AN: Long time no see! I'm back!! *sweat drop* Sorry I took so long to update this story. I was sort of having a writer's block. But I think that I'm okay now. *grin* So, I hope that you'll all enjoy this chapter. And happy holidays!
Thanks to: Angelight88 ( I'm glad that you liked my pathetic attempts at humour ^_~.), Ma-chan (I'm practically on a sugar high everyday, so don't worry about it), a fan (Sugoi! You're like me, I'm happy as long as Usagi ends up with a pilot! *smirks* I think that the nickname is perfect for Mamoru.), bunnie, Wingzero Girl, Meio-chan, Aya_mikaga2002, TA, Shibobwa shingami, Usagi Asia Maxwell, SA2 (I think that I'll have to hid Mamo-baka from you…still need the idiot for later chapters ^_~.), Tenshi-chan (Thanks for recommending the story to Meio-chan ^_^), Aidenn (let me guess…WK?), Celestial Sailor Pluto (there will be more of Setsuna in this, don't worry), Usa-chan, adb (you'll know shortly), Psycho Little Demon, Silver Ray (humm…I wonder why so many people hate Mamo-baka? Not that I'm complaining ^.^;;;), JLSCORPIO78, and Sairys Skyewind.
Disclaimer: Don't own anything!
Chapter 7
The soft sunlight filtered through the white curtains fell across two sleeping figures on the couch, as the door closed and the Perfect Soldier finally came home after spending a whole night in the Preventer's building. He saw with approval, the security changes that took place while he was gone. It was good to know that his braided partner was useful for something.
Hiiro looked down in amusement as he heard a familiar snore. Sharing the narrow couch comfortably, gold and chestnut hair spilled everywhere. Usagi was snugly tucked under Duo's chin, while the braided boy hugged the bunny tightly in his embrace. The two looked adorable together. The scene made the cold soldier smile a little, before a wicked idea took over his mind.
Duo was still in dreamland, fantasizing a bikini clad Usagi running towards him on the beach. The dream Usagi jumped into his waiting arms laughing, and gave him a deep passionate kiss, before looking up at him with love filled sapphire eyes. "Aishiteru Duo…"
"Duo," Suddenly the voice changed from her soft melodic tone to a deeper and nasal voice. The speaker was also shaking him roughly.
"Hun? What? Aishiteru Usa-chan," the braided boy replied sleepily before he lazily opened one amethyst eye, and promptly became fully awake, as he stared into the barrel of a familiar gun. The owner of the gun had a very pissed off look in his Prussian blue eyes.
"Did you have a nice dream Duo?" the Perfect Soldier asked in his monotone, but secretly he was trying hard not to laugh, as the God of Death scrambled to get off the couch, but was pulled back by Usagi's arms. The blonde girl frowned in her sleep as her pillow and stuffed bunny tried to escape from her. Tightening her arms around Duo, she put a leg over his body, efficiently locking the poor braided boy from moving.
"Care to explain to me how you ended up in the same bed as my imouto?" the safety clicked off.
"Hiiro buddy! I can explain everything," the nervous wreck previously known as the pilot of Deathscythe backed away as far as the bunny allowed him to. "I swear nothing happened! See, we still have our clothes on! You don't want your imouto to wake up holding her dead boyfriend do you?" Duo pleaded, giving Hiiro his best pathetic puppy dog look.
Ignoring the braided boy, Hiiro didn't even blink as he pulled the trigger and…
Nothing happened. The braided pilot opened one tightly shut eye to see the other boy smirking down at him, holding an empty gun. "Don't scare me like that Hiiro!! You almost gave me a premature heart attack!!! What if there was a bullet in your gun? You would've have killed you're best friend, and your imouto's future husband!"
"Hn baka. What makes you think that Usa-chan is going to marry you? And plus, unlike you, I am THE Perfect Soldier, I don't make the kind of stupid mistakes you do," Hiiro retorted, annoyed that his abilities were doubted.
"Yeah right," the braided one snorted, before remembering where his friend had gone the previous night. "So, did you find anything useful from the card and flowers?"
Immediately returning to his serious self, the pilot of Wing Zero handed Duo who was still being used as a pillow and mattress, a sheet of paper.
"Another organization?! Oh man! I thought that those creeps got the idea after we destroyed the Barton Foundation and Mariemaia. You would think that they are smart enough to know that they can't take over the colonies and Earth by now," the braided boy complained as he crumbled the piece of paper in his hand. "If they are welling to repeat the same mistakes again, then I guess that Deathscythe will have a new playground to play in then!"
"Hn," the Perfect Soldier agreed. "But have you noticed, there's something different about this organization?"
"What? Its aim is still to take over everything ne?"
"Yeah, but remember with OZ, the White Fang, and Mariemaia, they all started their plans by building vast amounts of mobile suits. This new organization CT is not building suits or dolls, they are looking everywhere for four objects. And beside that, the leader is a young man by the name of Chiba Mamoru, who recently disappeared from the main base, but who was also rumoured to be seen here in Sank."
"Wait a minute, did you just say Mamoru?" Duo asked in anger.
"Yeah, why?"
"That's the same bastard that Setsuna warned us about last night remember? And if he's been spotted here in Sank, then…"
"Then we have to eliminate him," Hiiro finished for the other boy, eyes radiating hatred for their target.
"Did we get any other information from the doctors or the Preventer headquarter?" Duo asked frowning, ideas of torturing Mamoru to death already forming in his head.
"Yeah, we got two missions. One is to infiltrate CT's base in Asia to download some information concerning their secret weapon. The other mission is to find the four objects that Chiba Mamoru is looking for, and retrieve it before he gets them," the Perfect Soldier explained, reading off of the mission outline.
"Sounds simple enough, but what is the bastard looking for? Gundanium ore?" the braided pilot asked curious.
A strange look crossed Hiiro's face, before he answered. "A mirror, a sword, a staff, a glaive, and a crystal."
After the words left his mouth, a small noise from the sleeping bunny made the pilots stop their discussion.
"We better discusses this in private with the others. We can't get Usagi involve in this," Hiiro whispered, to his partner.
Duo nodded, before looking at the clock, almost time for class anyways. Plying the Shinimegami's arms from his waist, he bent down and quietly whispered in the sleeping girl's ear.
Usagi slowly opened her eyes, as the soft breathing tickled her ear, making it impossible to sleep any longer. "What…Am I late?!?!?! Oh no! I'm late aren't I?" The bunny jumped up out of habit, not bothering to look at the clock. If she had, she would have noticed that she was half an hour early. Grabbing her jacket and the end of Duo's hair by accident, Usagi dragged the pilot to the bathroom, not realizing that what she was doing in her dash to get ready before she was late.
Hiiro quickly set his stop watch, counting down the seconds until…
"Hentai!!!! Ecchi!!!!" The scream echoed throughout the whole campus, as a grinning Duo was literally kicked through the bathroom door by a naked Usagi. (AN: Sorry I guess I watched too much Love Hina) It turned out, that the blonde girl didn't know that she had dragged Duo into the bathroom with her by accident, until he made a noise as she was taking off her clothes to take her shower.
The still dazed pilot made his way dreamily to the dinner table where his stack of pancakes were waiting for him. "Wow…." for once, the food was left uneaten, as a puddle of drool formed on the table when the images of Usagi's perfect nude body replayed in his head. A rough jerk on his braid brought the braided boy back to the reality. At first, Duo thought that it was Hiiro, punishing him for accidentally seeing Usagi naked, but the other pilot was still at the stove, quietly making Usagi's breakfast. Then if Hiiro was cooking, and Usagi was in the bathroom, that would only leave…Byakko, Usagi's pet tiger!
At that realization, the pilot 02 twisted sharply in his chair. And sure enough, the snow tiger was sitting behind him calmly, paw tangled in the long chestnut braid, while the end of Duo's hair was held in the tiger's mouth, soaked in the large cat's saliva.
"My beautiful hair!" the God of Death wailed out as he pulled his ruined braid from the playful tiger. "My baby is destroyed! How can the world be so cruel? My gorgeous hair is covered in tiger drool!!!!"
"Shut up Duo, your beginning to sound like Relena," Hiiro commented before tossing a dish towel to the crying boy. "You're lucky that he only held it in his mouth. What would you do if he decided to chew it off?"
At that suggestion, Byakko grinned (if it was possible for a tiger) displaying a row of gleaming razor sharp teeth, at which Duo paled and hugged his braid closer.
~*~*~*~
"Come on Usagi, I already apologized ten times!" Duo pleaded, kneeling on the ground by Usagi's desk.
The group of gundam pilots and the Shinimegami all made it to class on time, for a change. Now they were *quietly* chatting away as they waited for the calculus teacher, who was late.
"What did you do this time Maxwell?" Wufei asked smirking.
"None of your business Wu-man," the braided one retorted, and turned to the blonde girl before the Chinese boy could blow up. "Usagi-chan, you're not being fair. I already said that I was sorry for seeing you naked, but you were the one who dragged me in to the bathroom in the first place."
The bunny was silent, but a blush graced her cheeks as she remembered.
"If you are still mad at me, then I'll make a deal with you," Duo suggested. Usagi finally turned to look at him, a little curious.
"Since I saw you without your clothes, then in return, I'll let you see me naked too. How's that for a deal? An eye for an eye," the sly God of Death whispered in a husky voice in the bunny's ear. Poor Usagi was red from head to foot at the mental image of Duo stripping in front of her.
"How about it Usa-chan…" a hand moved down to the first button of his grey uniform. "If you don't say anything, then I'll start right here. I'm sure that the other girls will be interested too…" (AN: Anyone else interested? *giggles* But as Aidenn-chan said, it's purely for scientific reasons ^_~.)
The other pilots watched in wonder as the flush deepened on the goddess's cheeks. Her head was bowed, so she wouldn't be able to see Duo's teasing face. It was the first time that they had ever seen the calm and confident girl be embarrassed about anything, especially something the braided baka would say.
Another button was undone, and the bunny was shaking with the urge to look up. "Are you going to accept my apology Usa-chan? Or do you want to see everything right now here?"
She couldn't take it anymore, snapping up her head, she looked straight into Duo's laughing amethyst eyes. "Duo! You hentai!!!" She screamed before a fist came and kissed the braided pilot's face.
Despite the huge red mark on his cheek, the pilot of Deathscythe grinned happily skipped to his seat between Hiiro and Wufei. "See guys, what did I tell you. No one can resist Shinigami." The braided one bragged.
"Yeah Maxwell, that's why you have a bruise the size of the moon's crater on your cheek," Wufei answered lazily, thinking back to the moment when the braided baka was punched by the weak onna.
Duo was about to open his mouth again for a come back when the door opened, to allow Relena and a tall black haired blue eyed man in. The noisy class immediately fell silent as a table was knocked over.
All the pilots stared in shock at the standing Usagi. Her body was as taunt as a violin string, vibrating with unleashed rage, as the blonde girl glared at the man in front of the classroom. The dark haired man smirked at the reaction of the bunny, not caring that he were was other students watching his actions, he quietly formed a word in mouth. "Mine"
The gundam pilots all watched in confusion when the new teacher seemed to ignore everyone and only looked at the standing girl. Usagi slowly raised her arm in the new person's direction, a faint silver light glowed in her palm, before it disappeared at Relena's voice.
"Tsukino Usagi!" the annoying voice cut across the blonde girl's trance. "What are you doing?
"I'm sorry Mr. Chiba. I'm ashamed to have you see such disrespectful behaviour from one of the students in my academy."
The g-boys tensed as they heard the name of the new person. Could he be…
"This is Mr. Darien Chiba," Relena introduced the new teacher. "He's going to be the Calculus teacher from now on."
Darien…Mamoru, Duo and Hiiro thought. They both had the same last name, Chiba, could Darien be the same person as Mamoru?
"Don't worry Ms. Dorlian. I'll make sure that there will be no more of this kind of behaviour from Ms. Tsukino, after I take over," Mr. Chiba smiled darkly, looking at Usagi, who was slowly lowering her arm, and kept her fists tightly clutched at her sides.
Relena nodded, and left the room, but not before giving the golden haired girl a triumphant look.
"Ms. Tsukino, please sit down, and let me warn you in advance, you will be punished the next time that you are disrespectful to your elders," Mr. Chiba warned as he began the class.
The bunny sat down stiffly and pulled her desk back up. Behind her, she could hear the others gasp as they saw the small trickle of dark blood, falling from the wound her sharp nails made on her palm.
~*~*~*~
After two long and boring hours of learning basic differentiations, the restless class was finally released. Within two minutes not a single soul was left within the large classroom.
"Guys, I have to go back for something. Go ahead without me. I'll see you guys in Home Ed later," the bunny said as the group walked down the hallway towards their next class, which was Home Education, under a Kino Makoto. Without waiting for the guys' approval, the Shinimegami dashed down the hall, leaving behind five confused pilots.
Following her uncanny instinct, Usagi slowed down her neck breaking pace as she neared the deserted hall where the assassin was killed the day before. Looking around the dark hall carefully, the shinimegami cautiously made her way forward, where the dark presence stood waiting for her.
"I knew that you would come," the figure stepped out the shadows to reveal Mr. Chiba.
"So it was you who killed the low class demon yesterday Mamoru," Usagi kept her voice emotionless, despite the butterflies in her stomach.
"Of course. I just got here yesterday and I saw someone trying to take your life. I wouldn't want my beautiful doll's perfection to be ruined by such a lowly creature, now would I?" Mamoru walked close and put a possessive hand against the blonde girl's cheek.
Usagi jumped back, and slapped his hand away in disgust. So he hadn't known that she was a shinimegami, or her new powers. The goddess smirked to herself. He would get a lovely surprise if they ever meet in battle. "I assume that you are also the head of the organization CT, correct?" Contrary to what her nii-chan and Duo thought, the bunny was already awake when Hiiro came home that morning. She was pretending to be asleep to enjoy the warmth of being held in Duo's arms, when Hiiro announced that there was a new threat. "And I'm guess that CT stands for Crystal Tokyo."
"My, my Usako. You seem to be smarter after your rebirth," Mamoru chuckled. "You are correct. I am the head of the Crystal Tokyo organization. I was never able to realize my dream of ruling in the twentieth century because of your annoying senshi. Now that they have been reborn without their memories and powers, it will just be child's play to take over this world which is still recovering from the previous wars. Wouldn't it be wonderful to control the whole universe Usako? Come back to me, and together, we will be invincible!"
The shinimegami sneered in hatred. Mamoru didn't know that she was just a spirit using a temporal body? He still thought that like the rest of the senshi and him, she was reborn. "Leave me out of your sick little plans. The gundam pilots are not going to let you go through with it!"
"Usako, do you really think that those five boys will be able to stop me? After my secret weapon is finished, it'll just be a matter of seconds before both Earth and the colonies surrender. That's why I'm here right now, you'll be smart to come back to me. I'll make sure that you won't be hurt in the crossfire. I still love you Usako, despite what you did to me in our last life time. And I'm sure that you still love me…" the dark haired man said drawing Usagi into his arms.
"I… love… you?" the blonde girl slowly spat out. "What makes you think that? I wish that instead of giving you the clean death, I should have left you alive, and let you taste the living hell that you put me through! I'd rather die again than to go back to you Mamoru!" the shinimegami growled out.
"Are you sure Usako? I'm much more powerful than I was before. If you won't come back to my side on your own free well, then I'm sure that I can arrange something between the senshi and I…" Mamoru smirked. "I'm sure that you still remember what happened to them the last time that you refused me?" To emphasize his words, a series of flash back slammed into Usagi's minds, at Mamoru's mental command.
A silent scream left Usagi's mouth as thousands of images of her past life flied through her head, pounding on her fragile consciousness.
"I'm sure that you don't want the same thing to happen to the senshi again, do you Usako? And the pilots too. I've noticed that you've become close with them, especially with the pilots 01 and 02," Mamoru chuckled as he stopped his mental assault, leaving the blonde girl to slide to the floor, gasping for air.
"I'm warning you Mamoru, if you ever dare to touch them again, I'll personally make sure that you'll burn in hell for all eternity," Usagi looked up, her hard sapphire eyes drilling into Mamoru.
"I won't touch them if you'll come back to me," the man said kneeling down by the bunny. "I know that you still love me Usako. You've proved that yourself. You've kept your hair in the odango style that I've always loved, isn't that evidence enough that you still want to please me like the old days?"
"You sick bastard! You think that I kept my hair like this to prove that I still like you?" The shinimegami twisted out of Mamoru's grasp. "Let me prove to you just how much I love you then…" Pulling up her uniform pants, her hand grabbed the small dagger that's held against her calf. Without any hesitation, the sharp edge sliced through the two golden ponytails, cutting the two waterfalls of hair right below her shoulders. "If you ever go near the senshi or pilots, you will suffer the same consequences." The blonde girl said holding the cut off hair in front of Mamoru's face. A small flame grew from the palm of her hand, and quickly ate away the handful of blonde hair, leaving nothing but a pile of ashes.
Not answering, Mamoru silently turned away, and disappeared in the shadows. After he was gone, Usagi slowly rose to her feet, and pulled out the odangos. Her hair now fell a little below her shoulders.
"Usagi?"
The blonde girl turned to look at the person who called her name. Hiiro stared in shock when he took in his imouto's new appearance. Not only was her hair cropped shorter, tear stains marred the perfection of her face. "What happened?"
Without answering, the bunny ran into the Perfect Soldier's arms as the tears fell. Rocking her in his arms gently, Hiiro slowly stroked the golden hair.
"I heard what you told Duo this morning nii-chan," Usagi softly confessed through her sobs. "Mamoru is here already in Sanq. He's the new teacher, Darien Chiba."
"Shh, don't worry Usagi. We'll take care of him. He's not going to hurt you anymore," the Perfect Soldier whispered, uncharacteristically soft.
"No! That's exactly what he wants. I don't want you to be hurt because of me. He's even more dangerous then before. Please, I don't want to lose you and the others, like I did with my other friends and family. Promise me! Promise me that no matter what happens to me, you and Duo-chan won't go after him!" Usagi cried, pulling out of Hiiro's arms and staring into his eyes.
Hiiro sighed. "Why are you so afraid of him Usagi? What did he do to you to make you so scared of him?"
"You wouldn't believe me even if I told you," the bunny smiled bitterly.
"How do you know if you haven't tried?" turning away, he pulled her out of the school.
TBC…
AN: I know that it's short, and a little confusing. More will be explained in later chapters. But if you are totally confused about what's going on, you can always email me ^_^.