Fate Beckons

A fanfic by celste

Alternate Universe, mostly Aoshi and Misao

The usual disclaimers…the lives of the characters are NOT wholly based on anyone in real life, at least not intentionally.

What if Aoshi and Misao (and the Kenshin Gumi) lived in Singapore? Sorry, as I'm Singaporean I thought I'd start with a familiar setting…And I'm almost 3 years away from the O' levels

Chapter 1: Wish Upon A Star

A new school year. And the most stressful one in her Secondary school life. Makimachi Misao sighed as she stepped, once more, into the hall of her school. There were some new faces in every level. As for the secondary ones, almost every single one of them was new to the school.

She was almost sixteen and sitting for her O' levels that year. With the thought of that, her chest tightened. True, it was about 11 months away. But time passes so fast doesn't it? She reminded herself. After all, four years ago, she, too, had stepped into this very same school, wide eyed and fearful. A girls' school was unfamiliar ground to her, much less a top school where she would have more competition…where it would not be so easy to be the best all the time…where there were no guys to have fun and joke around with. Her classmates had seemed so studious most of the time and she was aching for all the practical jokes her male friends and she played all the time, back in primary school…

Primary school…it reminded her of him, her senior. She wondered what he was doing then…she was eight and he was twelve, four years older and her senior in school then. Their parents were college friends and had only regained contact during a class reunion. On one of their outings, they had brought their children along. That was when Misao got to know their son, Shinomori Aoshi.

Some call it puppy love, others call it a crush, and yet others may call it love at first sight. But one look into those grayish eyes and Misao had a feeling that her fate was entwined with his, somehow. There was a strange attachment to him she could not explain. After Aoshi graduated from primary school that year, she did not get to see him any more as he was always too busy, too busy to go along on outings with his parents. Later on, as most teens do, he just stopped hanging out with his parents and more with his friends. The last Misao had heard of him, he was doing his national service.

"Misao!" A familiar voice broke into her thoughts. Her best friend, Kaoru, was calling to her from where she was seated. "It's great isn't it? We're in the same class again!" Misao could not agree more. Ever since she had met Kaoru in their first year, they had been best friends—inseparable. Somehow, they had managed to stay in the same class for all four years.

"Who do you think our form teacher is?" Misao asked. "The Gwee? Better not! I heard that she's a real…tiger! You know, the little girl with her curl in the middle of her forehead in the nursery rhyme? She's exactly like her-when she's nice, she's very, very nice; but when she's angry, she can be a monster!"

The two girls chatted excitedly for a while, until the discipline mistress picked up the microphone. The whole hall grew quiet as the customary welcome-back to school speech was made. Listening but not really paying attention(how could she? She had heard practically the same speech every year!), Misao's thoughts began to wander to the boy(now man) whom she had reserved a place in her heart for.

Aoshi…Aoshi…Even as Misao wet her rag under the tap, she still could not stop thinking about him.

"Misao! Are you listening or not!" Misao turned her head to meet Kaoru's angry eyes. "I've been trying to get to you for the last 5 minutes!"

"Oops, sorry, I was thinking about something else," Misao apologized. She sighed. "It's so unfair. The weekend before school is really supposed to start, we have to come back to clean the classrooms. As if we didn't clean them on the last day!" [Okay, some of you should already have guessed which school I go to, I think.] She wrung the rag dry so that the water would not drip all the way back to the classroom. "But I think it helps us to feel like we actually belong."

"I guess so," Kaoru sighed. "I wonder which other school makes their pupils do this…" Misao, too, wondered…how was Aoshi doing in NS? Would he be wringing rags too? Or trying to clean the floor with a toothbrush? She giggled at the thought. Her father had told her what sergeants could make National Servicemen do. Right now, his hair would be in a crew cut…did he have a girlfriend? The painful possibility cut into her heart.

"What's wrong with you?" Kaoru asked. "I mean, I know you often smile or laugh without reason, but you are very spaced out today!"

"What lah! Daydream also cannot meh!"[I'll be injecting Singlish into speech sometimes, but when it gets too un-understandable for those of you from other countries, I'll add an explanation] Misao pretended to pout. They stepped into the classroom…and their mouths dropped open. The form teacher was in the class and--

"Oh, good morning Mr. Chandra," Misao managed to keep herself from laughing out loud. I can't believe it, I have the same form teacher as I did in Secondary One!

"Good morning girls," Mr. Chandra nodded his head in reply. The two girls muffled their giggles as they ran back to their desks.

"He really looks like he wears curtains for shirts, doesn't he?" The girl sitting in front of Misao, Cathy, laughed.

"Yeah, I bet he cuts them and sews them into shirts," Misao agreed. She had been the first one to comment, 3 years ago, that Mr. Chandra wore curtains for shirts. "Somewhere must be missing a lot of curtains!" She began wiping her table, where a thin layer of dust had collected. I wonder if Aoshi even remembers me…and I do hope he doesn't have a girlfriend!

He had been constantly on her mind. True, she had had a few crushes, but they never lasted long. Whenever she thought of Aoshi, those now seemingly immature boys could never compare. She wondered if it was true love. After all, crushes never last long do they? However, the truth was that it had been eight years since she last saw him. She had changed…and he probably had too. She wondered if she would still like him if they were reunited.

Well, I'll have to meet him again before I decide, right? But how? She sighed again. Unless…by some miracle or other he decides to tag along during an outing together or something…I wish that happens but it's kind of impossible isn't it? He's got his own life now.

Unknown to her, there was magic in the air that day, and although it was broad daylight, a star twinkled for a moment in the bright blue sky.

Tbc…

Author's notes:

1.4.2002

(No April Fool joke!) I've changed all the "Xiao Xun"s to "Kaoru" so as to make things less confusing!

C & C's appreciated as this is my 1st fic!