Disclaimer: I do not own Angelic Layer, or any of the characters portrayed in this Fanfic, Misaki, Shouka and Hatoko all belong to Clamp and I in no way own them. Yuka and Cago are sole property of the people they have been based on. The angels Hikari and Ankoku are sole property of Yuka and me. Those characters may not be used in any Angelic Layer fanfic or any fanfic for that matter without my prior consent. Thank you.

Chapter 2- Hatoko Kobayashi

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I stood outside my house, franticly glancing up and down the cold, desolate street. But she wasn't there. Once again I repeated the same thing I had been doing for the past 10 or so minutes before finally giving up. With one last sigh I turned around, reluctantly embracing the fact that Misaki and I would not fight in an important battle today, or maybe not ever.

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"Hey Hatoko, wait up!" I heard, glancing once again I saw Misaki in a fluffy, pink ensemble racing towards my house. The first thing that comes to my mind is keep walking, she didn't show until you were frozen cold, but that wasn't what I was like. Running over, I hugged Misaki tight and said, "Misaki-chan, I'm glad you came, I thought you had forgotten"

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Misaki stared down at me and patted my head, saying "How could I forget about you Hatoko, you're one of the most powerful fighters in the Layer!"

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I stared at the ground, a rose-red blush tainting my pale white face. Scuffling my foot off the pavement, and tapping my gloved fingers behind my back, I then remembered what I was there for.

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"Misaki! We're going to be late" I cry, staring at the crystal-clear, glass face of my watch. Staring at Misaki's face, a look of recognition appears before she races off towards the stadium.

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"Welcome Angelic Layer fans!" The familiar voice of the commentator announces, cheers resounding from the crowd around the battlefield, "Today," He continues, "We will witness one of the most sensational battles in Angelic Layer HISTORY! This Double-Deus-Duel will be fought between Misaki Suzuhara and Hatoko Kobayashi with their angels, Hikaru and Suzuka and their opponents, Yuka Nakahara and her angel, Ankoku, the Angel of Darkness and her partner, Yanyan San with Heiwa the Angel of Peace! They will be fighting on the field of water!"

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The whole crowd erupted with cheers and yells of 'give a good fight'! But I wasn't focused on that, I had glanced around and saw Misaki's face, her mouth wide with shock, her eyes still and glassy. For a moment I also froze, contemplating what to do, whether I should or should not ask Misaki what was bothering her.

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I chose to ask; slowly and calmly I tapped Misaki's shoulder, opened my mouth and whispered, "Misaki-chan, what's wrong?"

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As I stood there, my lip trembling slightly, my eyes filled with a sign of puzzlement, she slowly spoke, quietly and taking her time.

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"It was last year, Yanyan-san was a transfer student. She was quiet most of the time, never really showing any emotion or signs of life whatsoever until it happened. I was outside with your brother, and we were revising some of the tactics we had come up with. Hikaru was sitting beside me, perched on the side of the bench when Yanyan-san walked along. Seeing my angel her face changed, I don't know what it was but suddenly she was different. She challenged me to a battle at the Angelic Layer headquarters where you can do training, thinking nothing of it, I accepted. When we got there she got prepped for the match and we got underway, the battle was over in nearly 10 seconds, Yanyan-san ending up nearly destroying Hikaru…" slowly she trailed off, her voice getting quieter and quieter until at last, I could not hear it.

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"Let the battle commence!" The announcer announced, quickly all four angels flew into action. Yanyan went straight for Misaki-chan whilst Yuka used some unorthodox moves to try and beat me down, but I was ready for anything.

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Ankoku flew towards Suzuka, pouncing around in no particular formation, springing around on top of the tall wooden pillars protruding from the ocean below. I sat there whilst Suzuka crouched, in a position, which would give me an easy escape. I was trying to predict the moves of my opponent but to no avail she came closer, pouncing along towards me, a twinge of anticipation that the match was about to really start when it hit me, literally. From out of no-where, Heiwa had appeared, smacking me into next week with one, crippling kick, next Ankoku took another unexpected move, and after propelling herself into the air, she threw herself down, her leg outstretched into a kick, Hikaru being target of this assault.

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But Misaki was ready, as she was looking into the arena with concentration showing like a glowing beacon. In a flash, LOADS of things happened. Ankoku went in for the kick but Hikaru had been expecting this, doing a back flip she landed on the pillar behind and with one smooth blow she raced forwards, her fist clenched and arm outstretched and she smacked Ankoku over the side of the head. With one last flail, Ankoku fell towards the ground, towards the deep-blue depths of destiny. But all of a sudden a flash of hope shot across the sea, grabbing Ankoku's frail figure before darting off again. Could that have been Heiwa? She had just been beside Suzuka a second ago. Glancing over I saw that the space there was empty, Suzuka was all alone. Heiwa had indeed raced to the rescue of the shrouded angel of Darkness, Ankoku. In this moment it became blatantly clear what was similar between the angels and their Deus. Ankoku, like Yuka was a dark, mysterious figure that had a fatal attraction. Though she seemed silent, she was deadly. Heiwa, like Yanyan was also mysterious. At any moment she could catch you off guard, even if it was only for a few seconds. Heiwa was also shrouded in the same mysterious light that bathed Ankoku. The light that looked pretty but if noticed for too long, could be your demise.

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Once more the angels stood, ready to fight to the bitter end, but now, the fear that I had shoved to the back of my mind arose. The head-set that connected the Angel and the Deus had evolved, and now if your angel was attacked badly and it was knocked out, blinded for a second or thrown into the water, the deus would experience this feeling too. If blinded, for a few seconds the headsets would stop and would not let you see the battle. If K.O'ed then you would see nothing but blackness and as every Deus knows, once you put on the headset, you can't take it off until the end of the match. If your angel were thrown into the water, you would feel an unpleasant feeling of fright as the headset would show you falling to the bottom of the ocean- in full detail.

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With a thump I plunged down, the headset blank from any signs of life apart from the swelling blue mass of the ocean that loomed below!

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I hope that this chapter was OK. Sorry this chapter took so long but I have been working on some other things and I was hoping I might have reached the target of 10 reviews by now.

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Thanks to Yuka for beta-reading this chapter and pointing out my flaws and what needs to be improved before this went live.

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Thanks to all my reviewers:

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1111 Thanks for the first review,

Rachel for the nice ideas,

Fireball101 for her review and for being the great friend she is,

MoO-mOo3 for their signs of anxiousness and for their lovely name :P,

Phoenix Eternal for their review, comments and criticism and persuasion to get this chapter done

and finally

To Yuka, for being a great friend, reviewing when some people I know wouldn't. For her suggestions of being a Beta-reader and for the idea of drawing the angels for the characters that I am friends with. Mainly, Yuka herself, Yanyan and myself.

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BETAS NOTE:

^^; Hello, this is Yuka, Cago's beta and friendie. This is my first time betaing another person's fic(besides my own… check me on ff.net at yukayuka !) so I hope I did a good job and you can tell the difference. Please review! Cago works hard on his fics. He has to write them while his brother attempts to murder him! See the HELL he goes through? Pity the poor boy! XD

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And for some hints to the next chapter, it will explain more about the past of some of the Deus, bring in an unexpected character with some unexpected twists and more battling. Chapter three, coming soon.....