Half Demon Swordsman
Chapter Twenty Five: Wedding Dress Chaos

Asagi

I sighed as Ms. Lambert droned on about how to sew something. You know, sewing class would be a lot more interesting if she wouldn't just drone on. And what's with her blush anyway? It's like she's in love with someone.

Not long later, I would realize my guess wasn't too far off the mark.

Finally, class was over. I sat with my friends a little ways off, while Molly and Serena sat together. All of us were eating ice cream.

Melvin popped up out of nowhere with a 'gossip update.' Apparently, Ms. Lambert was getting married, and that's why she was such a space case. Serena launched into a speech about what would happen when she got married. I nearly snorted at the idea. My face turned red, though, as I thought of Darien. I couldn't suppress a small laugh when Serena's ice cream fell on her head.

On the way home we passed a wedding chapel. I had to drag Serena away from there, because it we didn't hurry up we'd be late for InuYasha-sensei's class.

"Come on Serena." I said. We saw a group of people move a sign into place. It was for a wedding dress sewing contest. I sighed. "Come on Serena." I repeated as I saw Ray. "Hi Ray! How's it going?"

She waved back and gestured to the bag slung over her shoulder. "I was running late, so I packed my clothes into a bag and decided I'd change on the way." She explained. "What's up with you guys?"

I jerked my head at the sign. "That. Serena's drooling over it, but we need to go. Think you could . . ." I trailed off as I saw her face light up.

"With pleasure." Ray replied with a wicked grin. "Hey Meatball Head!" She yelled in my sister's ear, interrupting her daydreAmyng.

Serena rubbed her ear. "Ow! Ray, what was that for?"

I sighed. "We're going to be late, Sun." I hissed.

Serena gulped. "Coming, coming."

So we raced to the dojo. I couldn't wait, because I had a feeling that Darien was already there. Boy would it be fun to see the look on their faces.

"Darien," I heard Sensei saying. "How nice of you to finally show up. We've only been waiting several weeks."

Darien gulped and bowed as we entered. "Sorry. I only found out who Asagi was a few weeks ago, and then it honestly hadn't occurred to me to come to your dojo until just a few days ago after the incident with the park." He explained.

"Really?" Sensei drawled. "Then why is your heart beating so fast?"

"Nerves." My boyfriend said flatly.

Sensei said nothing for a moment, before finally, he nodded. "And one other thing." He said. He whispered the next part Darien's ear, but I still heard it. "Asagi was my very first student, so if you hurt her, I will kill you."

Darien gulped and turned white as a sheet. "Hai." He managed.

"Well, let's see how good you are with a sword. Considering that he's your boyfriend Asagi, why don't you test him after Roku Dai and Jedite have told us all the rules?" Despite the wording, I wasn't stupid enough to think it was a suggestion. No, it was a command, and I dared not disobey.

So after the rules were recited, I tested Darien. He'd been doing pretty good for just practicing on his own with the sword I gave him, but he wasn't as good as I was, especially since I had a specialized sword, whereas he just had a regular longsword.

"Alright, you got me Asagi-chan." He said as my blade touched his neck lightly. "You're good, you know that?"

I grinned. "Yup, I know."

"Hey imouto," Serena began. "Why is he here?"

Before I could answer, InuYasha-sensei butted in. "Before Darien's secret can be spilled, I'm going to tell you to look underneath the underneath."

Class went smoothly after that. Both Ray and Serena decided on the way home that they would enter this wedding dress sewing contest. Ray wanted to borrow our sewing machine, but I told her before she could embarrass herself that Mom didn't sew.

Serena was pissed that Ray wanted to enter and steal 'her' trip to Hawaii, but I told her that if she didn't stop whining about it, I'd temporarily disable her ability to speak with my Shadow Strangulation.

Needless to say, she shut up and dropped the idea, especially when Molly and Amy wouldn't help her. Luna chewed her out for not helping find the Moon Princess and the Sun Princess, saying that if Serena spent half as much time searching for them as she did messing around, we might have found them already. Well, until I pointed out that we had no idea what to look for.

Across town I sensed a power flare that felt like Neflite's, so I decided to check it out. He was talking to Ms. Lambert about fabric. I glared at him and deliberately flared my power to get his attention. He glared back at me. Once I knew I had his attention, I smirked and made a very rude gesture at him. He just glared at me some more.

I informed the others about this, and Jedite resolved to keep an eye on his brother (half brother, as Jedite was quick to remind us, and unfortunately for him, the legitimate and oldest one). While he was spying on his (most hated as he claimed) brother, apparently, Ms. Lambert really let her boyfriend have it and called their engagement off. Luna thought the Negaverse was behind it.

I agreed, and we all decided to meet at Cherry Hill Temple. Amy said something about how she liked it because it was peaceful. However, as soon as she spoke the words, Ray and her grandfather came plowing into us, having an argument about whether or not Ray could use her grandfather's sheets to make a wedding dress. The old man said she couldn't, but Ray thought she could.

I wanted to know if she even knew how to sew.

Soon enough, the issue was resolved (for the moment anyway) and we got down to the business of discussing what Neflite might be up to this time, and why he was picking on our sewing teacher of all people.

"I think what matters now," Moegi put in. "Is stopping Neflite before he can extract Ms. Lambert's energy. I think the Sailor Team should go check this out. All in favor?"

Everyone but Serena raised their hands. "Aye!" We chorused.

Serena ditched us to go try to make a wedding dress out of Mom's silk curtains, but wound up getting caught. I sighed as I dragged her along behind me and out of the house to solve the mystery of the wedding dress chaos.