Aoi to Midori
(Blue and Green)
A Recca no Honoo fanfic
By Tenshi no Ai
I do not own the Recca no Honoo/Flame of Recca franchise. I'm just an avid fan of it is all...
Summary: Sports Day is being held on a cloudy June afternoon, and a talk before one of the competitions can reveal just how connected two very different people can be...
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To live is to compete.
He ran over to the girls' changing room, his short hair flying everywhere, but most sticking to his sweaty face and neck. The sleeves of the white gi fluttered back and forth in time with his arms; the hem of the dark blue hakama swished breezily just above sandaled feet. Dark clouds hung above him, and the humid air made him feel as if he were slogging his way to the locker room.
But he still ran.
Take me, for instance. I was bred to fight against those of the Hokage flame master heritage, to wield their very flame against all of their kind.
From two weeks prior, Aoi knew that he was going to be late. He knew that the kendou performance', really a masochistic competition held by the captain, would most likely run over into the races. But he still let his class sign him up to race in the girls' fifty-meter sprint and the end relay.
The challenge of making it on time was half the fun.
It didn't work out that way, but I was still given the gift of life. Then, I trained.
Disarm. Disable. Destroy.
But now, as he ran towards the locker room, located on the other side of the baseball field and football field from the hall where kendo and archery were held in, he began to realize that maybe he should've thought it out a bit more. That didn't mean anything, though. He knew he would've accepted the responsibility anyway.
In competition, this is what we strive to do.
Aoi liked races.
Why do you think that I look like a girl? All the better to deceive, to lull into a false sense of security with my considerable charms and look of innocence. Never mind that I know several forms of martial arts, can wield a number of weapons with a considerable degree of competence, and can kill in an instant.
He liked them because he was very good at them.
Two, if my opponent struggles.
One of the two best in his school.
But in competition, there will always be someone better. Faster, stronger, more cunning, more willing to take the risks others couldn't conceive of going through.
Renge.
He would be racing against the other one in the sprint.
The newer model is always better, right?
But Aoi wasn't worried. This was a fun competition. A part of the school festivities, a joyous day that had been foreshadowed by a week of a pure mania of work.
She could wield the fire that burned me. She was more pleasing to the eye. She was the one that Mori Kouran liked the best. She was a success.
But she died, and I survived.
I won.
It was time to enjoy what everyone worked so hard on.
I've gotten everything I once hopelessly dreamed of. A life where I have opportunities to grow, to make mistakes, to fail or succeed. I have friends, not comrades I have to put up with. I have schoolwork, not another victim left in the dust. I am a student, not a death god.
Breathing hard but smiling nevertheless, Aoi tore through the open locker room, mindlessly tugging off his hakama and gi, revealing royal blue track shorts and a white short-sleeved shirt.
I am able to proceed in the best, most fulfilling competition of all: life.
He reached his locker and easily rolled out his combination numbers, opening the locker and shoving his basic kendo gear inside. Glancing at the Doraemon watch he left inside, he smiled in equal parts of relief and smug satisfaction as he realized he still had a bit of time before his race started.
I win.
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Running long, thin fingers through layers of dark purple hair, Aoi curiously peered inside his locker. Sneakers...sneakers...headband... He reached inside the small space and pulled out a certain length of white material, then looped it around his head, tugging out long bangs from underneath the white band and deftly tying the material behind his head. He reached into the locker again, blindly this time, hoping to pull out his favorite, and only, pair of sneakers.
They were name brands, bought months ago in an act of random splurging while walking around a nearby shopping mall, alone and bored. That and confused over Hiruko's odd gesture of friendship. Kasumi, Aoi's fellow worker at the Ishijima no Hana, once confided to him that shopping always made her feel better when she felt bad.
It didn't work, but at least Aoi now had a good pair of sneakers.
--tum...tum...tum--
A steady footfall echoed quietly inside the mostly empty locker room, but Aoi didn't look up from his search. As his fingers touched something underneath his recently discarded hakama that felt suspiciously like a shoelace, the footsteps stopped its casual thudding against the cement floors.
Hey, Kagura.
Although the voice was right behind him, Aoi didn't turn around.
Ready for our race?
More or less. A shoe had been excavated from the deepest bowels of the locker, and after placing it on the top of the rows of lockers Aoi renewed his attempt to find the other one.
this was punctuated by a rather unladylike snort, I would've thought that Shishiten Aoi would've been at the track already, with both shoes on.
Slightly irritated at the use of his old title, the effeminate boy continued on his search. I suppose that would be true if you were talking to that person right now.
Aren't I? She shot back. Aoi shrugged, uninterested in continuing the verbal scruffle.
Petty things like quarreling had never interested him. After all, he was a professional.
The other shoe was found. In triumph, Aoi placed it with its twin and closed his locker, then turned around to face the only true girl in the locker room.
He'd never really gotten along with her, Kirisawa Fuuko. They had never had a conversation out of the group meetings at lunch, and their being in different classes had sealed their fate of just being little more than acquaintances. That was Aoi's logical analysis of their tenuous relationship. He also suspected that the premier female fighter of the Hokage disliked him personally, because he was more well-known at their school ever since he arrived last year.
It was all very much like how he once felt about Renge.
...Actually, I thought I would be late because of the kendou performance, he volunteered casually, lacing up his sneakers. It was weird, but he didn't want Fuuko to keep disliking him if she really did.
He didn't want to become the next Renge.
He wanted to survive.
Fuuko looked at him dully for a moment, then perked up, obvious in her suddenly happy expression and casual pose in dark green shorts and a loose white tank top. Oh, that thing that Mi-chan had going on! I wanted to see it, but I got strung into helping the girls' tennis team with their okonomiyaki stand, like I would know how to cook... she grumbled, and then Domon wanted to go and eat over at the oden booth, not like he didn't already pig out with Recca and Yanagi at the okonomiyaki stand! I swear, I don't know why I stand him sometimes...
It was strange to him that someone that he figured disliked him could go off and start talking like they had been good friends for a long time. He almost thought of the term two-faced' before he realized that this was Fuuko that he would be applying that label to.
Fuuko was many things, but she was nothing if not honest.
Aoi couldn't help but admire that quality. He knew the same couldn't be said for himself.
He leaned against the lockers so he could put on his sneakers and look up at Fuuko occasionally. Love, perhaps? It certainly seemed to be the reason that Domon acted as ridiculously subservient to Fuuko as he did, Aoi noted inwardly.
the normally headstrong girl murmured. As he looked in curiousity, Fuuko turned away quickly, a slightly reddish tint to her cheeks. It doesn't matter, she said roughly, I just like hanging out with him, that's all!
Aoi nodded. If Fuuko was going to be in denial, it was fine with him.
Anyway, I thought you weren't in kendou, Fuuko said conversationally after he had finished tying his shoes, at least, that's what Yanagi told me.
I just felt like joining.
No reason at all? Of your own free will?
Dark brown eyes suddenly narrowed at those last two questions. It was if Fuuko was intentionally making jabs at him, something he wouldn't rule out of her behavior patterns.
He was starting to remember why he didn't like her very much.
Of course, he said mildly, I am a human being, after all.
Then there were those memories of drifting in a liquid-filled tube, while Uruha Jyushinshuu Genjuurou and his assistants commented on the progress of cell growth, of the possibility of inheriting gene donor Kurei's ability to harness fire...
005, Aoi...
He was a human, all right.
--Another failure--
Except in his memories.
Slowly, Aoi bit his bottom lip, not wanting to delve into the memories of his birth at the moment.
Not ever again.
Right, right, I know, the brunette stared at him strangely, leaning forward with her hands on her hips, you don't look too good. What's wrong?
Aoi looked at her somewhat worried face suspiciously, then decided to take the bait. Memories...of Mori Kouran...I still dream about him to this day.
Surprisingly, Fuuko began to get angry. Ooh, that bastard! Even though he's dead, he still keeps popping up!
You dream of him too? Aoi deduced out loud. Fuuko nodded, a dark look on her expressive face.
Yeah, sometimes... she looked away, whatever, it doesn't matter. Let's go, I don't wanna be late.
It was odd for Aoi that another person, one he didn't care for, would have the same feelings for another like he did, even after all the months that had gone by. He thought he was the only one who held a smoldering hatred for the late Mori Kouran after all this time.
After all, no one else would talk about Mori Kouran.
But now, as Aoi exited the locker room and headed for the track with Fuuko in front of him, back to her exuberant self and prematurely claiming victory, he realized that everyone still thought about that man.
Mori Kouran was dead, but memories of him still thrived.
The track was just ahead of Kagura Aoi. So was the rest of his life. He had won the chance to quit being Shishiten Aoi, to stay as Kagura Aoi!
--Another failure--
Had he won a chance to live the rest of his life, plagued by the memories of that man?
Aoi shook his head and jogged to the field.
He didn't need this right now.
As he began his stretching exercises, he could see all the people in the bleachers. Yanagi, his best friend, was holding up a large sign with the help of Recca and Domon; it proclaimed in an array of bright colors that contrasted against the overcast day that both Aoi and Fuuko had already won. He couldn't help but giggle a bit about that. If he wasn't already known throughout the school, that rainbow-like sign had just destroyed all traces of his anonymity.
But it felt good to be known for doing something well.
Better than being known as a failure.
[First race for the junior class, the fifty-meter dash! Kirisawa Fuuko, class 2-C, against Kagura Aoi, class 2-F!]
Solemn, Aoi walked over to the starting blocks and got down into the starting position. He could see the finish line; it wasn't very far.
It was only a lifetime away.
He turned his head to his right, meeting Fuuko's thoughtful gaze. After a moment, Fuuko grinned and winked. Let's see who's really the fastest! At that, Aoi couldn't help but smile back, determination and confidence overcoming those dark feelings, that feeling that he was nothing more than a...
--failure--
No.
He had won.
And he had the rest of his life to prove it.
-Owari-
Ah, so I'm about 3 weeks late with this update. Plus, this part's a bit short. After finals, I went into this haze where all I did was play video games. Finally was able to finish Lunar: SSSC and FF9, and right now I'm drawing, carding, and refining my way through FF8. Well, in between summer classes, anyway. I'll try my best to be a bit faster, but y'know, with 2 chapters left, it's easy to be lazy...
-The Sports Day portrayed here is a mix of the one in KareKano vol. 2 and Marmalade Boy vol. 2. Don't you think that Aoi and Fuuko could be great sprinters?
-I believe that, somewhere in one of the stories, I had written that Fuuko was in 2-E with Domon. Not so, she would be in 2-C according to the manga epilogue.
-I'm sure that this is a weird chapter to read. It kinda moved from the idea of comparing Aoi and Renge to Fuuko and Renge, to winning against the past and Mori Kouran. For such a short part, it sure holds a lot of ideas and relatively little conversation. Well, believe me, the first draft had much more dialogue between Aoi and Fuuko and it sucked horribly. Talking is overrated sometimes.
Reviews!
Rhiannon, one could say that you don't seem to have any confidence in my finishing this story. I'm hurt ; Well, I guess it is understandable, but I am trying!
Purple hotagi (wow, cool name), I'm not sure how you were drawn to this fanfic, since it doesn't promise any blood spilling, but I'm happy you were anyway! Like I said, more fics should be dedicated to friendship, because it is an interesting topic. I hope you'll keep reading!
Sarri-chan, the last part is coming up. I'd like to promise that I'll be done by the end of June, except that I have a life. -- Thank you for the compliment, and for the acknowledgement of my birthday!
