Missy: Uh, we here at the Otaku Corporation would like to remind you that we don't own Angelic Layer and are very bothered that we didn't come up with it first. The main idea of the game were created by CLAMP and not myself, though the characters and the Angels were of my own happy design *looks proud* Even though the idea of Angels was not my own. Ack, okay, that's a long and tedious disclaimer. That's all.

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Megumi sighed, laying facedown on her bed. Feng was perched on her pillow in an oblivious sort of way. Of course I'm sure most inanimate objects are pretty oblivious. Meg looked up at her, the doll starring back with a blank look. She sighed, rolling over onto her back and looking up at the ceiling fan.

A faint knock at the door echoed down the hall to her room. Had there been any other sound, Megumi probably wouldn't be able to hear it. She crawled off the fluffy bed reluctantly and stalked down the hall. The knock came again before she could reach the door, more impatient this time. "I'm coming, I'm coming Megumi growled, throwing the door open and immediately freezing, "Oh, hi Tenko."

The tall girl standing just outside smiled, waving one hand, "Hi Meg-chan. Sure took ya' long enough to answer."

"You're so kind."

"I know. Oh, yea, why I came," Tenko reached into her oversized shoulder bag, digging around for a minute and drawing out an Angel, "I wanted to know if you could help me with something for my new Angel."

"Tenko, I can't-- Wait, new Angel? What happened to your old one?"

"Um, you mean Mika?"

"Yea, your last Angel. The pink one."

"Oh," Tenko bit her lip, "I just felt like getting a new one, a different style and all." She smiled weakly, "Anyway, look at my new one."

Megumi took the Angel from her friend's outstretched hand. It was a little on the big side for a normal Angel, but not too huge. She was dressed in a school uniform, a white blouse with an orange ribbon around the collar. She had white stockings, an orange knee-long skirt and dark brown Mary Jane shoes. Her hair was hardly to her chin, a dark red color. She looked more like a little girl's doll than an Angel, but when it really came down to it that's all an Angel was. Megumi handed it back to Tenko, "It's cute."

"Yea, and not all pink cutsey-poo like Mika was."

"But still kind of cutsey-poo. Just not pink."

Tenko shrugged, "All the same to me."

"Yea, sure." Megumi looked down at her feet momentarily before snapping her attention back to Tenko, "Oh, come in."

She looked at the door for a moment before suddenly realizing they had been standing on the front step the whole time. She giggled slightly, stepping past Meg into the house, "I didn't even notice."

"Neither did I."

"Have you seen Rina's new model?"

"Huh?" Meg looked up at the substantially taller Tenko, "New model?"

"Yes. Tatsuya-kun worked on her a lot yesterday night and she looks so cool now. She's got some new weapons, and I think she worked on her armor some," She held her Angel up again and looked at it, "Doesn't look at all like she did before. Kind of like Mika."

"What?" Megumi looked at the Angel, "I thought that was a new one."

Tenko blinked, "Oh, yes. It is."

"You never told me her name."

"It's..." Tenko's voice dropped. She looked at the floor quietly for a moment, "Mei."

"Sounds like Mika."

"Yea, I know." She mumbled, shuffling her feet.

Megumi watched her for a minute, wondering why she froze up so suddenly.

"Oh, yea, but Rina's new design is so cool. She's got these new weapons-- Or did I say that already? I did. Oops. Well she's positively evil looking, and when I saw him Tatsuya wouldn't stop talking about how much she looked like Ryoko now. He's obsessive, you know."

"Oh yea, I know."

"Have you done any work on Feng for the tournament?"

"No."

"Practiced a lot?"

"No."

"Anything?"

"Nothing at all."

"Well geeze!" Tenko laughed, "How do you ever expect to win?"

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Tatsuya turned Rina over in his hands, inspecting the thin Angel armor. He sighed, setting her down on the kitchen table in front of him. "The tournament starts tomorrow. You look ready."

The phone rang, pulling him out of his thought train and slowly bringing him to the realization that he had been talking to a toy. He stood up and walked across the room to the phone, picking it up with a sigh, "Hello?"

"Hi Tatsuya-kun!"

He snorted, "Hi Nina. What's up?"

"I wanted to know what time the whole Angelic Layer thing was tomorrow, since I was gunna come and cheer you on and everything."

"It's a nice though, but I don't really need a cheer leader, Nina-chan."

"I wanna watch your fights. I've never really seen you in Angelic Layer before. And I also wanted to see Rina now."

He paused, "What do you mean 'now'?"

"Oh," Nina giggled, "Tenko was going around telling everyone about the changes you made on Rina."

"Geeze!" Tatsuya muttered, "She can never keep her mouth shut. Um, so is your bother coming?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

"Ah come on, he's not that bad."

"I'm amazed you two get along, he hates all my other friends."

"We're a couple years younger than him. It's an age thing." He shifted and leaned against the kitchen counter, "Unless he can't stand Tenko's incessant rambling."

"Maybe," Nina giggled, "but neither can I."

"I don't think anyone can." Tatsuya mumbled, looking across the kitchen at the Angel sitting on the table. From a distance, she looked just like she had months ago when she had first been made. And maybe, for just a split second, she looked like a real little person. He shook his head, I gotta stop doing that.

"So what time is it, then?"

"Huh? Oh, it starts at 1:00 in the afternoon. I think you're gunna want to get there before then, I bet the stands fill up really fast."

"Okay, thanks. Well bye then, I guess, and good luck."

"'Kay. Bye." Tatsuya hung up, waiting for a moment with his hand on the reciever before picking it back up and dialing. "Hi Tenko. Listen, can you do me a favor? It's really important."

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Missy: 'We here at the Otaku Corporation'? I think I'm the only member of OC948! Ok, that chapter was shorter. Most of them will be longer than that, since the next chapter starts-- At long last, the tournament!