Yoroiden Samurai Troopers:
in
"C'mon,Seiji, pass it here already!"
"If you say so, Shuu! Here it comes!"
Four of the Samurai troopers were out in front of the house engaging in a game of Frisbee. Seiji, who was now in possession of the small orange disc, threw it towards Shuu.
"You call that a throw? I've seen better!" Shuu called as he leapt for the disc, only to miss and fall face first in the grass.
"But that's the best fumble I've seen in ages!" Shin replied doubling over in laughter.
Shuu got up and spat out grass. "Har har." He grumbled.
"Frisbee, huh? Wow, I haven't played this in ages."
The other troopers looked up to seethe Frisbee fall at the feet of a young woman. She picked it up and balanced it expertly on her finger like a spinning plate.
Smiling, she then tossed it back to a dumbfounded Shuu. "This is Yagyuu Nasuti's house, ne?"
~*~*~*~
"Hoi, Nasti-chan! You've got a visitor!"
Nasuti looked up from her workpreparing dinner. "Hmm… I wonder who that could be-oh!" Before she could step away to see who it was, two hands covered her eyes. "Who's this?"
No answer.
'Who could it be, I wonder?' Nasuti thought to herself. 'Touma's still in town, so it can't be him. Shuu woul donly come in to complain about being hungry, and Shin would offer to help…Seiji wouldn't play games like this so it has to be…' Nasuti smiled and folded her arms in mock anger. "Come on, Ryo, I don't have time to play with you right now."
"Ooh… Ryo?" a woman's voice answered mockingly, amusement evident in her tone. "Is he your boyfriend?"
Blushing, Nasuti turned around to facet he person obviously not her warrior of virtue. Expecting to find some new foe, she was surprised when she was face to face with the same woman Touma had encountered in the city.
"Wow, your face is really red," she grinned. "This Ryo guy must be your boyfriend then."
Nasuti's eyes went wide. "Kiyone!" she blinked. "Is that you?"
Kiyone's crystalline blue eyes sparkled with amusement. "I'm certainly not Ryo." She beamed.
Nasuti hugged her long timefriend. "It's so good to see you again, Ki-chan!" she said.
"Ditto, Nasu-chan." Kiyone replied. "It's been way too long." She then grinned. "So, who's this Ryo guy?"
Nasuti blushed. "We'll have plenty time to catch up later,"she said, clearing her throat nervously. "In the meantime, I want to you meet the-"
"I hope I'm not interrupting anything." A new voice replied.
Nasuti and Kiyone looked up to seeTouma standing in the doorway of the kitchen.
"Oh, Kiyone," Nasuti smiled, as Touma handed her the keys to her jeep. "Thisis Hashiba Touma, a very good friend of mine."
"We've already met." Kiyone replied. "Hashiba-kun was kind enough to give me a ride here."
"That was very gentlemanly ofyou, Touma-kun." Nasuti replied. Touma blushed.
"Uh, it was no trouble atall." He replied. "I'll be outside with the other guys." With that he exited the room.
"Other guys?" Kiyone asked. "You runnin' some sort of male brothel here? It has been too long…."
"Come on," Nasuti frowned at her in mock anger. "I'll round them up while you get settled in and then I'll introduce them to you."
~*~*~*~
"You guys are going to like Kiyone." Nasuti said excitedly as she and the others sat inthe living room waiting for her to come down. "She's a really nice girl."
"What's she like?" Seiji asked casually.
Nasutithought for a moment. "Now that I think about it, she's probably a little bit of each of you rolled up into one person. She likes to travel, and she also likes to try new things. She playsa lot of sports and does a little judo I think. She even fences."
"Fences?"
"Both my parents were really into it, so I thought I'd give it a try, too." Kiyone replied as she walked into the room with her arms behind her back. She was wearing the same outfit as before minus the jacket. Printed on her shirt was the word 'Moonie' in bold, silver letters. (AN: I'm always going to be a Sailor Moon fan, I can't help it). On her feet she wore fuzzy, dark blue slippers.
Nasuti got up from her seat and walked over to introduce her friend. "Minna, this is the girl I was telling you about," she replied. She then went onto introduce the troopers from right to left. "Ki-chan, these are my roommates and close friends, Mouri Shin, Shuu Rei Faun, Sanada Ryo…"
"Oh, so you're Ryo," Kiyone interrupted. Ryo gaveNasuti a quizzical look, who only blushed.
Nasuti cleared her throat, "Continuing on… after Ryo is Date Seiji, and Hashiba Touma, who you've already met."
The other troopers stared at Touma, who held up his hands in defense and replied, "I gave her a ride here." They returned it with a 'we'll talk to you later' look.
"It's a pleasure to meet you guys." Kiyone said. "I hope to get to know you guys better, seeing since you're all friends of Nasu-chan."
"Any friendof Nasti-chan is a friend of ours." Shin smiled politely. Kiyone smiled back in return.
"How long do you plan on staying, Jade-san?" Ryo asked.
"You can call me Kiyone if you want, or Jade is just fine." Kiyone answered. "I do plan on staying in Japan for a while, but I'll stay as long as Nasu-chan can stand me."
"Which will be a while." Nasuti grinned. "It's been such a long time since you were here. We've got so much to catch up on."
"You'll have to tell us more about yourself, Kiyone." Seiji replied.
"Hai," Ryoa greed, grinning. "I think I wanna know more about Nasuti's child hood partner in crime."
"Ryo!" Nasuti exclaimed.
Kiyone laughed. "Oh yeah, we did get into a whole lot of trouble when we were kids. I remember that one time…"
"Kiyone, don't you dare!" Nasuti exclaimed, clamping a hand over Kiyone's mouth. The troopers laughed.
"Ah, it appears as though our Nasti-chan was a little trouble maker." Shin quipped.
"Of course not!" Nasuti stammered. "I never got into trouble. Kiyone was the mischief maker."
"Oh, don't try to blame it all on me." Kiyone said. "You know you were far from little Miss Angel, Nasu-chan."
While Kiyone began to tarnish what the troopers thought to be Nasuti's perfect childhood record, Byauken trotted into the room and sat down at Ryo's feet.
"And then there was the time – what in the world…?" Kiyone trailed off as she set eyes on Byauken.
Byauken, who had just realized Kiyone was in the room, stared at her intently.
"Don't mind Byauken," Ryo replied. "He won't hurt you."
"Oh, I'mnot afraid of him." Kiyone replied, stooping down to get a closer look at the tiger. "It's just I've never seen a tiger so big… I don't think…" Somewhere, in the shadows of her memory, Kiyone could see the silhouette of a large tiger with glowing yellow eyes. Shaking the image out of her head, she gently scratched behind Byauken's ears. "Has anyone ever told you that you're beautiful, Byauken-san?" Byauken purred in response.
"I think he likes you." Ryo smiled.
Kiyonecontinued to scratch behind the white tiger's ear. "I think I just got the perfect idea for something…" Kiyone said aloud. "Do you mind if I do some sketches of you, Byauken-san?"
Byauken sat up at her and continued to look at her with the same expression on his face.
"I'll take that as a yes." Kiyone replied. "Do you mind, Nasu-chan? It won't take but a minute."
"Ah, you'll have to ask Ryo." Nasuti replied. Kiyone turned her gaze towards the warrior of virtue.
"If it's all right with Byauken, then it's all right with me." Ryo answered. Byauken snorted.
"Well, with you occupied, I'll atleast have the chance to deny all that stuff you told the guys about me."
Kiyone stuck out her tongue.
"You don'thave a thing against other people watching you draw, do you, Kiyone?" Seiji asked.
"No, notreally." Kiyone answered.
(AN: She's lying! Actually... not really… Personally, it weirds me out when people just stare at me... I hate being stared at... but I really don't mind when people watch me draw... seeing since I do it so often... but then again, we weren't really talking about me, were we? )
"Do you mind if I watch you…? Draw that is."
"Uh… sure." Kiyone answered. She then grinned, turning her attentions back towards the white tiger. "Stay right there, Byauken-san, let me go get my stuff and we'll find a good spot to sketch you." With that, she turned on her heels and ran upthe stairs.
"So, what do you guys think?" Nasuti asked once Kiyone had left the room.
"She's seems really nice to me." Shin replied. "You two get along really well."
"We grew up together." Nasuti answered. "We were like the sisters each other never had."
Ryo grinned. "Kiyone's more like your evil twin than your sister. You two must've wreaked a lot of havoc when you were little."
"It's not like we had much else to do." Nasuti shrugged with a smile. "But Kiyone was the mastermind behind everything. She always had a way of getting us into trouble."
"And you always had a way of getting us out of it again." Kiyone replied as she re-entered the room. "None of the nuns in the orphanage could resist Nasuti's charms."
"I don't blame them." Ryo said softly, earning questioning glances from the other guys.
Byauken stretched and yawned, revealing his big sharp teeth and claws.
"Well, Byauken-san, you're certainly nothing like the average housecat." Kiyone said, patting the tiger's flanks. "How about we go outside for some better light?"
Seemingly enjoying the attention he was getting from the young woman, Byauken obliged and headed towards the door, Kiyone behind him.
"Coming, Date-san?" she asked, glancing over her shoulder back at Seiji.
"Right behind you." Seiji said with agrin, holding the door open for her and Byauken as they all stepped outside.
"There he goes, flirting-mode has been activated." Touma said disdainfully, looking up from his book.
"What'sa matter, Touma?" Shuu grinned. "Mad 'cause you didn't get to her first?"
"Shuu!" Nasuti said in surprise. Shuu grinned mischievously.
"What've you got against Seiji being nice to Kiyone-san?" Shin asked.
"He's not 'being nice' to her." Touma replied. "He's trying to flirt with her. And what's worse, he's only doing it because he can."
"Well, girls naturally seem to flock to Seiji…" Nasuti pointed out. "So, of course Seiji would be a bit of a Casanova." Touma raised an eyebrow at this. "Okay, he's a playboy, a player…however you want to put it… but believe me, he can lay it on as thick as he wants to, but Kiyone's not going to fall for it that easily." Touma looked a little less concerned.
"Oh, so that's what this is about." Shuu grinned. "You've got a crush on her and you're mad at Seiji because he made a move first."
"That's not it at all!" Touma protested. "You can't get a crush on someone you just met. I don't even know her at all."
"Well, if you don't know her, why'd you give her a ride here?" Shin asked.
"She needed a ride and since I figured it wasn't too far out of the way…" Touma began, flustered, "It's called being courteous! What's wrong with that?"
"As I recall, Courtesy is Seiji's department." Nasuti said coyly. Touma gave her a 'not funny' look, grabbed his book and walked out of the room.
End of Chapter 2