Two of a Kind (prologue)
By: Vash-chan aka Makoto Almasy
Rating: PG (a bit of swearing included)
Summary: Card Captor Sakura x Sailormoon x Yu Gi Oh short story. When Makoto meets up with an old friend, she finds he has changed a little and has a problem on his mind.
Disclaimer: Card Captor Sakura, Yu Gi Oh and Sailormoon are not mine. The fanfic itself is my property though.
AN: Constructive criticism is welcome. If anyone is *inappropriately* OOC or the story sounds very similar to someone else's then let me know.
Timeline: There really isn't one for this story.
Onee-chan/Nee-chan – older sister
Onii-chan/Nii-chan/Nii-sama – older brother
Imouto-chan – younger sister
****
Makoto stifled a loud yawn. Her eyes were fighting the powerful sunshine coming down to attack the top of her head while she strolled down the pavement. It had been a long day for her. Having to get up at seven o'clock in the morning and meet up with her sister Sakura [1] for a day trip in Tokyo was enough to leave her exhausted from top to bottom. True it was Makoto's idea to go on a 'sisterly' trip to begin with but Makoto never expected her day to last this long and fill her up with so much fatigue. What made it more tiring for her was the fact it was extremely hot. But that was no surprise since it was the summer season and a long vacation for lots of children.
Throughout the day Makoto had troubling catching up with her younger sister each time she ran off excitedly. Sakura's genki personality could sometimes go over the top. However Makoto had expected to see her younger sister to act in this way since, like many school children, she was happy it was the summer vacation. It meant plenty of time for enjoyment before school reopened. Young kids these days never wanted to waste any of their time when it came to holidays and perhaps the hardworking ones deserved a break from listening to the teachers in the classroom for many hours.
Feeling a tug on her sleeve, Makoto turned to her left and, crouching down slightly, met Sakura's gaze. Touya Nii-chan was right about one thing. His sisters really did have the same eyes. They each had bright emerald irises that held a strange sort of power inside. You either were frightened of their stares or were mesmerised by them. If anyone dealt with Makoto in a fight, they were likely to settle within the former. Makoto had a past reputation of being called a crazy Karate girl in a previous school and could sometimes scare the hell out of thugs with her sharp glares. With Sakura, she was perhaps the latter. Makoto had noticed how Syaoran blushed a lot whenever her sister looked at him closely. At times the Chinese boy wasn't able to do anything except look back into Sakura's eyes in awe.
"Yes?" Makoto answered, forcing her eyes to stay open. Her eyebrows rose when she saw her Imouto tilt her head in wonder.
"Mako Nee-chan, are you tired?" Sakura asked, growing a little worried.
The taller brunette's head pushed back a little. She was surprised by the query being given to her. "No."
"You are, aren't you?" Sakura pointed out. "You've been yawning a lot since we left the fairground so that must mean you are really tired."
Makoto smiled innocently. So much for lying to her younger sister. It seemed like Sakura was going to have sharper eyes than her soon by the time she reached her older sibling's age. "I admit I'm worn out from having so much fun today. You sure don't look tired, do you?"
The smaller brunette shook her head. How much energy did this little cherry blossom have? Was her physical stamina better? "Mako Nee-chan can I have some more of those chocolate chip cookies?"
"Huh? Sakura-chan we ate lunch just an hour ago," Makoto reminded her.
"I know but…" Sakura's stomach suddenly grumbled. She flustered and her cheeks became a rosy colour as she giggled embarrassedly in her throat. Being the only person to have heard that sound, Makoto grinned albeit with understanding. Looked like her younger sister had a worthwhile excuse to say she wanted to eat something. Maybe the candy floss they had earlier today wasn't enough for the little Cherry Blossom. "Sorry." Sakura added, smiling sheepishly.
"It's okay, Imouto," Makoto answered. "Let's go find a free bench to eat the leftover cookies then, yeah?" She was pleased with the genki façade that had returned on her Imouto's face as soon as she said that. As she removed herself from her crouching position, the seventeen year old schoolgirl held Sakura's petite hand firmly in hers before resuming their stroll down the street. The noise level in town had dropped dramatically since the fairground closed an hour ago. Everyone else must have the same problem as Makoto. Tired and unable to move from running with the younger children to join them on various rides. That would probably explain the unusually peaceful atmosphere spreading down the town. If it was any quieter, Juuban could easily become a desert. Or even a ghost town. But of course that was impossible for a busy town to do. It would only be quiet like the desert if one was in the rural area. Juuban was always busy day and night.
Although she was trying her hardest not to yawn too much, Makoto had refused to fall asleep in the middle of the street by pure accident. It was very risky to do. What if she was walking with Sakura in the middle of the road and a speedy car just drove straight at them as soon as she shut her eyes into a slumber? Another helpless yawn escaped her lips but was quickly cut off when her attention went to something else. Something…interesting. Bringing her head back to the front, Makoto cast her eyes back to Sakura and stopped their walking to say, "Imouto-chan, I just need to check something out. Wait behind this sign, ok?"
"What's wrong?" Sakura queried, following her sister's eyes towards the newsagents that was just opposite an ice-cram van parked outside. There were three young boys, perhaps aged thirteen, talking to one another. But one of them seemed to be in pain and unable to get up from the ground. Sakura had an idea what Makoto was going to do.
"I won't be long, alright?" The older sister insisted, giving her Imouto a 'don't worry' smile before walking off and leaving Sakura to stand by a large advertisement on new ice-cream. Great! What she needed to wake her up was to stop a fight take place. Whether this situation was a good thing for her or not was something she couldn't decide. Makoto didn't like to make her name out of being a crazy Karate girl at school and had promised herself that she would cut down on the number of fights she had had over the past.
But these were immature kids she was looking at. It wasn't like she was going to give them a nose bleed now, was it? Just a serious telling off ought to make them stop whatever it was they were doing, right? The nose bleed only comes if they are asking for it She decided and marched over to towards the two boys taking it in turns to push the poor kid around and kick him in the stomach.
"Don't mind me butting in, do you boys?" she said to the two bullies, arms akimbo. From behind they could have passed as brothers because of their similar attire and hairstyle. But Makoto wasn't interested in whether these two were siblings or not. Her primary concern was to stop a pointless scene of robbery taking place with these boys. Approaching this scene at a closer level made the height differences a lot clearer for Makoto. The bullies were definitely tall for their age whilst the victim was someone who was probably around Makoto's waist level, almost the same height as Sakura's.
"You're not hurt, are you, kid?" she asked the victim, not taking her eyes off the two boys she had caught the attention of. The victim didn't seem to give her an answer so she beckoned to him again, only this time directing her gaze towards him. "Hey kid, are you…huh?" She unexpectedly gave herself a brief jolt of amazement when she spoke. She realised she recognised this boy sitting on the ground, which was what gave her that sudden jolt a minute ago. The long dark hair that could mistake him as a girl from the back and the largely innocent indigo eyes struck a chord in Makoto's system. All these physical features were indeed familiar to her. "M-Mokuba?" Her memory files all seemed vague right now, completely jumbled up due to the presence of these two boys standing in front of her. But still she remembered this boy's name. It looked like this little boy was having the same thought as her, curious to know whether he had seen this face from somewhere.
"Is that you, Mako-chan?" he asked in hesitation, his indigo eyes growing inquisitive. It seemed her suspicion on recognising this boy from somewhere had confirmed her thoughts. Very few people, particularly strangers she had never met for long, would call her Mako-chan unless she got to know them for a while longer. So she and this boy did know each other from the past. It was the same Mokuba who was related to Seto, one of her formerly good buddies whom she befriended after her parents were killed in that plane crash.
"Wow Mokuba I don't believe it. It's really you. I didn't recognise you because you've grown up," Makoto noticed. "How's your…" Her sweet talking tone melted immediately when she went back to the main subjects that was in the form of two boys with smug faces and who were about to leave without a sound. She then shouted, "Don't even think about getting away from me that easily. I want to know what you were doing to this poor kid here."
Mokuba pointed to the boy on Makoto's right. "That creep hit me real hard and stole my wallet. His friend kicked me in the stomach."
"It would have been better for you to do what we asked," the first boy said.
"Then you wouldn't be in pain, you stupid jerk," the second boy sniggered, though was cut off from cracking more jokes when Makoto gripped the front of his shirt so that she stared right into his eyes.
"Didn't your parents tell you it's wrong to pick on people or steal money from others?" she stated.
"Oh please, a girl like you wouldn't know anything about being tough," the second boy taunted. "Girls only know how to cry." Makoto stopped him from laughing sadistically by giving him a backhand slap to his cheek, sending him into a lamppost. The loud vibration from the smash echoed noisily and caused some heads to turn round. Wonderful! Now people were watching this spectacular show take place. Makoto's reputation as a crazy Karate girl was going to go up a level.
"W-whoa," the first boy said, stunned by the power in this girl's strike. If either one of these boys were going to keep mocking Makoto about being a girl she was going to break her cool and go all out. Not all girls cried ridiculously. That point wasn't the case with EVERY single female on this planet. Makoto didn't care if she was going to get a new reputation for sending thirteen-year old boys to hospital. Some people deserved to get a real beating for their rudeness.
"You better watch what you're saying," Makoto warned, her tone growing angrier at the boy who was still leaning against the lamppost, a hint of fright showing in his eyes. "You haven't seen what else I can do when I get mad."
"Yes," the click of new footsteps interrupted her speech, "you should watch what you're saying. You wouldn't like it when this girl gets angry now, would you?"
Everyone looked up at the sound of the new voice, clearly expressing a sign of amazement from the entrance of another figure. Makoto thought she had this situation under control through warning these bullies about enraging her. That is until this other person arrived. Half her mind was quite relieved that someone had noticed this little scene because it saved her from fully demonstrating her reputation as a Karate girl. Wasn't her popularity as a fighter suffering enough conflict already?
"Nii-sama!" Mokuba exclaimed in delight.
"Nii-sama?!" The second boy shrieked. "What the hell? Are you telling me this brat is Kaiba's brother?! Holy…"
"I suggest you give my little brother back his money before this girl right here takes you out on the spot," The newly arrived figure said in a slow voice, which was capable of making people squirm in fear. Makoto was stunned by the direct reference to her and was about to deny how she wasn't a vicious fighter as people made her out to be - but the new person went on. "This girl has a reputation on beating boys till they cry their eyes out. Would you like that to happen to you or…" Placing his palms together, he interlocked all ten fingers till a slight crack was heard, "…would you prefer to get personally beaten down by *me*, Kaiba Seto? To be honest I don't mind taking you out myself, since you intended to HURT my little brother."
Makoto clumsily failed to notice the two boys whimper simultaneously from the way Kaiba Seto cracked his fingers. She was far too preoccupied with observing this guy in the flesh. Was this really the Seto she remembered from the past? The resemblance between the past and present Seto was uncanny however this person standing nearby was different. The way he stood was of arrogance and pride. These aspects could be spotted in his attire (long grey trench coat, dark trousers and a black shirt) and they showed he was a man of wealth; no doubt coming from the fact he was the owner of Kaiba Corporation. His eyes seemed cold and angered with the world around him. Surely this couldn't be the kind brother who cared deeply for Mokuba. It just didn't look right. But other than the cold façade he showed to the world, Makoto had to admit he was still good-looking and it wouldn't be a surprise if there was a very popular fan club dedicated to this rich boy.
She could see why these two bullies were shaking a little. It was the stare in his dark blue orbs that intimidated them, not just the crack of his fingers. His stare was screaming 'Don't mess with me or you'll be sorry', which was what Makoto herself demonstrated half the time in her early days at Juuban High School.
"Uh here, y-your brother can have his money back." the first boy dropped the stolen wallet and went over to help his friend up. "Are you okay, man?"
"No wonder that girl hit me hard. She's a fighting maniac," the second boy moaned, furious to have been struck by someone he falsely assumed was a weakling.
"I heard that Kaiba can be a tough guy with his fists and not just in duelling. It's best we get outta here and not mess with him or that girl, huh?"
"No kidding."
Seto snorted as he watched the two boys walk past him. What a bunch of cowards they were, picking on someone who was feebler than them, especially when it was his own brother who was the victim. His angry thoughts dissolved as soon as he heard a familiar voice beckon to him. The scowl around his face softened when he recognised his younger brother standing to his left.
"Thanks a lot, Nii-sama," Mokuba said.
"Any time, Mokuba," Seto replied and placed his hand on his brother's shoulder.
"Nii-sama, you know I can take care of myself, right? I just didn't see this coming, you know?"
"Of course I do. Just remember to be careful when you're on your own."
It really is Seto-kun Makoto thought happily. Who else did she know was this caring to his younger brother? This was the Seto she admired all right. It looked like he hadn't changed since they departed in different directions. Seto's sapphire irises turned from his younger sibling's face towards the tall auburn haired girl standing patiently at a small distance. How could he forget she was watching him?
"Onee-chan, are those bullies gone yet?" Sakura suddenly appeared behind her sister, startling the latter for a moment and causing two pairs of eyes to look at the smaller brunette in awe. Makoto was tempted to tell her off for not waiting until her big sister came back to pick her up once the little fight ended but it seemed her mind was more focused on other things. Namely with the brown haired boy whose dark blue irises were staring in surprise at the two girls with the same coloured eyes. Makoto knew what Seto was thinking without having to ask him what was on his mind.
"I think we need to talk," She then suggested to him. He couldn't agree any more.
TBC