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Response(s) To Reviewer(s)
xPricefieldx: I don't mention her powers much because she doesn't want to use them. The powers are another reminder of how different that world is and thanks!
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MaggieMangle: Thank you!
Disclaimer: Fanfiction for a reason.
Chapter 6: Lucky
In middle school, it is not required for each student to join a club but it is highly recommended. The variety of club choices also opened a wide selection for many students, so our choices weren't limited to a few.
My dumbass self decided to join the gymnastics club and I couldn't regret my decision any more than I already did. The thought was quitting had crossed my mind frequently in the last week but I couldn't bring myself to.
Sarah Takahashi turned Keiko Momozono isn't a quitter. Never was and never will be. I decided that next year I just wouldn't join the club again, try something else like soccer.
Heck, I'd been playing soccer for years before I even went to school, I could have made a decent player on the team. So why the hell did I pick gymnastics?
Simple really.
I needed to be more flexible and the only way I was going to get to the level where I could drop into a split on the drop of a hat was in this club. I most certainly wasn't going to push myself on my own, I didn't have that kind of motivation.
The chance of being publicly humiliated in front of my peers is what I'm counting on to get myself into shape. There was absolutely no way I was going let Ein get ahead of me in BJJ. Sensei had explicitly said it wasn't necessary to be flexible to become a master at BJJ. However, it was certainly only a boost to be loose and flowing.
Flowing, flowing like the girl in front of the crowd. I stood amongst the on-lookers in a dazed state at the girl moving in unhurried and unbothered movements. She didn't seem to care for fancy movements and I appreciated that. The movements I'd seen on TV always confused me.
Watching her though, I understood.
I wasn't envious of her, no, I didn't want to be on her level. I just came for flexibility. After I got that I was done with gymnastics because I didn't care much for it really.
She came to a graceful stop and the crowd clapped and applauded on perfect cue. I joined in with a few lazy claps.
The teacher went forward, separating herself from the general crowd of on-lookers. "Wonderful !" She stopped in front of the unbothered girl while I froze.
She has my old last name.
She didn't have my family looks. Her creamy skin, jet black straight locks, and petite figure set her apart from my family. The only one in my family with skin tone to even match hers was my mothers and that's pushing it.
I wrapped my arms around myself before shivering. I zoned out of the conversation and focused on grounding myself. I didn't know any special breathing technique to calm my breathing down so I just took deep breaths and exhaled slowly. By the time I'd rejoined the class the other girls around me had separated into slightly uneven rows. I fell back in row more on reflex than anything else.
I had absolutely no clue what the purpose of this was for at all. When we started moving, I followed the movements of the girl in front of me. Not wanting to hear the teachers too happy voice.
One could tell the gymnastics club leader was very passionate about her sport and what she taught just from showing up the first day to club signing. She'd greeted me with a huge smile and assessing eyes beyond thickly framed glasses that didn't seem to miss a thing.
The passionate woman's name is Yukari Airi; my gymnastics club leader.
"Ms. Momozono! Ms. Kei! To the front, now."
I jumped at my name being called and I scurried to the front of the gym with the class.
Yukari walked in front of us and gave us both hard looks. "Would you two like to explain to me what you were doing?"
I swore inside my head before carefully making my face as blank as I could. I'd been following the girl in front of me and judging from the stares the other girls we'd been doing something wrong.
I never factored in that she herself was doing the moves wrong and me being the oblivious idiot followed her lead. Not looking once at the people beside me to check if I was doing the right thing.
Too unbalanced. Another reason I knew I'd never make it big inside gymnastics, so I'd just use it for my personal gain and leave after.
I scratched behind my ears before dropping into a low bow. "I'm sorry, it'll not happen again ma'am."
Yukari made us do grueling stretches that day after school and I never found myself wishing so badly for Nanami to be here.
For mental support of course because I'd sure as hell need some of it surviving gymnastics.
"Ta-da! I have found the perfect one!"
Nanami all too excitedly presented the simple leotard with a spin and a ended it with a flourish. She held the leotard pinched between her middle fingers and thumbs on both hands; as if it was delicate glass spotted with encrusted jewels and not crappy material and fraying in some spots.
I found myself smiling slightly at her silliness. I felt a piece of normalcy brought back to myself with school. I was a step closer to similarity to my old life. Going to a school again was something I hadn't realized I needed to find myself again and with those pieces came happiness.
Dad got a stable job and his income helped, I didn't have to go out and work anymore as much. I still did some jobs though, because there's nothing wrong with having a small amount of pocket money.
With that pocket money, I went to the cheapest store I could find that sold leotards and not the fancy kind.
Obviously Nanami once I'd told her where I was going took it upon herself to personally invite herself along.
I didn't mind because I wanted her to come. And I didn't care what Ein said, I was not jealous of anyone spending more time with Nanami than me.
Nope, not one bit.
Since I'd begun wearing the plain orange leotard that I let Nanami pick out for me I found it odd how I ended up here at the end of the day.
The same day we began wearing the leotards, which was the first day of gymnastics, I found myself the object of many stares.
After school I found myself in the bathroom standing stripped bare and I didn't quite know how I felt about what I saw.
Confused maybe? No, that can't be right. Oh, wait I know now.
Insecure.
Surrounded by a bunch of pale skinned, slender girls with straight hair does wonder for one's confidence. Especially when the girls aren't so subtle as they believe with their blatant staring.
It's not that I was out of shape but more so the fact that I wasn't wispy. I didn't have pale skin or straight hair. I was more toned than anything, and I didn't possess the grace or air these girls did. My posture was slumped, something Sensei fought every lesson, and most of the girls I saw at school walked with their bookbags held daintily in front of themselves. Not slung over their shoulder in a rush to not miss the bus like mine was every morning.
However, the thing that stuck out most was my skin tone. Japanese people weren't racist during these times but it was rare to see a colored person, especially mixed like I was.
The stares will gradually decrease as time passes. It's not that interesting.
I repeated that every night before bed.
"Help me."
I hummed to acknowledge that I had indeed heard.
There was a slight pause between us. That pause was filled with me scribbling down viciously onto the paper resting on my desk. I would stop breathing for a calculator in algebra right about now.
I couldn't stand the teachers that make you do the work without calculators. Freaking demons and then with the subtle stares I regularly lost track of my thought process. It also doesn't help that I'm not a good mind solver. All the numbers get confused inside my brain and I lose track of them easily, then I'm too lazy to start the problem over.
Thus the reason for intense writing and two extra sheets of loose leaf paper.
Two more seconds passed before I stopped writing and lifted my head. I flexed my fingers around and vaguely wondered if there is a proper way to hold a pencil so it doesn't strain my hand muscles.
"What do you need?"
"Obviously help. I just said that." Ein huffed looking like she'd rather move off to somebody else for help. I was wishing she would move to somebody else for help. We weren't on good terms since what she said to me in the park.
"For someone asking for help, you surely do have an attitude," I said calmly, adjusting the band of my skirt self-consciously.
She looked ready to say something but swallowed it. "Look, can you help me on this one problem. Just one, then I'll leave you alone."
I looked down for a second before sighing. "Fine." I held my hand out for the paper and saw that she had skipped around. "Which one?" I asked impatiently.
She pointed to the one she needed help on and as I was explaining it to her one of the girls that had been staring at me walked up to my desk.
"Um, excuse me."
Ein and I both stopped what we were doing and looked at her in question.
"Yes?"
She wrung her hands together and her face was flushed red. "Do you spend a lot of time outdoors?"
I froze momentarily before my look turned into an icy glare. "No, I do not. This is merely the shade of my skin." I replied gripping Ein's pencil tightly.
She yelped meekly before scurrying away out of the classroom.
"You didn't have to glare at her."
I huffed in annoyance and held her paper and pencil out towards her. "Finish the problem yourself." I grabbed my stuff roughly and hurried out of the classroom. Eager to get away from Ein and prying eyes.
Staring firmly ahead of myself with a scowl, I was surprised when a boy that looked a year older than me called my name not moments after I'd walked out of the classroom.
I stopped scowling in place of shock. I stopped speed walking to face the boy. He held out a stack of papers. "These are Ushida-kun's papers to sign off to approve some club idea."
My brows furrowed in confusion. "What does that have to do with me?"
He scratched the back of his head and adopted a hopeful expression. "I was hoping you could hand these off to him, Momozono-chan."
My mouth formed an 'o' shape before I took the papers from him. "Just this once."
"Thanks a bunch! I definitely owe you one!"
I was then left alone inside the hallway because the boy ran off with his friend and they were both laughing at something.
Thus, I began my hunt for Ushida-kun, class rep and smartest kid in the school. He was also the girls' main admiration and extremely athletic. Boys were either intimidated by him or envied him and the girls just loved him.
Me, I didn't know what to think of Ushida-kun because he's just a boy and I'm mentally like twenty-something now. I was happy for the boy I guess. He seemed to be really going somewhere.
Where am I going?
I found Ushida-kun near the teacher's lounge frowning at the wall. I only felt a little curious about what could have been bothering him. Though, I didn't ask because one) I don't know this kid that well and two) I didn't care enough. If it was something big, school gossip would carry it to my patient ears.
"Ushida-kun these papers are for you," I said holding out said papers accompanied with a smile that hopefully seemed real enough. He jumped slightly before a red hue came to his cheeks and he quickly accepted the papers from me.
"Thank you Momozono-chan. I'll read through these right away." He dunked his head once before leaving off.
I shrugged instead of dwelling on his behavior. Instead, I began to make my way towards my next class period and fantasizing about my awaiting futon.
It was past midnight and I found myself staring at Nanami like a complete creeper.
Abandoned papers left scattered on the dinner table to be done later and used dishes from tonight's dinner rested quietly in the sink.
Moonlight from the open window flooded into the small apartment room to illuminate the objects inside.
What have I been doing these past years?
I sat hunched over on myself and nails tapping against a picture frame.
My head dropped onto my chest and I exhaled.
I'd taken self-defense to make myself less vulnerable but what would that really do against demons?
Faded images of a boy clad in a black uniform knocked down and bloodied by fallen gods flashed through my mind.
I'd be killed in an instant the way I am now. I needed to be better, do better. I wasn't prepared, had been thrown off course by Kumimi's death and I ignored myself enough to let go.
I'd end up getting us both killed this way with how I was going.
I couldn't fix this alone.
Turning to Nanami, I assured she was asleep before moving off to a movable floor pat. Picking it up I winced when it made a horrible squeak. Risking a glance at Nanami, I reassured she was still asleep before reaching down into the manmade compartment.
I pulled out the book wrapped in a thin slightly burnt cloth and stood quietly. Setting the picture frame back onto Kumimi's mini shrine I straightened myself out.
Tiptoeing quietly across the mats I moved to the door, grabbing the apartment keys from behind the door, I left out and locked the door behind myself. I was going to get back on track to helping Nanami, I was done being self-absorbed with myself.
Gripping the package to my chest tightly I moved quickly to a secluded place.
My target grouped herself with three other girls in a shaded spot underneath a tree off to the side of the playing field.
"Ein Hayako."
I announced myself in a false confident manner. On the inside, I felt sick with disgust at myself and the fact that I was even thinking of doing what I'm about to do.
She stopped talking with a group of girls to turn to me. Once she saw my face I could see the barely veiled annoyance spring forward.
Ever since our traded words in the park, there has been a tense stand-off between us and it couldn't go on.
I'm mentally older so it's only right I should also fix it before it grew into something I could regret. Besides Sensei was going to kill us pretty soon if we kept up our negative energy in classes every day.
Sensei had a sound belief that negative emotions can be passed on to others and he's been trying to work it out of us with grueling exercise. Heck, the other students even went harder against us because Sensei also made them do more as an example.
I couldn't count how many times I'd been confronted after classes to just make up with the viper. It had already been close to four weeks now since our argument and we were no closer to talking to each other than before.
The only time we interacted was at school and that was kept to the bare minimum because we couldn't actually stand each other.
Her brow arched. "What?"
I swallowed any retort and bowed. She took a step back in surprise. "The hell-what are you doing?" she whispered viciously.
"I would like to apologize for my actions. I realize it was immature and rude of me to what in such a way towards you. It is with my deepest regret that I hope you can find it in yourself to forgive me." I willed my body to remain still instead of twitching.
Just make it through the day Keiko.
Unbending myself, I looked up to see Ein's surprised facial expression and fought down a smirk.
"Um-what-sure..?" Her response sounded more like a question than anything else and I allowed a fake smile to spread across my face.
"I will allow you to continue on with your day now." I went to turn after one more polite bow and smile when one of the girls stopped me.
"Momozono-chan, why don't you join? We need one more teammate to finish off our team." A willowy girl with short brown hair offered.
My smile widened.
Checkmate.
"I would be delighted to if Ein-chan would have me." I averted the attention from me to Ein and she nodded with a stupefied expression lingering on her face.
My first semester in school passed after that without incident.
Until a school trip to an aquarium had me at first I thought I was tripping but then I remembered I wasn't still on regular Earth but Kamisama Kiss's universe.
Because seeing a body tattered, beaten, and leaning over smiling children wasn't normal. Itinaitally I'd screamed in utter terror which in turn freaked my Teacher and any other surrounding adult out. Then I noticed the children weren't screaming in terror also, because it seems they were too busy staring at me in mixed emotions of shock or fear.
They couldn't see the body in the first place.
I quickly threw my head up to my head and laughed nervously before doing a quick, low bow. "I'm sorry! I thought that was a shark!" I apologized sheepishly with a very much real blush on my cheeks.
Everybody and their mama were staring at me.
Then people turned back away from me and some adults shot me a glare of annoyance because their babies had started to cry at my abrupt scream.
The body I now believe to be ghost separated away from the children and started to move off. I ducked my head and shuffled off to the side away from the main group of teenagers as quietly as I could without being people who did notice I mouthed the word bathroom which caused them to blush and look away.
I slithered away across the floor, following behind the ghost until we turned a corner and I lost sight of it.
Well, I did until it appeared after I blinked like in some horror movie.
My scream go lodged in my throat and I jerked violently and I had to shove my hands together over my mouth. My heart jumped from my chest then plummeted to my toes in less than a second.
"Oh, so you can see me." It said in a raspy voice that sent cold sweats down my back.
Not finding any point in lying I nodded my head not fully trusting my voice yet to not stutter.
"What do you see?"
That left me stumped for a second and it must have shown on my face because the ghost grunted in aggravated. "What do you see, stupid boy."
"B-boy!?" I exclaimed greatly offended.
The ghost paused then and looked down at my chest before looking up to me again. "What's the problem?"
My face flushed in hot red anger and tears pricked the corners of my eyes. "I'm a girl, you rotting sack of meat," I growled out shaking from shot nerves and anger. "I'm wearing a skirt," I said gesturing to my school uniform.
Now that I think about it, I'm glad I can't smell the corpse of this ghost.
The ghost just smirked which looked scary as hell with only half a face. My leg slides back into a defensive stance on reflex and my body angled towards the exit.
"Well, you could have fooled me."
"Anybody could. You only have one eye." I retorted without thinking.
Thankfully the ghost didn't take offense but instead laughed with came out more like a gurgle and looked hella painful.
I winced before shuffling backward. "Why did you want to know what I see?" I asked.
"Because depending on your spiritual awareness is how well you can see." It smirked then. "Am I a boy or a girl?"
I stumbled over my answer. "Ah-a-..I don't know." I finally admitted after a few seconds of fumbling. The voice was so distorted and warped that I couldn't tell if I could actually see the complete details of what was left of the face.
This person's death could not have been natural.
That thought brought forth a frown to my face.
My response seemed to disappoint the ghost because it turned away from me then. "You're of no use to me than. Leave me alone little boy."
"I already told you I'm a girl and what did you mean by spiritual awareness?" I asked genuinely curious.
"Momozono-chan?"
I turned sharply to see one of my classmates staring at me strangely with a cautious look in his eyes.
I turned red from embarrassment because to others it probably looked like I was talking to myself. I clenched my still shivering hands into a fist and walked forward from the deserted hallway.
"Sorry, I was merely helping somebody."
He didn't look like he believed that for one second. "Well, Sensei said it's about time to go."
I smiled at him. He turned a nice shade of red and I felt like smirking on the inside in pride.
Dumb ghost doesn't know what he or she is talking about. I'm obviously a girl.
However, there is no doubt inside my body that he'd go back and tell his friends about me talking to thin air and lying about it.
Great, now along with the gossip already going around the class about my skin now on top of that I'll be labeled the freak that talks to thin air also.
On the bright side, I now had something more to think on.
If the universal laws inside Avatar applied to the Kamisama Kiss universe I feel as if this would be much easier.
This being controlling the flow of water.
Which by the way if somebody was to tell you it was easy they'd be lying. Water is hard to control by supernatural forces because it doesn't want to be controlled.
Water is fluid. It just wants to flow freely; not be directed and shaped.
That time I put out the fire was a complete and utter fluke because I couldn't even barely make the water jiggle from a man-made puddle.
If Katara was here that'd be awesome or at least a water bending scroll but no. That'd be too easy and convenient for me because obviously, my life can't be easy.
I sucked.
Without some kind of guidance all my practicing and concentrating would be for naught. Hell, all this time has just been a repeat of a younger me in another life copying moves. Unfortunately, copying the moves from a cartoon waterbender doesn't give you the understanding. I'm just moving my body and willing the water to move also.
I'm basically dancing (or jerking I guess) around a pathetic puddle from the water fountain in the park.
Flopping to my butt I inhaled in frustration and anger. Frustration at my stupid body for not making the water move and anger at myself for believing I could do something with my still unclear abilities.
It's been two weeks since I started training my powers and the effect on my attitude was immediate. I became more snappish and angrier each night I practiced and lost sleeping time with absolutely no progress in making the water move as it had during the fire.
"Stupid water!" I huffed slapping the puddle which only resulted in fly-away water splashing into my face and clothes. I took a deep breath in and stood up briskly and shoved my worn journal back into my short pocket. I began to walk through the bushes to a back street that I took every time I came to practice because I couldn't risk somebody spotting me.
Sadly the journal began to weigh down my shorts and the waistline slide down with each step. Becoming uncomfortable and irritated I settled for relocating the covered journal into my hands.
"!"
I exclaimed when I felt a breath on my neck and spun around swinging blindly. My heart pumped triple time and I immediately became fidgety. Thousands of thoughts a minute ran through my mind before it all suddenly calmed.
There was nobody behind me.
Just a deserted street lit by few and in between street lights and concrete walls.
Still, I found myself running back to the apartment with an unhealthy dose of fear and adrenaline spurring forth my legs to carry me quicker.
Even with years of training, I wasn't ready for a real attacker.
"So what is this?" I asked staring with half-lidded eyes at the piece of paper in front of myself.
Nanami puffed out her chest with pride and crossed her arms. The smug smile on her face grew. "It's my first ever report card!" She exclaimed self-satisfied and with that, she smashed herself into my side.
"I've given you a report card before," I commented staring at the impressive grades; there wasn't any grade higher than a ninety-one on her report card, but I expected that.
Nanami's memory and attitude concerning education were...disheartening, to say the least. Though I could tell she's really been putting her hardest into her studies and she'd been trying to retain the information and do the work all by herself these first six weeks.
Hopefully, she would keep that same energy throughout the years.
"Not important."
I mock glared at her playful tone.
Pushing her cheek against mine, she pointed to each class in random order and proceeded to tell me about her teacher and classmates. All the things she'd done in class and the funny moments she'd witnessed. Of course some of those things she'd already told me before but I kept silent in exchange for looking at her face.
She didn't look sad, in fact, she was practically glowing.
"Make any friends?"
I blurted out in a way I hoped wasn't too obvious I was fishing for something. Though, I probably didn't have to worry about that too much.
"Have you?"
I wasn't ready for her quick retort so I leaned back with a surprised expression on my face. I then narrowed my eyes. "No, I'm not social; we both know that."
Her eyes lowered to the floor then. "I'm sorry." She released a sigh. "No I haven't but the others are still polite to me." When her eyes met mine I really shouldn't have been taken aback by the contentment inside them. "The boys always end up saying something silly to one of the girls in the class. The teachers are really nice too."
I could tell there was more she wasn't telling me but I left that alone.
"What about you?"
She looked up at me in question.
"You've told me about your classmates, teachers, school; but what about you?" I tucked my legs closer to my body.
Nanami adopted a cautious glint undertoned with hope to her eyes. "You actually want to know?"
I furrowed my brows before dropping down onto the floor in exasperation. Ein always assuming the worst about me must have rubbed off onto her. I'd had to stop the sickening spread of Ein's delusions before she infected Nanami anymore. "Oi, Nanami, contrary to Ein's belief I do care about you." I huffed in annoyance that I even had to say it. I propped my head up onto my open palm and began to grumble.
My muttering and sulking were cut short by a weight dropping onto my body and I jerked before relaxing.
"I'm glad."
My head snapped down to stare at Nanami to see a giant stupid smile adorning her soft face. Her eyes glowed with affection and I felt my cheeks redden in a way that they haven't since Kumimi passed.
Nanami has Mom's smile.
I couldn't get the words from my mouth that I felt at that moment I needed to say.
Deciding that I'd gotten my answer I picked up the report from the table only for a slip of paper to come unattached from it and sway gently onto the table.
Picking it up I felt a slow smirk grow onto my face.
Circus Coming Into Town! Don't Miss It!
The look-like-me woman was one of the many people on the cover of the poster and she was smiling from ear-to-ear.
Well…
I leaned Nanami's head onto my shoulder and we sat like that. I didn't kiss her head or stroke her hair softly because I wasn't there yet.
Not yet.
But….
"Hey, Nanami."
She hummed from her position snuggled into my side. Nanami looked up at me and I smiled a bit hesitantly at her.
"I would like it if you'd come to watch me at practice sometime." I needed her.
I forgot I was in an anime because the next thing I knew Nanami was sparking in glitter and stars as a little chibi. She swung in circles around my neck as if she was on cloud nine. "I wouldn't miss it for the world!"
Sorry, everybody! I've been really busy with certain things that have stopped me from updating!
I actually wanted to make this chapter including other things but it seems that's not going to be happening this time.
Also, I feel oddly accomplished that this is the last chapter in Keiko's first Arc! Kudos to all the people who stayed throughout the first arc. I love you!
I'm excited for the later chapters where the story starts to speed up! I almsot jumped from my chair in excitement for this chapter is were the ball finally starts to speed up some!
