Chapter 2
Usagi blinked. Duo blinked.
A moment suspended in time as the
simply stared at each other. Then, like wind up dolls starting up, they
slowly began to move again. Usagi first, by putting a hand to her mouth
and taking a step backwards.
"You can see me?" Usagi gasped.
"Yeah. Shouldn't I?" Duo questioned
back.
"You just...you haven't ever been
able to for a while." Usagi shifted her feet in the sand, and suddenly
found the ground to be fascinating.
The golden girl
digging her feet into the beach looked familiar to Duo, but he couldn't
quite place where he'd seen her before. Which annoyed him, because he doubted
he'd forget a face like hers. She was absolutely gorgeous. A little pale
though...
Just then, the obvious slapped Duo
across the face.
"Hey! You're that girl! From my dream!"
Duo yelled. 'The one who kissed me..' he added silently.
The girl did something
similar to a blush but not quite. She winced and hunched her shoulders
over a little, embarrassed.
"Sorry 'bout that. It was tha ONLY
way ta get'cha back here. I know it's kinda odd but...it's the rule." she
was babbling again.
Duo's ego deflated
a little. He'd never had a girl apologize for kissing him. Especially for
a nice kiss like that. Wait...gorgeous, nice kiss....focus Duo! There are
more important things at hand here. Girls could come later. Right now he
had to worry about how she knew about his Gundam. Quickly, he leveled his
gun at her, wiping any trace of mirth from his face. If she really did
know about Death Scythe, either she was from Project Meteor, or she was
a spy sent to get rid of him. Either way, her fate was sealed.
"Well, lady, I'm sorry too. It's
nothing personal you see, but nobody who lays eyes on my Gundam can live."
Duo had expected
her to be at least a little scared. At worst, maybe she wouldn't react
at all, or attack him. But instead, she just burst out laughing.
"Dokenaiyo!" she exclaimed between
giggles. "Geez, Duo! Ya can't shoot me. It wouldn't do no good to try it
either. But'ya can if ya like to see..."
Duo scowled at
her arrogance (as he perceived it) and fueled by her mocking tone, he took
at aim and shot her in the shoulder. He instantly regretted it.
"Oh, geez! Lady, I'm sorry I-" he
stopped when he noticed she was simply staring at him, and there were no
visible wounds, no blood anywhere on her.
'Impossible! I'm not that bad a
shot...'
She simply sighed, in a way a teacher
does when they need to repeat a common fact.
"You can't bleed if you don't have
blood, Duo."
Duo stared wordlessly
at the girl for a few seconds. Had she just read his mind? Naaw...he probably
just didn't have a very good poker face. He'd have to work on that. For
a second more, he considered the situation. Then Duo burst out laughing
much like Usagi had moments before. Slowly, he made his way closer to Usagi,
who had her arms crossed over her chest and a very put out expression on
her face.
"Yeah, right! Good joke! No, really,
you moved didn't you? You must be pretty fast to dodge a bullet like that,
huh babe? Are you sure you're okay? Here, let me check-"
Duo cut off for
the second time, when the hand that was supposed to end up on Usagi's
shoulder ended up on the other side of her back. He looked at her suspiciously,
and moved to grab her upper arm, but again his hand passed right through.
Wrist, nothing. Waist, nothing (damn). Chest....I don't think so. Finally,
Duo stepped full in front of Usagi, stared deep into her eyes, leaned forward
and...
...pushed his arm through her stomach.
"Whoa." Was all that he could say,
as he twisted his arm around, and passed it through her stomach a few times.
"Could you not do that? It's making
me feel a little sick..." Usagi bit her lip and stepped back. "Does Gundanium
rust?"
"What?" Duo shook his head. Where
had that come from?
"Does Gundanium rust? Death Scythe
is still at the bottom of the ocean, you know." Usagi tilted her head to
the side a little. "That is what started this entire thing to begin
with."
Somewhere in the
back of Duo's head, some backwards old man was singing:
'There's a hole in the bucket,
Dear Liza, Dear Liza,
There's a hole in the bucket,
Dear Liza, a hole.'
"Then let's fix it." Usagi smiled
over her shoulder and headed out to the ocean.
"Hey wait! That waters' freezing!
You might drown!"
"Duo, I'm already dead!"
"Oh. Right. I knew that."
Thankfully, Usagi
could no longer see him, or respond in any way. That he could hear at least.
Duo let out a long breath and flopped down on the beach. She was certainly...different.
Hadn't he always been taught that angels were beautiful golden haired women
that...okay, that part was right. But weren't they supposed to have wings?
And harps? And be sweet and motherly? Usagi definitely didn't seem like
anyone's mother. She was like him. Except she was a total babe. It was
too bad he couldn't touch her...
'She's dead.'
And then there
was that whole dead thing again. That was going to take some getting used
to. Except...
********************Flashback********************
Duo walked
to school, eyes downcast and mouth pouting. A girl of his age, about six,
skipped happily along beside him, blonde pigtails bobbing with each step.
She was humming to herself, and seemed unaware of the ill spirits of her
companion.
"I can't believe I gotta go to
school wearin' this!" Duo muttered, gesturing to his clothes.
"I think it's cute!" the girl
chirped, as she surveyed Duo's clothing. He was dressed in a long black
smock, with a collar similar to a priest's. A silver cross hung from his
neck, and stood out against the dark of his other clothing. It was formal
clothing for Maxwell Church.
"You think everything's cute."
Duo replied sourly.
"Yep." Usagi giggled and then
spun around, causing her own white dress to flare out. "Aren't you excited
Duo?! You get to go meet new people! You get to learn about....about...everything!
I remember my first day of school...."
Usagi sighed,
and a wistful expression replaced her happy one.
"How could anyone like school
so much."
"Oh, I hate school." At Usagi's
words, Duo nearly tripped.
"But...but you just..."
Usagi laughed
again.
"Race you to class!" she called
over her shoulder and took off down the street.
"Hey!" Duo whined as he took off
after her. "No fair! YOu got a head start! And you can walk through mailboxes!"
It turned out
that due to Usagi's little race, Duo managed to get to school on time.
That would later prove to have been something of a minor miracle. For now,
all Duo would do was complain.
"..and I almost ran into some
lady and her dog thanks to you, not ta mention I hit my side on a mailbox,
and I'll prolly have a bruise tomorrow..."
Usagi just rolled
her eyes, and ignored the boys. However, a group of other boys could not
do the same. They stared at Duo, or to them: "That funny new kid who talks
to himself."
"What's he doing,?" one asked.
"It looks like he's talking to
a tree." answered another.
"He must be some kind of freak."
said a third. "Look at his clothes."
As the students filed
in, Duo stood uncomfortable before the class, and introduced himself. The
teacher smiled, and indicated he should take the empty seat near the back.
As Duo was walking to his seat, one of the boy's from earlier, Patrick,
stuck out his foot, tripping Duo. The class giggled a bit under their breath
as Duo brushed himself off. Usagi scowled, took a deep breath, and blew
the note papers on Patricks' desk out the open window. The boy scrambled
to catch them, and the class laughed even harder.
Patrick glared at
Duo as the teacher called for the class to settle down, but Usagi just
smiled and winked at Duo, who mouthed silently, "Thanks Usagi."
********************End Flashback********************
"Usagi..."
"Duo!" The focus of his thoughts
broke through his trip down memory lane. "I think you need to see this!"
Usagi was floating
just a little above the war, several meters out. Her eyes were wide, and
she was motioning for him to come quickly to where she was.
"Huh?"
"Oh never mind! I'll do it myself."
She disappeared
below the surface once again. But this time, the water moved where she
had once been floating, the water churned and created small currents that
suggested something was coming ashore. Because of course something was.
A rather large something. The head of Death Scythe emerged after a moment,
as it stomped it's was to the shore. But it wasn't alone.
It was towing
with it a second mobile suit. It seemed to be having a little trouble towing
the second mech out of the water, and Duo wasn't surprised with that. (He
was however, surprised that his Gundam appeared to be possessed) From the
looks of it, Usagi had found another Gundam. That meant that it's pilot
was probably close by as well. Another Gundam pilot...
Duo looked once
more at the two figures, one kneeling in the surf of the beach, and the
other looking vaguely like a lifeless china doll. And Usagi, perched happily
on top of Death Scythe. Duo had only one thing to say.
"Whoah."