Chapter 35 – Codes and a Hunt for Assassin
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar – The Last Airbender
"AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!"
He ran as fast as he could while the beast chased after him closely, trying to run him through with its giant antler. He ran all around the arena, followed closely by the rampaging saber-tooth moose-lion while the mad king cackled like a madman he was at the sight.
"Hahaha –snort- ahahahaha!!" the mad king cackled even louder, more maniacally at him as he leaped to the side, avoiding another wild charge from the beast. "Go get him, boy!"
"I am so going to kill him", he hissed, glancing at the ancient, not to mention crazy, king and maintaining most of his attention to the charging danger in front of him. The saber-tooth moose-lion was readying another charge, keeping its eyes fixed on him and scratching the ground with its hind leg. He cast a glance around; there was a wall behind him, fifty meters away, barely enough of a space for him to gain enough acceleration to accumulate the needed kinetic force. The moose lion was charging now! No choice!
"Okay", he muttered, turning his back on the beast, getting ready to run forward. "Come to me, you little- erm, not so little, jerk."
A good warrior always takes his surrounding into account, using it to aid him in his fight. That was what he was doing, using the terrain to his advantage. The beast was fifty meters away, not yet… forty, get ready… thirty, get steady… twenty, wait for it… ten! GO!!!
He dashed forward with everything he had; the beast's antler almost greased his behind. He ran forward, toward the wall. Just a bit more, thankfully he was a fast runner. Twenty meters, ten, five… the wall! Upon impact with the wall, he rooted his right foot on it, then his left foot above his right foot, then his right foot stomped on the wall again… wall running. It was part of his training in order to enable him to run over a short wall for infiltration. Depending on the speed and momentum you gained when you ran into the wall, usually you'll get no more than four steps. Some who were really good at it could get maximum six steps. But, he was not really good at it, his skill was average and he had never really had any useful use for it, so he hadn't really been practicing this thing. Therefore, it was understandable that he lost all his momentum upon his third step. It was barely enough, he realized as he propelled himself to backward, using the wall as a launching point in a split second before the beast's skull crashed the wall, to the point where he would have been sandwiched on had he not launched himself in time.
He twirl in the air and landed perfectly five meters away behind the beast. The moose lion shook its sore head a bit, pulling it from the cracked wall, staggering on the spot a bit before slumping down, losing consciousness from the impact. He sighed, relieved that he had passed the test. He turned to the king, who was munching on some kind of green crystal rock, and said. "I've done what you asked of me. Now, let me go!"
"No", the mad king replied curtly. "I could release you now, but I'll just catch you again. But, if you wait until tomorrow, I will release you and will never bother you again. You can wait or you can go now. Your choice."
"I will not wait until tomorrow!" he retorted, after thinking about it for a while.
"Why?" the mad king asked, raising a brow.
He swiftly caught her hand just before he could even touch him, eliciting a short startled gasp from her. It took some time for Lin's body to stop tensing up and his mind to register that it was Ursa whose hand he was gripping.
"Oh, Lady Ursa", Lin sat up, releasing Ursa's hand.
"I didn't mean to startle you, dear", Ursa smiled apologetically. "I came to wake you up."
"Good morning, then", Lin yawned, grinning and stretching his upper body.
"Good morning, my dear", Ursa smiled brighter, casting a fond look on the boy. "How was your sleep?"
"Not good", Lin replied bluntly.
"The bed's not comfy enough?" Ursa asked again.
"No, it's perfect", Lin waved it off. "I just had some weird dream."
"Dream?" Ursa sounded interested, plopping down on the side of the bed. "About what?"
"Hmm", Lin scratched his chin, trying to remember his dream from the previous night. "Well, all I remember is that the dream involves an arena, a weird looking crazy old man which, for some reason, I hate very much even though I don't know who he is, and a saber-tooth moose-lion."
"Oh…" Ursa drawled, not understanding anything. "Sounds interesting."
"You think so?" Lin asked.
"Well, not really", Ursa spoke more honestly this time. She then smiled and opened her arms. "Come on. A little hug will make you feel better."
And Lin threw himself into her embrace.
…………It did make him feel better.
"So, how's your training going?" Ursa asked, caressing the boy's back.
"Pretty good", Lin answered, sounded bored.
Because the Celestial Dragon style had been a secret style practiced only by the members of the Lin Family ever since the day the clan was founded, the Royal Family had been courteous enough not to force Lin to teach any of it to Zuko and Azula although if he wanted to, he was allowed to teach the first five of the 16 basic forms to them because the first five basic forms were allowed for the public to learn.
So, Lin was given a privilege, as with other Imperial Firebending Instructors, to learn the firebending style practiced by the members of the Royal Family and the Royal Procession: the Raging Phoenix style. The style itself, in Lin's opinion, was a more advanced and refined version of the army standardized style. It has all the rigidity of the army standardized style and also stressed more in producing and sending fire at the opponent rather than controlling it. The merit it had over the army standardized style was that it also emphasized on breathing technique and calmness of mind which, according to Head Instructor Kaji, was the key to producing greater and stronger fire. Also, the calmness of mind is essential in executing the ultimate technique of the Raging Phoenix style, a technique so deadly that nobody other than those who carry the royal blood was allowed to learn it: lighting regeneration.
Lin himself would never have a chance to learn it even if he and Azula really did marry. A shame, Lin thought. He had seen lightning regeneration in action, courtesy to Iroh, and would really like to learn the technique himself. But then again, being allowed to learn the style itself all way through the master level forms was a privilege itself; the members of the Royal Procession were only allowed to learn up to the advanced level. Additionally, the other merit of the Raging Dragon style was that the style was suitable, to a certain degree, for hand-to-hand combat purposes. So, for Lin, going through the trouble of learning the Raging Phoenix style for this past week, since the very day he moved in to the palace, wasn't really a waste, he did learn something useful from it.
"Master Kaji said your progress is astounding", Ursa said again, a tinge of pride was clear in her voice.
"Really?" Lin asked, emerging from Ursa's embrace and cast a puzzled look at her. He had been fooling around much during his training, mostly because he liked messing with the grumpy and snappish Master Kaji.
"Yes", Ursa smiled, she sounded a bit reprimandingly. "Although he did say that he would really appreciate it if you would take his lesson more seriously. His old body can't really hold on for much longer if you keep making him repeating a demonstration of the same move ten times in a session."
Lin grinned guiltily. His most favorite way of torturing Kaji was to pretend that he hadn't got a good view of whatever move Kaji was demonstrating and thus, requiring Kaji to repeat the demonstration for a few more times. It wouldn't be much problem for the old master it hadn't happened to be a winter season. In winter, the effort it took a firebender to produce a fire as big and strong as the fire he produced in any other season was practically doubled. So, imagine how irritated Kaji had been whenever Lin made him perform a complicate firebending move for, let's say ten times, and it turned out that Lin could perform the move perfectly in his first try. At least if Lin flunked the first try, Kaji could have a small measure of revenge in disguise of providing the boy with some more detailed instruction, albeit a much stricter one, probably with some yelling and physical punishment, such as push-ups or running laps, thrown in too.
"Okay, now", Ursa beamed, taking Lin's grin as an apology. "It's time for breakfast and (the boy groaned and plopped back on the bed) your training. Come on."
"Five more minutes", Lin chuckled, trying to wrench his blanket back from Ursa.
"Not a chance", Ursa laughed, winning the blanket tug-o-war and started to wrench the boy, who tried to hide his head under his pillow, too. "Come on, dear. Master Kaji's waiting."
"—maintain the training session. At the end of the year, I believe, it would be wise to—"
The middle aged captain stated his report regarding the maintenance of 212th Battalion's activities during winter to the other officers of the battalion. A long table was set in one of the Lin Estate's meeting rooms; around the table sat the officers, at the end of the table, Jiang was sitting, lost in thought. He was anxious, waiting for Lin to visit the Estate. Funny, Lin was the heir of the clan but his coming to the Estate today would be a 'visit'. According to a letter sent by Lin, he would be allowed to 'visit' the Estate in weekends. In the letter, it was implied that Lin suspected that Ursa was the one behind this leeway and, somehow, it made Jiang's opinion towards the woman heightened up a bit.
"General? General?" Masa called but Jiang didn't notice. Masa cast a look at Kang, asking for assistance. Kang stared at Jiang for a few seconds, scrutinizing the man's face. Absent, pale, anxious, worry, all those things were written as clear as day on Jiang's face.
"Brother?" Kang called. No response… Plan B: "Lin!"
Hearing his son's name mentioned, Jiang abruptly stood up, looking around the room, searching for the boy. Realizing what exactly happened, Jiang cast a nervous look at his officers who all stared at him with sympathy. Almost everyone in room had been serving under Jiang for a long time; some had even been part of the thirty men squad who fought with him in the legendary battle of Yu Guo. So, all of them understood exactly what Jiang was going through and how he must be feeling now that his son lived in the imperial palace, away from him.
"I-I…" Jiang stuttered. "I'm sorry. I was zoning out—"
"Master!!" a voice came from outside the room. Five seconds later the owner of the voice, a manservant, skidded into the room, almost broke down the door in his hurry to convey the news he brought. Must be good news because he was beaming. "Master! Young Master has returned!"
Jiang's face suddenly lit up. He was really about to leap to the door but stopped suddenly as he remembered that he was in the middle of a meeting with his officers. He turned to the lot; the expression of his face clearly broadcasted the conflict inside him, between his obligation as the general of 212th Battalion to his officers and his love as a father to his son.
"Just go", Masa sighed while Kang grinned. "We'll manage somehow."
"Thank you", Jiang grinned before running outside the room, followed by the manservant and accompanied by the smiles of the men inside the room, not including Masa and Shi, of course, since the two didn't smile a lot.
"A good thing?" Kang asked the lot, answered by many nods and murmurs which he interpreted as 'yes'.
Meanwhile, Jiang strode along the corridor, almost ran, with the manservant following closely, to the main gate. But, as he was just about to turn in the corridor that led to the main gate, the manservant stopped him, saying that Lin should be waiting in the dining room for lunch. Jiang quickly turned to the other direction, changing course to the dining room. As he entered the room, he was greeted with the sight of Bing and Biao having a lively conversation with Lin. He hasn't changed much, Jiang thought, staring at Lin who stared back, grinning. Of course he hasn't changed much. He's been gone for just a week, idiot! What should I do now?!! Should I hug him? But, he's been gone for only a week not a month. Should I really hug him?
And while Jiang was having his internal conflict, gawking from the door, Lin took the initiative of approaching and embracing him, making Jiang faced yet another conflict of whether or not he should hug back. He did.
"How've you been, son?" he choked.
"Pretty good?" Lin replied casually. "Everything's fine at the palace."
And both of them continued the conversation on the table over lunch, along with Bing and Biao, and Masa, Kang, and the rest of Jiang's brothers and sister-in-laws who joined them afterwards; all of them busy questioning Lin about his new life at the palace and about the life as an Imperial Firebending Instructor.
"I'll start doing the instructing next week", Lin answered Uncle Kang's question. "I still need to learn the style up to the advanced form, though. But, Master Kaji said that I should be ready to teach next week."
And the conversation went on with Jiang not muttering a word. His son would be staying for the weekend; the real conversation would take place at night.
And so, later that night…
In Jiang's room, Lin and Jiang were sitting around a table, having a Pai Sho match. The game was spent casually, filled with little conversations here and there regarding some interesting and trivial things that happened in the Estate, Aunt Bing's health, Biao's progress with her training, Jiang's date, 212th Battalion's activities for the remainder of the year, firebending, weather… nothing unusual.
"Check mate", Lin yawned, Jiang's brow twitched. "Another one?"
"Maybe", Jiang replied curtly. "I can't seem to win."
"Oh, don't worry, Dad", Lin lazily cleared the board for another match. "This next one will be more interesting, I hope."
Although Jiang's face didn't change, Lin knew that his father received the message. It was time for the serious talk. So, while engaging in another casual and superficial verbal conversation, both of them let the tiles talk for them. Lin advanced his purple nightshade tile, the flower of assassins (Dad, it's about my training for the Secret Royal Squad of Espionage and Assassination). Jiang halted Lin's progress with a wheel tile (what/when/who?). Lin put another purple nightshade tile on the border side of the board, right in the middle (soon/today). Jiang then placed a whale tile (…/no response…/your turn to talk). Lin placed a dragon tile at defensive position, defensive position meant question (any news about General Iroh?). Time for a verbal response…
"By the way, son", Jiang sounded as if he just remembered the thing that he had to say, cutting Lin in the middle of explaining that Birdie took some time to get used to palace's fodder. "You know, we just received an intel saying that General Iroh is making little progress in Ba Sing Se."
"Nothing's new, then", Lin sighed.
"Yes, nothing's new", Jiang concurred, then added. "Although, we do receive another piece of information, still rumor, though, that the battalions under General Wu, General Shu, and General Bujing will return to the Fire Nation and replaced by some fresh battalions."
"And 212th Battalion is among the fresh battalions?" Lin arched a brow.
"Exactly", Jiang sipped his tea, then continued. "According to Fire Lord Azulon, one Dragon might be enough to break through Ba Sing Se but two Dragons will be better."
"I'm not surprised", Lin sounded gloom although he didn't actually dislike the prospect of meeting Lu Ten and Iroh sooner. He wanted to know how Lu Ten was doing and he did need Iroh's help.
"Hmm, yes" Jiang replied absentmindedly, placing a rose tile, subtly tapped it twice, tapping twice meant 'no question'.
Lin, too, didn't have any further question or information he needed to ask or report to Jiang. And so, both of them played normally, after Lin countered Jiang's rose tile with a wolf tile and twice light tapping, of course. Exactly the night before his departure for the Imperial Palace, Lin and Jiang developed this series of secret codes through Pai Sho games; most of them were about the three proposals and other important issues: purple nightshade tile – the second proposal, fire lily tile – the first proposal, dragon tile – General Iroh, the Dragon of the West, dragon tile and coughing twice – Lin, the Dragon of the Deep Forest, red orchid tile – the third proposal, and many more. They had also developed some other code that determined time: placing a random tile on the middle border of the board – soon or today, one grid at the right of the middle one– tomorrow, one grid at the left of the middle one – yesterday, and so on until the seventh grid of both to the right (next week) and to the left (last week), the left corner – last month, and the right corner – next month, 'unsure' or 'unknown' by placing the tile in the middle accompanied by clearing a throat. Also, wheel tile was used to ask the questions 'who, what, when, or how' depending of the context, and whale tile meant 'no response or I don't know', and tapping a random tile meant 'is there anything else' or 'I don't have anything more to say'.
It wasn't like they suspected a spy in their own home but, according to Lin, it was better to be safe. Although Lin hadn't really started his assassin's training yet, in a conversation he had in private with Fire Prince Ozai, he had learnt more about the secret squad and he had a reason to believe that the squad was capable enough to infiltrate the Lin Estate and eavesdrop on their conversation. So, better safe than sorry, right?
In the conversation, Lin had also learnt that the existence of the Secret Royal Squad of Espionage and Assassination was a heavily classified and only known to member of the Royal Family that was active in the military, in this case, Azulon, Ozai, and Iroh. Ursa didn't know anything about it and it made Lin felt a sense of relief although he was intrigued of whether Lu Ten knew about the squad or not, he was a member of the Royal Family and active in the military. Probably not…
He had also learnt that the squad was divided into four different divisions and he would have a freedom to decide which division to join. Each divisions was named after the four disciples of Agni and specialized in different aspect of the dealing of espionage and assassination
The first division, Seiryu, or the Green Dragon unit, specialized in assault and assassination in a great scale. The 'muscle' of the four since the members of the squad were required to be able to fight off a swarm of enemy alone. Most of the members were big and physically strong, as Ozai put it. Seiryu's job usually revolved around attacking enemy's base head on, destroying everyone who stand in their way, leaving destruction on their trail like a rampaging dragon. Furthermore, Seiryu were often ordered to perform demolition and as such most of them were demolition expert, able to utilize explosives effectively.
Suzaku, or the Red Phoenix unit, were the 'snipers'. Members of Suzaku were all master marksmen, able to shoot arrows from their bows as naturally as spitting from their mouth and throw hidden knives or shuriken with deadly accuracy. Nimble, agile, and accurate, ranged assassination was their forte and taking down enemy before they can reach them was a second nature to them.
Byakko, or the White Tiger unit, were the 'spies'. Infiltration, information gathering, mingling among the citizens, Byakko was truly the knife in the crowd. Members of Byakko were often sent to the enemy territories to perform espionage and information gathering and, if possible, although rare, to silently take down the enemy's leader. Their survival and information gathering skills were second to none.
The last was Genbu, or the Black Tortoise unit. Genbu was the 'black ops', specialized in silent assassination. No fortress was too tightly guarded for Genbu and their demonic stealth; members of Genbu could infiltrate enemy's base, sneak into the commander's room, kill him during his sleep, and get out of the base undetected. If Byakko was the knife in the crowd, Genbu was the knife in the dark, strike before anyone realized that they were there or even strike and still nobody knew that they were there.
Because of the different nature of each division, the members of the Secret Royal Squad of Espionage and Assassination received different set of training regiment, depending of the division that they were assigned to. Needless to say, Lin chose to join Byakko unit. He thought that Byakko was the only unit whose job required less killing but Ozai's smirk when Lin told him his choice worried Lin. It seemed like there were more about Byakko that Lin didn't know.
"Check mate", Lin yawned.
"Another match?" Jiang offered, which Lin translated as 'are you sure there's nothing more you want to say?'
"Nope", Lin rose from his seat. "I think I'm gonna go to sleep."
"Alright, then", Jiang said. "Goodnight, son."
"Goodnight, Dad", Lin replied, exiting the room. And as he walked to his own room, he couldn't help but noticed that his father hadn't asked anything about the third proposal. Hmm, surely it wasn't because Jiang had suddenly agreed with the engagement. Lin knew the real reason behind the engagement, or rather, he had his guesses. But, he had never told anyone about it, not even Lady Ursa as the 'real reason' or Azula as his fiancée. His fiancée, Lin's face suddenly heated up, somewhat embarrassed by the idea. Well, Azula was… nah, don't think about it, Lin shook the thought off. Besides, what did he, an eleven year old, know about love?
Lin opened the door of his room and was greeted by the air of familiarity. It had been only a week but it felt like months since the last time Lin stepped on the stone floor, or sat on the table, reading books or setting up a new booby traps, or sitting on the chair below the window, talking to his mother's picture under the moonlight, or lying down on the bed, thinking. Funny, Lin thought. It had only been a week. Taking off his shoes and not bothering to change into a more comfortable sleeping robe, he put his flute on the nightstand and plopped down on the bed. It took only few minutes for him to be drifted into a deep sleep. He was tired…
The next morning, Saturday…
Nothing was unusual. The morning spent with firebending lesson with Jiang and Kang, Jiang reasoned that Lin needed two masters to train more effectively although Kang and Lin knew that Jiang was just too proud to admit that he couldn't handle Lin alone. Then lunch, and after lunch, a hunt in the mountain was in order because some villagers, farmers, of course, had been complaining about a flock of hyena wolf harassing their cattle. It was a common practice by farmers to report this kind of problem to nearby noble families and not directly to the city guards because the city guards would just turn them down, saying that their job was to keep bandits or thieves away, not some wild animals. That was why farmers usually went to noble families; the noble families would then use their influence to mobilize the city guards or their own guards to deal with the problem. It was a common practice in many cities in the Fire Nation and the Imperial City was no exception either.
And as such, there they were; Jiang, Lin, Biao, Shi, and some other teenagers and young adults of Lin's generation. According to Jiang, such activities were important for the 'young ones' to bond. Living in an Estate with a couple hundred people apparently didn't guarantee much social interaction among them. And there Jiang was, leading ten teenagers and young adults, including his own son even though, technically, Lin was neither a teenager nor a young adult, into the forest below a hill, all of them carrying a set of bow and a quiver of arrows.
"Alright, everyone", Jiang halted, after checking some marks on the ground. "It seems like the hyena wolf lair is nearby. That way, I presume."
Jiang turned around, discerning the surrounding area. He then whispered in low voice, addressing the whole group. "We have to split up, we'll surround the lair from all side."
Jiang crouched down and drew something on the ground: an X and five arrows pointing at it from all side.
"Listen, guys", he explained. "We'll form a group of two and surround the area from five directions. We must attack the lair together. Hmm, at midday, I guess. We'll wait for midday before we attack."
And then Jiang divided the group into three groups of two and one group of three, Jiang himself would be taking Lin with him on the ground that Lin got lost easily and it'd be safer if Lin was to go with him. Nobody, but Lin, complained. Needless to say, Lin's complain was met by less than satisfactory reply; it was a reasoning of an eleven year old brat against an order from the head of the family, after all. And besides, it wasn't Jiang's reasoning that he had problem with; it was Jiang's next action, what Jiang intended to do, that worried him. But, Lin thought, as the groups dispersed and Jiang led him deeper into the forest, there was no way to say this to Jiang. It was too risky.
Yes, Lin sensed it, too. It appeared that the spy or whoever that had been tailing him ever since he left the Imperial Palace had been 'gracious' enough to leave him alone when he was inside the Lin Estate. But, the moment he stepped outside the gate of the Estate, the spy had begun following him again. The spy was good, no doubt. Although Jiang and Lin could sense his presence, yes, his, not they, fortunately, neither Lin nor Jiang could even guessed where he was exactly. Maybe that was why Jiang led Lin deeper into the forest where the trees and grass were taller, packer, and denser. Lin guessed that Jiang was hoping that the spy would make a mistake of steeping on a dry branch or something and, thus, revealing his position.
—CRACKED—
…followed by two sharp 'twang's as Jiang and Lin quickly shot their arrows to their left, into the thick bush. Lin was about to give chase into the bush but Jiang caught his shoulder and pulled him behind his back. Lin was about to sound his annoyance before he realized what Jiang was about to do. Apparently, stopping Lin wasn't a 'it's too dangerous for you' gesture but 'this way's quicker' gesture; Jiang assumed a firm stance, conjuring a fireball on each hand, molding the fire into bigger and deadlier fire before sending it as a huge fire stream at the bush.
"There!" Lin quickly shot his second arrow at the dark figure who leaped high in the sky. The arrow missed, no surprise there since Lin wasn't exactly a good archer. The figure landed behind them; Lin and Jiang turned to him: a man, judging from his posture, wearing an all black light armor garb; black hooded ninja garb under his black lightweight breastplate, adorned with similarly black lightweight shoulder pads, a pair of armguards and black cloth gloves, a pair of shin guards, all black; his hood was put on, a white oni noh mask hid his face, white oni mask indicated that he was a Byakko; a ninjato, short and straight katana used by assassins, strapped on his back. The man stood up, calm and careful, not showing any opening, ignoring a bleeding wound on his thigh. It seemed like one of the arrows Jiang and Lin fired earlier hit him there.
No turning back now, Lin sighed. He was aware of the spy tailing him everywhere, of course. He knew that there was at least one of them shadowing him everywhere when he was in the palace. But, he was planning to start his training in the secret squad before he did anything about it; he wanted to know what they were capable of first. Sadly, Jiang had a different plan. Lin dropped his bow and noticed that Jiang did the same. This is gonna be ugly, Lin groaned in his mind, knowing how much damage an angry Jiang could cause, as he and his father lunged forward, so did the assassin. A silent battle between them ensued…
The next morning, everything went on as usual: Lin woke up at the morning, had a firebending training, mastered another set of form, by the way, had lunch, pulled a prank or two on some unfortunate family members, spent the evening with Aunt Bing who couldn't got up from her bed due to her sickness, had dinner, and went back to the palace with Birdie and a small unit of escort. The news of a strange man in black found brutally murdered in a forest on the outskirts of Imperial City that he overheard in some servants' conversation didn't seem to bother him at all.
Author's note:
One short essay down, two lab reports, one long essay, and one electronic assignment to go… don't you just hate school…
About the four divisions, they were inspired by the four divisions in the manga 'Angel Heart'. In the manga, there was an assassin group that trained orphans into killers. After completing the training, they would be sent to join different divisions, depending on their skills: the Suzaku seemed to be the group for snipers; the Seiryu were like SWAT team, always operate on groups and used automatic guns and such, not to mention the tactical vest they used; the Byakko was the spy, infiltrating the enemy's group or something, posing as one of their own to gain their trust, and then killed the leader. The Genbu in the manga was the special black ops unit directly under the boss, like his own personal army. I don't remember what their specialty was, but in the manga they did take down a group of rouge Seiryu by appearing out of nowhere from the shadow and slit their throats up close and personal.
And the assassin's uniform was inspired by the uniform worn by the two ninja guards of some prince from foreign country in the manga Fullmetal Alchemist. The armor's cool!!!
To hpswst101, speaking of dreams, I do have a plan to use one of the dreams I had in the past in the next book. That dream had some philosophical meaning to it.
Oh yeah, 'Five Prompts in One Week'!! I like that fic; it gave me some insight of how people normally act when they're with their friends in modern setting. I have a plan of writing another fic with modern time setting after I finish with this one. Not anytime soon, of course. :)
But, I have a bad feeling that the next fic won't happen…