Chapter two -- Learning to Cope
~*~
Disclaimer: Again, I don't own the Rurouni Kenshin continuum, its characters, or Celestina Windbreaker. Just thought you ought to know.
I never knew so many people knew my quote from The Fairly Odd Parents! *beams* That was really cool. And since that seemed to be a bit of fun, I have another Name That Quote:
"Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!"
I'll be halfway impressed if a number of people know where this came from... Anyway, enjoy the fic and such!
~*~
After another few moments of awkward silence, Anne excused herself and left, sliding the door closed behind her. "I'm dreaming," she told herself sternly. "I'm in an absolutely horrific nightmare, and all I have to do is want to wake up, and I'll be out of this hell..." She closed her eyes tightly and tensed every muscle in her body; not surprising, nothing happened. A heavy sigh escaped her as she relaxed her body once more. "Who'm I kidding -- I'm trapped in a world I know nothing about!" She moaned.
Then it hit her. All those historical movies she'd seen that took place in the Meiji Era, all those specials on the History Channel on Japan near the turn of the ninteenth century, all the hours of free-time research on the sammurai; maybe she could remember enough to fit in, just for a little while... only until Celestina revealed herself again. Then, she'd regret ever using Anne Milton for her entertainment!
'Okay,' she thought quickly, 'I can do this. I'm in the late 1880's, the Revolution that led to the Meiji Era was about ten or eleven years ago, the law against carrying swords has probably been in affect for a while... darn the luck, that means I can't kill Windbreaker with a sword in public...'
"Hey, Missie, you okay?"
Anne jumped at the sound of Sanosuke's voice and turned quickly to face him. He was casually leaning against a post, his hands shoved deep in his pockets, and a concerned look on his face. "I'm fine," she muttered darkly. "I just needed to think for a while."
He grunted empathetically. "I can understand why -- losing your memory must be pretty hard to deal with, huh?"
"Something like that." Anne felt a vein below her right eye beginning to twitch. 'He's not taking the hint of "leave me alone, you stupid git",' she thought with an impatient sigh. Suddenly, she noticed a slightly sickening smell that was unmistakably... 'Body odor? What the CARP?!' Forgetting about Sanosuke for an instant, she turned back around and sniffed as quietly as she could. 'EEW, SICK... and embarassing! Celestina's going to DIE,' she vowed to herself. 'How long's it been since my last documented shower?'
Sanosuke blinked, confused. "Something wrong?"
"Not really..." She bit her lip angrily and turned back to face him. "Look, I hate to ask this, but is there anywhere I can, um... take a bath or something?"
"Sure, I doubt Kenshin would mind firing up the bath-house." He grinned and winked at her, which brought the return of the Anne's twitching vein. "I'll go ask for you."
"THANKS," she growled, though he didn't seem to notice her irate tone as he jogged back to the room from whence he came. Once Sanosuke was safely out of earshot, Anne let out an aggrivated noise and clenched her fists. "I will get you back, Celestina," she snarled at the ceiling. "I swear by all that is holy and unholy in this world, I will get you back SO FORKING BAD!"
Just as she finished her vows for future violence and the possible beginning of her criminal record, Kaoru came outside with folded towels in hand. "C'mon, Hotaru, Kenshin's already left to prepare your bath."
"Stop calling me that!" Anne snapped. "My name is Anne! AN-NE! Do you want me to forking SPELL it for you?!" She'd just about had enough of the stupid name they kept trying to give her.
The young woman gave her a slightly frightened look. "I guess your amnesia must be worse than we thought," she said quietly, continuing her walk to the bath-house. Knowing she was possibly fighting a losing battle, Anne silently followed her to the small building, watched her place the towels inside, thanked her with all the fake gracious emotion she could manage, and closed the door after she had left. 'I doubt I'll ever get used to being called "Hotaru",' she mused as she undressed.
The bath was unrealistically wonderful; precisely the thing she needed to clear her mind. Trying to push the idea of drowning herself into the back of her mind, she desperately raced through every fact she'd ever learned about the Meiji Era. Maybe, if she could convince Celestina that she was "happy", she'd take her home and never bother her again... or, maybe she'd be stuck in ninteenth century Japan forever. She preferred not the dwell upon the latter of the two thoughts.
Sounds of the outside door sliding open and quiet footsteps made her jump nervously. 'If that's Sanosuke, I'm going to kill him... only after I kill Celestina.' The outer door slid closed again, much to her relief, but she couldn't help but wonder what had happened... she carefully rose and wrapped herself in a towel, then inched the door open ever-so slightly.
Her clothes we gone.
Anne felt an angry heat rising up her neck as she slowly drummed a taboo on the door with her fingertips. "Okay, Windbreaker... that's borderlining on the last straw. One more crazy little episode like that, and I swear I'll go psycho and kill every one of them!"
'You wouldn't DARE,' a voice sneered from inside her head. 'You can't kill off anyone unless I tell you to!'
"Try me," Anne snapped. "I will! That rooster-hair-guy's on the top of my list! I could go kill them this instant!"
'No you can't. You're naked.'
She grimaced. "I'm physically capable of killing them whenever I please! Part of that stupid past you gave me includes swordsmanship, and I can probably handle a sword better than you!"
'Oh, fine, have it YOUR way...' the voice faded out as quickly as it had come, and the next instant, the front door slid open hesitantly.
"Hey, Missie, I found these outside," Sanosuke's voice called as he poked his head in. "Are they yours or somethi---" He stopped dead in his tracks as he met Anne's ever-growing look of embarassed panic. "...uh-oh."
~*~
It was sometime later that Anne was called for dinner. She left the guest's quarters in which she was staying, sighed to herself as she closed the door behind her, and slowly made her way to the dining room (she wasn't quite sure what to call it, having only studied Latin for her two years of foreign language), where she found everyone else waiting for her at their places.
"It's good to see you've rested, Hotaru-dono," Kenshin greeted her, watching her sit next to Kaoru.
"Thanks," she muttered. If nothing else, at least the people in this world were genuinely polite to her... it was something she didn't miss about her home. 'Wait, what am I THINKING? I bloody well miss home... GET OUT OF MY NARRATION, WINDBREAKER!'
The author cackled, then stopped and cursed under her breath in Japanese as she accidenally banged her knee on the underside of the desk.
Anne glanced worriedly at the chopsticks that had been set out on her own little stand-like table. "Um... this is going to sound really stupid, but I don't know how to use these," she admitted.
"No, I understand," Kaoru coaxed gently. "You know, I would've thought that you'd have been able to remember more than this, Hotaru..."
"Oh, you'd be surprised what else I can't remember." 'Or what I'd like to forget,' she thought dryly as Kaoru attempted to show her the proper way to hold and use her chopsticks. Anne felt no embarassment in having to learn this, for as long as they believed that she'd had her "horrible loss of memory", she could get away with a bit more than she'd imagined. 'And on the other hand, they wouldn't believe anything I say,' she thought sadly. 'If I've supposedly lost my memory, then I'm probably next to crazy in their eyes. There goes trying to tell them about Celestina...'
'Clever thinking,' Celestina's voice commented smugly from inside her head. Anne frowned outwardly and continued poking into her rice in an attempt to ignore the goddess, but the voice continued. 'I'm glad to have finally found a girl who understands my world...'
'Understand, shmunderstand,' she thought dryly. 'I only know that you're a sick, demented freak in a blindingly stupid dress. If you EVER try to do anything like that shower episode again, you're going to be a few good guys short of a continuum.'
Celestina, in all her glorious annoyance, laughed. 'You think threats will work? Everyone here has twice the strength you've got, sister. You MIGHT be able to get at Yahiko or Kaoru if they're sleeping, but there's no way you could kill Kenshin or Sanosuke in your present form.'
'...okay, if they've always been that strong, why did you wait to tell me that now instead of earlier?'
'Oh--- bother you! I can make your life miserable!' The goddess' voice sneered.
Anne snorted. 'I doubt you could make things worse than they are now, Ms. High-And-Mighty Goddess of Jackets.'
'Never underestimate Celestina Windbreaker... come tomorrow, you're going to wish that you'd never challenged my powers!'
As the voice died away, Anne glanced around to see that nothing else had changed; everyone was absorbed in their own meals, either deep in thought or hungrier than they had appeared. She sighed to herself and put her bowl down, then nodded once to Kaoru. "Thank you for the great meal, Kaoru," she said with a small smile. "Please excuse me, I think I'll be going to bed early." Listening to herself talk, she couldn't help but scowl inwardly. 'I sound pathetic,' she thought sourly. 'Oh, well. Maybe this is how a Mary Sue is supposed to sound...'
Yahiko peered into the girl's bowl and glanced up at her, a worried expression on his face. "But Hotaru, you hardly ate anything at all," he said quietly.
"You should eat, de gozaru," Kenshin added sagely. "You need your strength back, and you haven't eaten anything all day."
She dismissed their advice with a wave of her hand. "Nah, I'll be all right -- no worries."
Sanosuke rose as she crossed towards the door. "Do you need anyone to go with you?" He asked, his eyes trying to lock onto hers.
'No THANKS, buddy-boy,' she thought dryly, but she found herself saying: "I might. I can't quite remember where my room is..." 'Oh FORK, where'd THAT come from?! I know perfectly well where I'm going!' She wanted to give an irritated noise, but nothing came out. 'DARN YOU, WINDBREAKER,' she thought in a snarl. 'You're really asking for it...'
The author waited until she had finished typing, then set into a wild fit of laughter that caused her to fall out of her chair.
===============
BWAAAH! This is rather enjoyable, to tell the truth. But now to reply to the people who have reviewed...
The Noble Platypus: I'm glad I wrote Celestina to your liking! ^^; I was worried about getting her in character. But, since everyone else is major-league OOC, maybe she could have just absorbed the, um... OOC-ness. Ah well. Hope you're going to update your stuff soon! *wink*nudge*nudge*wink*
Houndingwolf: Thanks! I like your name, by the way. Very cool! *gives Houndingwolf an anime peace-sign*
EEevee: I didn't mean to make your rear fall off from fits of laughter -- my apologies! *grins* Just kidding. I hope you keep checking back for more Rice-A-Roni Kenshin goodness ^^
Lunan Starbright: Hey, eez you! Hi, you! And thanks for the review. I'm working on continuing as quickly as I possibly can, what with school and all. I'm actually supposed to be reading Animal Farm at this second o.o; Oopsies.
regi: Sorry, I've been bad about e-mailing everybody on my list lately... school's been hell, but it's almost over. Huzzah! Thanks for the review!
Katla: YAY! You got my quote AND the ones from the review I sent you! I'm hoping you can guess this one, too -- I'll have one every chapter. Thanks for reviewing!
Little Shannon: YAY! You got my quote, too! Huzzah! And I'm glad you're enjoying this as much as I am ^^ It's fun to totally wreck someone's canon intentionally... of course, I can't do something like Lord of the Rings -- too many people have already done that without realizing it. Keep checking back!
See y'all next chapter! Whenever that is... o.o; Honestly, the last three months of school have GOT to be the hardest. I'm homeschooled, and I'm STILL having a hecktic time. AGH! SAVE ME!
~*~
Disclaimer: Again, I don't own the Rurouni Kenshin continuum, its characters, or Celestina Windbreaker. Just thought you ought to know.
I never knew so many people knew my quote from The Fairly Odd Parents! *beams* That was really cool. And since that seemed to be a bit of fun, I have another Name That Quote:
"Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!"
I'll be halfway impressed if a number of people know where this came from... Anyway, enjoy the fic and such!
~*~
After another few moments of awkward silence, Anne excused herself and left, sliding the door closed behind her. "I'm dreaming," she told herself sternly. "I'm in an absolutely horrific nightmare, and all I have to do is want to wake up, and I'll be out of this hell..." She closed her eyes tightly and tensed every muscle in her body; not surprising, nothing happened. A heavy sigh escaped her as she relaxed her body once more. "Who'm I kidding -- I'm trapped in a world I know nothing about!" She moaned.
Then it hit her. All those historical movies she'd seen that took place in the Meiji Era, all those specials on the History Channel on Japan near the turn of the ninteenth century, all the hours of free-time research on the sammurai; maybe she could remember enough to fit in, just for a little while... only until Celestina revealed herself again. Then, she'd regret ever using Anne Milton for her entertainment!
'Okay,' she thought quickly, 'I can do this. I'm in the late 1880's, the Revolution that led to the Meiji Era was about ten or eleven years ago, the law against carrying swords has probably been in affect for a while... darn the luck, that means I can't kill Windbreaker with a sword in public...'
"Hey, Missie, you okay?"
Anne jumped at the sound of Sanosuke's voice and turned quickly to face him. He was casually leaning against a post, his hands shoved deep in his pockets, and a concerned look on his face. "I'm fine," she muttered darkly. "I just needed to think for a while."
He grunted empathetically. "I can understand why -- losing your memory must be pretty hard to deal with, huh?"
"Something like that." Anne felt a vein below her right eye beginning to twitch. 'He's not taking the hint of "leave me alone, you stupid git",' she thought with an impatient sigh. Suddenly, she noticed a slightly sickening smell that was unmistakably... 'Body odor? What the CARP?!' Forgetting about Sanosuke for an instant, she turned back around and sniffed as quietly as she could. 'EEW, SICK... and embarassing! Celestina's going to DIE,' she vowed to herself. 'How long's it been since my last documented shower?'
Sanosuke blinked, confused. "Something wrong?"
"Not really..." She bit her lip angrily and turned back to face him. "Look, I hate to ask this, but is there anywhere I can, um... take a bath or something?"
"Sure, I doubt Kenshin would mind firing up the bath-house." He grinned and winked at her, which brought the return of the Anne's twitching vein. "I'll go ask for you."
"THANKS," she growled, though he didn't seem to notice her irate tone as he jogged back to the room from whence he came. Once Sanosuke was safely out of earshot, Anne let out an aggrivated noise and clenched her fists. "I will get you back, Celestina," she snarled at the ceiling. "I swear by all that is holy and unholy in this world, I will get you back SO FORKING BAD!"
Just as she finished her vows for future violence and the possible beginning of her criminal record, Kaoru came outside with folded towels in hand. "C'mon, Hotaru, Kenshin's already left to prepare your bath."
"Stop calling me that!" Anne snapped. "My name is Anne! AN-NE! Do you want me to forking SPELL it for you?!" She'd just about had enough of the stupid name they kept trying to give her.
The young woman gave her a slightly frightened look. "I guess your amnesia must be worse than we thought," she said quietly, continuing her walk to the bath-house. Knowing she was possibly fighting a losing battle, Anne silently followed her to the small building, watched her place the towels inside, thanked her with all the fake gracious emotion she could manage, and closed the door after she had left. 'I doubt I'll ever get used to being called "Hotaru",' she mused as she undressed.
The bath was unrealistically wonderful; precisely the thing she needed to clear her mind. Trying to push the idea of drowning herself into the back of her mind, she desperately raced through every fact she'd ever learned about the Meiji Era. Maybe, if she could convince Celestina that she was "happy", she'd take her home and never bother her again... or, maybe she'd be stuck in ninteenth century Japan forever. She preferred not the dwell upon the latter of the two thoughts.
Sounds of the outside door sliding open and quiet footsteps made her jump nervously. 'If that's Sanosuke, I'm going to kill him... only after I kill Celestina.' The outer door slid closed again, much to her relief, but she couldn't help but wonder what had happened... she carefully rose and wrapped herself in a towel, then inched the door open ever-so slightly.
Her clothes we gone.
Anne felt an angry heat rising up her neck as she slowly drummed a taboo on the door with her fingertips. "Okay, Windbreaker... that's borderlining on the last straw. One more crazy little episode like that, and I swear I'll go psycho and kill every one of them!"
'You wouldn't DARE,' a voice sneered from inside her head. 'You can't kill off anyone unless I tell you to!'
"Try me," Anne snapped. "I will! That rooster-hair-guy's on the top of my list! I could go kill them this instant!"
'No you can't. You're naked.'
She grimaced. "I'm physically capable of killing them whenever I please! Part of that stupid past you gave me includes swordsmanship, and I can probably handle a sword better than you!"
'Oh, fine, have it YOUR way...' the voice faded out as quickly as it had come, and the next instant, the front door slid open hesitantly.
"Hey, Missie, I found these outside," Sanosuke's voice called as he poked his head in. "Are they yours or somethi---" He stopped dead in his tracks as he met Anne's ever-growing look of embarassed panic. "...uh-oh."
~*~
It was sometime later that Anne was called for dinner. She left the guest's quarters in which she was staying, sighed to herself as she closed the door behind her, and slowly made her way to the dining room (she wasn't quite sure what to call it, having only studied Latin for her two years of foreign language), where she found everyone else waiting for her at their places.
"It's good to see you've rested, Hotaru-dono," Kenshin greeted her, watching her sit next to Kaoru.
"Thanks," she muttered. If nothing else, at least the people in this world were genuinely polite to her... it was something she didn't miss about her home. 'Wait, what am I THINKING? I bloody well miss home... GET OUT OF MY NARRATION, WINDBREAKER!'
The author cackled, then stopped and cursed under her breath in Japanese as she accidenally banged her knee on the underside of the desk.
Anne glanced worriedly at the chopsticks that had been set out on her own little stand-like table. "Um... this is going to sound really stupid, but I don't know how to use these," she admitted.
"No, I understand," Kaoru coaxed gently. "You know, I would've thought that you'd have been able to remember more than this, Hotaru..."
"Oh, you'd be surprised what else I can't remember." 'Or what I'd like to forget,' she thought dryly as Kaoru attempted to show her the proper way to hold and use her chopsticks. Anne felt no embarassment in having to learn this, for as long as they believed that she'd had her "horrible loss of memory", she could get away with a bit more than she'd imagined. 'And on the other hand, they wouldn't believe anything I say,' she thought sadly. 'If I've supposedly lost my memory, then I'm probably next to crazy in their eyes. There goes trying to tell them about Celestina...'
'Clever thinking,' Celestina's voice commented smugly from inside her head. Anne frowned outwardly and continued poking into her rice in an attempt to ignore the goddess, but the voice continued. 'I'm glad to have finally found a girl who understands my world...'
'Understand, shmunderstand,' she thought dryly. 'I only know that you're a sick, demented freak in a blindingly stupid dress. If you EVER try to do anything like that shower episode again, you're going to be a few good guys short of a continuum.'
Celestina, in all her glorious annoyance, laughed. 'You think threats will work? Everyone here has twice the strength you've got, sister. You MIGHT be able to get at Yahiko or Kaoru if they're sleeping, but there's no way you could kill Kenshin or Sanosuke in your present form.'
'...okay, if they've always been that strong, why did you wait to tell me that now instead of earlier?'
'Oh--- bother you! I can make your life miserable!' The goddess' voice sneered.
Anne snorted. 'I doubt you could make things worse than they are now, Ms. High-And-Mighty Goddess of Jackets.'
'Never underestimate Celestina Windbreaker... come tomorrow, you're going to wish that you'd never challenged my powers!'
As the voice died away, Anne glanced around to see that nothing else had changed; everyone was absorbed in their own meals, either deep in thought or hungrier than they had appeared. She sighed to herself and put her bowl down, then nodded once to Kaoru. "Thank you for the great meal, Kaoru," she said with a small smile. "Please excuse me, I think I'll be going to bed early." Listening to herself talk, she couldn't help but scowl inwardly. 'I sound pathetic,' she thought sourly. 'Oh, well. Maybe this is how a Mary Sue is supposed to sound...'
Yahiko peered into the girl's bowl and glanced up at her, a worried expression on his face. "But Hotaru, you hardly ate anything at all," he said quietly.
"You should eat, de gozaru," Kenshin added sagely. "You need your strength back, and you haven't eaten anything all day."
She dismissed their advice with a wave of her hand. "Nah, I'll be all right -- no worries."
Sanosuke rose as she crossed towards the door. "Do you need anyone to go with you?" He asked, his eyes trying to lock onto hers.
'No THANKS, buddy-boy,' she thought dryly, but she found herself saying: "I might. I can't quite remember where my room is..." 'Oh FORK, where'd THAT come from?! I know perfectly well where I'm going!' She wanted to give an irritated noise, but nothing came out. 'DARN YOU, WINDBREAKER,' she thought in a snarl. 'You're really asking for it...'
The author waited until she had finished typing, then set into a wild fit of laughter that caused her to fall out of her chair.
===============
BWAAAH! This is rather enjoyable, to tell the truth. But now to reply to the people who have reviewed...
The Noble Platypus: I'm glad I wrote Celestina to your liking! ^^; I was worried about getting her in character. But, since everyone else is major-league OOC, maybe she could have just absorbed the, um... OOC-ness. Ah well. Hope you're going to update your stuff soon! *wink*nudge*nudge*wink*
Houndingwolf: Thanks! I like your name, by the way. Very cool! *gives Houndingwolf an anime peace-sign*
EEevee: I didn't mean to make your rear fall off from fits of laughter -- my apologies! *grins* Just kidding. I hope you keep checking back for more Rice-A-Roni Kenshin goodness ^^
Lunan Starbright: Hey, eez you! Hi, you! And thanks for the review. I'm working on continuing as quickly as I possibly can, what with school and all. I'm actually supposed to be reading Animal Farm at this second o.o; Oopsies.
regi: Sorry, I've been bad about e-mailing everybody on my list lately... school's been hell, but it's almost over. Huzzah! Thanks for the review!
Katla: YAY! You got my quote AND the ones from the review I sent you! I'm hoping you can guess this one, too -- I'll have one every chapter. Thanks for reviewing!
Little Shannon: YAY! You got my quote, too! Huzzah! And I'm glad you're enjoying this as much as I am ^^ It's fun to totally wreck someone's canon intentionally... of course, I can't do something like Lord of the Rings -- too many people have already done that without realizing it. Keep checking back!
See y'all next chapter! Whenever that is... o.o; Honestly, the last three months of school have GOT to be the hardest. I'm homeschooled, and I'm STILL having a hecktic time. AGH! SAVE ME!