Hoshigumi - Watashi Ni!
Early the next morning, Jennifer staggered into the communal area of the building and slumped in a chair. She stared at the wall for a few minutes, then determinedly got up and walked into the kitchen. Maiku was already in there.
"Hello," he said.
"Hi…d'you want a drink?" He shook his head. "Is something the matter?" He shook his head again. "Don't lie to me. I can tell when someone lies to me. It's their aura, or something. It goes red."
"It doesn't matter," he said, somewhat forcefully.
"Do you want me to have to beat you up? Tell me."
"N-"
"Tell me."
"N-"
"Tell."
"N-"
"Ah?"
"N-"
"Tell me." He glared at her.
"NO!" Wisps of fog formed around him. Jennifer glowed to counter his threat. More fog appeared, and Jenny shot out a hand to one side, in which her sword appeared. Twin katanas appeared in a puff of fog in Maiku's hands. Jenny passed her own sword to her left hand, then translocated Yuugasa no Tenshi into her right, nearly bursting a blood vessel in an attempt to bypass Gendo's protections. It vibrated uncomfortably in her hand. A few seconds later, Gendo appeared.
"What the hell is going on? Why have you got my sword? Jenny, you know we're not supposed to fight in the living area, because the furniture gets wrecked." He blinked. "How come you haven't dropped it?"
"It hurts, but I can hold it." Gendo looked puzzled, and Maiku left the room.
"No-one can hold the sword, because it vibrates so much. No-one knows why."
"Have they ever asked it?"
"Asked it?"
"If it can distinguish between people, it's intelligent. Therefore, it can probably talk. Ask it." Gendo looked puzzled, but laid it on the table.
"Sword, reveal your secret!" Nothing happened.
"Maybe you should try flattering it," joked Jenny.
"Go on then." Jenny looked at him.
"I didn't mean-"
"Go on."
"How come everyone around here is so forceful? Okay…Oh Beautiful Sword, please reveal your secret to us!" The air on the opposite side of the table blurred, and a man in a bright orange suit appeared. He had impeccable black hair and tanned skin, and when he smiled, they noticed his slightly pointed canines. Also, his ears were slightly more pointed and higher on the head than those of normal humans.
"Really? Beautiful? You think so?" he preened. "Wait, I gotta see for myself…" He pulled a hand mirror out of thin air and studied it intently. "WAAAAAAAAH! I'm lookin' niiiiiiiiice!" He beamed at them. "Wait a minute, how'm I lookin' now?" He checked again. "I'm still lookin' nice! My hair's lookin' nice, my clothes're lookin' nice…hell, even my shadow's lookin' nice. I'm better than nice! I'm Smooooooth, with a capital Smoo! I'm-"
"Who the hell are you?"
"Whoa, take a chill pill, pal." The apparition pulled himself up straight. "I am Bagdial, Angel of Styyyyyle. Put away that scalpel, no improvements are possible! I am a plastic surgeons nightmare!"
"Okay. Why does the sword vibrate when most people hold it?"
"I can't be associated with an uncool ninja!" Bagdial looked shocked at the very idea.
"Why didn't you vibrate very hard when I held the sword?" put in Jenny.
"Well, you're cool, but not a ninja. I'm only supposed to allow ninja to use the sword. If you had been older, I'd have let you," he grinned lecherously. Jennifer closed her dressing gown up around her chin and glared.
"Why were you in the sword anyway?"
"Some old guy in a dress told me to."
"Which old guy, and why?" Gendo was beginning to get a very clear idea of who Bagdial was.
"Um, something like Yahweh, Jehovah, something like that, because I went with this guy called Lucifer. But I left because all my suits clashed with the décor, and it was so hot they were all sweat stained all the time. I just couldn't live like that. Anyway, he said that as a punishment, I had to live in this tiny apartment and wait for some guy called Kendo."
"Gendo?" asked Gendo as Jennifer looked on from behind her dressing-gown.
"Yeah!"
"That's me. What do you have to do now?"
"I have no idea. I'll go and find out!" Bagdial stood, saluted, and slinked out of the room, before disappearing.
"Well, that was bizarre," said Gendo. He glanced at Jenny, who was still glaring. He nudged her. "Kettle's boiled. Were you making a cup of tea?" He glanced at her again. "I'll make it." He walked into the kitchen again. "Milk?"
"Yes please," mumbled Jenny.
"One lump or two?"
"One."
"Sugar?"
"Ye…WHAT!?"
"You noticed quickly. Most people don't notice until I point it out to them, if at all." He grinned. "You'd better get ready for school. It's nearly eight o'clock."
Thirty minutes later, Dave stood by the door. "WE'RE LEAVING NOW! COME ON!" Gendo slid down the banister, followed by Jenny and the Twins. Ten seconds later, Vlad followed, hitting the end and with a sickening thud.
"Ouch," said all the males in the building.
"Maria'll be disappointed," added Dave. The Twins giggled. "Where is Reiko?" he asked, exasperated once again. They waited. Dave picked up a pencil. He tossed it into the air. He caught it. He snapped it. He threw it to the ground and jumped up and down on it, before screaming "REIKOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! GET DOWN HERE, NOW!!" Finally, she walked downstairs, and without a word, walked past them to the car.
The packed Cadillac pulled up at the school gates. Reiko took one last look at herself in the mirror. Gendo and Vlad both leapt over the windscreen, flipped in midair, and landed perfectly. The Twins ran out to talk to their friends – they were the only team-members not to be new at the school. Jennifer followed nervously. Maiku stood up, leapt, flipped twice and landed on the shoulders of Gendo and Vlad. Without looking at them, he walked into school. They shrugged and followed him.
All went well until midway through the last lesson – English.
"Gendo, your spelling is atrocious!" said the teacher, a skinny woman who looked as if she was expecting the Queen's Telegram any day now. "At least your handwriting makes up for it, but there's no excuse!"
"There is. Like I said. English isn't my first language. Is it my fault you have such stupid spelling?"
"There's no excuse," she repeated.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" came a sudden yowl. An orange whirlwind burst through the door. "I'm back! How'm I looking?" He checked himself over, and screamed. "A crease!" He produced a tiny iron and dealt with the problem.
"Who are you?" asked the teacher.
"I'm-"
"My uncle," interrupted Jennifer. "He's a fashion designer. But he's a bit eccentric. I don't know what he's doing here." She glared at him.
"Well, what are you doing here, Mr…"
"Bagdial."
"It's French," explained Jessica.
"Pierre Bagdial. Haven't you heard of him?" asked Rebecca.
"No. What are you doing here, Mr Bagdial?" Just as Bagdial was about to answer, another figure rushed through the door. Bagdial went pale.
"Oh no! It's him!"
"Mr Bagdial, what are you doing?" asked the figure. He turned to the teacher and held out a hand. "Anthony J. Crowley. Business Manager, Bagdial Designs Ltd. I'm afraid Mr Bagdial decided that he had to see his niece, and when he gets these ideas in his head, nothing can stop him. Come along, sir. You can talk to Jennifer after school finishes. It won't be long."
"No, don't leave me alone with him!" cried Bagdial, as he was propelled out of the door. The teacher looked puzzled.
"Anthony Crowley… A.J. Crowley…why does that seem familiar?" she muttered repeatedly. The bell rang. "You may go," she said distractedly.
"Alright, who are you?" asked Gendo.
"I said. Anthony Crowley."
"I know who A.J. Crowley is. Who are you really?" said Jessica. He looked around nervously.
"Jikariel. The Angel of Shadows. I've been sent to aid Bagdial in his mission, because he's such an incompetent fool he can't do it alone."
"How did you know our cover story?"
"I'm not the only one to use telepathy, you know. Do you know a Mr Wilson?"
"He's the head teacher. Why?" answered the Twins.
"That teacher is attracted to him," answered Jikariel seriously. Everyone, including the still-pained Vlad, fell about laughing.
"How are you getting back to your base?" Everyone looked at each other.
"We walk," answered Maiku shortly. Reiko rolled her eyes, but a glare from Jennifer put a stop to whatever she was about to say, and they set off towards a bus-stop.
In a cavern that was much larger than this world and everything in it, and at the same time much smaller, a dark figure watched an image of the team as they headed across London.
"So, he reached them. Well. It will not do them any good. There will merely be a slight…delay." Lazily, he raised a hand and snapped his fingers. The image disappeared. The figure smiled nastily, the kind of smile that hangs around in jungles waiting for people to smile at. The kind of smile that can detect a drop of blood in many tonnes of seawater. The kind of smile that, when a person is smiled at by it, that person will consider him or herself lucky not to survive long enough to be smiled at like that again. They usually didn't.
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Not as long as I thought it would be. But I took so long writing this chapter due to boredom and lack of creativity I couldn't remember everything I was going to put in. R+R, and go on to Chapter 4. Bagdial is, obviously to anyone who has watched the series, the Cat from Red Dwarf. The smile joke was, ahem, "borrowed" from a friend. Sorry, Taichou…
