Author's Note: I know it's been a while since I last wrote..sorry for the long wait! Anyway, sorry again I say to Conquest Rion for being undescriptive. I'll try harder next time, but I'm really not that good at descriptions. And thanks to Shar-dono for alerting me of some Japanese mistakes! And also thanks to all for your reviews. Hopefully, they'll help me in my quest to write better fanfics. Just in case you need to know, Akio looks pretty much like Tamahome from Fushigi Yuugi. If anyone's interested enough, e-mail me if you want to see Akio's picture. Oh and one more thing, I wanted to remove the Gatekeepers song because the information there is now irrelevant to the actual story here, but somehow I can't. So, just forget about it, ok? Enough chitchat! Let's get the show on the road!

Disclaimer: If I actually owned Gatekeepers, you think I'd bother to write this damned fanfic???!!!

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Akio, then, slowly approached his black dagger that had landed on the pavement after bursting through the invader's accursed body. He reached for it, wiped a bit of dust off with his coat and placed it back into its black sheath emblazoned with golden runes.

"Naze, Akio?! (Why, Akio?!)" Ukiya suddenly raised his voice.

Akio paused slightly, then turned around to face Ukiya and the others. He had an expressionless look on his face that masked all his thoughts and emotions from them.

"Naze?" Ukiya repeated again, "Why are you the black Gatekeeper?!"

There was a momentary silence as a sudden cold gust of wind blew.

Akio bent his head down a little, perhaps to conceal his face from them and finally spoke. "Guess I can't hide it from you any longer."

"Demo." Akio suddenly looked at them with determination in his eyes such as they've never seen in him before. "I won't give up without a fight!" He unsheathed his dagger and brandished it in front of him menacingly.

"Minna (Everybody)," Ukiya said to them without facing away from Akio, "We'll have to fight him."

But before he could move, an arm shot out and grabbed him by the arm.

"Ukiya-kun Sempai! Are you sure you want to do this?!" Kaoru tugged at his arm, "He was your friend!"

"Iie, Kaoru-chan," Ukiya shook off her hand, "He is no longer a friend.he is our enemy!"

THE INVADERS' NEW LEADER

Black clouds started to appear above the horizons, blocking the sun from view. One by one, drops of rain started to patter on to the ground below. Lightning flashed across the sky and the distant rumble of thunder could be heard. Trees helplessly swayed to and fro, blown mercilessly by the strong wind.

Six people were standing on the street below, unperturbed by the harsh weather. Five of them were in a group, whereas the other one was standing alone.

And so, they waited. Waiting for the other to land the first blow. Waiting for the other to strike fiercely. Waiting for the other to make his first move.

But that never came to pass, until one of the five suddenly yelled out over the tumult of the thunder.

"Akio-san! It'd be better for all of us if you'd just surrender yourself!"

Thus, the dark figure replied back. "Never, Ukiya! Even if you used to be my friend, I still will not just give myself up like that!"

"Very well, then. Though it is against our will, we'll have to fight you."

"So be it!"

Ukiya, then, charged headlong towards Akio, with his bouken raised high above his head.

"Ultra Whirlwind Slash!!!"

The bouken sliced through the air in a wide arc.but had hit nothing more than that.

"Eh?!"

Suddenly, Ukiya caught a glimpse of Akio right next to him.

In a furious rage, Ukiya slashed again and again at Akio with his bouken, only to be effortlessly evaded by Akio. On his final blow, Akio jumped high into the air, then rushed down at Ukiya with his dagger.

"Ukiya-kun Sempai!!!"

Kaoru shoved Ukiya aside and they both landed on the cold, hard concrete pavement. Akio cursed under his breath when his dagger missed its mark.

"Gate Open!!!" Bancho opened his gate and rushed at Akio, "Prepare to face the wrath of the heroic Gate Super!!!"

Bancho threw a powerful punch at Akio's face.but found that Akio's hand had blocked it. Akio held Bancho's hand tightly, ignoring the writhing pain shown clearly on Bancho's face. "AAAARGH!!!" Bancho screamed in agony as he slumped down to the ground, unable to fight back the immense pain.

Finally, Akio released his grip and Bancho fell kneeling on to the wet ground.

"Don't move!"

Akio looked around and saw Ruriko with an arrow trained on him.

Akio narrowed his eyes at her for a moment, then took a step forward towards her.

"I.I'm warning you!"

Another step.

She released the arrow and it sailed through the air, a glowing projectile. Akio merely had to bend his head to dodge it.

But suddenly, in mid-air, the arrow turned around and speared ahead towards the unsuspecting Akio.

"Ergh!" The arrow had impaled itself through his stomach.

Akio cringed in pain as he saw the tip of the arrow protruding from his stomach, bringing forth a stream of crimson blood that flowed freely from his wound to the ground till it formed a small pool of blood.

"Kosovo!" he cursed under his breath.

Akio held the arrow tightly with one hand and with one mighty tug, he managed to pull out the accursed arrow, spattering more blood on to the pavement. By now, the pool of blood had mixed with the rainwater and was now a murky red color.

He threw the arrow aside. He staggered a bit as he tried to walk away from them.

"It's my turn!" Fei suddenly jumped out of nowhere and opened her gate of Red-hot.

"Fire Dragon!!!" A raging blaze of flames rose through from the gate, ignoring the relentless rain pouring down on to it.

Akio seemed stunned by the sight of the majestic fire dragon as it rose into the air.

"Kosovo." he cursed under his breath again.

The fire dragon then dived down straight towards him, resulting in a massive blazing inferno that heated up the dim surroundings for a brief moment.

When the explosion cleared up, they at least expected to see his body lying on the ground, but instead.

.he was gone.

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"Ukiya-kun, did you tell Shirei yet about Akio?" Ruriko asked as they were walking to school together the next day.

"Huh?" Ukiya got out of his trance, "Oh.yeah."

After that, they were silent for a while.

"Shirei said that Akio is probably still alive. He might have escaped using his black Gate. Either way, we have to be on the lookout for him and the invaders."

"Demo.he is our friend," Ruriko started to say.

"Was our friend."

"Even so, we should give him a chance!" Ruriko argued.

"Chance?! It's too late for that now! He's already a black Gatekeeper!" Ukiya retorted back.

"I was one, too! And I changed back!"

"That was different!"

"What do you mean 'different'?! As far as I can see, there is still hope for Akio!"

"You're still arguing about that when you're the one that shot an arrow through his stomach!"

Ukiya realized his error when he saw that Ruriko was nearly in tears.

"Rurippe.g-gomen nasai! I didn't mean to."

"I couldn't help it. I didn't do it on purpose," said Ruriko aloud to herself, ignoring Ukiya's apology, "I.I didn't know what to do."

Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around and saw it was Ukiya's. "Ukiya-kun."

"Rurippe.people change. I know it's hard for you to accept it.but Akio's changed. He is no longer the Akio we used to know, the Akio we used to play with, the Akio we thought we knew so well. We have to face the reality~He is the black Gatekeeper now."

"I.I guess you're right.G-gomen nasai!"

"It's alright.Rurippe."

A brief moment of peace.

"I thought I told you not to call me that again!!!"

"SMACK!!!"

"WHAM!!!"

"KA-BLAM!!!"

"AAAAARGH!!!"

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As Ukiya, Ruriko, Kaoru, Fei and Bancho were walking along one of the many corridors in the school, they noticed a large crowd of girls gathering around a table.

"What's going on over there?" Bancho raised an eyebrow.

"We will never find out if we don't check it out," said Ukiya as he headed for the crowd of girls, "C'mon! Let's go!"

When they managed to push themselves forward through the crowd, they saw two guys playing poker on the table. One of them had silver platinum- colored hair slicked back in a ponytail. Clearly, the girls were siding on him.

The other guys didn't seem bothered by this fact.

"You can never beat this!" he said triumphantly with a smirk on his face, "Four of a Kind!" He placed down a 3 of Hearts, 3 of Spades, 3 of Clubs, 3 of Diamonds and 7 of Spades.

The silver-haired guy's cool composure didn't waver even for a second.

"Interesting.but I'm afraid I'm the one winning this round," he said with a sly grin, "Royal Flush!" He placed down a 10 of Diamonds, Jack of Diamonds, Queen of Diamonds, King of Diamonds and A of Diamonds.

The girls cheered with joy. "Retsui! You're the best at poker!"

The poor guy looked helplessly as Retsui took away all the money he had so carelessly gambled. The guy banged his fist on the table angrily, and then went off in a huff.

"So.anyone else up for a nice game of poker?" Retsui asked as he shuffled the deck of cards.

Suddenly, Ukiya went over to Retsui. "I will."

Retsui smiled. "What a pleasant surprise?! Well if it isn't the guy everyone's been talking about, Shun Ukiya!"

Ukiya blushed a little. "Well.not really."

"It doesn't matter," said Retsui as he dealt the cards, "C'mon! Let's see who'll win this time!"

Ruriko went over to Ukiya and whispered to him in his ear.

"What do you think you're doing?! Are you going to gamble your money for a stupid game of poker???!!!"

"Don't worry! I won't lose!" Ukiya assured her with a smile.

Ruriko gave up and went back to the others to watch the game.

After discarding some cards, calling and raising bets, it was time for them to show their hands.

"Straight Flush!" Ukiya dropped down a 2 of Hearts, 3 of Hearts, 4 of Hearts, 5 of Hearts and 6 of Hearts with a broad smile on his face.

He was about to take away all the bets they had made when Retsui stopped him.

"Hold on a sec! I haven't shown my hand yet," said Retsui as he dropped down a 10 of Spades, Jack of Spades, Queen of Spades, King of Spades and A of Spades, "Hai, hai! Look's like I got a Royal Flush again!"

Ukiya gaped in astonishment as the crowd went wild.

"Gomen nasai," Retsui said as he took all the bets in the pot, "Another round?"

"Err.no thanks!" said Ukiya as he started to leave the table, "I've got some stuff to do."

Actually, he had no more money to bet. He had bet all his savings on that game!

As Ukiya approached the others, Ruriko was about to say something when Ukiya interrupted. "Don't tell me 'I told you so'."

"Okay," said Ruriko, "But it was very foolish of you to gamble all your savings like that!"

"I thought he couldn't beat that hand!" Ukiya tried to defend himself, "How was I supposed to know he'd get another Royal Flush?!"

"Look's like you won't be able to buy anything from the cafeteria for sometime."

"Ukiya-kun Sempai!" Kaoru tugged on his arm, "Don't worry! I'll cook food for you everyday!"

"Honto ni? (Really?) Wow, arigato gozaimasu!"

"I really think you shouldn't Kaoru-chan," Ruriko glared at her with disapproval, "He should suffer himself from his foolishness."

"Urusai(Shut up)," said Ukiya and Kaoru in unison.

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"Is everyone here?" Shirei asked as he peered through his sunglasses at the people around the large, circular table.

"Hai!(Yes!)" replied Ukiya, acting as taicho (captain).

Shirei nodded his head in approval. "Good. Now, the reason I gathered you all here now is because."

Suddenly, the screen at the back of him showed a huge, abandoned warehouse and a number of dark figures were entering it.

"We have received reports from AEGIS intelligence that a large number of invaders were seen gathering at the warehouse you see on the screen. The reason.we still do not know, but I suspect that it may be a briefing from their leader."

Ukiya expected some reaction from Ruriko, but other than bending her head down a little, there was none.

"So, your mission is to go there and find out what are they up to. I know it is most likely a trap, but you'll have to risk it," then the Shirei did his favorite hand pose, " For the sake of humanity, go and eradicate those invaders! Gatekeepers!"

"Ryokai, AEGIS!"

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"It seems deserted here." Fei commented as she inspected a nearby stack of dusty crates.

"I wonder where are all the invaders." Kaoru looked around at the huge warehouse.

"They might be anywhere," said Ukiya, "Well, let's split up! We'll meet back at the entrance in 10 minutes!"

"Ryokai, AEGIS!"

As they all set off in different directions.they did not notice a dark figure watching them.

Ruriko took cautious footsteps as she walked along a small path lined with large crates and boxes. She began to get the feeling that something or someone was following her.

Suddenly, she froze as a pile of crates suddenly tumbled down on to the floor noisily. What was that? She went over to inspect and gave a huge sigh of relief. It was only a rat that had accidentally made the crates unstable. She was so relieved, that she had forgotten how afraid she was of rats.

But then, she heard an ominous sound from behind her. What was that? Was it another rat? No.it can't be. Rats don't make that kind of sound. Maybe it was just her imagination.

Or maybe not.

"I have been waiting for you.Ruriko Ikusawa.."

Ruriko gasped as she turned around to see a dark figure approaching her.

TO BE CONTINUED.

Author's Note: Now, I really am not sure whether kosovo is Japanese for 'damn'. It sure sounds like it on TV. If it's wrong, please tell me and I'll fix it. Okay, so how was it? Give me feedback by reviewing my story, please! I thank you again for reading this. Till next time, ja!