Ciao!!!
Yay! Signing in with chapter 2 of Shadow's Light. I feel like I'm on a roll writing this story, and it's mostly thanks to those wonderful reviews I'm getting. They're addictive!
In this chapter there will be more characters popping up- and did I catch a hint of a plot there? Must be an illusion… I'm notorious for not getting to the plot of a story until the fifth chapter or so @_@… well, I guess there are surprises everywhere!
Chibi's actually done rambling for now (don't worry, the rambling will continue once you've reached the bottom of this page), so…
Enjoy the story!
"…." Denotes talking
….. denotes thinking
*~* means a change of scenery (either temporal or local, I think which one of those will be clear) has taken place
Disclaimer: I do in no way own any rights, moral or others, to Rurouni Kenshin, its characters or plot. Characters other than the characters from Rurouni Kenshin bearing any resemblance to persons living or dead are purely coincidental. I do not intend to make any profits out of this story, it's written for entertainment purposes only and any attempt by persons natural or legal to make money from it in any way is not in accordance with this author's express wishes.
Chapter 2 Approaching DangerWhile it might not be unusal for males to be attracted to females- it being engraved into the very core of what was deemed normal human behavior by the irresistible forces of biology- it had never been heard of a males sitting in the females section of the Camp's dining hall. Thus, the young doctor lost in her thoughts could not have been more startled by the sudden appearance of a male body beside her. Not to mention the strange sound the male produced when she sharply gazed at him. A sound she would have recognized among thousands, and one that finally triggered the memory of where to put a certain red-haired man whom she had spied this morning and who was now sitting next to her, calm and composed as though he had not just made a mad dash across fifteen feet of open space without having been spotted once.
"Oro!?!" He squeaked again, losing some of his calm composure as her lips curled up in a smile she could not hide.
"Good morning," she replied evenly, mirth twinkling in her brown eyes, her hands flirtingly brushing a strand of her long, straight black hair behind her ears.
"G- good morning," he stuttered only a little more coherently than before. Poor guy. Her beauty must have stunned him into submission.
Finally, he got a grip on himself. His whole body tensed into watchful alertness, his eyes, which had been unguarded when she first caught sight of him became harder and the deep violet color lightened considerably. He deliberately moved closer to her while at the same time hunching down deeper over his bowl.
"Miss Takani, I presume," he whispered.
To say she was stunned was an understatement. There she had been flirting with a guy who appeared out of nowhere and even knew her name. Talk about coincidence… he had to have wanted to meet her so badly that he had been watching her closely and had to have been inquiring about her, so as to be able to call her by her name.
"Are you Takani Megumi or not, please?" he asked politely, his voice barely above the human auditory threshold.
"Y-yes, that is my name," she answered. The guy actually acted as though they were a pair of lovers whispering to each other while resting in the sunshine on a beautiful green meadow. And I am not that meek! she reminded herself, I am an agent!
"And who are you?"
"I am Himura Kenshin, at your service."
"Huh? What do you mean by 'at your service'?"
Kenshin didn't know if he should be relieved or annoyed at the fact that she obviously didn't know him. He knew of her story, having been to some extent- all right, to quite some extent- involved in it. She, however, seemed to know nothing of him or about him.
She had only recently joined the Agency, soon after she had had a run-in with the medicine mafia trying to convince her to shell out more of the morphine used to treat cancer patients in the last stadium to give them a little relief from their constant pain. She hadn't realized that one or two of those on the list for the dosage were not really requiring the medicine but were mafia goons collecting the medication and selling it to drug abusers on the black market. When she had realized it had been too late. She had been given the option to either cooperate with the mafia or die. After a few weeks she wished she had chosen dying because they then had something to blackmail her wish- her willingly entering into relations with them.
When she had tried to flee the Agency had found her and taken her in, protected her. How the mafia guys had ended up dead she didn't know, they had not yet deemed her trustworthy enough to tell her this, but she had heard rumors that it had been the Agency's very best team of assassins who had paid them a visit. There were whispers of a tragedy- but those were so faint she didn't even pretend to notice them.
He didn't answer her, the reason for which became clear a second later when a whole troop of guards marched past them. He seemed to shrink into his beige uniform, to adopt a more meekly character just by slightly shifting his posture. None of the guards spared either him or Megumi a glance.
"Well, Mr. Himura, what do you mean by 'at your service'?" she repeated her question.
"What is going on, Megumi?"
Suddenly, Kenshin found himself opposite two curious women. I bet Shishou would have a comment ready, but I don't that I haven't he thought of his predicament.
"Good morning, Miss Kamiya." He tried to keep his face straight. Not an easy feat considering the young woman was doing her best to make him fidget under an intense sapphire scrutiny.
"Kenshin, you are a man, aren't you?" Kaoru asked.
Kenshin sighed and ignored her comment. She was half asleep, however, she constituted a risk. He had to resort to code-speech, for her safety as well as his.
"You know my employer," he answered cryptically to Agent Takani's question, concentrating on whether the marching guards were talking among themselves. They were, as was to be expected, not. Damn his luck.
"Megumi, you know Kenshin?" Kaoru was determined not to let this strange coincidence slip.
"She does not. But I know her, that I do," replied the agent without thinking, and cursed himself a second later. Why couldn't he just let Megumi answer?
"Oh, I see. You're a colleague of hers, aren't you? And you recognized her and wanted to talk to her again!"
"It's something of that sorts, that it is" Kenshin said. Kaoru smiled brilliantly, not in the least concerned that an exuberant mimic like this might attract unwanted attention.
"Great! I bet the two of you studied medicine together, didn't you?"
Both Kenshin and Megumi decided it was much better not to answer to that. Kenshin because he didn't want to tell any more than he already had, and Megumi because she honestly hadn't figured out yet what to make of him. She was confused, and her thoughts ran more towards assuming that he was sent to interrogate her than towards any other possibility. Her confusion shone clearly through her liquid brown eyes, and the agent could also feel it rolling in waves from her.
Kenshin longed to grab Agent Takani and have a little private talk with her to clear up all that was unclear, without the interruptions of guards and noisy neighboring girls. Instead, the red-haired agent threw a quick glance at the male workers who were already getting ready to depart. He didn't have any more time left. He had to wager everything on a parting comment, and while he didn't particularly enjoy having to do so it should not be too risky provided Agent Takani knew how to deal with surprises.
"I have got a question," he began in his normal quiet voice, "have you caught onto what is going on today, Agent Takani?" The last was breathed rather than spoken, lest Kaoru might hear it.
Megumi jumped. Surprise so intense it almost made Kenshin cringe was flooding his senses. Apparently she didn't really expect the Agency to send a retrieval commando this soon. Thankfully, she had cleared her face of any emotion beforehand, and since most people didn't possess Kenshin's abilities to gauge the one they were conversing with Kaoru shouldn't be able to catch onto them.
She was scared half to death when Kenshin addressed her as an agent. To know this, he either had to be top-level Regime spy, or someone sent from the Agency to free her. Judging from his prior actions and heavily relying on gut instinct Megumi decided that this man had to be part of a rescue operation. "No, but I have been wondering as well." She choked.
Kaoru perked up. What were those two talking about? She scooted closer to Megumi and listened in on the rest of the conversation.
"Maybe you should ask the other women and then tell me what you found out, that you should," Kenshin suggested. Megumi nodded her consent to his plan. After all, if he was part of an operation to retrieve a lost agent he had to be pretty experienced and good at what he was doing, or so she thought. Kaoru nodded as well.
"You have noticed something is amiss? But you've only been in the Camp for what- a day or so?"
Kenshin cursed her perceptiveness. Thankfully, the first colonna of males chose this very moment to leave the dining hall, and he was quick to grasp this opportunity to pull out.
"I will go now, that I will," the red-haired man declared in his soft voice. The women looked as if they seriously considered tying him up in order to keep him for questioning. Kenshin didn't want to risk that. Putting on a burst of his infamous speed he scooted back to the male's area, shooting a parting glance at them over his shoulder.
"That was fast." Kaoru's jaw hung slack.
"That it was," Megumi amended.
*~*
The almost palpable tension in the air- for which the fast approaching thunderstorm was not entirely responsible- made the fine hairs at the back of Sanosuke Sagara's back stand up. Carrying his twenty-third bucketload of mud he lazily trotted downhill when he caught sight of a familiar red head sloshing through a puddle a few feet in front of him. Twin ends of his red bandanna tailing him he sped up, eager to enter into an interesting conversation with the man he had met the day before. Sanosuke knew a fighter when he saw him, his own experience in that field, after all, being the main reason why he had landed within the confines of the Camp. And that guy, whose name had never caught, exuded the underhanded air of confidence only those absolutely sure of their abilities had.
"Yo!" he called out.
"Hello, Mister Sanosuke," was the reply. Strangely enough the redhead seemed to have known it was him behind his back- he hadn't even broken his stride to see who was calling him, and after the fragment of a conversation they had had the day before no normal person should be able to remember another's voice with perfect clarity. Sanosuke grinned to himself- there was more to the shrimp than met the eye, and he was determined to find him out, and if he was a fighter, he would fight him. More fun than he had had in months! His excitement was so great it made him oblivious to his surroundings, and it was only thanks to the lightning quick movements of a certain strange man that he didn't land face-first on the muddy stone slate that had caused him to slip in the beginning.
"You should look out a little, that you should, Mister Sanosuke," chided Kenshin, unaware of how similar this conversation was to the one Megumi and Kaoru had had the day before.
"Just call me Sano- I ain't no Mister, and my name's too long anyways. And you're?"
"Kenshin. Himura Kenshin."
"Thanks, Kenshin. Say, you some kinda fighter?"
He noticed the subliminal stiffening of the red-haired man's back. "What makes you think I am, if I may ask?"
Sano grinned to himself. "You walk like one, and I heard rumors… back when I was a fighter myself."
"Well, I can't say anything as to whether or not those rumors are true, but I know a bit of self-defense," Kenshin was forced to admit.
"You up to a fight?" Sano's eyebrows rose hopefully.
"I do not wish to break too many rules, that I do not. I don't want to get into any problems, and fights usually mean problems, that they do," Kenshin reasoned. Sano snorted.
"If you're afraid to break the rules the rules will break you."
Kenshin simply walked along, pondering Sano's words. He felt the street fighter had in a single sentence stated the philosophy of a lifetime. He might seem crude, unrefined and a ruffian at first glance, but underneath all this he had an intuitive kind of wisdom, an understanding of how the world worked that made him a memorable person and a worthy friend.
Sano adjusted his pace to that of the much smaller man next to him, not that he had to slow down, it was just a more- gliding kind of walking than the street fighter's rocky strides. He wondered what occupied the redhead's mind since his eyes were glazed over in deep thought and had become more of a dark violet than the blue they had been when he had first met him. That guy was a mystery to him. His small frame should have made carrying mud all over the place a next to impossible task for the man, yet he didn't seem to strain in the least, thus making him closer to Sano himself in strength than what the street fighter had estimated. A big scar on the left side of his face marked him as someone who had seen combat yet Kenshin was unwilling to enter into a fight, something Sano, for whom fighting was a recreational activity, could not understand.
Since most of the men were too tired and overworked to even consider talking while doing their task the path was not as heavily guarded as the rest of the working areas. Most of them needed to save their breath in order to be able to climb the sharp incline at the hill's crest, but if anyone would want to have a conversation the path was where to have it, Kenshin mused. Should he ever have to plan anything with anyone he would do it here. And he was already almost certain he would offer this 'Sano' a chance to aid him and escape life and- ultimately- death at the Camp.
The air tingled with nervousness when the two men descended the hillslope for the umpteenth time in a row. The women were crouched lower over their troughs and the guards marched more sharply. Punishment was meted out more freely, the cries of those struck the only non-military sounds audible.
"What's going on there?" Sano asked, decidedly worried.
"I don't know, that I don't," Kenshin said. But I know it doesn't bode too well for us, that it doesn't, he added for himself. He didn't want to bet his life on it but he assumed the days' strange happenings had something to do with some sort of supervisor coming to visit. The work force seemed to have increased- he noticed several children among the women who had definitely not been there the day before, and the frantic pace at which everyone sorted through the mud spoke of some threat uttered should they appear to be too lazy or should it seem as if anything was out of order.
Adjusting his pace to a more wearily yet hasted shuffling Kenshin made his way through the rows of troughs, keeping an eye out for Agent Takani and that Kaoru girl. Sano on is heels he finally spotted them pretty far back, next to a spiky-haired youngster who, with hair a little younger and a few inches taller could have passed for Sano's brother. Kenshin jerked his head into their direction to show Sano where exactly he intended to deposit the mud. Since the further out in the field the trough was the less raw material reached it- nobody exactly cherished the thought of going a meter beyond what was absolutely required- there should not be a problem with his choice of delivery.
Sano soon realized Kenshin had a certain pair of women in mind while he went along. He wanted to make a sniding remark, but the guards that were all over the place proved to be a rather effective means of inhibiting his intentions. Kenshin unerringly wove through a throng of squatting women until he stood right next to a beautiful elegant one whose straight hair shone and whose sharp brown eyes had already spotted them. Sano blinked- her gaze was so calculating and for a moment he could have sworn there were little triangular fox ears attached to her head. In the twilight of the day, however, and on second glance, she was stunningly beautiful and didn't sport any strange animal-like appendages whatsoever.
Sano winked at her, but she didn't even see him as her eyes were all over his red-haired companion. A little crestfallen he looked at the woman beside his intended target. She was obviously a little younger and less womanly, but on the pro side she had the deepest sapphire eyes Sano had ever seen on a person. Of course they couldn't compare to molten chocolate fire and foxiness, but still…
"What's your name?" ha asked, silencing his rumbling voice as much as possible.
"Kamiya Kaoru. Call me Kaoru," she answered absently. Sano fumed when he saw what her attention was concentrated upon. What did that scrawny little man have that he had not? Little Missy and Foxy Woman were firmly hanging onto his lips while one of the most gorgeous men to walk the earth stood right next beside him!
"What are you doing, talking to Busu over there?" the youngster who squatted next to Kaoru suddenly spoke up in a very rude voice. The woman Sano had gotten to know as Kaoru actually took her eyes off Kenshin for a second to shoot the kid a killing glare, but refrained from any further action.
"Hey, kid, watch what you're saying!" Although he was not the greatest cavalier in the world Sano didn't feel like letting this boy insult the little female like that.
"I say what I want to, and Busu is always splashing me with mud. Too stupid to simply wash those stones out of it without doing so!" The boy bristled. This time Kaoru did react a little more violently, namely reaching over with a hand and bopping the boy on the head. The resulting sound was definitely hollow-sounding, and Sano chuckled.
"Better think about that statement again, kid!"
"I'm not a kid! My name's Myojin Yahiko, and I'm a descendent of a legendary Samurai!" was the answer whose volume was just a tad beneath a scream. The boy was really insulted now, and it took warning glances and pointing to the guards looking in their direction from all of the adults present to get him to shut up.
Kenshin smiled at the boys' antics and carefully emptied his second bucket into the trough to conceal the noises of their conversation. Agent Takani hadn't had any more success than he had in finding the reason for the hubbub in the Camp. He looked over to his taller companion. Sano had long since disposed of what he had been carrying and was only loitering around waiting for Kenshin to finish talking about whatever he was talking about.
"Oi! You gonna come some time today?" He was after all an ex-street fighter and as such entitled to a little impatience. The boy glared at him for that, but kept sifting through the mud without saying a word.
Kenshin frowned at the street fighter and continued listening to a rapidly talking Foxy Woman. Sano scowled. He wished her eyes were on him, and no, he wasn't above some petty jealousy. It was all right to be jealous. Hell, he had a right to be jealous! And he would do something to improve his situation right about- now!
"Oi, Kenshin! You not gonna introduce me to the pretty ladies?"
Kenshin blinked once, twice, and finally regained his posture- without even oro-ing once. "Oh. Sagara Sanosuke, this is Takani Megumi. Takani Megumi, this is Sagara Sanosuke, that he is. I believe Miss Kaoru introduced herself to you already, that I do."
Sano grinned his best and most winning grin at Foxy Lady, no, Megumi. "A pleasure to meet you. Call me Sano."
"I am Megumi." Her voice was calm and cool, controlled, refined, elegant- and the exact opposite of his own. Sano admired it as he had admired her beauty a moment earlier.
"We have no time left, that we have not," Kenshin stated, his eyes suddenly narrowed and a tint of a light golden color that hadn't been there before in them. "I believe we should leave you alone now immediately, that we should." The insistence behind his words was obvious, yet Sano wasn't willing to let the striking fox slip through his fingers now that he had met her. He stayed firmly rooted to the spot.
"Ken-san is right, you know… Rooster-head," Megumi chided when Sano didn't move a muscle.
That did the trick. The tall man bristled with anger. His hair electrified, muscles taut, face scrunched up in fury he was nearly jumping the woman.
"I am not a rooster-head, you… fox!"
It was thanks to Kenshin that the situation didn't escalate more. Blocking Megumi from Sano's view by gliding between the two in an impossibly fast motion did the trick. "Maa, maa, I don't think we should fight, that we should not. Sano, we have to go right now!"
Perplexed people looking at him as he raised his voice didn't take the strained urgency from his tense body. His eyes were rapidly shifting from pure violet to mostly amber gold. Something was approaching, and he'd rather not stick around until it was there. Why? He couldn't say, it was his instinct, his years of training and the unerring perception of his surroundings that told him to run, to hide from whatever was coming nearer by the second.
He started walking back to whence he had come from, measured, brisk strides quickly crossing the distance- at least the first two did before a wailing sounded from the loudspeakers installed around the working area and the Camp. After the wailing had died down a crackling voice came on air.
"All workers remain in their current position and be ready to greet our new overseer which has been transferred here thanks to the endless benevolence of our beloved Regime!"
Freezing, Kenshin for a second looked like a deer trapped in the headlights. Considering his options, he decided to go back to Kaoru, Megumi, Yahiko and Sano. The women as well as the boy had risen and were standing next to Sano- who seemed non too displeased with that- and the spiky-haired, grumpy-looking youngster Kenshin had noticed earlier. He would join them. Better to become invisible as part of a group of colorless slaves.
Only one hitch in his plan: this group of slaves was anything but colorless.
His reasoning told him he would not stick out as much among a group of oddballs. Red hair, after all, was nothing in comparison to Sano's inappropriate clothing, Megumi's looks, Yahiko's grumpy face (he still wasn't over Sano's "kid" comment) or Kaoru's eyes. Trying to calm himself even though his mind screamed for him to burst into action he stood next to Sano, eyes downcast, hiding his face behind the red curtain of his hair.
A troop of guards marched past, their arms swishing at their sides in unison as their boots imprinted upon the soil the statement that they were superior to the poor human beings flanking their path. Kenshin followed their movements out of the corner of his eyes, which had turned almost completely golden with only small flecks of violet interspersed in the amber as a reaction to him slipping more and more into the highly emotional mindset the adrenaline rush he was experiencing caused.
The second troop of guards was wearing parade uniforms. Kenshin could feel Sano next to him tense while Kaoru on his other side started trembling slightly. Reaching out with his honed senses the agent felt the agitation of almost everyone in the vicinity. Even the guards were not immune, their strides filled with a fear he could not find the cause of.
Then the blare of brass instruments flooded the air. The agent jumped slightly, the sound was almost too loud to bear. Composing himself, he let his shoulders drop a little to simulate tiredness and stood slightly off-balance. A small group of people, about five of them on horseback, was making its way along the path lined by workers bowing to them. Kenshin shuddered at the coldness and malice at least one of them exuded and quickly withdrew into himself as to not be spotted. Surrounding the horsemen were some soldiers on foot. They were strong, and they were trained well unlike the Camp's guards.
However, the ones the agent was worried about were not the soldiers, it was the riders he was wary of. Their strength, though he had barely any of his senses extended, was on a different level. His golden eyes shone as he watched them draw nearer. Small hairs at the back of his neck prickled, and he was extra careful to mask his ki. In times like these he cursed his shishou for having taught him too much. Had he been a normal agent the danger of being detected would not have been that great…
Who are you kidding? his inner voice scolded, it would be the same. Nobody would have expected the Regime to have people skilled in my way of fighting at their disposal. His way of fighting. He wanted to forget about it. It was too dangerous for those around d him to even think of it. His ki would react to his thoughts and become a flashlight in the dark to the skilled ones. It was all he could do to dampen it so far that even his senses were affected.
Kaoru stood and watched from downcast eyes as the uniformed riders with the sharp eyes came nearer and nearer. Next to her, Megumi was in some kind of stupor, standing so still she seemed to be made of stone. She herself couldn't suppress the shudders that raced up and down her body, made her hairs stand on end and caused goosebumps to rise on her skin. She felt cold, and it grew worse the nearer the riders got to her. Kenshin next to her didn't seem to notice something wasn't right about those people, if anything his eyes seemed duller than a minute ago. His face was expressionless, he was withdrawn into a shell she could not penetrate, just like Megumi. Kaoru felt more vulnerable than she ever had, even when she had entered the Camp for the first time had she not felt this- exposed.
Finally she couldn't bear it anymore. Wrapping her arms around herself she tried to stop herself shivering. And regretted her action immediately. Her movement attracted looks- looks from jade green, predatory eyes staring down at her from where their owner was perched on his mount. She felt herself shrink under the stare of those eyes, felt smaller than a child, naked, her very core laid bare for the world to see. She knew they knew every single time she had broken the Camp rules. She knew they knew she had been talking just a minute ago. She knew they knew about the little pauses she took when none of the guards was looking. And she knew there was no way she could lie should they confront her with the fact that they knew.
Kaoru flinched under the unwavering yellow glare and involuntarily took a step backwards. Danger! her mind screamed at that, but her body's reaction was not to be controlled. Eyes downcast she willed her trembling muscles to stop moving as the other riders turned their attention to her as well.
"What is this? An offender who has been found guilty?" Green-eyes spoke, his voice impassive and icy. Kaoru flinched again. It cut her like a knife. She felt her throat constrict from fear, her eyes widened, her face was flushing red. Under the scrutiny of those yellow eyes, how was she supposed to stay calm? Her hands trembled worse and worse. She was caught.
Kenshin could have slapped himself in the face. There he was, worried about himself only, and completely forgetting about the rest of the people who were standing around him. The blue-eyed girl, Kaoru, possessed a fairly strong aura, and of course the riders had to have caught onto that. Her not knowing how to manipulate it resulted in them sensing her feelings. And these feelings made her an excellent target. Agent Takani was acting according to her training, having completely shielded herself. She would not be able to react to the outside world very well in this state, but at least no one could read her. She was not skilled in using ki, all she did was employ the standard procedure that was drilled into agents-in-training for these situations. But if Kaoru was continuing to act as strange as she did right now the riders would eventually turn their attention to her companions. Which was what Kenshin had to avoid. Agent Takani was endangered enough as it was. He had to act.
Before he could do so, however, the young boy who had been standing meekly besides him spoke up.
"Leave her alone. She hasn't done anything but wash those stones from the mud!"
Green-eyes turned his attention instantaneously towards the boy, grazing Kenshin with his look as he did so. "So, you're a brave one, are you?"
To his credit the boy didn't flinch. He only turned his gaze away from the piercing jade eyes as soon as possible. Kenshin on the other hand could not suppress his reaction. The instant he had felt the man's eyes upon him he knew that he knew him- and that he was even more dangerous than he had anticipated. His ki flared at recognizing the man, just a little, almost imperceptible, but the man was a Master, and he noticed.
Green eyes swept over Yahiko once more before settling onto a small redheaded man.
"Oh, and I think this one is noteworthy too," he said.
Kenshin had completely masked himself again. His eyes had even turned back to violet as he fought down every emotion that could taint his ki and reveal him to be anything else but a harmless Camp worker. He would fail to ban the glint from his eyes that showed he was not as afraid as he pretended to be, so he instead hid them behind his bangs. He flinched and nervously shuffled back a small step like Kaoru had to help his act along.
"Who are you?" Green-eyes had targeted him for sure as the origin of the ki flare. Kenshin tried to sound as frightened as seemed appropriate.
"This unworthy one's name is Himura, my Lord." He said bowing deeply while keeping his gaze on the man's face warily.
"Himura, I see…" Green-eyes seemed to ponder something for a second. Kenshin felt his muscles tighten. That man didn't know him by the name of 'Himura', and they had never met eye to eye, but there was a slight possibility he might recognize him, or, more specifically, his ki.
"Well, you certainly seem to be guilty, too. I guess we'll have to question this one further, don't you think so?"
Several of the soldiers and all of the riders nodded. Kenshin felt worse with every passing second. If they found out who he was… well, no one could withstand everything, especially if they decided to drug him, and as a top-level agent he was one of the most valuable catches the Regime could ever hope to make.
"He will tell us what he has done. Take him with us," the green-eyed man ordered.
To be continued…
Wow. Another chapter done in three days. Actually, it's two days and a day of betaing and revising. Well, I guess the news that I will finish school next summer is more invigorating than I estimated it to be… I will, however, not be able to keep up this pace :(. Next week is horribly busy with end-of-the-year festivities and some of my family visiting, so the next update will probably only be next Sunday .I apologize for the wait!
Even better than knowing I only have one year in that hellhole called school left are, of course, your reviews! They make me feel warm and tingly all over, every time I open my mailbox and find one of those bot @ fanfiction .net- messages waiting for me I go crazy- I honestly do! My friends at school and my family already throw suspicious glances at me when I go to a computer… but I am just so happy to read your comments, and that's why I want to thank all of you personally!
Chris: *grins* you were right in most points- thank you! I hope you continue reading!
Koe760: Wow! *blushes* Thanks for the praise. I guess I'll be running around with an inflated ego for a while- and, of course write as fast as I can!
Liann: Writing is in progress!
Dove of Night: no such thing as a 'too long chapter'? I am relieved! By the way: 'Dark' is awesome! I have yet to write a review, but I just wanted to say your fic is great! Everyone, go read and review Dove of Night's story! I will write faster if you do!
Natstuko152: I'll try to meet your expectations. Thanks for commenting on Shadow's Light!!!
Breremarer: What is free time *takes out dictionary*? *lol* No, I'll stick to this length, I think… it's more comfortable!
TK: Thank you! Keeping them in character is sooo hard *loves complaining*! But I'll try to do so in the future as well… as to the detail: I have a tendency to get stuck on it too much- could you tell me if that is the case in this or the next chapters? I would be eternally grateful since it is a habit which is very hard to break…
Moomoo: I thought having the agent be Kaoru would be a little too cliché *grins*. Thanks for the compliment!
All those who read this story: Thank you for reading! But these cyber-muffins with sugar sprinkles are for reviewers only! *sticks out tongue*
Well, I have to go now! Please, click that little button down left and leave me a piece of your mind concerning the story! I will give you a cyber-muffin for that!!!
Cya!!!
Chibi-chan