Hello! And yes, I am still alive. I am really sorry for the super late update. I am feeling terribly lazy lately. Anyway, here it is! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin. This fic is entirely fictional and Japan did not have a Project Messiah nor a Mission Messiah as far as I know.
Other Side of the Moon
The End of Summer
Chapter 12
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It is not in the star to hold our destiny but in ourselves.
---William Shakespeare
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You are probably wondering what happened after that night, right? Well, thankfully (I guess) Hiko-san and the rest of his group agreed to help us. So now, 4 more people are working on the mission and protecting me as well. Actually, I don't really know if I should be thankful for that. It also means that four more people will be risking their lives just because of one person, which happens to be me.
Pushing that in a corner and letting out my selfish side for a minute, I am practically jumping for joy because the most important people in my life knows who I really am and have accepted me, the real me!! That's what's important, right? Even if I still can't act, dress, and speak as a girl, I'm happy because they know.
Right?
Mou, who am I kidding. I'm not satisfied with the current situation. It is really hard to flirt with Kenshin while acting all Ryo.
Ok, wait a minute. Did I just say that? I am not that kind of girl!!! And Kenshin's not the type of guy either. What I meant was….mou! Frustrating. Really.
Anyway, Kenshin's acting all sweet lately, not that it's un-kenshin-like, but it's "sweet-sweet." After our so-called "unexpected meeting," he started to treat me a little nicer than usual, if that's even possible given that it's Kenshin were talking about here. By nicer, I meant, he started acting all the more "gentlemanly" around me. Well that is of course when no one else is there or notices, if not unwanted rumors would have spread in school immediately. The last thing I need in my life now is a scandal.
And oh! How can I forget the cute little act he did tonight! Would you believe he actually knocked at my apartment's door at nine in the evening just to hand me a bouquet of flowers and say goodnight? Well..actually it's more of…
I heard the doorbell ring so I scurried downstairs and asked who the late night visitor was. I heard the stranger say 'Kenshin' so I immediately opened the door, and revealed a redhead who looked like he just rolled out of bed. His hair was tied messily, just tied for the sake of saying it's tied. He was wearing loose gray cotton pants, which may be his pajamas for all I know, and a pink (?) shirt. To make his appearance less "sleepwear-ish" he wore a black jacket over it.
Not that I'm complaining about his appearance tonight, he looked absolutely adorable, especially when he wore those clothes with his sheepish smile. "I hope I'm not disturbing you," I recall him say. Of course, I politely said no and asked him what's up.
Know what he said?????????
*Kaoru twirls across the room before continuing with her entry. *
He said that he just came by to say goodnight. He said his self wouldn't let him sleep until he said that to me. He added, that he decided to stop by at the flower shop too, and bought me the bouquet of peach roses secured by a beautiful white bow, that he held in his right hand.
Awww…how sweet.
*Kaoru swoons on her chair. *
And then he left after that. Mou. He should have said more or stayed longer for Soujiro's crazy teasing to be worth it.
As expected, once Kenshin drove away, Soujiro immediately called and the teasing ensued. He was watching the whole time, you know? So what can I do? Just blush and squeal at the little spy. *Sigh* But Kenshin was really sweet tonight, and really kawaii too.
Hmm..wonder what happened to the girl he was sharing about the last time? Maybe he forgot about her once he saw my true irresistible smile!!! Geez…how cheesy. I must be hungry or something for coming up with these stuff. That's not it, I'm sleepy. The tournament's tomorrow so I better rest now.
Goodnight.
With that, Kaoru replaced the cap on the pen, closed the diary and tucked it inside the table's drawer.
**
"May we request the participants of the Intermediate Division to please proceed to your respected places. The event is expected to start in 15 minutes," the speaker boomed.
It was the final event of the inter-school competition which Erizawa High's Archery Team participated in. Ryo will be one of the four participants left to compete in the announced game. The winner for this game will be proclaimed as the champion for the year. Misao also competed earlier, however she lost in a very tight match with a competitor from a nearby high school.
Kenshin, Sano, Misao and the Mission Messiah decided to be on constant alert, just in case. The Takeda Enterprise knows their target and may take advantage of the situation. Since it is a tournament, outsiders are very welcome.
Saito acting as Ryo's father came into high advantage for he was offered one of the front row seats as a parent of one of the finalists. Aoshi too had the privilege to stay near the actual grounds since he is the head of Erizawa High's Archery Team. While as for Kenshin, he stayed in the bleachers blending with his fellow schoolmates. Misao was with Kenshin, since she isn't in the competition anymore. Tae and Soujiro were somewhere in the crowd too, pretending to be innocent spectators, while regularly looking around the area.
Now, how about Megumi and Sano? They were inside the van. The van contains the monitors for the video cams installed around the perimeter and certain areas which Ryo is expected to stay. Originally it should have been Megumi and Tae in charge with the cameras, but as a punishment for Sano, he was forbidden to stay in the field and was forced to work inside the van instead.
Inside the van…
"Kaoru's not going to change in front of the camera right?" asked Sano, after he saw the monitor of the camera installed in the dressing room.
"Yeah, what's your point?" an irritated Megumi answered.
"Is there going to be any cameras inside the women's dressing room?" asked Sano.
"You hentai!" screamed Megumi.
"Awww…Kitsune, jealous?" Sano teased.
"You wish!" shot back Megumi.
"Come on Kitsune, no use denying it. Didn't know you cared," he continued.
"My, and why should I care? I just feel sorry for the girls who will be unfortunate enough to be taken advantage by you. And call me Officer Takani not Kitsune!"
"Geez..no need to be so uptight, ma'am," he answered.
"If it wasn't for your stupid mistake, I would have been working with Tae right now."
*Flashback --- Why Sano got punished
Mission Messiah and it's 'honorary' members agreed to meet at the competition grounds at four in the morning, to check safety and install security equipment. All of them arrived in time, except for Sano. It was almost five in the morning and still no sign of Sano. Some members of the Mission were already panicking because Sano was the one assigned with the installation of the cameras, hence all the cameras were with him. And to make things worse, the competition administrators were expected to arrive at six in the morning. They have planned to leave the site at least half an hour before the administrators arrive.
"I'm here!" chirped Sano, arriving a few seconds past five.
"Where the hell have you been Sagara?" exclaimed Saito. "We'll discuss that later, for now, hurry up and install the cameras." the older man instructed.
Sano just nodded, walked away wit his backpack and started doing his work.
"See I told you, I'm an expert in these things, assigning me to do this job simply meant a guaranteed perfect performance. You just wasted your time worrying!" Sano said after he finished installing all the cameras in barely twenty minutes. He laughed maniacally as a sign of pride for a "job well done." But then…
*Poof! A cloud of black smoke emanated from the installed wires.
"Perfect performance my butt Sano," Misao said after recovering from the smoke.
"You better fix this before the officials arrive, Sagara," Hiko said sharply.
Sano nodded and quickly fixed the errors in the rushed cameras.
*End of Flashback
"And they cancelled my field assignment for that? They knew how much I was looking forward to watching it live. The camera malfunction could have happened to anyone," Sano defended.
"Stupid cocky teenage boy," Megumi said.
**
The game soon started. It was a very tight match. All the finalists were getting the highest possible marks. After a long series of tiebreakers, the match finally finished with the guy that eliminated Misao as the champion, while Ryo finished at second. Ryo's friends and schoolmates congratulated him, and after the awarding ceremony was over he proceeded to the changing room. Ryo was not allowed to go anywhere unaccompanied in such a public place, which's why Aoshi went with him. Since Aoshi is the team's head, nobody questioned this action. Inside the dressing room is one of the video cams Sanosuke installed earlier, however it only covers the open area. It does not cover the enclosed area, where one actually changes clothes.
Flashback*
"It is necessary that we leave no spot uncovered!" Megumi argued, "And of course, there's the fact that it is the men's changing room. OHOHOHOHO…" she added with mischievous eyes and fox ears.
"Megumi! But I will be changing too, and Sano's with you in the van!" exclaimed Kaoru.
"That's enough Officer. I will accompany Kaoru inside. I will be looking out while she's changing. The video cam that is already installed will suffice," Aoshi commanded.
End*
When the two entered the room, the other participants were almost done and were getting ready to go. Ryo hopped inside an enclosed cubicle and pulled the curtain shut. Aoshi patiently waited just in front of Ryo's drawn curtain and constantly glanced around the room.
After fifteen minutes, all the other occupants of the room already went out, but Kaoru was still inside.
"I'll be ready in a minute," she said.
"Ok," answered Aoshi before a young girl cracked open the door and stuck her head inside.
"Eto, excuse me," the girl said.
"May I help you?" Aoshi started then quickly assumed, "I think you may be in the wrong area Miss. This is the men's changing area."
"My brother sent me here to get his umbrella. He thought he left it here," the girl answered.
"This?" Aoshi said as he walked towards the umbrella leaning on the wall.
The girl nodded happily and extended her hand as Aoshi handed the umbrella over.
"Thank you very much!" she said before she flashed an evil smile.
Aoshi caught the feral grin, but before he could do anything, he collapsed on the floor, unconscious.
Kaoru heard a thud so she decided to check, "Shinomori-sensei, you al---" She was unable to finish the sentence when she decided to peek through the curtain and saw Aoshi lying motionless on the ground at the feet of a girl of no more than ten.
"I don't know what happened," the girl innocently acted.
Kaoru quickly stepped out of the cubicle and approached the two, but before she reached them, she felt a gun at the back of her neck. She froze, and heard a trigger pulled. She instantly collapsed and was caught by the person behind her.
***
In the meantime, somewhere at the parking lot, Sano and Megumi's fight ensued, not noticing the screen of the video cam in the changing room be replaced by a still image a minute ago. Their hot interaction was only interrupted when they received a question from the captain.
"Is everything alright Officer Takani? They're not out yet," they heard him say.
Megumi and Sano's bickering abruptly stopped, hastily looked at the monitor and saw the still picture on screen.
"Fuck!" Sano said.
"What happened?" Saito said after hearing Sano curse.
"Sir! The reception has been interfered! The video cam inside the changing area is not working!" reported the female officer.
"Shit!" Saito said after hearing the news, he threw his cigarette before commanding through his ear piece, "Seta, Himura, go to the dressing room with me immediately! Makimachi and Officer Tae, look around for anything suspicious."
"Hai!" replied the whole group simultaneously.
***
The young man roughly grabbed Kaoru's watch and threw it to the ground, then he swung Kaoru onto his shoulder before jumping through the window, which he used to come in. The little girl immediately followed the man and left Aoshi on the ground.
Saito, Kenshin and Soujiro arrived at the location too late. Soujiro rushed to Aoshi after seeing him motionless on the ground. Kenshin quickly scanned the room and when he found no sign of Kaoru, he finally approached the open window, stared outside and looked for any signs of movement.
There was none.
"They have her," Saito calmly informed the others who were not present in the room. He knelt down to pick up Kaoru's watch while he went on with the terrible news. "They also got rid of the tracking devise."
"Are you just going to give up? Damn you!" shouted an amber-eyed Kenshin as he motioned to jump out the window and continue to search for Kaoru.
"Go if you want but I wouldn't do that if I were you. You will never find them here. We are not fit to find her right now. It is best for us to go back and think things through. I definitely am not giving up on the mission I spent so much time on."
Kenshin controlled his impulse, and blankly stared out the window while the wind blew carelessly at the curtains.
A/n: And this is where the fic, Other Side of the Moon, ends. Thank you so much for all those nice people, who read, supported and reviewed this fic. I had a fun time writing this, I'll surely miss your reviews and emails.
I'm just kidding.
Umm… did I give a heart attack to anyone?
Don't know if this chapter was all right or it actually sucked. *sighs* About Kaoru being OOC during the diary entry section..teehee..sorry can't resist, too much Angelic Layer and Gravitation for me. Twirling and wiggling (Icchan-san!) seem to be a favorite in those shows, I think it's so cute and funny.
Any vague or confusing matters (like… "What happened to Aoshi? He just collapsed on the floor for no obvious reason.") will probably be explained and answered in the next chapter.
Anyhoot, as usual, reviews really encourage and inspire me, so please leave me note. Thanks!
