X
"YOU'RE NOTHING MORE THAN A MISTAKE"
The voice from the void echoed.
\X/
*RRIIIIIING!*
"Uugh..!" Shiho groaned from discomfort as the alarm clock went off at the crack of dawn.
Slamming her palm down Shiho risen from her bed drawing in a deep breath to hold within her lungs while stretching and rubbing her eyes, throwing the covers off Shiho shuffled off down the hall, her eyes remained shut, but still managed to locate her own kitchen. Backtracking with a mug of hot coffee in hand Shiho was taking a small sip before returning to her room to dress herself for the day. But when passing by the living room door Shiho sensed a disturbance, walking back she slid the door open peeking through she spotted the tv playing, its screen surfing through the channels.
"Hmm?" she grunted in confusion.
Slowly entering to look over the couch to find Daulton lying across the floor with the remote in hand and a bag of potato chips next to him.
"Good morning roomie," Daulton greeted glancing over his shoulders to see the agitated mother.
"HOW'D YOU GET INTO MY HOUSE!" she demanded and a set of keys were tossed to her.
"Your daughter gave me her house keys after I told them about the restraining order," he explained turning his sights back on the tv set, "What kind of snacks you have here? because I'm about through mine."
"Get off my property!" she ordered coming back with a wooden katana in hand and threatening to whack the retired pilot-boy with it.
"Oh please, I met punk girls back on that carrier that have scarier methods with sticks," Daulton mocked.
\Saunders' Training Field/
By the front gates of the school Alisa was trying to drag a rectangular crates, stacking the on top of each other on a dolly however the wide length of the box made it so awkward to push so she had to really fight the weight to move on forward. But one girl doing the task all by herself was not ideal, so Alisa halted breathing heavily as the sweat leaked from her pores.
"Hey! need a lift?"
Arriving to her Alisa spotted George driving a M274 utility truck or just simply, the mule, which was just small motorized platform nothing, but a flat top except for the drivers seat and steering wheel with George just driving circles around her.
"Where'd you find that old thing?" Alisa asked.
"I found it in the storage room," George explained, "It looked a little lonely in there, so I replaced its tires, and filled up her tank. Are those what I think they are?"
"Yup, the delivery-man just dropped them off."
"Awesome! we're gonna need them for the next match," George exclaimed happily. Loading the crates onto the back George took his seat, but didn't took off just yet, "C'mon, hop on."
"Uh... there's only one seat," Alisa pointed out.
But in a heartbeat George grabbed Alisa by her arm and yanked her right up and sat her onto his lap, blushing wildly Alisa didn't even try to make eye contact with him too embarrassed to let him see her face especially this up close. And the truck took off leaving a burnt tire tracks behind.
"I LOVE THIS THING!" George cried out in exciting joy.
Alisa however held on by wrapping her arms around George's bulky frame, to her it felt like she was holding onto a tree, all strength and security along with peaceful care it brings. The wind was whipping across their faces as the truck raced through the yard, if they were going in a straight line it wouldn't be all be all too bad, but George couldn't help to test out the handling as he swerved left to right.
Looking down to all of it from her dorm window Naomi watched on in suspicion as Alisa and George brought in a pile of crates.
"Great, more mystery boxes," she groaned.
And speaking of which.
Turning her attention away from the window Naomi approached the box given to her yesterday, George's attempt at trust, it sat on top of her desk almost like it could stare back at her. Standing over the object in question Naomi tried to psych herself up, it could ease the thoughts in the back of her mind, or it could be the last thing she ever do.
*KNOCK* *KNOCK*
"AH!" Naomi exclaimed as she was spooked by the sudden knock at her door.
"Hey Naomi, let me in girl," the sound of Kay's eager voice and Naomi complied.
"Hey cap, anything the matter?" Naomi asked.
"Oh nothing's the matter, I just came to talk," Kay admitted ever so friendly with a glowing smile.
"Well can we talk in different time, I'm kinda in the middle of something," Naomi suggested.
Glancing over to the table Kay too saw the box, "Ooh, what's this?" she then asked leaning down to get better look at it.
"I don't know, it's George's, he gave it to me to build trust," Naomi explained.
However her explanation fell on deaf ears as Kay went over to look out the window to see George and Alisa turning the courtyard into their personal race track before disappearing into the hanger.
"I see," Kay responded, "Have you heard about this shipment George ordered!" she went on giving Naomi the question which she response with a shake of her head, "He says that they're gonna help us with our match against Kuromorimine."
"So what's inside?" Naomi asked.
"He didn't tell me," Kay answered with Naomi rolling her eyes.
"That makes two of us that George stuck in the dark."
"Then let's at least get you out into the light then," Kay put it as she just blindly lifted the lid up to Naomi's gasps, too slow to prevent from opening the box.
"No wait- !" she tried, but was too slow.
The lid was flipped open and Kay peer down to what was stored inside and Naomi reeling back, she didn't know why she just expected something to just pop or shoot out from it, but no. Nothing happened.
"Cool... " Kay said wide-eyed in wonder before reaching down to pull out a curved, ivory white boar's tusk, "That hog must've been enormous," she awed holding the tusk in her hand.
"What!" Naomi exclaimed looking into the box herself, but found nothing else, "That's it? that's it!" she roared in frustration, "Is there like secret compartment in that tusks or something written on it?" she asked, but replied with no however Naomi's anger will be interrupted when Kay was just messing around with the boar's tooth, "Ok, why are you even here?"
"Oh!" Kay now remembers dropping the tusk back in its place, "I'm here to ask you to help Alisa with a double date."
"Wait, did Alisa finally ask that boy out?"
"She sure did, but she's too nervous to go in alone so I set you up with George to get her through," Kay explained.
"WHAT?!" Naomi shouted, "No freak'n way I'm going on a date with that scumbag!"
"Awe c'mon, Naomi, think of it as a trust exercise," Kay put it ignoring Naomi's anger, "Besides, do it for Alisa, George's knows how important this date is."
"Alisa told him about her crush?"
"She and him are really becoming besties."
"... I thought we were besties?" Naomi sadly sighed, but her attitude was brought back to defiance, "But you can't expect me to go on a date with that... "
"Relax, you two are just pretending for Alisa's real date," Kay reassured her, "And c'mon how bad could it be."
"Ugh... fine I'll go, but I'm only doing this for Alisa," Naomi reluctantly agreed.
"Glad you can do it for a teammate and a friend," Kay finished off.
\Nishizumi Household/
Chugging down a can of soda Daulton spent the most of his time getting himself familiar with Miho's old childhood home, but sitting off to the side, Shiho, looked on in disgust as she watched the boy lounged on her expensive couch.
"Ugh... You seriously can't be the World Champion Dog-Fighter," Shiho scoffed.
"The one and only- *BURP*" Daulton burp before the Nishizumi family dog came in to give Daulton another can, "Good boy."
"Mother, what seems to be- AH!" Maho exclaimed in unpleasant surprise when see Daulton, "Why's he here?!"
"We're about to throw a party up in here!" Daulton joshed.
"Just ignore him," Shiho advised her daughter, "Focus on eliminating Mr. Stuart from the tournament in the next couple of days."
"Hey, can I come? I wanna give George a piece of my mine," Daulton requested.
"Why should I?" Maho challenged demanding Daulton to give her a reason.
"It'll spare your mother from hearing me whack it in your bathroom," Daulton told her which made Shiho shiver.
"You're disgusting!" Maho exclaimed.
"Well I did have a girlfriend to help me out with that, but... " Daulton led on.
"Fine," Maho gave in seeing that her mother was gonna need it.
\Sometime Later/
Following Naomi and Alisa the sun starting to dip from the sky and the two were waiting outside the place they were suppose to hold their double date, it was a restaurant, with windows covering the front for all to look in as they passed by. Naomi was leaning against the wall wanting to roar out in anger as George was nowhere to be seen the two were dressed in their casual wears.
Both girls dressed their best bringing their purses, Naomi wearing a black jacket, a black and white striped shirt with a grey scarf wrapped around her collar, and red skirt with matching red stockings along with black tall boots. Alisa wore short grey skirt, slippers with orange laces, and pink frilled shirt that left the tops of her shoulders exposed trying to look pleasant as possible, but her nervous expression betrayed her.
"You look fine," Naomi tried to reassure her.
"Are you sure? am I using too much makeup? is my hair ok?"
"Calm down, besides my date isn't even here yet. He better not stand me up, or I'm gonna strangle him, and give Kay an earful."
"Alisa!" a boy's voice called out making Alisa jump.
Looking down the street both the girls spotted the boy Alisa had crush on, Tahashi... or was it Takahashi, oh well. The boy that Alisa dreamed to be with was finally coming true which left her utterly speechless. The boy himself was about the same size as Naomi completely towering over Alisa like everyone else.
"Sorry I'm late," Tahashi apologized scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.
"Actually you're on time," Alisa informed him.
"That make's most of us," Naomi muttered looking over her shoulders.
"Is you're date running late?" Tahashi asked laying his eyes on Naomi.
"We should probably head inside to get our table," Alisa suggested, "Tahashi and will wait for you inside," but as Alisa tried to guide Tahashi to the front door he pulled himself away.
"Um... how about you go inside Alisa, and hold our table, and I'll stay out here so your friend, wouldn't want her to be all alone," he offered to stay, his attempt to be polite.
"Nah, I'm good," Naomi declined, "You two head in."
"Oh... ok," Tahashi uttered sounding disappointed.
"Let's go Tahashi."
Pulling the young man through the door Tahashi took another glance towards Naomi staring at her from the down-up before entering the restaurant.
"That guy sounded way too excited to stay out here," Naomi noted the tone of Tahashi before, "Where is that guy, I do not wanna be the third wheel in this situation," but it wasn't long till Naomi saw George running down the streets, "It's about time, what took you so long?"
"I had to park Señor. Mula," George explains.
"You named that hunk of junk?"
"Sí," George answered without hesitation, "And don't you insult, Señor. Mula, that thing pulls more weight than anyone I know."
"Let's just get inside, Alisa and her date is already here," Naomi told George trying to shove him inside.
Once in the two immediately spotted Alisa sitting down with Tahashi sitting at a booth, the two sitting opposite sides from each other, Tahashi too sighted Naomi as the door almost shooting up from his seat to wave at them.
"He seems excited," George noted his behavior.
The two made their way across.
"Why don't you sit next to me," Tahashi clearly offered to Naomi.
"Thanks man," George accepted shoving Tahashi back to his spot as he sat down.
With the boys on one side and the girls on the other the waiter shortly came over handing the menus around, starting off with drinks they all just settled with water, except George who just went straight for the dessert ordering a milkshake.
"So, both of you go to the same school?" Tahashi tried to start a conversation.
"There's only one school on this entire carrier," Naomi answered what had to be one of the dumbest questions she heard.
"Right! right, haha, you're pretty smart," Tahashi complimented.
"Well you should see me on my tank, Tahashi," Alisa spoke up trying to impress.
"Yeah, yeah that sounds amazing," Tahashi brushed off not even looking at Alisa.
That bored responses made Naomi raise a brow noting how disinterested Tahashi was with Alisa and the extra strange behavior came when she felt something brush up against her leg.
"Hey George can you help me with something?" Naomi requested.
"But the drinks are almost here," George brought up not knowing the intention.
"I can go with you!" Tahashi offered to go up instead almost trying to climb over George.
"No!" Naomi quickly rejected, but as calmly as possible, and as much as it pains her to say "George, darling, would you be a dear."
"Uh... ?" George now was starting to suspect something was up and so rose up, "Sure, wouldn't want to let you down."
"You two just get to know each other, we'll be back."
When the two hurried out to the door to a now brighten lighten street as the sun disappeared Naomi and George walked out of sight of the windows and there Naomi backed George up to the wall.
"Mind telling me what you needed "help" with?" George asked.
However Naomi didn't respond instead she was peeking through the window, doing the same George looked across to where they were sitting seeing Alisa alone with Tahashi.
"I hope Alisa nails short talk," George gave a positive commented.
"I don't think Tahashi cares what Alisa has to say," Naomi said otherwise.
And looking closer George noticed the bored look on the boy's face with Alisa sweating nervously.
"So uh, I heard you play soccer, I bet you're really good," Alisa tried to start.
"Yeah, nothing big, like one or two games," Tahashi plainly answered, "Hey, where's your blonde friend?"
"Kay? oh she had things to take care of," Alisa explained to Tahashi's disappointment.
"Damn, I wish I had some eye-candy to look at," Tahashi thought to himself.
"He's not even trying," George spoke out in outrage.
"That douche-bag is only going on this date because he thought Kay and I will be here and he was trying to brush his feet against my legs."
"Looks like we know his type," George lead on, "Should we kick his ass?"
"If we just go in there trying to call him out Alisa's not gonna talk to us," She warned.
"Hm... can I see your cell phone?" George requested.
"Now's not the time."
"I have an idea, just give me your phone."
Practically holding out his hand, Naomi moan reluctantly digging into her pocket to pass George her cell, flipping it open George pressed buttons sending a text to Alisa.
"What are you-."
"Sssshh," George cut her off placing a finger over her lips.
"If you wanna keep your fingers get them away from my face," Naomi warned.
Inside Tahashi was leaning on the table with arm propping up his head with Alisa bombing out there on her own, but her attention will be taken away when she heard the buzzing of her phone go off in her purse, fishing the device out Alisa read the text quietly to herself.
"Go out through the back and meet us outside," confused Alisa looked around to all the chairs, table, and people to seeing Naomi and George just poking their heads out from the window, and her received another text, "Say you're going to the bathroom," Glancing from the window and Tahashi, Alisa pocketed her phone, and grabbed her purse, "I'm gonna take a... tinkle."
"Sure, whatever," Tahashi responded bluntly.
Stepping out from the booth Alisa decided to just go out the front instead of the back with George and Naomi choking at the blatant error, but Tahashi was so disinterested he didn't even noticed. Pretty sure he didn't even pay attention to what Alisa said. Walking out the door the small frame girl regrouped with her tankery-mates seeing what's the matter.
"What do you want? can't you see you two are ruining my chances with Tahashi!" Alisa exclaimed in annoyance.
"Yeah it really looks like he's have a great time, dude's practically drooling over you," George spoke sarcastically only to be elbowed by Naomi.
"You had an idea, moron," Naomi reminded.
"Oh yeah, hand over your jacket," George instructed.
"What?!" Naomi exclaimed.
"Just give me your jacket and go sit with him," George explained which Naomi now understood.
She undoes the zipper tossing it to George which he tucked under his arm and goes back inside, confused Alisa tried to question them, but George pulls her back from the window.
"Just watch," George told her.
Walking back inside Naomi found her way to the booth to a now more eager Tahashi waiting for, sitting down Naomi made herself more appealing to the eye for with her jacket now off revealing more of her curved frame which Tahashi tried to sneak glances at.
"What a creep," Naomi thought in disgust to the sight of his overly confident smug, but refrain herself from delivering a left hook to his face, "So, Tahashi, you play sports or something?"
"Oh, I play, you name it, and I guarantee you I won a trophy for it, baseball, American football, basketball," he listed to impress her.
"Lying sack of shit!" Naomi jeered within her mind.
It was at that moment the waiter came with their drinks passing the glasses of water to them, placing the milkshake where George was sitting, and finally handing out the straws.
"Give us a minute, our friends will be back," Naomi told the waiter.
Leaving Tahashi took a risk by switching sides from the booth sliding in on Naomi's side, basically boxing her in, and coming too close for comfort, then reaches over to grab George's shake.
"You know seeing this glass actually makes it tempting to drink," Tahashi commented sliding the cup between them, "You know I can feel less guilty if you help me drink this."
"Sorry, but not interested," Naomi clearly rejected pushing Tahashi off a few inches.
But the young man couldn't take the hint and persisted almost pushing her against the wall and that when he started to get handsy, feeling a hand rest upon her leg.
"You look really hot for a girl with a boy's haircut, but with a rack like yours-."
*SLAP!*
"You freak'n prev!" Naomi yelled in anger striking the boy across the face, "You're supposed to be on a date with Alisa!" she reminded him, but Tahashi was too anger himself, not will to take rejection for an answer.
"You slut!" he called her then grabbs Naomi and slams her against the wall, "You lead me on and you have the nerve to say no!"
There was no escape, Naomi wouldn't be able to slip by Tahashi, and she had no room to push him off, she was trapped, Tahashi rose his hand planning to strike Naomi across the face in return, reeling his arm back Naomi closed her eyes to receive the painful sting, but it never came. Opening her eyes again Naomi saw that George came to her rescue catching Tahashi's wrist before he can flick it forward.
"What the hell did you just call her!" George demanded his voice clearly sounding enraged as he toward over Tahashi.
"H-hey it's not what... " Tahashi stammered failing to come up with a lie quick enough.
The boy was clearly shaking in fear to what Naomi can see and George was angrier than she ever seen him, when he spoke it almost sounded like he was different person entirely. With his other hand George wrapped his finger around Tahashi's neck then in one go yanks him out of the booth hoisting him over his head and slams him into the ground so hard dust kicked up, Tahashi felt the air escape his lungs. But it wasn't the end. Getting body-slammed wasn't enough, George wanted to make sure he got the point, so he grabbed his shirt collar, pulled him up only to smash his knuckles into his teeth.
"Never call her a slut!" George roared to the bleeding boy's face to which he complies in whimpers, "If I catch you anywhere near Saunders High I'm gonna throw you off this ship! and If I even catch wind of YOU getting frisky with any girl I'm coming for you, you got it... " he threatened, "DO YOU GOT IT!"
"Yes! yes!" Tahashi cried holding his hands over his face for protection.
George drops him reaching over the table to toss the table rag down to him.
"Clean yourself up," he remarked before extending a helping hand to Naomi, "C'mon let's leave Mr. Hot-Shot with the bill."
Collecting herself to what she just witness Naomi grabs hold of George's hand pulling her out of the booth stepping a sobbing Tahashi and leaving a whole restaurant utterly speechless. Exiting Naomi was soon greeted by Alisa as she wrapped her arms around her waist and almost crying out in worrying tears.
"Naomi!" she cried, "I was so scared, I thought he was gonna hurt you!"
"No, I'm... I'm alright Alisa," Naomi reassured hugging her friend back, "Sorry your date turned out to be disaster."
"I don't care, I'm glad George beat him to a pulp," Alisa said otherwise.
"You guys wait here, I'll get the Mule," George told him before going off to fetch the truck.
Walking off down the street Naomi stared at his shadow covered backside Naomi remember the warning Daulton has told her days before.
"He was right... George really is an angry kid."
