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In the Midst of Clouds ~ An Alternate Rurouni Kenshin Romance
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Chapter Two: Valentine's Blues
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Swinging her bag in a carefree manner, Misao caught sight of Sagara
Sanosuke's infamous gravity defying hair sticking up among the small crowd
of people. A cunning grin crossed her elf like face, as she sneaked up to
the seemingly unaware tall guy as quietly as she could.
Sanosuke felt a familiar ki coming his way as he moved his head sideways to
evade the fast uppercut aimed at the back of his head.
"Damn!" Misao cursed as she had missed yet another chance to land a blow on
the school's handsome gangster.
"Yo, itachi-musume!" The smirk on the arrogant male did not even fall for a
moment as he ducked several kunai thrown by the irritated girl.
"Don't call me weasel," Misao snared as she tried to hit him. "I'll get you
one day!"
"You wouldn't be able to hurt a single strand of my hair even in your next
life," He taunted the girl as he avoided yet another sweep by her left leg.
"I doubt the baka could even be hurt by a truck driven over him. With his
thick skull, I would probably be worried about the truck instead. After all,
didn't the saying goes 'All idiots have the dumbest luck'?" a beautiful
woman in her early twenties tossed her long glossy hair over her shoulder as
she remarked.
Sanosuke rolled his eyes and bowed in mock politeness, "Fox Lady."
The fore mentioned Fox Lady was non other than the top female scholar,
Takani Megumi from the medical faculty in their school's university campus.
She was once a love rival with Kaoru for Kenshin's affections but she had
given up after Kaoru and Kenshin became an official item. Instead she
settled being friends with both parties and since then, she often came over
to their places for dinner.
"Ohaiyo gozaimasu, Megumi-san!" Misao was glad to see her. 'She will shut
the rooster up.' Misao began counting down the time for Sanosuke and Megumi
to start their verbal sparring.
Misao stopped in the middle of the concrete pavement as she recalled a
certain matter with dread. The curious event of colour draining from the
expressive face was unnerving as Megumi and Sanosuke noticed the sudden
change in her facial expression unlike her normally bubbly self. Both of
them paused in mid step as well as they studied the girl with great concern.
Misao realized that the pair of rivals had stop squabbling and hurriedly
tried to cover up her uneasiness with a tight-lipped smile.
"What is it?" she asked with a mock cheerfulness. Megumi was not deceived by
the strange behaviour anyway and decided to dismissed Sanosuke so that they
could freely in private.
"Rooster Head, stop bothering us today and get moving. We ladies are going a
girl to girl talk."
Sanosuke snorted rudely and waved his hands, "Yeah, I get the hint. Ja!"
He stuck his hands into the uniform pockets and set off ahead.
Once the presence of the gangster was gone, Megumi dragged the protesting
girl towards an empty corner seat in a nearby cafe. After placing their
order, Megumi made herself comfortable and waited for Misao to begin
confiding in her. Misao made no efforts, so Megumi started off with idle
conversation first of all.
"Valentines Day is coming soon. Any unfortunate targets for our ninja girl
to make chocolates for?" Megumi remarked casually and was not fooled by a
tiny shrug from the sulky girl, after she stiffened when Valentine's Day was
mentioned. (A.N: In Japan, people gave chocolates on Valentines day to
the ones they like.)
'Bull's eye.' Megumi was proud to find out the cause of Misao's depression
at once and continued to press on.
"Boy problem? Any one dared to reject princess Misao?" Megumi prompted.
With a resigned sigh, Misao finally gave in. "Iie. The problem is not about
unrequited love. Megumi-san, can I ask you one question?"
Megumi was getting more puzzled. She lifted one shapely eyebrow and tapped
her manicured nails on the table. "Sure, fire away."
Misao took a long sip of fruit juice before gathering up all the courage.
"Ano, could one have fallen for an imaginary person for real?"
"Huh?" Megumi was instantly floored by this rather odd question. "Imaginary
person as in a character from dreams?" she tried to jest.
Megumi knew at once that the enquiry was no joke and tried to pull the red-
faced girl back to her seat. "Wait, Misao-chan. I'm sorry if you're
offended. Please sit down and I'll try to answer to that."
Misao sunk back to the chair, her face still showing great wariness.
Megumi breathed a sigh of relief as she began to consider the question.
"There has been cases put up in research for being in love with a person
from one's mind and dreams. No logical scientific proof had yet been given
to convince the medical field that the patients were really in love with
figments of imagination. So most of the psychologists assumed that such
people are merely in love with the notion of love."
Misao clutched her fists tightly and whispered, "What about Megumi-san?"
A shadowed emotion briefly showed but it was no longer there when Misao
tried to see it more clearly. The young doctor smiled reassuringly as she
patted the tensed girl on the shoulder. "I'm keeping an open mind regarding
this matter."
Misao sensed Megumi's reluctance to talk in regard to this matter, so she
distracted the troubled intern by changing the topic immediately.
The two continued to chat casually until the time to make a move ended the
conversation.
.............................................................................
Misao stood before the shoe rack, hesitant to look inside her shoe
compartment. The school bell rang loudly, urging students that are not in
class to hurry up. A light tap on Misao's shoulder startled her and she
quickly spun around and rest her gaze upon a smiling girl a few years younger
than herself.
A temporarily mind blackout caused Misao to be unable to recall the girl's
name. The tug on her school uniform sleeve however, rebooted her memory
system to greet a worried face peering up into hers. Her little brother
Yahiko's big time crush, Tsubame.
"Oh. Ohaiyou to you too, Tsubame-chan!"
"Misao-san, are you all right? You have been standing in front of the shoe
rack for a rather long time. What's wrong?" Tsubame squeezed Misao's hand.
Misao forced a smile for Tsubame's benefit and shook her head. She turned
back to confront what was laying ahead and without fail, a small collection
of love letters tumbled out of the compressed space. A slight wrinkle of
Misao's nose indicating dread and disdain was followed by a tired sigh.
"Wow, Misao-san. You're pretty popular among the school aren't you? Are you
going to reply to these actions?" Tsubame was excited at how well-liked her
sempai was among fellow students.
"Nope." Misao shrugged and gave all the chocolates to Tsubame. "You can have
these instead. Throw them away if you don't plan to eat. I don't want them."
"Eh?" Tsubame was puzzled at this strange characteristic of Misao. Most girls
would have been delighted at the display of attention and show of popularity
from the male population. Tsubame tilted her head sideways to mentally list
down the reasons for such woshipping among most students in their high
school.
Misao was the top athelete and student leader in their year. The blue
highlighted hair tumbling down to her mid thigh and the sparkling ocean blue
eyes were enough to charm anyone. These outstanding features does not include
the fine and delicate features of her face that reminds Tsubame of a
porcelain doll that any woman or girl would hope to have. The baby fat on her
cheeks gave a touch of sweetness and child-like countenance.
Tsubame wanted to probe further but the subject dismissed off any more
discussion with a pleading look.
"So, Tsubame-chan. Any plans this evening with my brother?"
A dark flush on Tsubame's cheeks emerged and she nodded shyly.
"Hah, I never knew the brat could summon the courage," Misao exclaimed.
Tsubame was embarrassed and lowered her head even more.
They chatted about the new semestral time-table. Misao was in the middle of
waving her hands animatedly and discussing about the new teacher coming that
day to replace a resigned language and literature teacher when she walked
into a hard but yielding wall of warmth.
Misao briefly heard Tsubame gasped when the collision happened and she tensed
to apologized for the accident. An expensive pair of leather shoes entered
her frame of vision first and she slowly moved her gaze up to a pair of long
legs, slender body, wide chest and shoulder before resting upon the person's
face.
Deep aquamarine orbs met icy blue ones set in sculptured planes of facial
contours and masculine jaws. Misao sucked in a sharp breath as she realized
the victim of the unfortunate incident was the most good-looking face she had
ever met. Handsome couldn't even describe him, so she settled for the
adjective, beautiful.
Misao was snapped out of the daze when the man monotoned, "Are you going to
sit here all day long? Apologized quickly so that I can continue my way."
The impression of this bishounen was shattered as soon as he demanded an
apology.
'Why the nerve of this guy! I was about to do that but now I wouldn't. So
what if he is the most good looking guy I've ever met? He deserved to be
knocked to come to his senses.' Once decided, Misao tried a graceful leg
sweep to knock him to the floor.
The mysterious stranger jumped away and intercepted an uppercut that was
originally aimed at his left eye. He disappeared in front of Misao and she
glanced around warily. Tsubame hid behind on of the shoe racks and observed
the fight. Although Misao was lightning fast compared to most martial arts
practitioners, the challenger had seriously outclassed Misao in his speed.
The stranger appeared in a flash behind a battle-ready Misao and he gripped
her arm and twisted it behind her back. Misao struggled valiantly for a while
but an increase in pressure on her arm made her yelped in pain. She ceased
any other futile to escape and finally slackened her movements.
"Not bad. You need to improve on your speed and stance though," the man
released her and she rubbed her sore arm as she stared at the insolent man
grading her fighting style.
She gritted her teeth and imagined all sorts of punishments she could not
dished out in reality to this creep.
He took a quick glance at his watch and stepped up to a terrified Tsubame.
"Where's the principal's office?" he gently asked. Tsubame pointed down to
the general direction of the place and dashed behind the seething Misao.
The stranger walked towards the principal's office and soon disappeared into
a corner.
'Good riddance." Misao muttered under breath. She gave a cheerful beam to a
nervous Tsubame and said, "Well, let's get back to our respective classes
shall we?"
Unknowst to Misao, the infuriating encounter with the stranger was not the
last, but just the beginning.
++++++++++++++++++++End Of Chapter Two++++++++++++++++++++
Yup!!! This is the first meeting of Aoshi and Misao... Hopefully it is good
enough to give positive reviews... Should I improve on the fighting scenes?
Any other suggestions for this chapter or the story itself? Comments greatly
appreciated.
neko_no_miko