Even Out of Battle Mode
Chapter 6
by Laly Konstantin
Reincarnations:
Ron - Suboshi
Sean - Amiboshi
Rose - Soi
Seit - claims Nakago
Natalie - claims none
Jacob ?
___________________________
Tetsuya stared at the pink paper on his windshield, as stunned as an evil overlord whose palace had come crashing down around him.
'I never get tickets! Never!'
He hesitantly removed the little intruder and held it, knowing he couldn't solve anything by crumpling it into a ball and throwing it at the next bus.
He'd have to sort this out with Jacob. He reached for the phone in the glove compartment, so he could call and explain the story, only to realise that he'd left it back at the house. Charging.
He sighed. Ticketed at a library. What was happening to his good luck?
Down the block, he heard a cel phone ring. Its owner, a girl who was evidently waiting for the bus, answered it, exclaimed very unhappily, and hung up. He ran down, and stumblingly asked if he could use it for a moment.
The girl shrugged, pulled the phone back out of her trenchcoat's pocket, and gave him a threatening joke-glare as she warned him, 'Don't steal it or I'll bite you.'
As he gave it back, he breathed a sigh of relief. 'All okay. Thank you...'
'Len,' the girl filled in.
He nodded. 'Tetsuya. Pleased to meet you!' he called as he ran back toward the car.
What was it with needing to use other people's phones, these days?
__________________________________
The commotion had already started by the time Len got to the Box.
While she'd been getting ratted out for skipping English again, apparently, she'd missed a bit of a show. First, Ron told her detachedly from his choice spot on the sidelines, Natalie had asked Keith if she could use his cel phone. If she bought him a candy bar? The phone had been granted as charity, in the end.
Natalie had been asking whoever she called to look for an envelope - something Ron said he'd explain later, meaning he'd probably never get around to it - when Seit arrived with his daily Dr. Pepper. He'd immediately recognised what she was talking about, apparently, and confronted her. A struggle over the phoneensued; Natalie finally giving it to him, only to have him end the call.
Len couldn't be sure how long the verbal battle had been going on now, but it didn't seem likely to stop soon.
'If you don't have a problem with me talking to them, why won't you at least let me come with you today so I can write that number down?' Natalie could make a show of being rational, apparently.
Seit wasn't impressed, though. 'I can't believe you called my family behind my back to get the phone number.'
Natalie slammed a foot into the ground. 'I wasn't calling behind your back. You just hadn't shown up yet, or I would've made you do it.'
'Oh, I appreciate that one. Why don't you ask *us* about it, instead?' Seit almost managed to sound concerned.
Natalie looked to the ceiling for answers. 'None of you can tell me anything. "Who were you? Wait, I'll spoil your memory." I just want to know what's going on.'
'Why?' Seit dragged the request out.
'Friendly concern isn't enough?' Natalie quickly moved her head, checking for... someone. She saw Ron, and winced a little. 'Not you, Ron. But you know what's going on.'
Ron apparently didn't welcome the attention, but Len was interested. 'You know what's going on?'
Ron sighed. 'Natalie, if you can pull yourself away, could we talk?'
Len rolled her eyes. 'I always miss the good stuff, don't I?' she inquired of Keith and May.
_____________________________
Rose, sat on the bottom step on the south entrance of the school, buried her head in her hands. It wasn't working. It just wasn't. She couldn't live a normal day, knowing she might see Sean any second. And they'd never talk it out rationally, and they'd never...
'If you don't want to argue, why are you following us outside? And fighting with us?' The voice emerged with Ron, but then Natalie appeared through the bulletproof doors, glaring backward. Neither of them noticed Rose, but Seit saw her the instant he stepped out.
'Rose!' he exclaimed, friendly and at the same time making enemies of the others very quickly.
Rose managed a weak smile, and Natalie whipped her head around and dropped down the stairs to reach her.
'Are you all right? I haven't seen you all day.'
Rose just smiled again, leaning against the railing. 'The usual... I didn't want to chance the Box today.'
Ron, at the top of the flight, shook his head. Sean had said the same, before lunch.
Seit hadn't remained in place, and now stood just behind Natalie, intending to get Rose's attention. 'What didn't you want to chance?'
Rose sighed. 'Sean...'
Ron managed to catch Natalie's eye when it strayed from Rose for an instant. He gestured for her to come back up, and they'd find somewhere else to talk. Natalie, however, was right between the others, and probably couldn't leave without being noticed.
Well, screw it, she decided, and moved anyway.
'Are you going back in?' Rose asked.
'Just to get my bag,' Natalie explained. Hardly a time she should leave, but there wasn't much she could do if Seit was around, anyway. She opened the door, and slipped in to find Ron waiting just inside.
'*Now* will you try to explain?'
Ron shrugged. 'What was going on with Seit?'
'I don't know. He was talking about the whole situation in history this morning, so I decided to call those people. And then that didn't work... what's his problem?' Natalie slapped the wall. 'Weird thing to get annoyed over.'
Ron was at a loss, and none of the explanations that came to mind were particularly soothing. 'I have no idea.' Natalie turned the frustrated look on him. 'But I can tell you what I was saying this morning, if you really want to know.'
Moving away from the entrance, in case Seit decided to ditch Rose and continue the chase, Natalie nodded. 'Everything, if that's okay.'
He told her about his family. And Tamahome's family, now that he'd had a few dull morning hours to think about it clearly. He told her about the seishi, as briefly as he could, since it was a long story. Naturally, Natalie wanted details. She didn't get many of them, but she managed to grill him about himself - well, his former self - and a little about his twin, too. He couldn't even think of an entire lifetime in fifteen minutes, but he attempted it.
Why? Because he'd decided Natalie wasn't one of them. She only wondered, she didn't actually care. In fact, she seemed rather happy to hear her stoic friend talk about the people he'd killed, and the priestess he'd served, and the fact that he might have lived in another world, but it had been this one in which he died.
She even complimented him, when they split up to go to their respective classes after lunch. 'You've definitely changed, Ron. Suboshi.' Her tone was hard to read, but that happened to be exactly what he wanted to hear, when all was said and done.
__________________________________
Seit unlocked the front door and stepped inside. He hadn't expected things to go downhill so fast - first the trouble with Natalie, then Rose telling him about her breakup with Sean over the weekend. The situation would cause problems on its own, naturally enough, but he would have preferred to have a little more control over it. Well, he had to know what was going on anyway...
'Seit?' a voice erupted from nowhere, materialising into his stepfather's form in the hallway. 'Someone just called for you.'
'Who?' Seit was on alert. Yes, he *had* told Rose he would find her after school, but he'd hoped she would let him 'forget' again.
'A girl... I couldn't catch her name. The number's on the ID.'
Seit moved past the other man to check. Priest, Jacob. 'Oh, was it Yui?' he asked with relief.
'Sounds right. Who's Yui?' His stepfather couldn't be blamed for the inept pronunciation. 'Do you have another girl in your life, now?'
Seit picked up the phone, halting as he registered the comment. '*Another* girl?'
'I thought you were practically with Natalie,' his stepfather suggested. Internally, Seit winced. Of course he did. His mother did, their teachers did, everybody did. But he shrugged off the comment and dialed 'another girl's' number.
How irritating. Natalie wasn't even attractive. Now, Rose was another story, but when people mistook those two for siblings they must have recognised the ugly sister easily. Natalie... no.
An answer. One of those guys. 'Hi, may I speak with Yui?'
'Who's calling?'
'Seit.'
He waited. The other phone switched hands. 'Hi, Seit. How are you?'
'I'm fine. What's going on? I'm told you called.' He glanced at his stepfather, who was still watching. Didn't he have work to do?
'I did. I thought we should all meet again, somewhere. We should make plans.'
'Perhaps.'
'Are the others there?' Yui inquired hopefully.
'No, I just got home...' a knock on the door, and Seit turned around. He closed his eyes in agitation. 'Actually, yes, now they're here. They just showed up. Excuse me.'
Rose peered in through the door. Behind her, Natalie appeared to be watching something interesting on the street.
He let them in, gesturing to the phone as an excuse for his failure to greet them.
'Could you talk to them about plans, and find what works?' Yui suggested from her end of the line.
'I could. Shall I call you back in a few minutes?' Seit gestured for the others to sit down, and Rose winked comically. Yui agreed, and he was off the hook.
Or perhaps back on it, considering...
'Who was that?' Natalie asked, almost offhand.
'Yui,' he answered. 'I thought I'd call her, but then you two showed up.'
________________________
Natalie was thrilled when Seit offered iced tea. Of course Rose accepted the offer - and not only did they step into the kitchen, but Seit's stepfather decided to follow them when they did. For the sake of conversation, or something.
She'd had to look for the half-envelope a little, but it was right by the stereo. As quickly as possible, she folded it and slid it into her pocket.
'Natalie!' Rose called. She willingly heeded her. In the kitchen, she found that Rose and Seit were discussing their past lives rather intensely. What else? Natalie put on a show of 'I don't know what's going on, what does it matter?' and declared she was only in the way.
The protests were so insincere, they were easy to fight off. Besides, Rose really was there to talk to Seit, but she knew that her friend had other plans.
Natalie was back outside minutes after she'd come in.
________________________
Keisuke watched Yui hang up, a little disappointed. 'No plan yet?"
Yui smiled. 'He's calling back. Apparently, he has company.'
Keisuke let out a relieved breath. 'So you won't have to meet Nakago alone, after all.'
Yui raised an eyebrow. 'I wasn't planning to meet him alone in the first place, but... it's not like he's dangerous.' Yui crossed the room and sat down next to Keisuke. 'Besides, wouldn't you and Tetsuya come with me?'
Keisuke couldn't say anything. How could they keep justifying the presence of strangers? 'They might want to just see you.'
Yui blinked. 'I'm not saying I couldn't handle that, but I thought you'd want to come.' Did she sound hurt?
'We would! It's just... we weren't in the book. And - well, we still say that all the time, don't we? We can't say that around them!' Keisuke was about to start sweating from the tension.
'Why not?' Yui replied. 'I think I should tell them.'
'Just so they don't find out by accident?'
Yui shook her head. 'I owe it to them. Yeah, so they don't find out by accident - that's part of it too. But I think it's only fair...' Yui stared at her hands. 'Besides, they're real now. It might even help, if they know it was only a book.' She looked up at Keisuke. 'I know it helps me, sometimes. It was real, but it wasn't. I'm here, now, and I can be a different person. When I was in the book, maybe what I did... the decisions I made...'
Keisuke knew a bad turn of thought when he saw one, and tried to halt it. 'Yui, don't worry about that.' He put a hand on her shoulder. 'Maybe you're right. It might help, since they do exist now... oh, man, don't cry!' Yui wasn't, but it looked like she was about to. He helplessly waved his hands through the air. 'Let's go for a walk or something. We can take the phone with us!'
Yui raised her hands to her face, trying to get rid of any tears before they could fall. She smiled, nodded, and stood up. 'A walk sounds good right now. It'll clear my head.'
-----------------
AN: Wow, I thought I'd left this story for dead.
Tetsuya's got me on the phone thing. Then, I didn't even write the beginning of this chapter until the rest was finished (or so I thought). Len's one of those serendipitous characters, but I think I know what to do with her now. (Incidentally, her real name is probably Katherine. She refuses to use it for reasons of her own.)
Chapter 6
by Laly Konstantin
Reincarnations:
Ron - Suboshi
Sean - Amiboshi
Rose - Soi
Seit - claims Nakago
Natalie - claims none
Jacob ?
___________________________
Tetsuya stared at the pink paper on his windshield, as stunned as an evil overlord whose palace had come crashing down around him.
'I never get tickets! Never!'
He hesitantly removed the little intruder and held it, knowing he couldn't solve anything by crumpling it into a ball and throwing it at the next bus.
He'd have to sort this out with Jacob. He reached for the phone in the glove compartment, so he could call and explain the story, only to realise that he'd left it back at the house. Charging.
He sighed. Ticketed at a library. What was happening to his good luck?
Down the block, he heard a cel phone ring. Its owner, a girl who was evidently waiting for the bus, answered it, exclaimed very unhappily, and hung up. He ran down, and stumblingly asked if he could use it for a moment.
The girl shrugged, pulled the phone back out of her trenchcoat's pocket, and gave him a threatening joke-glare as she warned him, 'Don't steal it or I'll bite you.'
As he gave it back, he breathed a sigh of relief. 'All okay. Thank you...'
'Len,' the girl filled in.
He nodded. 'Tetsuya. Pleased to meet you!' he called as he ran back toward the car.
What was it with needing to use other people's phones, these days?
__________________________________
The commotion had already started by the time Len got to the Box.
While she'd been getting ratted out for skipping English again, apparently, she'd missed a bit of a show. First, Ron told her detachedly from his choice spot on the sidelines, Natalie had asked Keith if she could use his cel phone. If she bought him a candy bar? The phone had been granted as charity, in the end.
Natalie had been asking whoever she called to look for an envelope - something Ron said he'd explain later, meaning he'd probably never get around to it - when Seit arrived with his daily Dr. Pepper. He'd immediately recognised what she was talking about, apparently, and confronted her. A struggle over the phoneensued; Natalie finally giving it to him, only to have him end the call.
Len couldn't be sure how long the verbal battle had been going on now, but it didn't seem likely to stop soon.
'If you don't have a problem with me talking to them, why won't you at least let me come with you today so I can write that number down?' Natalie could make a show of being rational, apparently.
Seit wasn't impressed, though. 'I can't believe you called my family behind my back to get the phone number.'
Natalie slammed a foot into the ground. 'I wasn't calling behind your back. You just hadn't shown up yet, or I would've made you do it.'
'Oh, I appreciate that one. Why don't you ask *us* about it, instead?' Seit almost managed to sound concerned.
Natalie looked to the ceiling for answers. 'None of you can tell me anything. "Who were you? Wait, I'll spoil your memory." I just want to know what's going on.'
'Why?' Seit dragged the request out.
'Friendly concern isn't enough?' Natalie quickly moved her head, checking for... someone. She saw Ron, and winced a little. 'Not you, Ron. But you know what's going on.'
Ron apparently didn't welcome the attention, but Len was interested. 'You know what's going on?'
Ron sighed. 'Natalie, if you can pull yourself away, could we talk?'
Len rolled her eyes. 'I always miss the good stuff, don't I?' she inquired of Keith and May.
_____________________________
Rose, sat on the bottom step on the south entrance of the school, buried her head in her hands. It wasn't working. It just wasn't. She couldn't live a normal day, knowing she might see Sean any second. And they'd never talk it out rationally, and they'd never...
'If you don't want to argue, why are you following us outside? And fighting with us?' The voice emerged with Ron, but then Natalie appeared through the bulletproof doors, glaring backward. Neither of them noticed Rose, but Seit saw her the instant he stepped out.
'Rose!' he exclaimed, friendly and at the same time making enemies of the others very quickly.
Rose managed a weak smile, and Natalie whipped her head around and dropped down the stairs to reach her.
'Are you all right? I haven't seen you all day.'
Rose just smiled again, leaning against the railing. 'The usual... I didn't want to chance the Box today.'
Ron, at the top of the flight, shook his head. Sean had said the same, before lunch.
Seit hadn't remained in place, and now stood just behind Natalie, intending to get Rose's attention. 'What didn't you want to chance?'
Rose sighed. 'Sean...'
Ron managed to catch Natalie's eye when it strayed from Rose for an instant. He gestured for her to come back up, and they'd find somewhere else to talk. Natalie, however, was right between the others, and probably couldn't leave without being noticed.
Well, screw it, she decided, and moved anyway.
'Are you going back in?' Rose asked.
'Just to get my bag,' Natalie explained. Hardly a time she should leave, but there wasn't much she could do if Seit was around, anyway. She opened the door, and slipped in to find Ron waiting just inside.
'*Now* will you try to explain?'
Ron shrugged. 'What was going on with Seit?'
'I don't know. He was talking about the whole situation in history this morning, so I decided to call those people. And then that didn't work... what's his problem?' Natalie slapped the wall. 'Weird thing to get annoyed over.'
Ron was at a loss, and none of the explanations that came to mind were particularly soothing. 'I have no idea.' Natalie turned the frustrated look on him. 'But I can tell you what I was saying this morning, if you really want to know.'
Moving away from the entrance, in case Seit decided to ditch Rose and continue the chase, Natalie nodded. 'Everything, if that's okay.'
He told her about his family. And Tamahome's family, now that he'd had a few dull morning hours to think about it clearly. He told her about the seishi, as briefly as he could, since it was a long story. Naturally, Natalie wanted details. She didn't get many of them, but she managed to grill him about himself - well, his former self - and a little about his twin, too. He couldn't even think of an entire lifetime in fifteen minutes, but he attempted it.
Why? Because he'd decided Natalie wasn't one of them. She only wondered, she didn't actually care. In fact, she seemed rather happy to hear her stoic friend talk about the people he'd killed, and the priestess he'd served, and the fact that he might have lived in another world, but it had been this one in which he died.
She even complimented him, when they split up to go to their respective classes after lunch. 'You've definitely changed, Ron. Suboshi.' Her tone was hard to read, but that happened to be exactly what he wanted to hear, when all was said and done.
__________________________________
Seit unlocked the front door and stepped inside. He hadn't expected things to go downhill so fast - first the trouble with Natalie, then Rose telling him about her breakup with Sean over the weekend. The situation would cause problems on its own, naturally enough, but he would have preferred to have a little more control over it. Well, he had to know what was going on anyway...
'Seit?' a voice erupted from nowhere, materialising into his stepfather's form in the hallway. 'Someone just called for you.'
'Who?' Seit was on alert. Yes, he *had* told Rose he would find her after school, but he'd hoped she would let him 'forget' again.
'A girl... I couldn't catch her name. The number's on the ID.'
Seit moved past the other man to check. Priest, Jacob. 'Oh, was it Yui?' he asked with relief.
'Sounds right. Who's Yui?' His stepfather couldn't be blamed for the inept pronunciation. 'Do you have another girl in your life, now?'
Seit picked up the phone, halting as he registered the comment. '*Another* girl?'
'I thought you were practically with Natalie,' his stepfather suggested. Internally, Seit winced. Of course he did. His mother did, their teachers did, everybody did. But he shrugged off the comment and dialed 'another girl's' number.
How irritating. Natalie wasn't even attractive. Now, Rose was another story, but when people mistook those two for siblings they must have recognised the ugly sister easily. Natalie... no.
An answer. One of those guys. 'Hi, may I speak with Yui?'
'Who's calling?'
'Seit.'
He waited. The other phone switched hands. 'Hi, Seit. How are you?'
'I'm fine. What's going on? I'm told you called.' He glanced at his stepfather, who was still watching. Didn't he have work to do?
'I did. I thought we should all meet again, somewhere. We should make plans.'
'Perhaps.'
'Are the others there?' Yui inquired hopefully.
'No, I just got home...' a knock on the door, and Seit turned around. He closed his eyes in agitation. 'Actually, yes, now they're here. They just showed up. Excuse me.'
Rose peered in through the door. Behind her, Natalie appeared to be watching something interesting on the street.
He let them in, gesturing to the phone as an excuse for his failure to greet them.
'Could you talk to them about plans, and find what works?' Yui suggested from her end of the line.
'I could. Shall I call you back in a few minutes?' Seit gestured for the others to sit down, and Rose winked comically. Yui agreed, and he was off the hook.
Or perhaps back on it, considering...
'Who was that?' Natalie asked, almost offhand.
'Yui,' he answered. 'I thought I'd call her, but then you two showed up.'
________________________
Natalie was thrilled when Seit offered iced tea. Of course Rose accepted the offer - and not only did they step into the kitchen, but Seit's stepfather decided to follow them when they did. For the sake of conversation, or something.
She'd had to look for the half-envelope a little, but it was right by the stereo. As quickly as possible, she folded it and slid it into her pocket.
'Natalie!' Rose called. She willingly heeded her. In the kitchen, she found that Rose and Seit were discussing their past lives rather intensely. What else? Natalie put on a show of 'I don't know what's going on, what does it matter?' and declared she was only in the way.
The protests were so insincere, they were easy to fight off. Besides, Rose really was there to talk to Seit, but she knew that her friend had other plans.
Natalie was back outside minutes after she'd come in.
________________________
Keisuke watched Yui hang up, a little disappointed. 'No plan yet?"
Yui smiled. 'He's calling back. Apparently, he has company.'
Keisuke let out a relieved breath. 'So you won't have to meet Nakago alone, after all.'
Yui raised an eyebrow. 'I wasn't planning to meet him alone in the first place, but... it's not like he's dangerous.' Yui crossed the room and sat down next to Keisuke. 'Besides, wouldn't you and Tetsuya come with me?'
Keisuke couldn't say anything. How could they keep justifying the presence of strangers? 'They might want to just see you.'
Yui blinked. 'I'm not saying I couldn't handle that, but I thought you'd want to come.' Did she sound hurt?
'We would! It's just... we weren't in the book. And - well, we still say that all the time, don't we? We can't say that around them!' Keisuke was about to start sweating from the tension.
'Why not?' Yui replied. 'I think I should tell them.'
'Just so they don't find out by accident?'
Yui shook her head. 'I owe it to them. Yeah, so they don't find out by accident - that's part of it too. But I think it's only fair...' Yui stared at her hands. 'Besides, they're real now. It might even help, if they know it was only a book.' She looked up at Keisuke. 'I know it helps me, sometimes. It was real, but it wasn't. I'm here, now, and I can be a different person. When I was in the book, maybe what I did... the decisions I made...'
Keisuke knew a bad turn of thought when he saw one, and tried to halt it. 'Yui, don't worry about that.' He put a hand on her shoulder. 'Maybe you're right. It might help, since they do exist now... oh, man, don't cry!' Yui wasn't, but it looked like she was about to. He helplessly waved his hands through the air. 'Let's go for a walk or something. We can take the phone with us!'
Yui raised her hands to her face, trying to get rid of any tears before they could fall. She smiled, nodded, and stood up. 'A walk sounds good right now. It'll clear my head.'
-----------------
AN: Wow, I thought I'd left this story for dead.
Tetsuya's got me on the phone thing. Then, I didn't even write the beginning of this chapter until the rest was finished (or so I thought). Len's one of those serendipitous characters, but I think I know what to do with her now. (Incidentally, her real name is probably Katherine. She refuses to use it for reasons of her own.)