"I never knew there was a shortcut to this temple." Lin utters in awe while she continues to observe her surroundings.
"One of the tour guides told me when I asked about the writings. It was right before we left from Xiangjiesi." Wenling divulges.
She continously searched for the sign he told her to locate when she made known, "I wonder who would arrive first?"
"Why do you ask?" The blonde woman curiously poses to her pupil.
The brunette peers upward, spots the sign, and admits, "I mean...honestly the only reason why we're here first is because I know the area. The others aren't from around here."
"Now that you mention it, I wonder what their nationalities are?" Lin suddenly wonders about the other girls.
"You didn't ask them?" Wenling shockingly questions, which earns, "I really didn't think to ask since we had to start you girls training as soon as possible."
The pair finally arrived at a rather empty stone brick courtyard in front of the Chang'ansi (Temple of Eternal).
"I know that Audrey doesn't understand Chinese or Mandarin because she would always ask Hiromi to translate for her." The brunette reveals to her teacher after she recalls from their inital meeting.
"So is Hiromi…Chinese?" Lin poses to her, which prompts the response, "I don't think so…"
"From what I can tell, she's probably only a beginner. She knows basic phrases for times like an emergency or a simple conversation. But, I think I heard her use fluent Japanese whenever she talks with Meifeng."
The goldenrod woman quirks an eyebrow at the comment and infers, "If she can hold a conversation with her then there's a possibility that she could be from Japan. Meifeng had a slightly difficult time with adjusting here once Inoue recruited her."
"Okay, so what about Audrey?" Lin then asks about the dirty blonde teen before Wenling explains, "She has a really brash yet rough attitude. It's like the kind you only see from either Russians or Americans." (A/n: I don't mean to mark stereotypes on nationalities but it's for the sake of a conversation.)
"Now that you mention it, those two hardly ever spoke whenever we were all gathered together." The older woman suddenly remarks with a nod of her head.
Some movement abruptly captures Wenling's attention as she speaks up, "Wait a minute…I think I see something…"
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"I don't believe it. Of all the people I caught up with, it had to be you!" Audrey irritably grumbles at the sight of the raven haired teen and her powdery white haired teacher.
"Audrey," Lanying instantly snaps at the young woman before she apologizes, "I apologize about that Akane and Archimedes."
A "humph" emits from the dirty blonde, which earns, "Akane, isn't this the temple we were supposed to meet up at?"
"Her attitude really irks me," Audrey mutters as she tucks her arms underneath her chest and rolls her eyes.
Lanying merely shakes her head all while she considers, '…and here I thought she matured a little.'
Wenling quickly steps in when she senses another argument about to brew between the two girls. "Calm down, you two."
"She's the one who has a problem with me and not the other way around." Archimedes calmly conveys as she directs her sights on to the temple.
"Akane and Lanying," Lin politely greets the older women of the bunch, which they cordially address her by her name, "Lin,"
"I see your pupils are back at again." She quips as they watch Wenling constantly keep Audrey at bay against Archimedes.
"…and here I thought she matured a little because of her whole ordeal." Lanying honestly claims with a shake of her head.
"Ordeal?" The goldenrod blonde repeats, which prompts another question, "Well that's how Audrey described it, but did any of your students just mysteriously vanish?"
"Did that happen to you as well Akane?" The purple haired woman instantly needles as it earns the response of, "Mhm,"
"I see. So after they mysteriously vanished and reappeared, did they have anything on their blades?" Lanying probes.
She earns a simultaneously nod of "yes" from the other two that earns a "You don't think?"
Back to the girls...
"This is a total waste of time." Archimedes ultimately concludes as she continues to ignore the dirty blonde.
Audrey sneers at the raven haired teen before she asks, "Wenling...have you seen Hiromi or is she already here?"
The brunette drops her hands once she deems it to be safe, releases a deep sigh, and says, "Well…no,"
The dirty blonde teen casually peers around for any sights of the brunette when she implores, "I hope she makes it in time."
"She will! Out of all us, she has the utmost priority to see this through." Wenling boldly expresses with a small smile on her face.
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'I hope I'm not too late.' Hiromi inwardly wishes. The brunette was rapidly pedaling faster and faster while tediously avoiding the tourists.
She briefly peeks over her shoulder at her teacher and breathlessly poses, "How are you doing back there, sensei?"
"This is a bit...new, nevertheless it was a pretty smart idea." Meifeng honestly admits while she braces herself in the cab of the bike.
"I really should be thanking you," The brunette sincerely confesses before she retorts, "If you hadn't flirted with the cab driver then we would've had to walk the entire way back."
Once the sight of the temple enters in her sights, a wide smile stretches across her face as she happily thinks, 'There's the temple!'
"You're not leaving without me!" Hiromi loudly proclaims while she screeches to a halt in front of the group of females.
The three girls swiftly rotate their head in the direction of her voice as a smile materializes on their faces.
"About time," Audrey eventually mutters with a similar smile on her face.
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Hiro dutifully sets the dining room table while his grandfather places the final touches on to the dinner. His thoughts soon consist of his younger brother, 'I wonder if Takao is going to come to dinner?'
The younger man of the pair eventually emerges from the kitchen in order to announce, "Dinner's ready!"
Eventually four out of the five members arrive at the dining room, locate their respective seats and start to dig in to the food.
'Looks like I should save him a plate,' Grandpa figured since Takao had yet to have dinner with the rest of his team.
The older Kinoyama catches a glimpse of his eldest grandchild's back disappears behind the kitchen door.
Hiro did not have to venture to far from the dining room when he beholds the sight of his younger brother.
"Takao," He cordially addresses him by his name, which earns the other blue haired boy's attention.
An expression of concern materializes on his face before he releases a sigh and repeats, "Dinner is ready."
A brief pregnant silence instantly develops between the pair until Takao makes known, "I heard."
Hiro nods his head, waits until his brother passes by him, rotates around and follows him back to the kitchen.
"Everyone's here now," Kai's voice promptly speaks up once Takao and Hiro enter inside of the dining room.
A static sound could be heard until a voice clearly breaks through, "Pardon the late phone call fellas, but I just wanted to inform you about your schedule for the upcoming BBA World Tournament."
"Go ahead, Mr. Dickerson." The slate haired teen acknowledges for him to continue, "Since you boys are the current champions, you will have a lot of responsiblities on your shoulders being our Brand Ambassadors, but you all already know that. The first day will be a Media Day where the press will meet with the top executives of the BBA in the morning and the teams will take place in the afternoon. Hiro, you will be required to attend the morning press conference as well."
Hiro raises an eyebrow at the request before he confirms, "I understand."
"Final rosters and personal data sheets should be submitted no later than noon on that day. Each team will be given a list of the team names and their participants on the first day of the exhibition matches. The setup will be two teams compete in the morning and afternoon."
"We will release the location of the next tournament site at the end of the Japan leg. More information will be released as we go along but I look forward to your cooperation." Mr. Dickerson finally wraps up their conversation.
"We look forward to your cooperation as well." Hiro repeats the same sentiments before he ends the phone call with the director.
"It's starting to become surreal." Rei speaks up after he sips on his bowl of soup and places it back on the table.
Kai rests his chopsticks on his napkin, closes his eyes and remarks, "We have less than a couple of days left to sharpen some of our dull weakness."
"We're ramping up the training schedule." He asserts, which earns a groan from the blonde, "Ah come on Kai,"
Hiro notes that Takao did not provide any form of response and instead proceeds with the consumption of his food.
'Yep, something's definitely wrong,'
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The girls, along with their teachers, eventually arrive back within the Forbidden City boundaries and venture back to the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
The group of women were soon greeted by the orange haired beauty that they immediately registered as none other than Inoue Matsumoto.
She dramatically removes the pair of glasses from in front of her face and happily proclaims, "Congratulations, ladies!"
"You managed to complete the arduous task that was set ahead of you and for that I must commend you!" Inoue congratulates the young women in front of her.
"Since I had the utmost faith in you all, I started to make a couple of calls to some close friends."
"…and I was able to secure you four a position in the BBA World Tournament." She promptly reveals with a smirk on her face.
The girls, except for Archimedes and Hiromi, happily cheer at the good news. The news earns a "How?" from the brunette.
"Turns out the BBA likes to secretly reserve and extend an open invitation to a team who has never participated in the tournament." The orange haired woman eagerly exposed one of the secrets she found out about the BBA.
"Did you know about that Hiromi?" Wenling defiantly asks a more reliable source, which earns the honest response, "There's only so much that the players and staff know."
"Thanks for that reminder, Hiromi." Inoue hastily thanked the brunette, who happened to remind her of something she omitted.
"You four have to come up with a team name." She remarks as Audrey repeats, "A team name?"
"Oh and you will need to select a captain," The woman adds in right before she faces the older women and issues them a task, "While the girls do that, ladies, I need for one of you to decide who the coach is?"
Inoue then watches as the two groups of females face each other and start to animatedly discuss their given assignments.
"Any ideas, anyone?" Wenling breaks the silence amongst the teenage girls.
Audrey shook her head after repeated failed attempts to conjure up a name before she conceded, "Nope, none whatsoever!"
"Archimedes?" The raven haired teen simply shook her head "no" after being addressed by the brunette.
After a couple of minutes passes, an idea eventually pops up in Wenling's head, 'I think that could work.'
"How about the word Yuanfen?"
"Yuan…fan," Audrey struggles to repeat the word until Wenling politely corrects and explains, "No…Yuanfen or we can even use Yuan. It means "fateful coincidence" and can also be translated as "destiny, luck as conditioned by one's past", or "natural affinity among friends."
"I like both! But let's use Yuan since it's simpler to remember." Hiromi agrees to the idea of the team name being Yuan.
"Now we have to choose a captain,"
"I vote Hiromi." The dirty blonde instantly proclaims her nomination for captain.
"Oh no, captains have to do a lot of speaking engagements and I'm not good with crowds. How about Archimedes?" She immediately recommends her choice after she reveals why she did not want the role.
"Nope! I rather see you or Wenling as captain, not her." Audrey adamantly protests the idea of Archimedes being captain.
"I agree." Wenling chimes in agreement with a nod of her head.
The dirty blonde dramatically points her finger toward the other brunette and declares, "See…at least Wenling agrees with me."
"Actually, I don't. I agree with Hiromi." She hastily clarifies exactly who she agrees with on the role of captain and the reason why. "Since we're a new team, questions will be flying from left and right. Think about it…she's the typical archetype of a captain: few words, cool, calm, composed and emotionless."
"You got my vote." Hiromi immediately affirms her decision again.
"Hiromi…" Audrey calls out to the brunette with ruby red eyes only to hear Wenling add, "Mine too."
The dirty blonde angrily huffs and stomps at the fact she was outnumbered by two. She furiously glares over at the quiet raven haired teen.
"I don't agree but since majority rules, I have no choice but to agree."
Inoue soon watches as the two groups break from their huddle and approaches her with various expressions on their faces.
"So what have you all come up with?" She inquisitively asks the younger group first when Wenling steps forward to speak, "We decided that our team name will be Yuan and our captain is Archimedes."
"…and for you ladies?" The orange haired woman then directs her sights on the older group next when Meifeng advances forward.
"I was unanimously voted to serve as the coach for the team." The silver haired woman revealed, who they selected as the coach.
A wider smile stretches across Inoue's face, rests her fists against the side of her hips, nods her head, and merrily announces, "It has been decided then. Yuan will enter and win the BBA World Tournament!"
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The morning sun brightly illuminates the Tokyo cityscape as the elderly Mr. Dickerson continuously fields calls from the media about the upcoming world tournament.
'Press conference scheduled. Now...let's see the listing of teams that have been contacted.' He thinks before he grabs a sheet of paper nearby, studies the list, and places it in front of him.
His secretary eventually enters in the office with some paperwork in her hands, which causes the older man to deeply sigh.
'I wonder…what the end results of this year tournament will bring?' The man inwardly envisions until another stack of papers land on the surface of his desk.
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Author's Note:
04.29.17 Major editing revisions