Well it's Chan again. Hope everyone liked that last chapter because I
really worked hard on it. ^_^
DISCLAIMER: DeNice and I don't own any SFs that are copyrighted by Capcom, ok?
Chapter 8 - New Feelings For Both of Us
I awoke to a bright light shining onto my face as I let out a soft yawn and subtle moan. Limply, I raised my hand and rubbed my eyes as everything came into focus. The first thing I saw was a large, blue, sparkling lake before me. I moved my legs and noticed that they were wet with dew. I raised myself forward away from the tree, and I noticed that Yui was sitting beside me. This shocked a me a little at first until the recollection of last night's events came back to me.
A small smile formed on my lips as I saw that he was awake already before me. He had been waiting patiently for me to wake up as well...
"Yui... good morning..."
Smiling, Yui consulted his watch and laughed, "It's almost afternoon, Kaoru..."
"Wow... I musta been passed out for a long time..." I said as I gazed up at the sun. Judging by the way it was positioned in the sky, it had to be about 10 A.M. already.
Yui pressed me against his chest slightly and rested his chin on my shoulder, a cute smile dimpling his face.
"I'm kind of hungry... aren't you?" he asked, and I heard his growling stomach give the reply.
"Yeah... let's go eat something..." I said as I gently removed myself from his grip and stood up, brushing the sand off of my skirt and legs.
~~~5 Minutes Later~~~
Yui and I stepped into the kitchen and saw everyone that Rose was boarding sitting at the table, finishing up their breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon. I walked in behind Yui and closed the front door softly. Everyone who had been sitting at the table turned to gape at us, blank expressions on their faces. Rose was washing dishes at the sink and turned when she saw us come in, a bright smile on her fair-complexion face.
"Hello, Yui and Kaoru..."
"Hey..." murmured Yui as he glanced at one of his friends, who had began giving him an accusing grin.
"You two have been gone a while; is he ok now, Kaoru?"
I nodded at Rose as I took a seat beside Mitsumi, who offered me the remaining food on her plate. I gave her a grateful nod and picked up her fork and helped myself to a mouthful of scrambled eggs.
As I ate and endured Mitsumi's staring at me, I threw discreet glances over at Yui across the table and listened in on his conversation.
"Yui... How'd it go?"
"What?"
"You know what I mean," grinned his friend.
"Shut up. Nothing of the sort happened."
"That's what they all say," his friend rose and slapped Yui on the back before heading back upstairs. I saw Yui frown at him before sipping a cup of heavily sugared coffee.
Rose walked over to the table and took a seat beside me, placing a hand on my shoulder.
"Kaoru... For today, I want you to try to talk to Yui about his late friend... see if you can bring the subject up and ease the pain away for him. You see, even though he is acting fine, a part of his heart has been wrenched away. He loves you, Kaoru. And you're the only one who can help him..." Rose whispered in my ear while patting me on the back. "Also, today you will start your serious training. I hope all can go well with you, Mitsumi, and Yui's practicing today."
"Ok, Rose," I said as I gulped down the remainder of Mitsumi's coffee, before nearly spitting it back out. "What the?! Black coffee!?"
Mitsumi grinned and giggled at me.
"Just the way I like it. Sorry for not warning you beforehand..."
"Oh sure, you were plotting that all along," said Yui with an amused grin on his angelic face.
~ ~ ~ Later, 1:00 training ~ ~ ~
"Yeah. That was a nice joke you pulled with the coffee and now I'm going to get even."
"Oh, yeah? I'd like to see you try it, Kaoru!"
I give Mitsumi a smirk. "Oh, you'll see..."
"Ready? Set... GO FOR IT!!!"
Without giving it a second thought, I brought my hands to my side, charging up my super energy attack. By now, I managed to get a feel of Mitsumi's fighting style and vice versa. She knew that my Shinku Hadouken wasn't strong... but she hasn't felt it full force. I was about to show her. At the same time the ball of surge energy formed in my hands, Mitsumi, who was standing a good 5 feet away from me, charged up her own dark energy attack in one hand, warming up...
"SHINKU HADOUKEN!!!"
"KURO FENIKKUSU BAKUHA!!!"
At the same time we attacked, our energy attacks clashing against one another in a heated power struggle for dominance. Now wanting to be outdone, I push more concentration into my end of the deal, edging the battle into my favor. A few seconds passed... and my Hadouken started to edge out a few more inches towards Mitsumi... I smirked.
"You sure you're trying?" I ask. "I'm going to beat you if this is all you got to offer today!"
"Oh, Kaoru..." I hear her voice. "You're so naïve... You should know that I'm holding back. You want it all? Then here it comes!"
{Uh, oh...} I thought, noticing that the purple blast started fighting back steadily. I found myself sweating while trying to ward it off, but as it came closer, it was obvious that Mitsumi was stronger. I abandoned my tactic and Ashura Warped out of the way, Mitsumi's attack finally overwhelming mine and going off into the forest behind me. I reappeared to the side of where I originally was, looking behind me as Mitsumi's blast collided with a tree and exploded, knocking it down pretty easily.
"Come on..." I muttered to myself while turning back to my friend/sparring partner. "That's not exactly fair to hold back and give me false help, you know th-Mitsumi?"
She was gone. All I could see was Yui, who was in the distance, watching us from a safe distance along with some other guys. I wasn't thinking about him at the moment. I wasn't thinking at all, really. I had a problem...
"Aaaaachaaaa!!!!!"
Before I could think, I felt a pair of feet rest onto my head. Letting out a shriek, I reeled backwards while lashing my arms over my head, trying to find out who was on me.
"Hey, Kaoru! It's just me, Mitsumi! You might want to stop unless you want to continue looking silly."
"Oh..." I said while stopping on a dime and stood up, noticing that Mitsumi wasn't really pressing her weight onto my head. It was like balancing a book on my head... which was weird in my book. "You mind telling me why you're on me like this??"
"Just wondering how you could let your defense down like this," she answered while leaning over and looking down at me with a smile. "Maybe you had something else on your mind. You were more focused last night. Maybe too much Yui on the mind..."
I quickly found myself blushing from that. "No, I don't! I... I... You just caught me by surprise that time."
"That's for sure..." the Chinese teen assured.
"Well, are you going to get off me?"
"Well... Not really. I got an idea that could test your balance and power... but before you can do it, I need to see if you could manage it. Focus your power to it's max... so that your aura can show."
"Fine..."
Managing to get myself focused, I closed my eyes and tapped into my dark energy. I felt the power of suppressed murderous intent flow around and in me... and when I opened my eyes 4 seconds later, I found my black aura surrounding me.
"Nice, Kaoru," Mitsumi congratulated. "Now, I'm going to press all my weight onto your head... and I'm going to time how long you can hold me."
"Doesn't that seem a bit weird?" I asked. Mitsumi shook her head.
"Why say that? You'll be surprised. It's harder than it looks... Ready for this?"
I was about to nod my head but thought twice. There's a Chinese girl on my head. "Yeah. Let me have it."
Instantly, Mitsumi stopped being light as a feather and felt like a real person. I felt my head give out some leverage but I regained control over myself. I stood up tall, channeling all my inner strength to my head so that the weight felt eased. For a while I seemed to be doing well in this test...
"30 seconds, Kaoru," she eventually called out to me. "You doing okay down there?"
"Yeah..." I replied calmly. This was a piece of cake...
"Alright, then. Time for me to really stop holding off... Femikketsu Niaaage!!"
"What??" I let out before feeling her lift off and jump off my head, she flipped in mid-air and came down on my head with a double-kick stomp, pressing me downwards. She quickly lifted off again and repeated this pattern... I don't remember how many times. All I know that I was straining to get used to getting my skull pounded on... and not countering. Every now and then Mitsumi would yell out my time.
"1 minute, 23 seconds..."
"1 minute, 45 seconds..."
"2 minutes, 8 seconds..."
By the time she got up to 2 minutes and 30 seconds of doing her Femikketsu Niage non stop, I thought I would have scrambled brains. The strain was having a toll on my energy level, which was dropping rapidly. One stop made me drop down a bit. Another made me fell to my knees. This is when Mitsumi started calling out my warning.
"You want to stop now?"
"Wh... wh...at..'s the... re...ecord... f... for th...is...?" I asked through unintended speech impairment due to Mitsumi's move.
"I believe it's 10 minutes and 45 seconds. One of the twins did it. I think his name's was Vallen."
"Wei...ird... name..." I said. I officially had my limit of stomp kicks. I rolled to the side, letting Mitsumi land on her feet to the grass. She took a pause, then looked at me, smirking.
"3 minutes, 11 seconds, Kaoru. Not bad for your first try. You'll get used to getting your skull stomped on in time."
I heaved a sigh. "Mitsumi, I'll be surprised if I don't have brain damage because of this..."
This triggered a laugh from her. "No way. I'm able to not hurt you like that while doing these excersices... Well, that was a good workout. How about we stop for now."
"Yeah... That sounds good..." I muttered while getting up and rubbing my head, which was starting to hurt since my Satsu no Hadou went dormant. At this time, Yui came over into the area we trained at behind Rose's mansion. He looked calm... although in his eyes I could still see him battling the fact that his friend's gone. I honestly felt sorry for him. I didn't have any friends to be close to besides the ones I got now so I wouldn't know exactly how he's going through, but I went thought enough pain to realize that he's going to be hurt for a while and that he's going to have to really get over it himself. As much as I hated it, all I could do was help him out...
"You okay, Kaoru?" he asked while looking over my head to see if Mitsumi left any bruises. I simply nodded while now rubbing my neck.
"I'll live... So what do you feel like doing?"
Yui went mute after that, thinking. Shortly afterwards, thought, Mitsumi made a suggestion.
"How about you guys invite me out to hang out with you as you explore the city of Paris, no? I'm pretty sure that Kaoru's not familiar with this place and besides, I'm sure she doesn't want to be cooped up at Rose's all the time."
I twisted my face for a second before smiling a bit. "Thanks, Mitsumi. How do you like that, Yui?"
I seemed to have broke his thinking as he let out a gasp and gave both me and Mitsumi an embarrassed expression. "Y... yeah. Sure. Sounds great. Ready to go out?"
Both of us nodded, but before we could move...
"{Make sure you come back before dark. We're going to have a special guest for dinner tonight and I'd like you all to meet him.}"
"Rose..." all three of us sighed out. She wasn't there in person, but spoke in out minds. I still needed to get used to that... Also, I wonder who this person Rose wanted us to see was.
"Well... you heard Rose," Mitsumi said while walking towards the mainstream leading towards Paris. "Let's keep the love-making to a minimum, okay?"
Once again I blush beet red. "MITSUMI!!! I HAD ENOUGH OF YOU TEASING ME AND YUI!!" and with that I chased after a laughing Mitsumi with Yui following behind me.
----- ----
DeNice: I am SOOO sorry that this chapter was so long in coming. Too many things happened around my end of the bargain and also I was on permanent writer's block with this story, but I got something rolling. Hope you like it, since it's a combination of my and Chan's work in one chapter. It's Chan's turn, now. Let's see what happens with our trio in the heart of Paris.
DISCLAIMER: DeNice and I don't own any SFs that are copyrighted by Capcom, ok?
Chapter 8 - New Feelings For Both of Us
I awoke to a bright light shining onto my face as I let out a soft yawn and subtle moan. Limply, I raised my hand and rubbed my eyes as everything came into focus. The first thing I saw was a large, blue, sparkling lake before me. I moved my legs and noticed that they were wet with dew. I raised myself forward away from the tree, and I noticed that Yui was sitting beside me. This shocked a me a little at first until the recollection of last night's events came back to me.
A small smile formed on my lips as I saw that he was awake already before me. He had been waiting patiently for me to wake up as well...
"Yui... good morning..."
Smiling, Yui consulted his watch and laughed, "It's almost afternoon, Kaoru..."
"Wow... I musta been passed out for a long time..." I said as I gazed up at the sun. Judging by the way it was positioned in the sky, it had to be about 10 A.M. already.
Yui pressed me against his chest slightly and rested his chin on my shoulder, a cute smile dimpling his face.
"I'm kind of hungry... aren't you?" he asked, and I heard his growling stomach give the reply.
"Yeah... let's go eat something..." I said as I gently removed myself from his grip and stood up, brushing the sand off of my skirt and legs.
~~~5 Minutes Later~~~
Yui and I stepped into the kitchen and saw everyone that Rose was boarding sitting at the table, finishing up their breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon. I walked in behind Yui and closed the front door softly. Everyone who had been sitting at the table turned to gape at us, blank expressions on their faces. Rose was washing dishes at the sink and turned when she saw us come in, a bright smile on her fair-complexion face.
"Hello, Yui and Kaoru..."
"Hey..." murmured Yui as he glanced at one of his friends, who had began giving him an accusing grin.
"You two have been gone a while; is he ok now, Kaoru?"
I nodded at Rose as I took a seat beside Mitsumi, who offered me the remaining food on her plate. I gave her a grateful nod and picked up her fork and helped myself to a mouthful of scrambled eggs.
As I ate and endured Mitsumi's staring at me, I threw discreet glances over at Yui across the table and listened in on his conversation.
"Yui... How'd it go?"
"What?"
"You know what I mean," grinned his friend.
"Shut up. Nothing of the sort happened."
"That's what they all say," his friend rose and slapped Yui on the back before heading back upstairs. I saw Yui frown at him before sipping a cup of heavily sugared coffee.
Rose walked over to the table and took a seat beside me, placing a hand on my shoulder.
"Kaoru... For today, I want you to try to talk to Yui about his late friend... see if you can bring the subject up and ease the pain away for him. You see, even though he is acting fine, a part of his heart has been wrenched away. He loves you, Kaoru. And you're the only one who can help him..." Rose whispered in my ear while patting me on the back. "Also, today you will start your serious training. I hope all can go well with you, Mitsumi, and Yui's practicing today."
"Ok, Rose," I said as I gulped down the remainder of Mitsumi's coffee, before nearly spitting it back out. "What the?! Black coffee!?"
Mitsumi grinned and giggled at me.
"Just the way I like it. Sorry for not warning you beforehand..."
"Oh sure, you were plotting that all along," said Yui with an amused grin on his angelic face.
~ ~ ~ Later, 1:00 training ~ ~ ~
"Yeah. That was a nice joke you pulled with the coffee and now I'm going to get even."
"Oh, yeah? I'd like to see you try it, Kaoru!"
I give Mitsumi a smirk. "Oh, you'll see..."
"Ready? Set... GO FOR IT!!!"
Without giving it a second thought, I brought my hands to my side, charging up my super energy attack. By now, I managed to get a feel of Mitsumi's fighting style and vice versa. She knew that my Shinku Hadouken wasn't strong... but she hasn't felt it full force. I was about to show her. At the same time the ball of surge energy formed in my hands, Mitsumi, who was standing a good 5 feet away from me, charged up her own dark energy attack in one hand, warming up...
"SHINKU HADOUKEN!!!"
"KURO FENIKKUSU BAKUHA!!!"
At the same time we attacked, our energy attacks clashing against one another in a heated power struggle for dominance. Now wanting to be outdone, I push more concentration into my end of the deal, edging the battle into my favor. A few seconds passed... and my Hadouken started to edge out a few more inches towards Mitsumi... I smirked.
"You sure you're trying?" I ask. "I'm going to beat you if this is all you got to offer today!"
"Oh, Kaoru..." I hear her voice. "You're so naïve... You should know that I'm holding back. You want it all? Then here it comes!"
{Uh, oh...} I thought, noticing that the purple blast started fighting back steadily. I found myself sweating while trying to ward it off, but as it came closer, it was obvious that Mitsumi was stronger. I abandoned my tactic and Ashura Warped out of the way, Mitsumi's attack finally overwhelming mine and going off into the forest behind me. I reappeared to the side of where I originally was, looking behind me as Mitsumi's blast collided with a tree and exploded, knocking it down pretty easily.
"Come on..." I muttered to myself while turning back to my friend/sparring partner. "That's not exactly fair to hold back and give me false help, you know th-Mitsumi?"
She was gone. All I could see was Yui, who was in the distance, watching us from a safe distance along with some other guys. I wasn't thinking about him at the moment. I wasn't thinking at all, really. I had a problem...
"Aaaaachaaaa!!!!!"
Before I could think, I felt a pair of feet rest onto my head. Letting out a shriek, I reeled backwards while lashing my arms over my head, trying to find out who was on me.
"Hey, Kaoru! It's just me, Mitsumi! You might want to stop unless you want to continue looking silly."
"Oh..." I said while stopping on a dime and stood up, noticing that Mitsumi wasn't really pressing her weight onto my head. It was like balancing a book on my head... which was weird in my book. "You mind telling me why you're on me like this??"
"Just wondering how you could let your defense down like this," she answered while leaning over and looking down at me with a smile. "Maybe you had something else on your mind. You were more focused last night. Maybe too much Yui on the mind..."
I quickly found myself blushing from that. "No, I don't! I... I... You just caught me by surprise that time."
"That's for sure..." the Chinese teen assured.
"Well, are you going to get off me?"
"Well... Not really. I got an idea that could test your balance and power... but before you can do it, I need to see if you could manage it. Focus your power to it's max... so that your aura can show."
"Fine..."
Managing to get myself focused, I closed my eyes and tapped into my dark energy. I felt the power of suppressed murderous intent flow around and in me... and when I opened my eyes 4 seconds later, I found my black aura surrounding me.
"Nice, Kaoru," Mitsumi congratulated. "Now, I'm going to press all my weight onto your head... and I'm going to time how long you can hold me."
"Doesn't that seem a bit weird?" I asked. Mitsumi shook her head.
"Why say that? You'll be surprised. It's harder than it looks... Ready for this?"
I was about to nod my head but thought twice. There's a Chinese girl on my head. "Yeah. Let me have it."
Instantly, Mitsumi stopped being light as a feather and felt like a real person. I felt my head give out some leverage but I regained control over myself. I stood up tall, channeling all my inner strength to my head so that the weight felt eased. For a while I seemed to be doing well in this test...
"30 seconds, Kaoru," she eventually called out to me. "You doing okay down there?"
"Yeah..." I replied calmly. This was a piece of cake...
"Alright, then. Time for me to really stop holding off... Femikketsu Niaaage!!"
"What??" I let out before feeling her lift off and jump off my head, she flipped in mid-air and came down on my head with a double-kick stomp, pressing me downwards. She quickly lifted off again and repeated this pattern... I don't remember how many times. All I know that I was straining to get used to getting my skull pounded on... and not countering. Every now and then Mitsumi would yell out my time.
"1 minute, 23 seconds..."
"1 minute, 45 seconds..."
"2 minutes, 8 seconds..."
By the time she got up to 2 minutes and 30 seconds of doing her Femikketsu Niage non stop, I thought I would have scrambled brains. The strain was having a toll on my energy level, which was dropping rapidly. One stop made me drop down a bit. Another made me fell to my knees. This is when Mitsumi started calling out my warning.
"You want to stop now?"
"Wh... wh...at..'s the... re...ecord... f... for th...is...?" I asked through unintended speech impairment due to Mitsumi's move.
"I believe it's 10 minutes and 45 seconds. One of the twins did it. I think his name's was Vallen."
"Wei...ird... name..." I said. I officially had my limit of stomp kicks. I rolled to the side, letting Mitsumi land on her feet to the grass. She took a pause, then looked at me, smirking.
"3 minutes, 11 seconds, Kaoru. Not bad for your first try. You'll get used to getting your skull stomped on in time."
I heaved a sigh. "Mitsumi, I'll be surprised if I don't have brain damage because of this..."
This triggered a laugh from her. "No way. I'm able to not hurt you like that while doing these excersices... Well, that was a good workout. How about we stop for now."
"Yeah... That sounds good..." I muttered while getting up and rubbing my head, which was starting to hurt since my Satsu no Hadou went dormant. At this time, Yui came over into the area we trained at behind Rose's mansion. He looked calm... although in his eyes I could still see him battling the fact that his friend's gone. I honestly felt sorry for him. I didn't have any friends to be close to besides the ones I got now so I wouldn't know exactly how he's going through, but I went thought enough pain to realize that he's going to be hurt for a while and that he's going to have to really get over it himself. As much as I hated it, all I could do was help him out...
"You okay, Kaoru?" he asked while looking over my head to see if Mitsumi left any bruises. I simply nodded while now rubbing my neck.
"I'll live... So what do you feel like doing?"
Yui went mute after that, thinking. Shortly afterwards, thought, Mitsumi made a suggestion.
"How about you guys invite me out to hang out with you as you explore the city of Paris, no? I'm pretty sure that Kaoru's not familiar with this place and besides, I'm sure she doesn't want to be cooped up at Rose's all the time."
I twisted my face for a second before smiling a bit. "Thanks, Mitsumi. How do you like that, Yui?"
I seemed to have broke his thinking as he let out a gasp and gave both me and Mitsumi an embarrassed expression. "Y... yeah. Sure. Sounds great. Ready to go out?"
Both of us nodded, but before we could move...
"{Make sure you come back before dark. We're going to have a special guest for dinner tonight and I'd like you all to meet him.}"
"Rose..." all three of us sighed out. She wasn't there in person, but spoke in out minds. I still needed to get used to that... Also, I wonder who this person Rose wanted us to see was.
"Well... you heard Rose," Mitsumi said while walking towards the mainstream leading towards Paris. "Let's keep the love-making to a minimum, okay?"
Once again I blush beet red. "MITSUMI!!! I HAD ENOUGH OF YOU TEASING ME AND YUI!!" and with that I chased after a laughing Mitsumi with Yui following behind me.
----- ----
DeNice: I am SOOO sorry that this chapter was so long in coming. Too many things happened around my end of the bargain and also I was on permanent writer's block with this story, but I got something rolling. Hope you like it, since it's a combination of my and Chan's work in one chapter. It's Chan's turn, now. Let's see what happens with our trio in the heart of Paris.