wow," Emiko breathed, her eyes wide.
Akane fidgeted nervously in her seat, her cheeks radiating more heat than the lantern was radiating light.
"So... what's it like?" Emiko asked, her voice lowered a little. Akane glanced up; she was watching the auburn-haired girl quite intently, not dissimilar to the manner in which Pai-sensei had originally surveyed her; like she was a math problem he couldn't work out.
She blinked slowly, wondering what the black-haired girl was talking about.
"Entering a world you didn't know existed," Emiko elaborated.
"... Strange," Akane replied, choosing her description carefully. Emiko laughed lightly.
"Yes, you'd imagine it would be," she agreed, smiling. She looked like she wanted to continue speaking, but didn't, her expression guarded, like Sachi or Sazuki's expressions whenever they'd said too much, or thought they'd offended Akane. It was an expression she was getting used to seeing, the shy girl realised. Lots of people seemed to wear it around her.
"So, how did you find classes today?" Emiko asked, dark eyes watching Akane closely.
"... Different," Akane replied. Emiko nodded.
"Not your usual math class," she commented. Akane allowed a small smile to curl up her lips at the memory of Taruto-sensei's tantrum.
"No," she agreed softly.
"Did you like History?" Emiko asked. Silence descended upon the pair, Tanaka watching Akane, waiting for her response.
"... I didn't understand History," Akane confessed, blushing again. She gazed down at her clasped hands, hanging her head shamefully. No doubt the small girl thought she was dumb.
"I didn't think you would," Emiko said, contrary to the comment she had been expecting. "Not only does Pai-sensei speed through the history of the world like it can be learned in one lesson, he lectures a class in a manner that bores everyone half to death. I don't blame you for not understanding."
"... But..." Akane trailed off, confused. Emiko waited, her pretty blue eyes patient.
"... You knew everything!" Akane blurted, pink-faced. Emiko laughed good-naturedly.
"I teach myself everything," she corrected. "Oh, Pai-sensei is one of the better teachers at the Academy–" she'd caught Akane's shocked expression, "But all you can do in that class is try and take as many notes as you can. He doesn't really explain things so that everyone understands it... But he's still better than Taruto-sensei..."
Akane smiled once more. Another, more comfortable silence fell over the table.
"... Why are you always alone?" Akane suddenly asked, then immediately gasped, wishing she could take back her question. It had just blurted out of her... she never just said what came into her mind! Emiko was staring at the table, her expression a little pained.
"I... I'm a bit more... reclusive... than the others..." she replied awkwardly, blushing. She didn't look back up at Akane, and they were both silent for a few moments, until something inside Akane compelled her to say,". ..Me, too."
And then Emiko looked up at her, her expression surprised. Akane couldn't hold her gaze; she glanced around at the shelves flanking their table. A long moment of understanding passed between them.
"Do you want me to help you learn History?" Emiko asked. Akane looked up at her, and the blue-eyed, raven-haired girl gazed back.
Simultaneously, they smiled.
"Kikuchi-chan!"
Akane perked up at the sound of her name echoing in the library. She dragged her soft brown eyes from the page of the book she was reading, and turned in her seat, just as three figures came around the far end of the shelves.
"There you are!" Sachi cried (a very annoyed 'Shh!' from a nearby senior shortly followed) and, beaming, she skipped up the aisle towards the table, Sazuki and Kiseki trailing behind her. "We were wondering where you'd got..." she abruptly fell silent, her black-brown eyes noticing Emiko for the first time.
"Nakamura," Emiko greeted shortly, her eyes hard.
"Tanaka," Sachi replied, her voice smooth. It sounded like she had her teeth clenched.
"Oh, hello Tanaka-san," Sazuki said brightly, coming to the rescue. "We didn't know you were here."
"Hi, Kinomoto-san," Emiko returned, her face assuming a pretty smile.
"Whatcha reading?" Kiseki asked, resting her arms on the back of Akane's chair. The shy girl held up her book without a word, and the three others simultaneously cocked their heads to read the title.
"The Ages of Mew History," Sazuki read aloud. "Interesting."
"Is that for History?" Kiseki asked, confused. Akane nodded.
"But we didn't have History homework!" the smaller girl protested. The others fought smiles.
"... It's just some light reading," Akane explained quietly, carefully marking the page and closing the book gently. Kiseki's eyes nearly popped out of her head.
"You're reading History textbooks for fun?!" she gasped, horrified. Akane glanced at Emiko, who was carefully focused on her studying again, her nose pointedly buried in her book. Sensing her discomfort, she rose from her seat.
"... Thank you, Tanaka-san," she murmured, bowing her head respectfully. Emiko glanced up, shocked, and blushed a little.
"No problem. Uh... See you tomorrow?" she asked, aware of the others' curious gazes upon them. Akane nodded silently, sliding the book back into its place on the shelf.
"... Goodbye."
"Bye."
"See ya later, Tanaka-chan!" Kiseki cried cheerfully, earning them another furious hushing from the seniors. Before the joyous, too-loud girl could get them in any more trouble, Sazuki grabbed her sleeve and dragged her off down the aisle.
Sachi and Akane followed behind, a strange silence between them. Akane wondered how to break it; it didn't feel right when the bubbly blue-haired girl wasn't chattering away incessantly.
"... Nakamura-san?"
Sachi looked at her, her expression obliging.
"... Are you annoyed at me?" Akane asked, fear creeping into her small voice.
"No, of course not! Why on earth would I be?" Sachi demanded, her expression disbelieving. Her answer had been too quick, though – too loud. Akane wondered desperately what she'd done to irritate her host student, and trudged dejectedly along beside her, wringing her hands.
"Oh, here," Sachi broke the silence suddenly, holding out Akane's bag. "You left this at our table."
"... Thank you," Akane whispered, taking it gingerly in her hands. Sachi suddenly sensed her dismay, and looked at her, flashing a wide, very Sachi-like grin.
"So, seeing as our studying didn't take as long as it normally does, we've got more time tonight than we thought we did," she said, her hands in the pockets of her sweats. "So we're thinking of going to the hot springs... Do you want to come?"
Akane glanced at her shyly; she was still smiling, her eyes happy again.
"... Okay."
She was confused as to her friend's sudden mood swings, but decided to accept that things seemed to be fine again. While part of her sensed that Sachi was putting on a friendly face to disguise her annoyance, she happily recognised that the other girl was willing to swallow her irritation and make an effort to be merry.
She smiled a little in gratitude.
"Excellent!" Sachi babbled happily, slipping her arm through Akane's. "It's really fun, Akane-chan, and the hot springs are so nice – all steamy and aromatic... and you should see them in spring when the cherry blossoms are in bloom!"
Akane smiled at her friend, allowing herself to be steered from the library. She listened to Sachi's cheerful chattering as they headed back to dorm seventeen, her soft chocolate eyes fixed upon the figures of the two other members of their small party, further ahead. She let the smile linger, grateful for the kindness they'd all shown her so far, and, for the first time, feeling like she might actually have a place in her strange new life at Mew Academy.
Okay, so chapter ten is done! We've hit double digits! Woo-hoo!
Thanks to everyone who voted in the Magical Mew Academy poll - your say was greatly influential.
Life's about to get wacko busy again for me; I'm off to a pre-enrollment day at Monash University (only one of Melbourne/Victoria's most esteemed universities!) this afternoon, and then I have a week before I jet off to Japan to stay with my best friend for a fortnight! After that I've got two days before O-Week (Orientation Week - or, as the Brits call it 'Fresher's Week') and THEN uni officially starts March 3.
So I will do my ABSOLUTE VERY BEST to get an update up for MA/Code X soon, but I really can't guarantee I'll be able to. On top of my own projects, there's Inter Dimensional Elementals, the co-authored story I'm writing with ZephyrFiction, New1Romantic and TazzybizzyNya - check it out, it's a self-inserted OC story! - AND ZephyrFiction needs some help with BNB, for any author/esses or readers who know what I'm talking about when I say it.
So - BUSY, if you couldn't tell! LOL.
There's a Twilight-related Tokyo Mew Mew poll up on my profile at the moment, for anyone who is interested. It's just a little poll; it'll be replaced soon with something MA-related. Ha-ha-ha!
Until the next update, REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW, readers!
Yours, faitrhfully, sincerely, truly, and very much gratefully,
Cherrie-Sakura
xoxo