Hi everybody! With this chapter, the new arc has officially begun! *cheering in background* Personally, I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out, though you're of course entitled to your opinion. Anyways, on to reviews. Only one this time. :p Love you all to death, but I'd love you even more if you'd review (just saying).
dotYui: But they're important to the plot! I can't just leave them to rot in the Vendicare! Believe it or not, that actually happened to me the other day, and I was determined to put that in a story somewhere. The reasons were completely made up on the spot, if you must know, so I'm glad you liked them. ^^ Hope you enjoy this chapter!
Our Sky
Chapter 36: The Queen's Return
It was a clear, calm night in the small town of Namimori. The ordinary citizens were asleep, completely oblivious to the battle that had take place only a week ago, their lives continuing on normally. The students of Namimori Junior High were blissfully unaware of the drastic change that was about to occur in their lives. The drastic change that came in the form of a boy and girl.
The two teenagers in question were standing in front of the school. It was the middle of the night, but neither seemed to care.
"So we're allowed to go back tomorrow, huh?" the girl observed. It wasn't so much a question as a statement, but the other was used to such things.
"For you, maybe," her companion chuckled softly. "My suspension was lifted three weeks ago. Yours is the one that's ending tomorrow."
"But you didn't want me to be lonely, so you decided not to go, right Hiro-chan?"
"You could say that."
"Would you phrase it differently?"
"It's more of that I just didn't want to go back," 'Hiro-chan' shrugged, adjusting the dark blue knit cap on his head so that it hid more of his messy black hair. "Not out of any real obligation to you."
"Liar."
"Hn," was the only response. When she saw she wasn't going to get anything else out of him, the girl stuck her tongue out at him, then turned and scaled the school's fence. From there, she hopped up onto one of the stone gateposts. She straightened, standing tall like a statue. Or a queen surveying her land. The girl smirked.
"I wonder if they've forgotten me," she mused quietly. From the ground, her companion snorted.
"Oh please," he said. "You're hardly an easy person to forget, Rui."
Her smirk widened, green eyes glittering in the moonlight as she turned to face him.
"What do you say we shake things up a little around here?"
~OS~
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm actually glad to go back to school," Retsu said wearily as he grabbed his school bag and pulled on his shoes. Daisuke, who was sitting in the kitchen eating, nearly choked on his breakfast.
"Retsu, are you sure you're okay!" he exclaimed, rushing over to put his hand to his little brother's forehead. "You're not warm, but...did you hit your head recently?"
"Get off!" the teen shouted, playfully shoving Dai away. "I'm fine, I swear."
"But you said..." the older male whined, and Retsu sighed.
"Look, anything, even school, is better than being home-schooled by that," he said, pointing at the baby standing beside him. Reborn pouted, looking for all the world like a hurt child.
"How horrible," the infant looked up, an evil glint in his eye that sent a chill up his student's spine. "Bad children need to be punished, right Leon?" The chameleon nodded, morphing into a hammer. Retsu gulped, shooting to his feet and shoving the door open in record time.
Guess Leon's back to normal, the boy thought as he ran for his life across the lawn, Reborn hot on his heels.
"Have a good day at school," Dai called after them, smiling and shaking his head. Mayumi poked her head out of the kitchen as he re-entered.
"Did the two of them leave already?" she asked, holding up a box wrapped in a blue cloth. "Retsu forgot his lunch."
"Really?" the man sighed, flopping back into a chair with a wince. His wounds from the battle had yet to fully heal, and he was still feeling them at times. Izumi walked into the kitchen, yawning and rubbing his growling stomach.
"Did ya just say the boss left his lunch here?" the boy asked, unconsciously using the title in his half-asleep state. Dai froze.
"The boss?" his mother repeated, confused. "You don't mean Retsu, do you?"
"Huh?" was the intelligent response. Luckily, the eldest Akimura brother was there to rescue the situation.
"I-it's this online game they play!" he said hastily. Mayumi gave him a critical look, and he sweat-dropped. Damn woman's and mother's intuition, he thought. "I've heard it's pretty fun! Something to do with the mafia or something. I never really paid much attention, but maybe I should start if it's so fun that Izumi-kun's dreaming about it!"
"Wha? Oh, yeah!" the orange haired boy was quick to agree, jolted out of his drowsiness by the words. "Tons of fun!"
"...Whatever you say, boys." The woman still looked unconvinced, but decided to let it slide. "As long as it's not giving you any dangerous ideas, I don't really mind. And back to your earlier question, yes, Retsu forgot his lunch."
"And I don't think he's got any money on him," Dai added.
"I can take it to 'im, if that's okay with ya," Izumi offered. "If I leave now, I might be able to catch 'im before he gets to school."
"That would be lovely," Mayumi said, but hesitated to give the lunch to him. "But, your injuries..."
"I'm fine," he shook it off dismissively with a sweet smile. "They weren't that bad, and I heal fast." With that said, he snatched the lunch, along with a few pieces of toast off Dai's plate, and headed out the door, ignoring the man's protests/death threats.
"Stupid brat," Daisuke mumbled once he was sure Izumi was gone, poking his rice with a chopstick. His mother only giggled, already putting a few more slices of bread in the toaster.
"Things are so lively around here nowadays," she said to herself. "It's nice."
"Wait a minute," her son momentarily paused in his sulking, remembering something.
"What is it?"
"Does Izumi even know the way to the school?"
~OS~
Against all odds, Retsu actually made it to school without being heavily wounded. He collapsed in front of his locker, panting hard.
"You're getting better at that," Reborn commented approvingly. The boy shot him a glare.
"Yeah, well, I get lots of practice," he grumbled.
"Good morning, Retsu," Yume greeted sleepily (more so than usual) as she walked up. All of her glaringly obvious injuries had healed for the most part, but Retsu was willing to bet that she still had those bandages wrapped around her waist. "Have a nice run to school?"
"It was wonderful," he replied sarcastically. "Reborn and me-OW!" The baby had suddenly walked up to him, grabbed a finger, and twisted it. Hard. "The hell was that fo-OW!"
"No swearing," Reborn pointed out, obviously getting far more pleasure out of this than he should have been. "And it's Reborn and I. As your tutor, it's my responsibility to help you learn things like that."
"You could have just corrected me!"
"But this way, you'll always remember it."
Jun, Kazuki, and Amatsu chose this moment to show up. The sprinter was sporting a bandage under one eye, courtesy of his fight with Usagi, and Kazuki was still limping slightly, but other than that, they seemed fine. It was all of their first day back to school since the fight with the 6 Zodiacs, and it was obvious that Amatsu was dying to know what happened to them.
Thing was, they couldn't tell him, so they'd come up with a suitable lie for them all to tell. It felt awful to lie to his best friend since, well, forever, but it was necessary.
"Hey Retsu," their blond friend said in his usual, sunny manner. He realized Reborn was there as well, and he waved. "Nice to see you again too, kid." The baby nodded in response.
"Hey, guys?" Jun asked, a bit uncertainly.
"What's up?" Amatsu pushed a piece of his brown hair out of his eyes, staring up at the taller boy questioningly.
"Do any of you...feel like something's wrong here?"
"What do you mean?" Retsu replied nervously.
"I don't exactly know," the black haired boy looked around thoughtfully. "Everyone just seems kind of tense, you know?"
The other teens took the opportunity to finally notice the atmosphere around them, and found that their friend was right. No one was looking at them, despite all the noise they'd been making only moments ago. In fact, they seemed to be avoiding the group, and each other, as if trying not to draw attention to themselves.
"I can't think of any reason for this," Amatsu mused, then a thought occurred to him, and he blanched. "Oh god. Not unless..."
"C'mon, what's all this about?" Kazuki's innocent question echoed throughout the entire hallway. He received a few worried glances, even some openly horrified ones, but all eyes were drawn away moments later when the school door was kicked open by someone's foot. An audible gasp went around the room once everyone had gotten a good look, and students scrambled out, desperately trying to make themselves scarce.
Standing in the doorway was a girl around their age. She had red hair down to the small of her back, and alert light green eyes. Multiple piercings lined both ears, and though she was technically wearing the girl's uniform without the tie, it looked nothing like it usually did. The white shirt was unbuttoned all the way down, revealing a blue tank-top underneath, which was the same color as her short skirt. She wore two criss-crossing black belts around her waist, and knee-length white socks led to black shoes. In case the rest of her didn't scream "Delinquent Badass," she was also carrying a metal baseball bat.
Behind her was a boy, also their age, dressed in a similarly different way. Messy black hair was kept back by a dark blue beanie, and brown eyes surveyed the scene around them with keen awareness. He didn't seem to even bother with the uniform, instead wearing a red T-shirt, dark blue jeans, a black belt like the girl's, only singular, and red and black sneakers. A laptop was held under one arm, and as the pair walked in he blew a bubble then popped it, showing that he was chewing gum.
"Her suspension ended today," Amatsu whispered in a small, scared voice. "They're back. Edogawa Rui and Kimidori Hiro."
~OS~
Now if I were a school, where would I be? Izumi wondered as he jogged along the streets of the town, completely and utterly lost. He thought he'd seen it somewhere around here the other day, but back then he'd been too preoccupied with finding Retsu and his friends to take any notice. Now, he wished he had. This town isn't even that big! Where is it?
Of course, just as that thought crossed his mind, his attention was caught by a sign outside of a large, tan building, proudly stating that this was Namimori Junior High. Figures, he sighed to himself, then picked up the pace. He hadn't seen Retsu on the way here, as he'd hoped, but maybe he could still catch the other boy before class started.
A thought came to him as he entered the grounds that made him stop. Wasn't he supposed to be a rockstar? And he was sure he'd seen quite a few people in the crowd that looked like they were wearing a uniform. So, didn't that mean people would recognize him here?
...Okay, so maybe Izumi hadn't thought this out that well, but honestly, he'd expected to catch Retsu before they got to the school. Now, he had a problem. Oh well, nothing he could do about it now. Best to just get in and get out, hoping no one recognized him. All he needed was a little luck.
He should have known that plan was going to fail.
This is kind of a short chapter, but I got what I wanted in. ^^ As promised, the poll closed with this! And here are the results!
The winner, with 3 votes, was Retsu!
Coming in second with 2 votes, Jun and Kurohana tied!
And for third place, each with 1 vote respectively, were Kazuki, Yume, Izumi, and Daisuke.
Thanks a million to everyone who voted! ^^ And remember to press that little button under this because as we all know, reviews are like a writer's lifeblood. Or at least, they are to me.