If Only You Smile 2
Gecho Geri = "Angry girl" kick (It's one of Misao's moves. She did it to Kenshin when they were on their way to Kyoto. Poor Kenshin just replied with 'Oro?' after getting that kick ^_^)
Itai! = Ouch!
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Misao's first observation of Osaka was that it was small. It almost gave her the thought of visiting a ghost town where nobody was alive. As though this was an aftermath of a bloodbath. Thankfully Osaka did have live humans walking past her although the local people didn't seem to be willing to say where she could find Kino Makoto. Not one person gave her a straight answer and simply huffed. Didn't the word 'manners' even pop up in their brains? What was it that they didn't like about this gentle-looking girl who blended with flowers? Curiosity was becoming Misao's best friend as each minute passed.
She had been running down the street for at least half an hour, apologising to people as she brushed past them quickly. So far she was unsuccessful in finding this person. It wasn't like Makoto was a disease, was it? Misao was close to losing her temper and shouting out loud if nobody was going to co-operate. It would instantly have been a waste of her time coming to Osaka. Obviously Makoto was alive. That was one thing to confirm for the young ninja so hope shouldn't have to be given up yet, right? Misao wondered what this Makoto was like in person. Was it true that looks could be deceiving? Was she a different figure underneath the gentle façade? Of course the braided girl herself could demonstrate this phrase perfectly well - especially towards those who had seen her in her mantel.
Men easily fell into the trap of noticing a mysterious girl who had a sultry voice underneath the huge cloak when in fact it was a young female who had agility that surpassed them. Perhaps Misao had to keep the 'looks can be deceiving' phrase in mind before meeting Kino Makoto face to face. Maybe she too used a fake sort of charm to touch Aoshi and get his attention, just like how Misao attracted men with her mantel. Oh no. If she is someone who easily deceives others then that means bad news for Aoshi-sama. Is that why people hate her? Misao thought worriedly. Unfolding the paper, she stared at the picture in her hands again. The optimistic side of her mind reminded her again that this may not be a bad person at all and *was* really someone who looked amazing with plants. Someone who *was* kind inside.
Dammit what was the ninja supposed to believe in? This was all confusing. She hadn't even met Kino Makoto yet and couldn't make her mind up on what to believe. Well if nobody was going to tell her where to find Makoto then Misao had to do things on her own and see for herself what this person was like. Her green eyes focused hard as she strolled down the town, passing each open store and keeping her gaze wide open at each individual. Every single person was talking to their neighbours about money and food. So far no woman or young girl had brown hair or wore a colourful kimono. Why couldn't this Kino Makoto just appear out of nowhere like a magician who knew how to vanish and end up in another place?
Why couldn't she make it easier for Misao to find her? Didn't she like to talk to people and preferred to stay hidden? Wow that sounded like someone Misao knew all too well. Perhaps that was one reason to why Aoshi knew her personally. Because they liked to hide from the crowd. The dark braided girl couldn't believe she was already having a go at this unknown female for not simplifying this search. Was she going insane? You're such a silly girl, Misao. You have to be serious she reprimanded herself and slapped the side of her head to wake up. Okina would have said the same thing to the sixteen-year old if he were watching her right now.
Misao was trying hard to look out for a slim brown haired female when a huge object smashed into her right shoulder, pushing her to the ground.
"Ahh!" She landed hard on her backside. Her eyes saw stars briefly – until she shook her head to see things normally again.
"Hey, watch where you're going, kid!" An angry voice boomed down at her. As she recovered her normal vision, Misao spotted three men surrounding the young ninja in a small circle, their eyes glaring at her as though she was a peculiar object.
"Uh sorry, I didn't mean to," She apologised and rubbed her right shoulder soothingly.
"Well so you should be, you stupid girl," The second man said then turned to his friends. "Tch! Why do kids never learn?" Misao's eyebrows curled with offence and anger when he mentioned the last sentence. How dare he call her a kid? She knew she was mature for a sixteen-year old. She was a growing woman – not a snotty kid that liked to play silly games to piss adults off. The three men noticed the furious green eyes of Makimachi Misao and sniggered to one another. How could they *not* accept her apology? The ninja's anger grew in less than a minute. This was nowhere near funny. The clash with her right shoulder hurt like hell right now. That guy shouldn't have even moved his arm like that.
"Brainless kids like you shouldn't be running around. Or else you'd end up like that," The third man added, clearly referring to Misao falling over after getting a hit to her chin. He gestured to his friends to leave.
"Hey at least *I* know how to say 'excuse me' or 'sorry' to other people," Misao stated back proudly. "Unlike you stupid punks." The last phrase interrupted the men's walking and they all turned their heads to her. Well now that got them angry, didn't it? And it also caused some other faces to turn to her direction. Misao had captured the entire audience of Osaka town without realising it. But she didn't care about other people watching her. Her attention was on these three men. She couldn't believe they were being downright mean to her. Who would have thought her arrival in Osaka would involve such scenes of impoliteness?
Was everyone like this? No that was impossible. Some people let her pass when she said she was coming through the street - so not everyone was rude, which was a huge relief. Anyway she had a right to budge past the crowd. The ninja had to find someone ASAP. She had to find Makoto and speak to her about Aoshi-sama. This was no laughing matter. This was an emergency. The three men stormed over towards the smaller girl and buried their angry glares closer to her face.
"You think we're stupid, huh?" The first man said. "You'll regret saying that, brat." Along with his friends, the man cracked his knuckles to show he meant business. Misao stared back at them sharply, her Tobi Kunai steadily placed between each of her fingers. Oh she meant it when she called them stupid. If they weren't going to accept her apology then she had to force them. That's right. Makimachi Misao wasn't a ninja for nothing in the Oniwabanshu. She was going to make these men pay for calling her a BRAINLESS kid when in fact they were the ones considered as unintelligent.
"Bring it on," Misao uttered. Her petite body ascended into the air like a flash of light and caused some of the passers-by to gasp in awe. It was time to show these three guys what a member of the Oniwabanshu was made of. She released a cry as she came down to prepare a flying kick at the third man, who was standing to her right. "Gecho Geri!" Her foot was closing in on its target. She was going to hit him no doubt. Here comes the pain she thought with expectation. The guy was going to fall down with a bleeding nose. She could predict it without any problems. He was going to cry anytime now as soon as her foot met his face.
But then again the collision of the nose didn't take place at all. Instead, the third man's hand grabbed the ankle of Misao's attacking foot and suddenly the ninja found her body being spun around in the air. Every person around her started to blur and lose shape as she moved in a fast circular motion. The wind was making her cheeks lose its thickness in the rapid spin and Misao could only shut her eyes to lessen the discomfort in her brain. The crowd started to cover their faces as they helplessly watched the poor girl being tossed around and screaming out loud.
"Oh this is so not good," She realised. As though someone read her mind, the spinning abruptly stopped. When Misao opened her eyes, her body felt as though they were still moving in circles, even though everything in front of her was in normal shape and size and was stationary. Despite having experienced a horrible non-stop trip the ninja now had to face the whole world upside down. The third man still had his grip around her ankle as though it was tight rope. It also made her foot feel like it was going to be pulled off anytime because of the firm hold. Being caught by surprise was something that never crossed Misao's mind. These guys surprised her no doubt.
She tried to set her foot free from the grip but it was too difficult to reach towards it without much support from anywhere else. She was far from touching the ground and the only thing that was nearest to the bottom was the end of her long braid. The third man's hand was as huge as both her feet put together and it was giving her ankle a lot of pain. "Put me down, you jerk!" She demanded as she continued to attempt an escape. Her strength wasn't enough to take on the huge fingers surrounding her ankle. Out of nowhere she cried from a surge of pain and immediately realised the first man was pulling her braid and forcing her to look at the ugly smug on his face.
Misao couldn't use her Tobi Kunai to strike any of the guys after the second man caught her arm before she could launch an attack with her weapons and held in a similar grasp like the third man. This newly growing damage to her body was too much to bear. The hurtful sensation was worsening by the minute in this position. Misao could see they were thugs who enjoyed bullying. They didn't care that she was a kid to them. They wanted to pick on anyone who ticked them off. If Aoshi-sama were here he'd make them cry at his feet. But unfortunately the Oniwabanshu Okashira wasn't around. He was on a walk, most likely to be brooding somewhere. Unaware that Misao was in a bit of crisis in Osaka town.
"Like I said," The first man muttered harshly to the ninja, "you kids never learn."
"Never threaten us or you'll regret it," The third man gripped harder around her ankle to make her wince more.
"This is what you get for making us mad." The first man drew a sword and pointed it to Misao. The shininess of his blade intimidated the reluctant audience. Dammit I hate to say it but they're right Misao thought, slightly guilty Maybe I shouldn't have pissed them off or else I wouldn't be like this.
"Hey put me down, please!" She insisted, grinning nervously.
"Nah, we kinda like this. Makes the entertainment more enjoyable," The second man replied. His friends laughed out loud for the first time and didn't care how much pain Misao was being put through. Why weren't any of the passers-by helping? Were they too frightened? Misao couldn't blame them, especially if they couldn't fight and refused to be involved in such trouble. This was going over the top. Someone had to help her out. Anybody. She didn't care who it was that helped out. Just any idiot would do. Her right foot wasn't near enough to kick the third guy's face and she didn't want to risk having her body in any worse shape. She was literally powerless.
"What's all the commotion?" A new voice entered. Everyone silenced at the sudden arrival of a new person, even the three bullies and Misao (although with difficulty). Various whispers bounced in-between the crowd as soon as the figure came into the light. It sounded like they recognised this person Misao discovered. It was from the way they spoke to their neighbours. Some sounded surprised whilst others sounded worried. The braided girl struggled to get her eyes to focus on whoever it was that made his presence and her jade irises bulged in amazement. It wasn't a man who approached the three bullies. It was a girl. Misao could tell by the voice and the posture.
But that wasn't all she managed to pick up from this newcomer. The girl had long brunette hair in a ponytail and piercing emerald eyes. Misao's memory of the picture in her pocket refreshed her mind with ease. Was this the girl she was looking for? It couldn't be. The only difference here was that this girl was wearing a plain white gi with a black belt around her waist rather than an elegant kimono. Maybe it was somebody else who looked like her.
"I don't believe it!" The first man exclaimed. "It's that bitch from before."
"Oh, it's you three guys," The girl said to herself, also becoming surprised. However the short moment of surprise by seeing recognisable faces was cut off when she spotted the girl that was upside down. "What are you doing to the young lady?"
"We're punishing her because she called us stupid!" The third man retorted, dangling Misao's foot higher into the air.
"Wait!" Misao interrupted. "I apologised for bumping into them without looking and they wouldn't accept it. A-and they pissed me off so I…" She swallowed her throat to calm herself down. It sounded like she was babbling here. "I swear I was being polite when I came into this town." The longhaired brunette met the desperate eyes of the braided girl and stared at her for about two seconds. She nodded slowly then diverted her gaze to the three men holding the smaller girl above the ground.
Misao didn't understand what the nod was for but she guessed that the other girl understood her explanation and believed every word she said (hopefully).
"Let her go she's telling the truth," The brown haired female ordered as she moved her eyes towards each person.
"No way!" The second and first man refused at the same time.
"She's getting what she deserves for pissing us off," The third man argued.
"I don't care just let her go," The girl demanded then glanced to the man holding Misao's ankle. "Or would you like me to damage your nose like before? I can put it back to its painful position like last time." Noticing her sarcastic smile, the third man growled. Looked like he didn't find this memory too amusing. Misao couldn't believe this discovery. Did these bullies already know this tough looking brunette? She herself would have managed to damage the guy's nose for a second time if she had been lucky enough. Then again the guy must have expected her to go for his nose, which was how he was able to defend himself and surprise the ninja with a catch to the foot.
"You are *not* gonna do the same thing to me," The third man said in defence.
"Oh?" The girl's eyebrows arched up curiously and she pivoted away from the man's direction to look at the rest of the crowd. They were expecting something from here, weren't they? Well of course they were. They knew who she was. Out of the blue, the girl returned her gaze to the man holding Misao by the ankle and surprisingly delivered a right jab to his nose. He found his nose cracking in the same way as the previous time. Blood splashed out from his nostrils and, because of the painful smash, his hand released itself from around Misao's ankle, dropping her to the ground when he crouched down to scream repeatedly.
"Itai!" Misao moaned loudly. This was the second time she had landed hard on her rear. There must be a huge bruise developing now however she didn't have another moment to complain about her backside's pain when she had another problem to deal with. The other two still have their grip on her braid and arm. "Hey!" She cried when she was forced onto her feet roughly to see the sharp end of two swords by her neck. The second girl spotted Misao's predicament in one motion. She kicked the sword out of the first guy and kneed him in the stomach to forcefully break his hold off the ninja's braid, throwing him over her shoulder. As he toppled over his feet, a huge gasp echoed among the crowd.
"Here's for calling me a brainless kid. Gecho Geri!" Misao successfully sent a flying kick to the second man's chest and then two punches to the face. Not giving him any chance to use his sword. Her blows sent him flying next to his friend that had been kneed in the stomach by the other girl. She had never been so glad to be able to pull off some hits after being stuck for a long time. The guy with the broken nose reappeared on his feet, not caring about the continuous flow of blood dripping from his nostrils as he endeavoured to attack his opponents.
The taller girl caught sight of him coming in with his Katana and dodged two downward slash attacks. She threw two jumping roundhouse kicks to his cheeks, obviously avoiding his broken nose since it had already been damaged by her earlier jab. Somehow the double kicks to his face didn't force his entire body down. Meaning that he still had some strength left within him. He squealed stupidly when he saw the girl's fist less than an inch from his broken nose. 'Oh not the nose again' his face was clearly saying to her.
"Leave," She commanded to the men as they struggled to get onto their feet, pointing to the open gap that had been made rapidly by the local town. "Don't even think of coming back just to pick on innocent kids." The trio of bullies cursed under their breaths as they walked away furiously. Majority of the onlookers cast their eyes back to the girls standing in the middle of the road. The brunette broke their dreamy looks and said, "What are you looking at?" Everyone was taken back by the interruption of their staring and obediently broke away from one another to return to their original chores.
Now that the road was empty and back to how it was before, Misao could get back to doing her work, which was find that person. She exchanged a puzzled look with the other ally standing next to her. Her curiosity from earlier today had come back to her since this brawl against the three bullies was over for now. The taller female startled her when her emerald eyes met with Misao's.
"Are you okay?" She asked politely. The piercing glare that once stood in her gaze when she spoke to those men had taken a softer turn and now appeared to be gentle rather than angry.
"Uh…" Misao was speechless as well as nervous. "Yeah. Thanks for helping me out." She smiled gratefully.
"Don't mention it." The girl smiled back. "Those guys came here once to pester me. Thought the police found them on that day to take them away." She almost forgot that Misao was listening to her loud thoughts and cleared her throat. "Well uh take care of yourself…and try not to get angry too often. Otherwise you'll end up like that again. The same thing happened to me last time and it wasn't very nice."
"I'll keep that in mind." The young ninja said. "Hey wait a second!" She sprinted towards the girl to prevent her from leaving. The wavy ponytail flicked off the brunette's shoulders as she looked over to Misao, wondering what she wanted to say now. "Are you…are you Kino Makoto?"
"Uh yeah. But how did you…?" Before she could say something to express her shock, the braided girl unfolded a piece of paper and showed its true form.
"This is you in the picture, isn't it?" Misao questioned. Makoto took the paper from the ninja's hand to examine it closer. Wow this WAS her all right. Whoever painted this portrait emphasised the natural shade of her hair and eye colour. How did he or she know she liked flowers as well? This picture made her look so serene and kind. Could this really be her? She wasn't *this* dazzling, was she?
"Yeah this is definitely me," Makoto confirmed. Her eyes grew suspicious as she looked at Misao. "Where did you…?"
"We need to talk," The ninja stated in a plea. "Please. It's really important." Something within the voice of this girl gave Makoto the impression that the younger girl was indeed desperate to get a message across. Even though her eyes looked excited to meet this girl, Misao seemed to be very serious on needing to talk this instant. Makoto accepted the girl's request and said, "Fine. Let's talk."
TBC
It took me the whole weekend to write this entire chapter up hence the lengthy size and I wouldn't blame any of you if you're going 'What is going on here?' O.O. I was a bit relieved that some of you were okay on the prologue. I don't want to get into any fight against avid Aoshi/Misao shippers (believe me this is a VERY popular fanon pairing) so to any fans of this couple I would to make a clear statement: I won't make Misao an angry jealous person just because Aoshi is with another girl. I'm going to try and make her happy in another way. I like BOTH Aoshi and Misao and only see sibling love between them. While Misao is 16 (i.e. a year younger than Kaoru), she seems like a real kid when put next to Aoshi-sama (I swear I'm not bashing her here. I respect her as I do towards Kaoru-dono). Well she is at that stage, isn't she? She's sneaky and mischievous. Just watch episode 34 when she's trying to steal money off a group of thieves.
girl of darkness- When I see Misao she doesn't exactly remind me of Usagi. I reckon she's better than the Odango Atama. Apart from the obvious temper she has, Weasel Girl is a fighting ninja who can beat Usagi without any problems. She'll throw her Tobi Kunai and Usagi would be down instantly. Also she has a better leadership ability since she was temporarily the Oniwabanshu Okashira while Aoshi was preparing to fight Kenshin at Shishio's HQ. She's a lot like Yuffie (Final Fantasy 7) and a bit like Kaoru too. Shishio Makoto was one of the best villains and toughest opponents (unless you count Yukishiro Enishi who appears in the Jinchuu Arc in the Manga). The RK movie was really good BTW.
Nana (-shi)- Thank you for reading this and Ah! My Sempai. I see you've started to get into RK and managed to see the reasons behind the compatibility of the two characters ^_^;; It is weird to say that I'm going to quit Sailormoon crossovers when I actually haven't – YET. Guess I still have some Makoto crossover adventures to release, don't I? O.o
Sarien- The idea of a catfight is tempting but I wouldn't really write it. Sure Misao has a temper, which makes her look funny like super-deformed Kaoru, however I'm certain she can move on. I think I'd overdo things around the conflict. I'm going to try to keep the respect among Misao, Aoshi and Makoto in place. You know Kaoru, Misao and Makoto have something in common – they're tomboys who fight and at times strive to be feminine ^_^. The prospect of marriage may not be used at all so don't worry about that idea you accidentally gave away in your review. Thank you for providing a nice review and understanding my chapter planning - although it can be incorrect most of the time *embarrassed chuckle*.
