Monkey see, Monkey do
Part I: The Long Trip Home
~~~~
Mimi's vacation continues… All thanks may be in the form of monetary donations and/or Ryo plushes. Never met him, but a picture is worth a thousand words…
And now for a short romantic interlude!
~~~~
CHAPTER 4: Pretty Blue Bird
~~~~
"No, I'm sorry. They aren't here. I thought he wasn't supposed to be back until seven? Oh, okay. Yeah. You want Cye's cell phone? You've already got the number—great. Yeah, we'll call. Bye, Mrs. Yamano." Kento hung up the phone behind him and turned around in his seat to face his two silent friends.
"Yulie's not back?" Mia asked, biting her lip in worry.
"Aw, don't worry. Yulie isn't supposed to be back for an hour. They're home early. Just want to know where is," said Kento. Mia smiled in relief.
"You had me worried for a second!" She turned back to the counter, and putting a finished sandwich aside, she started on another. Rowen, however, looked more thoughtful than relieved.
"Yes, but weren't they all supposed to be back here by now anyway?" he said, standing to look out the kitchen's window into the storm-darkened sky and heavy rain. "It's a pretty bad storm. You don't think something happened? Like with the car?" Mia looked up at his words, joining his thoughtful gaze into the storm. Her face again became worried.
"I hope not. You don't think anything did?" she asked anxiously.
Kento waved her troubles away, saying easily, "Hey, hey. What could go wrong?" Instantly, a deafening crash sounded as lighting flashed across the lake. The evening for an instant was as bright as noon on a summer day. The lights flickered for a few seconds and then went out completely. The three of them waited, blinking spots out of their eyes, but the lights did not come back on.
"Wow," was Kento's awed whisper into the gloom, "wonder if that was my fault?"
~~~~
In the pet shop, Yulie watched the goldfish swim lazily back and forth in the tank. The fish was larger than any goldfish he'd ever seen, with long tissue paper fins and bulbous eyes that made it look like an alien out of a bad sci-fi movie. Chou was elsewhere trying to scare the rabbits in the window, but as soon as Yulie had wandered back into this dark corner lit only by the bluish lights of the tanks, he had been mesmerized the extraterrestrial fish.
He looked up as the bell on the door sounded, signaling a new arrival. Peeking through the gaps between the tanks he could see the some of the back of Chou's head at the front of the small store and the door from which a sopping wet Ryo had just entered.
Chou looked up as someone tapped him on the shoulder. "You're Chou, right?" Ryo asked. Chou stared at him. "Have you seen--" Chou yelped and bolted to the back of the store. As he tore around the corner where Yulie was concealed behind the aquariums, he began tugging frantically on Yulie's arm.
"Hey, he found us! Let's go!" Chou urged. Yulie watched him, uncomprehending, as Ryo turned the corner. Turning away from Chou, Yulie smiled and waved.
"Ryo! Ryo!" he cried, running up to his older friend and latching on to his arm. "Come look at this really cool fish!"
Ryo blinked. Chou just gaped.
"Um…okay?" Ryo said. He bent down obediently to peer into the goldfish's tank. "It's got bug eyes," he deadpanned.
"Ryo!" Yulie protested. "It's cool! Look at the tail!" He pointed enthusiastically. The fish swam serenely in the tank, ignoring them.
"Yeah, cool. Like we're the evil, brain-sucking bug fish from outer space. Rarr!" Ryo reached out and started tickling Yulie. The younger boy squealed happily. Ryo swung Yulie up over his shoulder and stood. "Listen, bud. We've gotta go find Cye now, k? Say 'goodbye, Chou'."
"G-goodbye, Ch-chou!" Yulie giggled. And with that, they left the store to the chime of bell, reentering the storm fearlessly. Problem solved. Chou remained behind, dumbfounded by his ally's abrupt defection.
~~~~
In the powerless house, Mia, Rowen and Kento jumped as the phone suddenly rang. Both Kento and Rowen leapt for it. After a quick scramble in the dark, Kento elbowed Rowen in the ribs and snatched up the handset with a breathless "Hello!"
Grumbling, Rowen watched resentfully from the kitchen floor. Kento ignored him, startled by the voice at the other end of the line. "Sage, hey! We were just wondering about y--" he was cut off as Mia grabbed the phone away from him.
"Sage, I'm so relieved," Mia said. "Where are you? Tell Ryo- What? Oh. Mm- hmm." Sage spoke on the other end, explaining something. Rowen could hear the hum of his voice through the phone as Mia murmured an understanding "yes" or "mm" at appropriate pauses. Finally, she turned to them pulling the phone away from her mouth.
"He's at the school," she said. "Ryo is already twenty minutes late, and Sage hasn't heard from him."
Kento leaned back in his chair. "Damn, don't know where he'd be," he said thoughtfully.
"Neither do I," Rowen said. Fumbling around with his hand, he found the counter and pulled himself up. "I'm going to find a flashlight. Should we maybe call Cye?" Blindly, he began to search through the cabinets.
"Oh, of course. I should have remembered that." Speaking into the phone, she said, "Sage? We are going to call Cye, ok? Yes, he's with Ryo. Either they'll pick you up or we will, ok? Bye."
Mia hung up on Sage and dialed Cye's cell phone. After several rings, a recording came on explaining that the cellular customer she was trying to call was unavailable and what's more, had not yet set up his voice mailbox. She tried again twice more with the same results and began to feel a little worried.
Reluctantly, she hung up the phone. At the table, she could just make out Kento watching her curiously in the dark. With the storm outside, even the moonlight gave barely any light. Rowen was no longer in kitchen as his search for illumination had taken him elsewhere. Mia, who was fast becoming more than casually worried about Yulie and the two missing Ronins, was struck with the sudden desire to call Rowen immediately back into the kitchen so that she would know for certain that he was safe and whole.
"So?" Kento prompted. His voice shocked her out of her contemplation, making her feel suddenly embarrassed by her nervousness.
"There's no answer," she explained.
"Oh." There was a pause as each of them tried to decide how to best suggest that they go looking for their missing friends without sounding silly or paranoid to other.
Really, there isn't be anything to worry about, but just in case…
"Just to be safe--" Kento started as Mia said, "I know they're fine, but--" They both coughed sheepishly. Mia motioned for Kento to continue.
He clasped his hands behind his head and studied the ceiling, trying to sound nonchalant. "Well, this is a pretty bad storm, and we can't reach them, so I was just thinking -- now I know they're fine and probably nothing's wrong but--"
"You were thinking what?" Mia encouraged eagerly.
"--that somebody ought to look for them," he finished hastily. "You know, to check, just in case--"
"Good idea!" Mia cried, almost before he'd finished.
An awkward silence settled over them until at some unseen signal they both dashed towards the front door.
As they passed the base of the stairs, a sudden bright light blinded them. "Hey, where are you guys going?" Rowen asked from behind his flashlight.
"Rowen, get that thing out of my eyes!" Kento swung an arm out, trying to knock the flashlight away. Rowen pulled his arm away, clicking it off.
"Hey, my flashlight. I found it," he whined.
"We decided to check up on Ryo and Cye," Mia said, trying to blink the spots out of her eyes. "Something may have happened to the car and we can't reach them."
"Man, it's so frigging dark in here, how are you going to find the car?" Rowen grumbled, clutching his flashlight protectively.
"Rowen, you're still wearing your sunglasses."
"Oh, yeah…"
"ANYWAY," Kento interrupted, "I'm going to take my van to look for them and you two are staying here."
"We are?" Mia demanded. " I'm going with you!"
"Nope. You've still got your grandfather's old car in the garage. If somebody calls, someone who can drive should still be here."
Mia crossed her arms over her chest. "Fine," she said. "You may go."
Kento bowed elegantly. "Why thank you, lady."
~~~~
Cale looked up from his work as a small round ball bounced by him along the sidewalk. It was a beautiful day, and he'd managed to find some clean, modern slacks so that he could brave the outside world free from the curious gaze of passerby, but he hadn't been able to find an alternative to the bright eyesore that was the Grateful Dead t-shirt.
Two barefoot children ran past after the ball, followed more sedately by two adults he took to be their parents. He watched calmly, heartened by the image of happy family life, a life that he had not been able to have, but at least he had not been able to destroy it either.
Feeling better than he had in days, he again took up his pencil and returned to filling out the forms in his lap in barely passable written English. Over the trials of these past few months since he'd left the dynasty (minor trials like finding an apartment in the United States without money or identification or surviving on Twinkies because one didn't know how to use modern kitchen appliances), Cale had begun to doubt the wisdom of this idea.
Maybe he really ought to have stayed in the Dynasty. No matter how unbearable the atmosphere has become, at least he knew what he was doing there. As Sekhmet had reminded him, only a fool wouldn't watch his step around the Demon of Darkness, which, he mused as he watched the children playing, was the root of the problem right there.
"Cale, pay attention, would you?"
Cale looked up in mild confusion at the tall man in black standing over him. "Dais?" he ventured, squinting.
The other man sighed. "Yes, Cale. I have some things for you. If I give them to you now will you lose them?" he asked in a patronizing tone that was not lost on Cale. Dais held out a sheaf of papers towards the -- relatively-- younger man. Cale snatched them away, vaguely irritated.
"No," he muttered, "I won't lose them." Inside the sheaf of papers was a passport, a birth certificate, a visa, and a bank account, along with other means of identification or proof that he was 34, born in Tokyo and legally in the U.S. seeking to attend school at Washington University in St. Louis. Not really familiar with the meaning of any of the papers, he closed the folder, satisfied that Dais had fulfilled his request.
"Cale…" Dais began, hesitant in a way that Dais was not usually hesitant. Almost considerate. "Do you want your name?"
Cale looked through they papers again. They all read "Cale Hinomoto", not Kujuurou Sasaki. "No…no, I don't," he said.
Dais looked away, uncharacteristically embarrassed by the personal issue. He wasn't usually embarrassed by anything. Strangely, he was also fiddling with a thin silver chain around his neck, most of which was hidden beneath his black shirt. Noticing Cale's questioning gaze, Dais stopped. "It's something I lost a long time ago. I've recently found it again," he explained. Also unusual since Dais wasn't one to give out free information.
"Oh, and Cale?"
"Huh?"
"Nice shirt."
"Roll over and die, Dais," Cale suggested.
With a smirk, Dais left. Chewing irritably on the pencil eraser, Cale allowed himself a moment of resentment. Hell, he thought in annoyance, this just isn't fair. I bet Halo isn't having an identity crisis. I bet he's having the time of his life.
~~~~
At that moment, Sage probably would not have agreed. He was sitting forlornly in the school gymnasium on the highest bench of the bleachers and wishing he could hear the rain from inside the thick, windowless walls. It was a sound he'd always found soothing (even when Ryo was complaining loudly about how he hated getting wet), and he desperately wanted to hear a soothing sound now. He had only the barest understanding of why he had gotten so angry with Minako, and the fact was bothering him such that he could not think of anything else.
After he'd fled so quickly, he'd found himself with no real place to go. He was supposed to be waiting for Ryo to pick him up in front of the school, but with Minako there he certainly was not going back now. So he'd called Mia's house, discovered that Ryo was who-knows-where, and then continued wandering aimlessly throughout the school.
His wandering had ended here, in the gym. He thought that he might have had some half formed reason for coming, perhaps he would practice his kendo in preparation for the upcoming tryouts for the school team, but now that he was here he could not force himself to concentrate.
Why had he been so furious? He thought he knew that answer a little, obviously Minako had something to do with it, but why had he been in such a mood that he could get that furious?
The year after Talpa's fall, the triumphant, amazing, heroic, yes-we-beat- the-bad-guys Ronin Warriors had all been so giddy with victory and with their new friends, even as they each began moving away back to their homes, that Sage honestly had not noticed that the battle might have changed him.
That school year he'd been away from his friends and missed them badly, but even Sage, who considered himself a truly perceptive individual, could not see the stark contrasts between his life before Talpa and his life after without the two worlds directly next to each other for comparison.
Over the summer, all of them --including Mia-- had independently of each other but almost in unison begun to make plans to see that they did spend another year apart. Ryo and Cye had moved in with Mia, and after Cye had convinced his mother that Mia actually ran a sort of bed and breakfast, the warrior of torrent even paid rent. Rowen and Kento both transferred from the school they attended, and Rowen now stayed at Mia's enough to almost qualify as a tenant too.
So beginning nearly a month ago, all of the people Sage loved best in the world had joined him as third year students at Ha'na High.
Sitting on the bleachers in the deserted gym, Sage raked his hands through his hair uneasily. They'd all come to join him at his high school. He suspected somehow that the urge to come together had originated in him, that they'd all known somehow that he'd needed them.
He'd brought them here, and it was a deep and biting guilt that for some reason the fulfillment of his wish was turning into a complete and utter hell on earth.
Why couldn't life be considerate of other people this once and just go back to the way it had been before…
~~~~
The door closed behind Kento. With her hands on her hips, Mia turned towards Rowen. The expression on her face was still disapproving. "Alright, so what are we going to do then?" she asked.
They were both pleasantly surprised when the lights flickered on in response. Rowen shrugged. "I guess Kento really is bad luck," he said. He was still wearing his sunglasses. Mia couldn't help but laugh.
As she laughed, Rowen sidled up to her with a mysterious look on his face. In confusion she watched him slowly take her hand in his and slip his other arm around her waist. Then, as if that weren't unsettling enough, he began to lead her in a slow, romantic waltz across the living room. She stared at him, too embarrassed to look him in the eye but too shocked not too. His gray-blue eyes stared back, unabashed. The dark sunglasses were nowhere to be seen.
"Wuh-what are you doing?" she stuttered nervously. He favored her with a small secretive smile.
Mystified and completely helpless in his arms, Mia followed his lead as they traveled effortlessly across the room, turning in the slow movements of the waltz. She had not known that Rowen could dance.
Dazedly she saw that they had drifted towards the corner and the sound system her grandfather had bought before he died. Releasing her hand gently but keeping his arm securely around her waist, Rowen quietly slipped a disk into the player. He turned back to her with that secret smile tugging at the edges of his lips. Mia's thoughts raced as she tried desperately to understand what was going on…
Her thoughts came to a sudden, jerking halt as her brain was boldly ripped out of her skull by the sound of Led Zeppelin playing at the highest volume on the four gigantic speakers of her grandfather's surround sound. It was the most horrible assortment of noise she had ever heard.
The romantic atmosphere shattered. Mia clapped both her hand over her ears in pain, effectively separating them.
"We," Rowen informed her with a toothy grin, "are going to PARTAAAAAAAAAAY!" As he spoke, he punched his fist into the air triumphantly.
He was shocked when Mia repeated the gesture enthusiastically, slugging him in the arm as hard as she could.
~~~~
Kento closed the door harder than he meant to, but the sound was lost in the storm. With a shiver he pulled his hood up as he fumbled with his other hand for the car keys in his pocket. Pausing once to get up his nerve, he dashed out from under the overhang into the rain. Rain pounded into him as he ran towards the van at the edge of Mia's driveway, the water finding someway to get through the raincoat and soak him to the skin.
Movement in a small tree at the edge of the woods near the van startled him as he turned the key in the lock. Less than three feet away, a diminutive songbird was perched on a branch about waist height watching him curiously. Kento shaded his eyes from the rain and crouched down to admire the deep blue of its feathers. His sneakers made an odd squelching noise in the mud.
Rain dripped from the branches onto the little bird and onto Kento's hood where he squatted in fascination. Abruptly, a gust of wind blew the icy rain into his face causing him to jump to his feet with a surprised yelp and jerk open the car door. The fierce wind blew water in the open door as got in the van quickly. The door slammed shut behind him.
"Silly bird," he muttered, as he pulled out of the driveway. "Don't you know when to come in out of the rain?"
End Chapter 4.
~~~~
You've read this note already, but I'll ask you again:
Is this thing worth it?
Melee
P.S. please ignore the fact that I think that the legal driving age is 18 in Japan and that even Cye, as the oldest, would not be able to drive junior year of high school. Also ignore the fact that if this is really taking place two years after Talpa it really should be happening sometime in the late eighties and I have certain _doubts_ about the cellular technology back then…Well, Cye has a cell phone, anyway. Yeah. I'm done now.
Also, does everyone HATE Minako? I don't mean because she's a nasty person, but because she's original. Can you stand reading about her even when she's obviously just a supporting character? Are the little note things with Mimi at the beginning really, really obnoxious?
On a completely irrelevant note:
Everyone say hello Lisa!
Everyone: Hello, Lisa!
Panic out.
Part I: The Long Trip Home
~~~~
Mimi's vacation continues… All thanks may be in the form of monetary donations and/or Ryo plushes. Never met him, but a picture is worth a thousand words…
And now for a short romantic interlude!
~~~~
CHAPTER 4: Pretty Blue Bird
~~~~
"No, I'm sorry. They aren't here. I thought he wasn't supposed to be back until seven? Oh, okay. Yeah. You want Cye's cell phone? You've already got the number—great. Yeah, we'll call. Bye, Mrs. Yamano." Kento hung up the phone behind him and turned around in his seat to face his two silent friends.
"Yulie's not back?" Mia asked, biting her lip in worry.
"Aw, don't worry. Yulie isn't supposed to be back for an hour. They're home early. Just want to know where is," said Kento. Mia smiled in relief.
"You had me worried for a second!" She turned back to the counter, and putting a finished sandwich aside, she started on another. Rowen, however, looked more thoughtful than relieved.
"Yes, but weren't they all supposed to be back here by now anyway?" he said, standing to look out the kitchen's window into the storm-darkened sky and heavy rain. "It's a pretty bad storm. You don't think something happened? Like with the car?" Mia looked up at his words, joining his thoughtful gaze into the storm. Her face again became worried.
"I hope not. You don't think anything did?" she asked anxiously.
Kento waved her troubles away, saying easily, "Hey, hey. What could go wrong?" Instantly, a deafening crash sounded as lighting flashed across the lake. The evening for an instant was as bright as noon on a summer day. The lights flickered for a few seconds and then went out completely. The three of them waited, blinking spots out of their eyes, but the lights did not come back on.
"Wow," was Kento's awed whisper into the gloom, "wonder if that was my fault?"
~~~~
In the pet shop, Yulie watched the goldfish swim lazily back and forth in the tank. The fish was larger than any goldfish he'd ever seen, with long tissue paper fins and bulbous eyes that made it look like an alien out of a bad sci-fi movie. Chou was elsewhere trying to scare the rabbits in the window, but as soon as Yulie had wandered back into this dark corner lit only by the bluish lights of the tanks, he had been mesmerized the extraterrestrial fish.
He looked up as the bell on the door sounded, signaling a new arrival. Peeking through the gaps between the tanks he could see the some of the back of Chou's head at the front of the small store and the door from which a sopping wet Ryo had just entered.
Chou looked up as someone tapped him on the shoulder. "You're Chou, right?" Ryo asked. Chou stared at him. "Have you seen--" Chou yelped and bolted to the back of the store. As he tore around the corner where Yulie was concealed behind the aquariums, he began tugging frantically on Yulie's arm.
"Hey, he found us! Let's go!" Chou urged. Yulie watched him, uncomprehending, as Ryo turned the corner. Turning away from Chou, Yulie smiled and waved.
"Ryo! Ryo!" he cried, running up to his older friend and latching on to his arm. "Come look at this really cool fish!"
Ryo blinked. Chou just gaped.
"Um…okay?" Ryo said. He bent down obediently to peer into the goldfish's tank. "It's got bug eyes," he deadpanned.
"Ryo!" Yulie protested. "It's cool! Look at the tail!" He pointed enthusiastically. The fish swam serenely in the tank, ignoring them.
"Yeah, cool. Like we're the evil, brain-sucking bug fish from outer space. Rarr!" Ryo reached out and started tickling Yulie. The younger boy squealed happily. Ryo swung Yulie up over his shoulder and stood. "Listen, bud. We've gotta go find Cye now, k? Say 'goodbye, Chou'."
"G-goodbye, Ch-chou!" Yulie giggled. And with that, they left the store to the chime of bell, reentering the storm fearlessly. Problem solved. Chou remained behind, dumbfounded by his ally's abrupt defection.
~~~~
In the powerless house, Mia, Rowen and Kento jumped as the phone suddenly rang. Both Kento and Rowen leapt for it. After a quick scramble in the dark, Kento elbowed Rowen in the ribs and snatched up the handset with a breathless "Hello!"
Grumbling, Rowen watched resentfully from the kitchen floor. Kento ignored him, startled by the voice at the other end of the line. "Sage, hey! We were just wondering about y--" he was cut off as Mia grabbed the phone away from him.
"Sage, I'm so relieved," Mia said. "Where are you? Tell Ryo- What? Oh. Mm- hmm." Sage spoke on the other end, explaining something. Rowen could hear the hum of his voice through the phone as Mia murmured an understanding "yes" or "mm" at appropriate pauses. Finally, she turned to them pulling the phone away from her mouth.
"He's at the school," she said. "Ryo is already twenty minutes late, and Sage hasn't heard from him."
Kento leaned back in his chair. "Damn, don't know where he'd be," he said thoughtfully.
"Neither do I," Rowen said. Fumbling around with his hand, he found the counter and pulled himself up. "I'm going to find a flashlight. Should we maybe call Cye?" Blindly, he began to search through the cabinets.
"Oh, of course. I should have remembered that." Speaking into the phone, she said, "Sage? We are going to call Cye, ok? Yes, he's with Ryo. Either they'll pick you up or we will, ok? Bye."
Mia hung up on Sage and dialed Cye's cell phone. After several rings, a recording came on explaining that the cellular customer she was trying to call was unavailable and what's more, had not yet set up his voice mailbox. She tried again twice more with the same results and began to feel a little worried.
Reluctantly, she hung up the phone. At the table, she could just make out Kento watching her curiously in the dark. With the storm outside, even the moonlight gave barely any light. Rowen was no longer in kitchen as his search for illumination had taken him elsewhere. Mia, who was fast becoming more than casually worried about Yulie and the two missing Ronins, was struck with the sudden desire to call Rowen immediately back into the kitchen so that she would know for certain that he was safe and whole.
"So?" Kento prompted. His voice shocked her out of her contemplation, making her feel suddenly embarrassed by her nervousness.
"There's no answer," she explained.
"Oh." There was a pause as each of them tried to decide how to best suggest that they go looking for their missing friends without sounding silly or paranoid to other.
Really, there isn't be anything to worry about, but just in case…
"Just to be safe--" Kento started as Mia said, "I know they're fine, but--" They both coughed sheepishly. Mia motioned for Kento to continue.
He clasped his hands behind his head and studied the ceiling, trying to sound nonchalant. "Well, this is a pretty bad storm, and we can't reach them, so I was just thinking -- now I know they're fine and probably nothing's wrong but--"
"You were thinking what?" Mia encouraged eagerly.
"--that somebody ought to look for them," he finished hastily. "You know, to check, just in case--"
"Good idea!" Mia cried, almost before he'd finished.
An awkward silence settled over them until at some unseen signal they both dashed towards the front door.
As they passed the base of the stairs, a sudden bright light blinded them. "Hey, where are you guys going?" Rowen asked from behind his flashlight.
"Rowen, get that thing out of my eyes!" Kento swung an arm out, trying to knock the flashlight away. Rowen pulled his arm away, clicking it off.
"Hey, my flashlight. I found it," he whined.
"We decided to check up on Ryo and Cye," Mia said, trying to blink the spots out of her eyes. "Something may have happened to the car and we can't reach them."
"Man, it's so frigging dark in here, how are you going to find the car?" Rowen grumbled, clutching his flashlight protectively.
"Rowen, you're still wearing your sunglasses."
"Oh, yeah…"
"ANYWAY," Kento interrupted, "I'm going to take my van to look for them and you two are staying here."
"We are?" Mia demanded. " I'm going with you!"
"Nope. You've still got your grandfather's old car in the garage. If somebody calls, someone who can drive should still be here."
Mia crossed her arms over her chest. "Fine," she said. "You may go."
Kento bowed elegantly. "Why thank you, lady."
~~~~
Cale looked up from his work as a small round ball bounced by him along the sidewalk. It was a beautiful day, and he'd managed to find some clean, modern slacks so that he could brave the outside world free from the curious gaze of passerby, but he hadn't been able to find an alternative to the bright eyesore that was the Grateful Dead t-shirt.
Two barefoot children ran past after the ball, followed more sedately by two adults he took to be their parents. He watched calmly, heartened by the image of happy family life, a life that he had not been able to have, but at least he had not been able to destroy it either.
Feeling better than he had in days, he again took up his pencil and returned to filling out the forms in his lap in barely passable written English. Over the trials of these past few months since he'd left the dynasty (minor trials like finding an apartment in the United States without money or identification or surviving on Twinkies because one didn't know how to use modern kitchen appliances), Cale had begun to doubt the wisdom of this idea.
Maybe he really ought to have stayed in the Dynasty. No matter how unbearable the atmosphere has become, at least he knew what he was doing there. As Sekhmet had reminded him, only a fool wouldn't watch his step around the Demon of Darkness, which, he mused as he watched the children playing, was the root of the problem right there.
"Cale, pay attention, would you?"
Cale looked up in mild confusion at the tall man in black standing over him. "Dais?" he ventured, squinting.
The other man sighed. "Yes, Cale. I have some things for you. If I give them to you now will you lose them?" he asked in a patronizing tone that was not lost on Cale. Dais held out a sheaf of papers towards the -- relatively-- younger man. Cale snatched them away, vaguely irritated.
"No," he muttered, "I won't lose them." Inside the sheaf of papers was a passport, a birth certificate, a visa, and a bank account, along with other means of identification or proof that he was 34, born in Tokyo and legally in the U.S. seeking to attend school at Washington University in St. Louis. Not really familiar with the meaning of any of the papers, he closed the folder, satisfied that Dais had fulfilled his request.
"Cale…" Dais began, hesitant in a way that Dais was not usually hesitant. Almost considerate. "Do you want your name?"
Cale looked through they papers again. They all read "Cale Hinomoto", not Kujuurou Sasaki. "No…no, I don't," he said.
Dais looked away, uncharacteristically embarrassed by the personal issue. He wasn't usually embarrassed by anything. Strangely, he was also fiddling with a thin silver chain around his neck, most of which was hidden beneath his black shirt. Noticing Cale's questioning gaze, Dais stopped. "It's something I lost a long time ago. I've recently found it again," he explained. Also unusual since Dais wasn't one to give out free information.
"Oh, and Cale?"
"Huh?"
"Nice shirt."
"Roll over and die, Dais," Cale suggested.
With a smirk, Dais left. Chewing irritably on the pencil eraser, Cale allowed himself a moment of resentment. Hell, he thought in annoyance, this just isn't fair. I bet Halo isn't having an identity crisis. I bet he's having the time of his life.
~~~~
At that moment, Sage probably would not have agreed. He was sitting forlornly in the school gymnasium on the highest bench of the bleachers and wishing he could hear the rain from inside the thick, windowless walls. It was a sound he'd always found soothing (even when Ryo was complaining loudly about how he hated getting wet), and he desperately wanted to hear a soothing sound now. He had only the barest understanding of why he had gotten so angry with Minako, and the fact was bothering him such that he could not think of anything else.
After he'd fled so quickly, he'd found himself with no real place to go. He was supposed to be waiting for Ryo to pick him up in front of the school, but with Minako there he certainly was not going back now. So he'd called Mia's house, discovered that Ryo was who-knows-where, and then continued wandering aimlessly throughout the school.
His wandering had ended here, in the gym. He thought that he might have had some half formed reason for coming, perhaps he would practice his kendo in preparation for the upcoming tryouts for the school team, but now that he was here he could not force himself to concentrate.
Why had he been so furious? He thought he knew that answer a little, obviously Minako had something to do with it, but why had he been in such a mood that he could get that furious?
The year after Talpa's fall, the triumphant, amazing, heroic, yes-we-beat- the-bad-guys Ronin Warriors had all been so giddy with victory and with their new friends, even as they each began moving away back to their homes, that Sage honestly had not noticed that the battle might have changed him.
That school year he'd been away from his friends and missed them badly, but even Sage, who considered himself a truly perceptive individual, could not see the stark contrasts between his life before Talpa and his life after without the two worlds directly next to each other for comparison.
Over the summer, all of them --including Mia-- had independently of each other but almost in unison begun to make plans to see that they did spend another year apart. Ryo and Cye had moved in with Mia, and after Cye had convinced his mother that Mia actually ran a sort of bed and breakfast, the warrior of torrent even paid rent. Rowen and Kento both transferred from the school they attended, and Rowen now stayed at Mia's enough to almost qualify as a tenant too.
So beginning nearly a month ago, all of the people Sage loved best in the world had joined him as third year students at Ha'na High.
Sitting on the bleachers in the deserted gym, Sage raked his hands through his hair uneasily. They'd all come to join him at his high school. He suspected somehow that the urge to come together had originated in him, that they'd all known somehow that he'd needed them.
He'd brought them here, and it was a deep and biting guilt that for some reason the fulfillment of his wish was turning into a complete and utter hell on earth.
Why couldn't life be considerate of other people this once and just go back to the way it had been before…
~~~~
The door closed behind Kento. With her hands on her hips, Mia turned towards Rowen. The expression on her face was still disapproving. "Alright, so what are we going to do then?" she asked.
They were both pleasantly surprised when the lights flickered on in response. Rowen shrugged. "I guess Kento really is bad luck," he said. He was still wearing his sunglasses. Mia couldn't help but laugh.
As she laughed, Rowen sidled up to her with a mysterious look on his face. In confusion she watched him slowly take her hand in his and slip his other arm around her waist. Then, as if that weren't unsettling enough, he began to lead her in a slow, romantic waltz across the living room. She stared at him, too embarrassed to look him in the eye but too shocked not too. His gray-blue eyes stared back, unabashed. The dark sunglasses were nowhere to be seen.
"Wuh-what are you doing?" she stuttered nervously. He favored her with a small secretive smile.
Mystified and completely helpless in his arms, Mia followed his lead as they traveled effortlessly across the room, turning in the slow movements of the waltz. She had not known that Rowen could dance.
Dazedly she saw that they had drifted towards the corner and the sound system her grandfather had bought before he died. Releasing her hand gently but keeping his arm securely around her waist, Rowen quietly slipped a disk into the player. He turned back to her with that secret smile tugging at the edges of his lips. Mia's thoughts raced as she tried desperately to understand what was going on…
Her thoughts came to a sudden, jerking halt as her brain was boldly ripped out of her skull by the sound of Led Zeppelin playing at the highest volume on the four gigantic speakers of her grandfather's surround sound. It was the most horrible assortment of noise she had ever heard.
The romantic atmosphere shattered. Mia clapped both her hand over her ears in pain, effectively separating them.
"We," Rowen informed her with a toothy grin, "are going to PARTAAAAAAAAAAY!" As he spoke, he punched his fist into the air triumphantly.
He was shocked when Mia repeated the gesture enthusiastically, slugging him in the arm as hard as she could.
~~~~
Kento closed the door harder than he meant to, but the sound was lost in the storm. With a shiver he pulled his hood up as he fumbled with his other hand for the car keys in his pocket. Pausing once to get up his nerve, he dashed out from under the overhang into the rain. Rain pounded into him as he ran towards the van at the edge of Mia's driveway, the water finding someway to get through the raincoat and soak him to the skin.
Movement in a small tree at the edge of the woods near the van startled him as he turned the key in the lock. Less than three feet away, a diminutive songbird was perched on a branch about waist height watching him curiously. Kento shaded his eyes from the rain and crouched down to admire the deep blue of its feathers. His sneakers made an odd squelching noise in the mud.
Rain dripped from the branches onto the little bird and onto Kento's hood where he squatted in fascination. Abruptly, a gust of wind blew the icy rain into his face causing him to jump to his feet with a surprised yelp and jerk open the car door. The fierce wind blew water in the open door as got in the van quickly. The door slammed shut behind him.
"Silly bird," he muttered, as he pulled out of the driveway. "Don't you know when to come in out of the rain?"
End Chapter 4.
~~~~
You've read this note already, but I'll ask you again:
Is this thing worth it?
Melee
P.S. please ignore the fact that I think that the legal driving age is 18 in Japan and that even Cye, as the oldest, would not be able to drive junior year of high school. Also ignore the fact that if this is really taking place two years after Talpa it really should be happening sometime in the late eighties and I have certain _doubts_ about the cellular technology back then…Well, Cye has a cell phone, anyway. Yeah. I'm done now.
Also, does everyone HATE Minako? I don't mean because she's a nasty person, but because she's original. Can you stand reading about her even when she's obviously just a supporting character? Are the little note things with Mimi at the beginning really, really obnoxious?
On a completely irrelevant note:
Everyone say hello Lisa!
Everyone: Hello, Lisa!
Panic out.