Yoroiden Samurai Troopers:
in
Child of SaberStryke
A Miss Chang Po Production 3
"Please, Nasti-chan? Please?"
"I already told you, Shuu, no!"
"But we're all out!"
Nasuti blinked. "How can we be all out?" she asked incredulously. "I just bought some a couple days ago!" She looked at Shin to confirm this.
"Hai, Nasti, Shuu finished the last one off yesterday."
"What?! How can you eat 10 cans of Spaghetti-O's in three days??"
"I worked up an appetite?"
"Aarrrghhh! You guys are going to eat me out of house and home!"
"Take it easy, Nasti," Ryo laughed nervously, trying to calm her down. "We're almost done."
Nasuti sighed. "That's true…" she replied, now back in her normal mood. The other troopers sighed in relief. "Though I do feel bad about leaving Kiyone behind." she then replied.
"I figure she would want to sleep in after her long trip." Shin said.
"True." Nasuti smiled. "Now that I think about it, I don't think she would mind at all."
The other troopers blinked ather. "What do you mean?"
~*~*~*~
After much failed attempts, Kiyone finally gave in and broke out into a fit of laughter.
"What?" Touma asked, tilting his head with a grin.
"It's just…" Kiyone said between giggles, "You look so funny!"
"Hontou ni?" (Really?) Touma was hanging upside down from a tree branch. His jacket hung loosely behind his head and his long blue bangs dangled below (above, whatever), almost hanging in a point. "It wouldn't help if I did this," He then crossed his eyes and stuck out his tongue. "Would it?"
Kiyone couldn't help but laugh harder as she dropped to her knees in the grass, holding her sides as tears ran down her cheeks. "I can't believe you're doing this!" she laughed. "You look absolutely ridiculous!"
'You're right, but I wouldn't do it for anyone else.' Touma chuckled to himself. He then swung down from the branch, landing softly on the ground. Walking over towards her, he said with a grin, "Ah, my plan worked then."
Kiyone, now down to quiet giggles and snickers, wiped her eyes and looked up at him. "Your plan?"
"My plan to cheer you up." he answered.
"That was sweet of you," she smiled, "but didn't you do that at breakfast?"
"Yeah, well… I also had an ulterior motive."
"Oh?"
"I just wanted to hear you laugh." Touma answered sheepishly. 'And what abeautiful laugh you have…'
Kiyone stood up and walked over to him. "You are a sneaky one, aren'tyou?" she asked, smirking at him. 'But a sweet one...'
Touma smirked back. "Well, I've always been known for being clever, but sneaky is a new one."
"Well, I suppose I'll just have to get my revenge, won't I?"
"Oh, and how will you go about doing that?"
Kiyone grinned mischievously. "I wonder if the guys know you're ticklish?"
Touma blushed and took a step back. "I'm not ticklish…" he stammered, suddenly blushing furiously.
"I suppose I'll just have to find out for myself." Kiyone replied as she took a step forward.
Touma 'eeped' and took off further into the woods. (AN: OOC for Touma, I know, but I just thought it was cute. Work with me here, okay?)
Kiyone smiled as she watched him run off. Blushing slightly, she thought to herself, 'I've never met anyone like you, Touma-kun. If I follow after you, I wonder where you'll lead me?' Hesitating for only a moment, the young woman sprinted off after the young warrior of intellect and sneakiness (AN:^_~).
~*~*~*~
"Touma? Touma-kun?" Kiyone called, wandering through the forest surrounding Nasuti's mansion. "Come out, come out where ever you are!" No matter how much she called, she could not find her friend. 'Friend?' she thought to herself. 'He is a friend, right?' She sighed for a moment. 'I'm not sure what he is yet…. Yet…' Deciding to save that thought for another time, she continued her search. A rustling of leaves to her right caught her attention. Turning her head in the direction of the sound, she was surprised to find nothing there.
'Must've been my imagination…' she thought to herself. However, when she heard the sound again and still found nothing, she grinned. "Touma-kun, you can come out now! I promise I won't tickle you!" she called.
Squatting down low in the grass, Kiyone strained to keep as quiet as possible. Keeping low to the ground, Kiyone crawled to the place she was sure she had heard the origin of the sound. 'I've got you now…' Kiyone thought as she could see the faint outline of a figure crouched in the shadows. She shot up to her feet and leaped at the figure. "Gotcha—what?" Just as she was about to tackle the figure, it disappeared causing Kiyone to land face down inthe grass. Rubbing her bottom, she blinked. "What in the-"
First she heard the sound at her right, then to the left. When she turned her head in that direction, the sound picked up behind her, then in front of her. Before she knew it, the sound was all around her. Getting to her feet slowly, Kiyone put herself on her guard. 'That can't be Touma,' she thought warily to herself. 'No human being can move that fast, can they?' Before she could elaborate on that thought, a shadow blurred past herface, causing her to scream and stumble backwards.
~*~*~*~
"She won't find me here." Touma chuckled to himself as he sat perched on a branch of one of the tallest trees near the lake. He continued to chuckle to himself until Reality hit him like a ton of bricks, causing him to nearly fall out of the tree. 'What the heck am I doing?' he thought to himself. 'I would never live it down if the guys found out I was hiding from a girl in a tree!'
'A pretty girl.' A voice in his head told him.
'Stop that.'
'Correction- A beautiful girl. Isn't that what you told yourself earlier?'
'Why do I even bother arguing with you…?'
'Look, it's not like you planned this. She threatened to tickle you.'
'That doesn't make it sound any better!'
'What does it matter? You only did it to make her happy. Besides, you're both enjoying yourselves, right?'
"Yeah…" Touma said aloud, a smile returning to his face. "I guess I am having fun." Scanning the area, he grinned, "I should probably go and look for her—" His sentence was cut off when he heard a scream. "Huh? What was that?" Recognizing the voice, he gasped and jumped down from his branch, sprinting off into the woods. "Kiyone!"
~*~*~*~
Kiyone scanned her surroundings cautiously. She had been running for quite some time and had just come to the harsh realization that she had no idea what part of the forest she was in.
"All right, Touma-kun," she called out, trying to keep her voice even. "You can stop now. It isn't funny anymore! Come out already!" Her only answer was the same ever-present rustling noise from before. Thunder also accompanied that noise as rain began to pour down. (AN: A storm just adds to the mood, wouldn't you agree? I just love the power that comes with writing fanfics! I am omnipotent! Mwa haha haha ::cough cough, hack:: Ha. =P). Kiyone flinched as the cold raindrops came in contact with her skin. "Great, just great." she muttered as she shivered involuntarily. "Now how am I going to find my way out of here?"
"No matterwhere you go, you will never escape me!" a voice echoed in the darkness.
"What? Who's there?" Kiyone asked, turning around. "Who said that?"
"You have runfrom me long enough," the voice replied, ignoring her question. "It is time for you to come to me."
"What are you talking about?" Kiyone asked, backing up. "What's going on? Who are you?" Images from her nightmare started to flash in front of her. All of the figures' voices echoed through her head at the same time.
"Iie, child…"the wounded warrior told her. "Escape…"
"You have run from me long enough!" the new voice bellowed.
"He has something that belongs to us!" the leader of the dark warriors growled at her.
"It is time for you to come to me."
"No, no, no!" Kiyone cried, clamping her hands over her ears. "This isn't real! Stay out of my head! Just leave me alone!" She took off running blindly through the rain. She didn't care what her destination was, so long as she could get away from the voices.
"No matter where you go, you will never escape me!"
"Who are you?" Kiyone screamed. "What do you-" She stopped to look back over her shoulder only to see a large dark hand coming towards her. Before she could scream, arms grabbed her and prevented her from going any further.
"Kiyone! Kiyone!" Kiyone looked up to see the dark archer from her dreams glaring down at her.
"No! Stay away from me!" she screamed, pushing away and stumbling out of his grasp. After breaking away she lost her footing, falling into another pair of arms.
"Whoa, Kiyone, calm down!" Kiyone recognized that voice. She looked up to find herself in the arms of the warrior of courtesy.
"Seiji-kun…?" He returned it with a concerned smile. "God, I was so scared!" she cried, latching onto him for dear life. It appeared Kiyone didn't care that she didn't know him that well, she was just happy to see a face she recognized. Seiji was, to say the least, surprised, but he didn't complain. "What happened to me… what did they want from me?"
"Kiyone!" The two looked up to see Nasuti and the others running towards them carrying umbrellas. "Kiyone, what happened?" Kiyone didn't even know where to begin.
"Kiyone… daijobu ka?" (…are you okay?) Kiyone turned around to find a very soaked Touma standing where the dark archer had once been. "To-Touma-kun…?" There was an unreadable expression on his face as his eyes went from her to Seiji. Was it anger, disappointment, regret, or a mixture of the three? Without saying another word, he shoved past Ryo and the others and stormed towards the house.
"Oi, Touma, wait a minute!" Shuu called to no avail. Watching him go Kiyone suddenly felt uncomfortable, embarrassed, and ashamed all at the same time as she remained in Seiji's arms. 'Should I be in Touma's?' her mind asked. 'This is too confusing…'Kiyone's whole being felt tired.
"Kiyone?" Nasuti asked her friend worriedly as she watched her sag against Seiji.
"What happened?" Seiji asked, supporting her weight, still a little surprised by her earlier action.
"It's raining cats and dogs out here." Shin cut in, holding a big blue umbrella over Seiji and Kiyone. "She'll catch her death out here if we stay out here any longer."
"You're right." Seiji agreed. Without another word, he effortlessly lifted the young woman into his arms and carried her back towards the house, the others following behind.
Ryo, who had strayed behind a bit, looked back towards the forest. He had a bad feeling. 'Was something out there?' he thought to himself. He dismissed the thought and turned back to follow the others, unaware of the glowing eyes watching them all from the darkness.
End of Chapter 7
Author's Notes:
Miss Chang Po: 'Child of Saberstryke' now currently has 3 reviews! Yahoo! ::starts singing:: Three-e-e is a magic number... Yes it is-is...!
Wufei: By all that is holy...
Miss Chang Po: ::gives him an evil glare:: Are you saying you don't like my singing?
Wufei: Is that what that was?
Miss Chang Po: Injustice! ::chases after him::
Wufei: ::'eeps' and runs for his life::