Authors note: Just to clarify things up a little, since its about 70 years after the end of the world incident, most of these characters have been reincarnated, so there names are different. For example, Sorata's last name is Ariwara now. For some of the other characters, its really obvious who they were in their last life.
Warnings: contains spoilers for the tv show.
"I'm really really really sorry, Toriko," Sorata gazed at her with his puppy-eyes. "I'll make it up to you. I'll do anything. What do you want me to do?" Toriko smiled.
"Well," she said slowly, "I guess I can't stay mad at you. I mean, you were only trying to help a poor old lady out." Her eyes narrowed, "but that doesn't mean you're off the hook! A new movie is coming out today, and I want to see it. I'll meet you in the theater before the movie starts. Don't you dare be late."
"Hehe," Sorata laughed nervously, "I won't be late. I'll be sure to get there at least an hour early."
"Yeah, you better."
During class, Sorata couldn't focus on anything except for the seat two seats in front of him. It seemed like she had forgiven him but he still couldn't tell for sure. For their date later today, he has to do something special for her. Should he get her flowers? Maybe, it probably been done to death, but girls love flowers after all, right? Even from behind she was pretty. She left her soft hair down today instead of tying it up.
"Ariwara, Sorata!" the teacher shouted.
"Hai!" He responded standing up.
"Please explain the meaning of the verses Kita-san just finished reading."
"Uh….the lines…." Sorata started rambling, "…the lines that were selected, uh, show, I mean, reveal the author's state of mind and good I mean, um, proficient use of diction."
"Ariwara-san, that was a very profound answer."
"Arigatou, Shirokawa-sensei," Sorata beamed.
"Unfortunately, if you hadn't been concentrating on Monou-san so much, you would realize that this is not literature class." The class laughed while Sorata and Toriko's face turn into a couple of tomatoes. "You may be seated." He started to address the rest of the class again, "for those of you who forgot, or just simply wasn't paying attention," the class laughed again. That last statement directly directed towards Sorata. He continued, "for the marriage project, you all get to choose your own partners," the class cheered and he continued, "except for Ariwara-san and Monou-san." The class laughed again. "Monou-san will be paired up my son, who will be arriving here in Tokyo in a few hours. His name is Kenichi. He may seem a little standoffish at first but I'm sure you two will get along."
"Shirokawa-sensei," Sorata pouted, "that's not fair."
"And you, Ariwara-san, will be paired with Kita, Ara." Ara was the girl who sat behind Sorata. She was one of those rebellious girls who wore the skirt long past her knees. She rarely smiled, and spoke only when necessary. "All right, class, the rest of you choose your spouses." Sorata sighed.
"Poor Toriko," Sorata said to himself, "she has to be paired up with some guy she doesn't even know. Wait a second, she's going to be paired up with some guy!"
"Of course she's going to paired off with a guy." A voice behind him reminded him, "this project is supposed to simulate a real marriage."
"I know," Sorata around, "but she's supposed to be paired with me." Sorata noticed something, "Ne Ara-chan, you have a really familiar face."
"Baka!" she laughed, "we've been in the same class since the first grade."
"No, I don't mean that." Sorata continued to be lost in deep thought while Ara ignored him. "Oh yeah, now I remember!"
"What?" she decided to humor him.
"I had a dream about you last night!"
"What am I doing in your dreams for? I have better places to be."
"I vowed to protect you." The bell rang and saved Ara from having to listen to more of Sorata's craziness.
"Whatever, I'm leaving."
Sorata's tutoring session was cancelled today, and he's got several hours before his date with Toriko. He sat at his desk in his room trying to fix the watch the old lady gave him. After all he had promised to. He also remembered that he promised the old lady to tell "her" that "Sora was sorry." What did it all mean? Who is "her" and who is Sora? After about several hours of futile attempts at repairing the watch, he gave up again. If he wasted more time on it, then he would be late for his date. And this time, Toriko won't so nice. "Maybe I'll just pay someone to fix it for me." He looked at the watch again. It was still going backwards. He screamed in frustration again. He took his tormentor and put it in his pocket. His bedroom was on the first floor of his house, so it was easy to for him to simply jump out of the window to sneak out of the house.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!" Sorata screamed right before the concrete greeted his face.
"Are you ok?" a voice inquired. Sorata bounced back up.
"Oh I'm fine," he told the man standing next to him, "this hard ground broke my fall." The man's eyes widened in shock.
"Sorata?" the man's voice was barely audible.
"Yep," Sorata laughed, "that would be me."
"You're," The man's face brightened up, "you're still alive! Thank goodness!"
"Of course I'm all right. Its not that bad a fall." He then realized he still doesn't know who the heck this guy was. "Who are you? I haven't seen you around here."
"Huh?" The man was confused, "you don't remember who I am?"
"Nope."
"Monou Fuuma. Are you sure you don't remember me? A couple of months ago, we fought and you were--"
"Monou! Did you say Monou?" Sorata interrupted. "Does that mean you're related to Monou Toriko?"
"Huh?" Fuuma was extremely confused, "uh….no…I don't know who that is."
"Aww," Sorata pouted, "oh well, I better get going before I'm late. Toriko will furious." He took a look around, "hmmmm, I think I should paying attention to my surroundings a little more." He started laughing, "other wise one day, I won't recognize anything."
Fuuma watched Sorata leave and wondered who the strange man was. He looked exactly like the late Arisugawa Sorata from the ten no ryu, but that Sorata had died under his hands.
Arashi heard a knock and opened the door. To her surprise Fuuma stood at the doorway. She hasn't seen him since the incident a couple months ago, and she wanted to keep it that way. She tried to shut the door, but Fuuma stuck his foot in just in time. "Arashi-san," he said, "I know I have no right to speak to you, but please," he pleaded, "just give me two minutes."
"Fine," she sighed. The sooner he finishes talking the sooner he'll leave.
"I saw Sorata."
"What?" Arashi couldn't believe her ears, "what did you just say?"
"Sorata is alive. I saw him a few minutes ago."
"Sorata is alive?" What kind of sick joke is this? She glared at Fuuma with disgust. With one hand she shoved him out of the doorway, and slammed the door in his face.
