Chapter 10
Duo yawned and looked over at his tired comrades. Only seven o'clock in the morning and for some reason Yuriko had called them to the base. Each g-boy was more than half asleep, but all the girls seemed perfectly fine. It was too early in the morning, and the boys just wanted to go back to sleep.
"Alrighty then!" Everyone turned to look at Noin. "Looks like everyone is here. Perfect. Now your training can begin."
"Training? This early in the morning?" Duo felt like he was going to faint. "You have got to be kidding me. On Saturdays I don't even get up till twelve." He wouldn't be able to survive such early training.
"Well, every Saturday and Sunday I want you five here at six thirty sharp. Training starts at seven and ends when I say. From Mondays to Fridays, you come straight here after school. That too ends when I say." She looked over at Nikki. "Any objections?"
Nikki, quite surprised that she was asking her this, just simply shook her head. The training didn't bother her at all. She had been through some training with Yuriko before and even though it was a little tougher than what she was used to she could still handle it. "None."
"Good." Yuriko looked to all of the g-boys. "As you all well know, Lily no longer has anything to do with this mission, so from now on I am in charge of anything having to deal with it. You will follow my every order and if you don't agree with anything I say, then I guess you're out. I'm not as easy as she was on you guys so don't think that you can get away with anything." It was true. Lily was a whole hell of a lot softer than Yuriko. The boys liked Yuriko, but they wished that she was a nice and soft as Lily. That was one of the differences between them.
All six pilots just simply nodded their heads. They weren't taking any chances on getting Yuriko angry, and Nikki just didn't feel like getting into another argument with someone. She was sick of the arguing for once.
"Alright...to the training room," ordered Sally. Groans were heard, but slowly everyone moved to the training room.
* * *
"Ugh! Pain." Duo sat on his couch, too tired to do anything else. Only six o'clock and he was ready to go to bed. Yuriko was pretty tough when it came to training. He wasn't sure if he could last for very long. The weird part was she had Nikki helping her with all the lessons. He laid back on his couch. "There's no way I'll be able to get up and get into bed." He closed his eyes, and within that very second he was asleep.
* * *
Lily sat on her bed, hugging her knees to her chest. She looked at the phone and sighed. "He's probably too tired to do anything anyway." She rested her chin on her knees and stared at the TV.
"Hey Lily-chan...ya in there?" She heard Timmy shout from the front door.
"Hai...nande?" She got up and walked out to the living room.
"Just wondering." Timmy looked at her and smiled, letting the smile quickly fade. "Hey, what's wrong?"
"Hm? Oh nothing. Don't worry about me." She forced on a smile, which was pretty believable mind you. She was hoping that her brother would want to do something, but he looked busy at the moment and so she decided not to bother him. She would just go find something else to do.
"Ok. Uh...me and Daichi are making dinner tonight so why don't ya go and rest a bit. You look tired."
"Nah. I think I'll go take a walk. I'll be back in an hour." She ran out the door. "Ja!" If she couldn't find something to do at home, she might as well find something else to do outdoors.
* * *
Koji stood in a small park and looked around. He looked up at a big apartment building and smiled. "Why not visit an old friend, ne?" He started towards the tall building when he saw a young girl with short lavender hair walk out. This just made it so much easier for him. Silently he followed her.
Lily turned a corner, unaware that she was being followed. She entered a small dark alley and continued onto wherever she was going, which even she didn't know yet. She was confused and something inside her was empty. She didn't know exactly what was going on, but ever since she had let herself open up to those boys, and had told that story to Duo, she felt drawn to them, like as if she was supposed to be with them. She felt at peace with them.
"Nice place to turn...don't ya think?" came that all too familiar voice. Lily turned quickly and panic started to rise inside of her. What was he doing here? Looking around she found nothing.
"What do you want?" Fear showed in her voice and he liked it. Lily was always scared of him after that day. He hated her and yet he loved her. He had to have her, had to torture her, had to make her suffer.
"Tell me...who is Yuriko?"
"Like I'd ever tell you?" she spat out. "Do you really think that I'm that dumb?"
"I don't know. Are you?" He grinned and slowly approached her. "You do know that if you try to fight me I'll still win, ne?" She knew this, but there was nothing else that she could do. She would never tell him who Yuriko was. It would just destroy everything.
Lily backed away. She could run out of the alley but it was still awhile before it ended, and he was right. She was no match for him, but she had to try anyway. It was her only option, even if he would catch up with her.
"Well, what's it gonna be?"
Lily got into a fighting position and lunged at him, but her luck was absent, once again. He grabbed her arm and his fist connected with her stomach. It was a curse. She was to be tortured by this jerk for the rest of her life.
"You picked the wrong choice dear." He watched as Lily fell to the ground, and he laughed. "You pathetic little weakling. Get up." Lily groaned and slowly got up. Koji grabbed her by the hair and pulled her up to hurry her.
"Let go." Lily desperately tried to pry his hands off of her hair, with no luck. She felt tears start to sting her eyes and desperately fought them back.
"Not until you tell me who Yuriko is."
"Never!" Lily brought her knee up and kneed him where it counts. He stumbled back, every curse word in the book pouring out of his mouth. Lily also stumbled back from him suddenly letting go. Quickly getting up, she began to run.
"I don't think so." Running as fast as she could, he finally caught up to her and grabbed her from behind. It just wasn't fair. Why did he have to be a better fighter than her? Why did she ever have to get mixed up with this psychotic jerk?
"Iye! Let go of me!" Lily shouted, but he just ignored her.
He threw her against the wall, causing her to bang her head on it. She fell to the ground and blood ran down her face. Finally Lily just let her tears fall and Koji smiled.
"Are you scared yet?" He leaned in close to her. "You should be. Tell me who Yuriko is and I might consider letting you go." Lily looked at him, tears covering her cheeks.
"I told you...I'm not stupid." A sudden stinging sensation covered her cheek and she looked at Koji. "Kill me if you want. I will not tell you." She never gave in and even if she was scared, she wouldn't let Koji, of all people, order her around.
"If that's that way you want it." He stood up and pulled out a gun. "It's your choice Lily dear." He pointed the gun towards her and pulled the trigger. The gunshot echoed down the alley and Lily sat there clutching her shoulder.
"Why...why didn't you kill me?"
Koji just smiled and looked down at her. "Because I'm not done with you yet. Until next time dear." He then turned and ran down the alley, soon disappearing.
"Lily-chan?" Lily looked up to see Nikki looking down at her, concern written all over her face. "Lily-chan, what happened?" Nikki kneeled down next to Lily. She'd never seen Lily so beaten up before and she was actually worried. Lily couldn't believe that Nikki was there.
Lily glared at Nikki. "Oh, don't give me that crap. Don't act like you care." Lily wiped her tears and turned away from Nikki, but the tears continued to run. She didn't want Nikki to see her like this. Not ever, yet here she was, as pathetic as they could get and her only support was the one person who hated her more than anything.
"Lily-chan..." Nikki reached out her hand to place it on Lily's shoulder, but quickly restrained herself and pulled it away. "Gomen nasai."
"Huh?" Lily looked up to see Nikki crying. But why? "Nikki?" Nikki fell on her knees right besides Lily. It was strange and in a way it scared Lily. The only time she had ever seen Nikki cry was when Erik died.
"Gomen nasai Lily-chan. I was never a good friend to you and yet you were always still so nice to me. I'm not surprised that you hate me now." But it was wrong. It wasn't true at all. Lily didn't feel like that.
"Nikki... I don't hate you. In fact, all this time I had always wished that one day the two of us would be the best of friends. I've always liked you Nikki, very much." Lily couldn't believe that she was admitting all of this. It's not like Nikki cared anyway... right?
"You...you do?"
"Hai. When I first heard that there was gonna be a new girl pilot to work with Yuriko I was so happy. I couldn't wait to meet you. But when I finally met you, you didn't seem to like me much. It hurt and I didn't know what to do. Every time I tried to talk to you, you would just push me away." Lily hated being pushed away. It was her biggest fear, even though everyone did it everyday.
"Oh...well..." Nikki looked at Lily but stopped what she was going to say when she all of a sudden saw Lily faint. "Lily-chan? LILY-CHAN!!"
* * *
"Is she alright?" A faint voice could be heard, and Lily opened her eyes. It sounded like Duo. A groan escaped Lily's throat and she slowly sat up.
"Yeah, just a little beaten," she could hear Nikki say through a door.
Looking around, Lily found herself in a bed. The room was dark and the clock beside her read ten thirty p.m. She held her head and swung her feet over the side of the bed. It was too dark to see anything, so she coudn't really tell where she was.
The door opened and Lily shielded her eyes from the bright light. After about a few seconds, she moved her hand and watched as Nikki and Duo walked in. They both looked at her and stood in front of her.
"Lily, you shouldn't try to get up yet. Rest for a bit," Duo ordered her. Looking around again, Lily realized that she was at Duo's apartment, in his room.
"Are you alright, Lily-chan?" Nikki asked her as she sat down next to her almost in a way friend. "I was so worried when you passed out."
Lily smiled and hugged Nikki. "Hai Nikki. I'm glad that you showed up when you did. Who knows what would have happened." It was true. Had she of been left out there in that dark alley without treatment, she probably would have died.
Duo drew a blank. He couldn't understand why they were being so nice to each other. Weren't they supposed to be enemies? When did they all of a sudden become friends?
"You know... Erik did love you very much Nikki-chan," Lily said as she pulled away.
"What?" Nikki looked at Lily, confused. Duo was now paying close attention to both girls. "Iye, he couldn't have. I knew that from the first day I had met you. You two were so cute together. I wished that I could be you."
Lily looked at Nikki, after awhile bursting out into laughter. Nikki, who was confused, looked at Lily. What was so funny? Did she say something wrong? Lily stopped her laughter and looked straight into Nikki's eyes. So that's what it was. Nikki had been jealous of her. Now it all made sense.
"Nikki-chan, me and Erik were only friend. That was it. He was too much like a brother for me to ever like him. He was just protective about me, and see... that day was my birthday, so he was going to take me out. Me and Erik were just very close friends who were completely comfortable being that close to each other all the time. He loved you so much, but you were always so mean to him so he never said anything. He was afraid that you didn't like him."
Nikki couldn't believe it. For this long now, she had hated the two for completely false reasons. She felt so stupid. She felt her eyes start to burn, suddenly tears pouring out of her eyes.
"Nikki-chan?" Lily looked at Nikki then nodded her head. "I understand. That's in the past now. This is the present...We're friends, finally, so what was in the past doesn't matter. When this mission is over the two of us will visit Erik, my brother and your love." Nikki nodded, wiped her tears and smiled.
"Domo arigatou Lily-chan." The two girls embraced each other, Duo smiling, happy that the two had worked their problems out. It was great to see them as friends, and finally maybe the arguing between everyone would stop. They seemed so much more peaceful.
"I should head home now, Braid Boy," Lily said while pulling away from Nikki. She stood up and walked to the door. In the moment of reaching it, Lily's legs gave way and she was soon crashing to the ground when she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her waist and pull her back.
"I think that you should rest first."
"Iye, I have to return home to Oniichan and Daichi-kun."
"Duo's right Lily-chan. You need to rest first. I'll call them and let them know that you're okay. Duo, make sure she gets some rest. I'll be back in a little." Nikki then left the small apartment, leaving Duo to tend to Lily.
"You, Little One, are getting some rest." He laid Lily back on the bed. "You're in no condition to go anywhere." Lily just stared at Duo then sighed. She knew that she wouldn't be able to get herself out of this one. Might as well get some rest then, and head home the next day. Nodding her head, slowly her eyes got heavy and she was asleep, the land of dreams now surrounding her, whether they be bad or good.
Duo yawned and looked over at his tired comrades. Only seven o'clock in the morning and for some reason Yuriko had called them to the base. Each g-boy was more than half asleep, but all the girls seemed perfectly fine. It was too early in the morning, and the boys just wanted to go back to sleep.
"Alrighty then!" Everyone turned to look at Noin. "Looks like everyone is here. Perfect. Now your training can begin."
"Training? This early in the morning?" Duo felt like he was going to faint. "You have got to be kidding me. On Saturdays I don't even get up till twelve." He wouldn't be able to survive such early training.
"Well, every Saturday and Sunday I want you five here at six thirty sharp. Training starts at seven and ends when I say. From Mondays to Fridays, you come straight here after school. That too ends when I say." She looked over at Nikki. "Any objections?"
Nikki, quite surprised that she was asking her this, just simply shook her head. The training didn't bother her at all. She had been through some training with Yuriko before and even though it was a little tougher than what she was used to she could still handle it. "None."
"Good." Yuriko looked to all of the g-boys. "As you all well know, Lily no longer has anything to do with this mission, so from now on I am in charge of anything having to deal with it. You will follow my every order and if you don't agree with anything I say, then I guess you're out. I'm not as easy as she was on you guys so don't think that you can get away with anything." It was true. Lily was a whole hell of a lot softer than Yuriko. The boys liked Yuriko, but they wished that she was a nice and soft as Lily. That was one of the differences between them.
All six pilots just simply nodded their heads. They weren't taking any chances on getting Yuriko angry, and Nikki just didn't feel like getting into another argument with someone. She was sick of the arguing for once.
"Alright...to the training room," ordered Sally. Groans were heard, but slowly everyone moved to the training room.
* * *
"Ugh! Pain." Duo sat on his couch, too tired to do anything else. Only six o'clock and he was ready to go to bed. Yuriko was pretty tough when it came to training. He wasn't sure if he could last for very long. The weird part was she had Nikki helping her with all the lessons. He laid back on his couch. "There's no way I'll be able to get up and get into bed." He closed his eyes, and within that very second he was asleep.
* * *
Lily sat on her bed, hugging her knees to her chest. She looked at the phone and sighed. "He's probably too tired to do anything anyway." She rested her chin on her knees and stared at the TV.
"Hey Lily-chan...ya in there?" She heard Timmy shout from the front door.
"Hai...nande?" She got up and walked out to the living room.
"Just wondering." Timmy looked at her and smiled, letting the smile quickly fade. "Hey, what's wrong?"
"Hm? Oh nothing. Don't worry about me." She forced on a smile, which was pretty believable mind you. She was hoping that her brother would want to do something, but he looked busy at the moment and so she decided not to bother him. She would just go find something else to do.
"Ok. Uh...me and Daichi are making dinner tonight so why don't ya go and rest a bit. You look tired."
"Nah. I think I'll go take a walk. I'll be back in an hour." She ran out the door. "Ja!" If she couldn't find something to do at home, she might as well find something else to do outdoors.
* * *
Koji stood in a small park and looked around. He looked up at a big apartment building and smiled. "Why not visit an old friend, ne?" He started towards the tall building when he saw a young girl with short lavender hair walk out. This just made it so much easier for him. Silently he followed her.
Lily turned a corner, unaware that she was being followed. She entered a small dark alley and continued onto wherever she was going, which even she didn't know yet. She was confused and something inside her was empty. She didn't know exactly what was going on, but ever since she had let herself open up to those boys, and had told that story to Duo, she felt drawn to them, like as if she was supposed to be with them. She felt at peace with them.
"Nice place to turn...don't ya think?" came that all too familiar voice. Lily turned quickly and panic started to rise inside of her. What was he doing here? Looking around she found nothing.
"What do you want?" Fear showed in her voice and he liked it. Lily was always scared of him after that day. He hated her and yet he loved her. He had to have her, had to torture her, had to make her suffer.
"Tell me...who is Yuriko?"
"Like I'd ever tell you?" she spat out. "Do you really think that I'm that dumb?"
"I don't know. Are you?" He grinned and slowly approached her. "You do know that if you try to fight me I'll still win, ne?" She knew this, but there was nothing else that she could do. She would never tell him who Yuriko was. It would just destroy everything.
Lily backed away. She could run out of the alley but it was still awhile before it ended, and he was right. She was no match for him, but she had to try anyway. It was her only option, even if he would catch up with her.
"Well, what's it gonna be?"
Lily got into a fighting position and lunged at him, but her luck was absent, once again. He grabbed her arm and his fist connected with her stomach. It was a curse. She was to be tortured by this jerk for the rest of her life.
"You picked the wrong choice dear." He watched as Lily fell to the ground, and he laughed. "You pathetic little weakling. Get up." Lily groaned and slowly got up. Koji grabbed her by the hair and pulled her up to hurry her.
"Let go." Lily desperately tried to pry his hands off of her hair, with no luck. She felt tears start to sting her eyes and desperately fought them back.
"Not until you tell me who Yuriko is."
"Never!" Lily brought her knee up and kneed him where it counts. He stumbled back, every curse word in the book pouring out of his mouth. Lily also stumbled back from him suddenly letting go. Quickly getting up, she began to run.
"I don't think so." Running as fast as she could, he finally caught up to her and grabbed her from behind. It just wasn't fair. Why did he have to be a better fighter than her? Why did she ever have to get mixed up with this psychotic jerk?
"Iye! Let go of me!" Lily shouted, but he just ignored her.
He threw her against the wall, causing her to bang her head on it. She fell to the ground and blood ran down her face. Finally Lily just let her tears fall and Koji smiled.
"Are you scared yet?" He leaned in close to her. "You should be. Tell me who Yuriko is and I might consider letting you go." Lily looked at him, tears covering her cheeks.
"I told you...I'm not stupid." A sudden stinging sensation covered her cheek and she looked at Koji. "Kill me if you want. I will not tell you." She never gave in and even if she was scared, she wouldn't let Koji, of all people, order her around.
"If that's that way you want it." He stood up and pulled out a gun. "It's your choice Lily dear." He pointed the gun towards her and pulled the trigger. The gunshot echoed down the alley and Lily sat there clutching her shoulder.
"Why...why didn't you kill me?"
Koji just smiled and looked down at her. "Because I'm not done with you yet. Until next time dear." He then turned and ran down the alley, soon disappearing.
"Lily-chan?" Lily looked up to see Nikki looking down at her, concern written all over her face. "Lily-chan, what happened?" Nikki kneeled down next to Lily. She'd never seen Lily so beaten up before and she was actually worried. Lily couldn't believe that Nikki was there.
Lily glared at Nikki. "Oh, don't give me that crap. Don't act like you care." Lily wiped her tears and turned away from Nikki, but the tears continued to run. She didn't want Nikki to see her like this. Not ever, yet here she was, as pathetic as they could get and her only support was the one person who hated her more than anything.
"Lily-chan..." Nikki reached out her hand to place it on Lily's shoulder, but quickly restrained herself and pulled it away. "Gomen nasai."
"Huh?" Lily looked up to see Nikki crying. But why? "Nikki?" Nikki fell on her knees right besides Lily. It was strange and in a way it scared Lily. The only time she had ever seen Nikki cry was when Erik died.
"Gomen nasai Lily-chan. I was never a good friend to you and yet you were always still so nice to me. I'm not surprised that you hate me now." But it was wrong. It wasn't true at all. Lily didn't feel like that.
"Nikki... I don't hate you. In fact, all this time I had always wished that one day the two of us would be the best of friends. I've always liked you Nikki, very much." Lily couldn't believe that she was admitting all of this. It's not like Nikki cared anyway... right?
"You...you do?"
"Hai. When I first heard that there was gonna be a new girl pilot to work with Yuriko I was so happy. I couldn't wait to meet you. But when I finally met you, you didn't seem to like me much. It hurt and I didn't know what to do. Every time I tried to talk to you, you would just push me away." Lily hated being pushed away. It was her biggest fear, even though everyone did it everyday.
"Oh...well..." Nikki looked at Lily but stopped what she was going to say when she all of a sudden saw Lily faint. "Lily-chan? LILY-CHAN!!"
* * *
"Is she alright?" A faint voice could be heard, and Lily opened her eyes. It sounded like Duo. A groan escaped Lily's throat and she slowly sat up.
"Yeah, just a little beaten," she could hear Nikki say through a door.
Looking around, Lily found herself in a bed. The room was dark and the clock beside her read ten thirty p.m. She held her head and swung her feet over the side of the bed. It was too dark to see anything, so she coudn't really tell where she was.
The door opened and Lily shielded her eyes from the bright light. After about a few seconds, she moved her hand and watched as Nikki and Duo walked in. They both looked at her and stood in front of her.
"Lily, you shouldn't try to get up yet. Rest for a bit," Duo ordered her. Looking around again, Lily realized that she was at Duo's apartment, in his room.
"Are you alright, Lily-chan?" Nikki asked her as she sat down next to her almost in a way friend. "I was so worried when you passed out."
Lily smiled and hugged Nikki. "Hai Nikki. I'm glad that you showed up when you did. Who knows what would have happened." It was true. Had she of been left out there in that dark alley without treatment, she probably would have died.
Duo drew a blank. He couldn't understand why they were being so nice to each other. Weren't they supposed to be enemies? When did they all of a sudden become friends?
"You know... Erik did love you very much Nikki-chan," Lily said as she pulled away.
"What?" Nikki looked at Lily, confused. Duo was now paying close attention to both girls. "Iye, he couldn't have. I knew that from the first day I had met you. You two were so cute together. I wished that I could be you."
Lily looked at Nikki, after awhile bursting out into laughter. Nikki, who was confused, looked at Lily. What was so funny? Did she say something wrong? Lily stopped her laughter and looked straight into Nikki's eyes. So that's what it was. Nikki had been jealous of her. Now it all made sense.
"Nikki-chan, me and Erik were only friend. That was it. He was too much like a brother for me to ever like him. He was just protective about me, and see... that day was my birthday, so he was going to take me out. Me and Erik were just very close friends who were completely comfortable being that close to each other all the time. He loved you so much, but you were always so mean to him so he never said anything. He was afraid that you didn't like him."
Nikki couldn't believe it. For this long now, she had hated the two for completely false reasons. She felt so stupid. She felt her eyes start to burn, suddenly tears pouring out of her eyes.
"Nikki-chan?" Lily looked at Nikki then nodded her head. "I understand. That's in the past now. This is the present...We're friends, finally, so what was in the past doesn't matter. When this mission is over the two of us will visit Erik, my brother and your love." Nikki nodded, wiped her tears and smiled.
"Domo arigatou Lily-chan." The two girls embraced each other, Duo smiling, happy that the two had worked their problems out. It was great to see them as friends, and finally maybe the arguing between everyone would stop. They seemed so much more peaceful.
"I should head home now, Braid Boy," Lily said while pulling away from Nikki. She stood up and walked to the door. In the moment of reaching it, Lily's legs gave way and she was soon crashing to the ground when she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her waist and pull her back.
"I think that you should rest first."
"Iye, I have to return home to Oniichan and Daichi-kun."
"Duo's right Lily-chan. You need to rest first. I'll call them and let them know that you're okay. Duo, make sure she gets some rest. I'll be back in a little." Nikki then left the small apartment, leaving Duo to tend to Lily.
"You, Little One, are getting some rest." He laid Lily back on the bed. "You're in no condition to go anywhere." Lily just stared at Duo then sighed. She knew that she wouldn't be able to get herself out of this one. Might as well get some rest then, and head home the next day. Nodding her head, slowly her eyes got heavy and she was asleep, the land of dreams now surrounding her, whether they be bad or good.