"Kent."
He looked up from his computer.
"What is it, Jenna?"
She was frowning, looking at a sheet of paper in her hand.
"...You know how in GLU, the weekends change classes all the time, right?"
"Yeah, it was that way before I was expelled," Kent said. Jenna raised an eyebrow.
"It just occurred to me we don't know how to nab the students on Saturday, then. We don't know their classes or their class times then. But I know their timetables for the weekdays. Those remain the same the entire semester."
Kent groaned.
"NOW you remind me. Great, Jenna."
"Well, at least I'm telling you now. It's Wednesday. Tell them to change it to Friday."
He sighed.
"I guess I'll have to. Damn it... I just hope Waporu doesn't bite my head off,"
He grumbled. Jenna started giggling but stopped shortly when Kent gave her a pointed look and said seriously,
"Literally."
"I always had visions, but I never knew what they were for."
Tashigi said, and sipping her soda she added,
"Now it makes a whole lot more sense."
"Yeah. So the angel guy brings up this little marble thing, and it transports us to a virtual time we died or something. And we're practising trying to beat up that guy and return to where we originally belong."
Zoro poked a straw into Tashigi's soda and began to drink it fairly quickly. She attempted to swat his hand away, frowning as she took in his words.
"Wait a minute. You mean to say everyone? Even the people who don't participate in beating up the bad man?"
"Yeah. It's not really up to you guys. Besides, we're not even really supposed to be here."
"But what happens to our bodies here, then?"
The green-head blinked, pausing and allowing Tashigi to flick his straw out and hold her soda protectively. He reached for it as he admitted,
"I have no idea. We could ask Kale about it."
"He's in your dorm, is he?"
"Yep."
"But you know," Tashigi said thoughtfully as she artfully dodged a swipe for the can of soda, "I'm curious about that marble thing. I mean... well, when I was found, I had a marble thing with me too."
"Found?"
He raised an eyebrow as he tried a sneak attack to her left, but she smartly shifted the soda to her right as she explained,
"I was brought up by foster parents who found me abandoned in a parking lot. They found me with this weird little black orb thing. I've got it somewhere - it looks like a black marble, but there's a strange feeling about it. It doesn't feel like glass, either."
"Could it be the same thing? I wonder why you'd have it, though..."
Zoro mused, settling back to his seat in a defeated pose. Tashigi relaxed and took a swallow of her drink.
"D'you think I could go over and ask him some time?"
Zoro nodded, and without warning he made a wild grab for the soda. She saw it coming and tightly held the can, and he ended up clapping his palms over her hands on the soda. There was a short pause of silence as the two stared at their hands.
Tashigi let go abruptly, her face burning as Zoro obliviously took the soda and drained it with a triumphant glance in her direction. Eyes narrowing she grumbled,
"Buy your own next time."
"What, there's no rule that guys have to buy the girls everything."
"Yeah, I hate that," Tashigi agreed, "But it's no excuse for you to expect me to buy you your dinner all the time!"
Zoro snorted as he told her,
"I don't believe in traditional dates."
Tashigi flushed scarlet as her eyes widened.
"Wha-- you-- we-- d-d-d--?!"
She failed to get the words out as Zoro stood up saying,
"It's late. I'll walk to you back to your dorm."
Her face pink, she stood up and followed him.
Does he have any idea what he just said? Was it just his way of expressing things or does it mean anything else to him?
She wanted to see his expression, but he kept his back to her. She knew though that he probably didn't think anything about it, and felt like some silly girl who thought far too much.
Zoro, meanwhile, was kicking himself mentally and hoping she didn't catch the redness in his ears.
Kaya brooded in her room, coughing painfully into her pillow but refusing to open the door to Merii's rapid knocks. Why did this feel so familiar? Did it happen before? Her eyes lingered on the brown envelope on her desk, and she scowled.
"What are you thinking of, young man?! Taking a young actress around at the middle of the night!"
Usopp and Kaya stopped dead in their tracks as they saw Krow staring at them eerily, the yellow light of lamp-posts glinting off his lenses. Usopp swallowed, but he looked determinedly back at the man as he said quite boldly,
"It's not the middle of the night. It's just nine-thirty. And I was just showing her the sights. You kept her so cooped up in that house she didn't even know several of life's essentials. So I volunteered to show her some... like staying up past nine."
Krow's eyes narrowed dangerously, and Kaya nervously turned to tug at the engineer's shirt.
"Usopp-san, please! Please leave-- Klahadol, stop it, he was really just--"
"No, Miss Kaya," Krow interrupted, his suspicious eyes never leaving Usopp, "Let the man continue." The edge of Krow's lips quirked upwards in a strange smirk. "What other sort of these-- er, 'life's essentials' do you claim to have taught Miss Kaya, then?"
"Stuff like it's easy to make mistakes. How to take things easy. That a lot of things are lot more funnier than you'd expect. And that you should never eat ice-cream with whipped cream without a packet of chocolate chips."
Usopp said it so coldly and without hesitation Kaya looked at him in surprise, at loss of how to react. Krow acted much faster, and grabbed Kaya's arm to pull her away from the engineer.
"Please stay away from Miss Kaya. Your presence is obviously casting bad influences that I dare say may twist her into wrong-doing. For example, making her think the world is much more easier than it is. Or, loaning you money. Is that what you want?"
Usopp's eyes visibly darkened, and his fist tightened into what was unmistakably a punching fist. However, after a few seconds of enraged trembling, Usopp shook his head sharply and turned around. He started to walk off as Krow shouted after him,
"Don't you dare come near Miss Kaya again, you stalker fan-boy, or I'll report you to the police!"
"Klahadol!!" Kaya gasped as Usopp stopped walking. He turned around, his eyes narrowed as he growled,
"I'll do as Kaya wants."
Then he took off on a run. Calling out his name, Kaya started to follow when Krow held her wrist tightly.
"Don't you realise what he's doing to you?!"
Krow snarled. She didn't know what made her do it, but an indescribable anger filled her and the next thing she knew, she'd slapped Krow right across the face. Then she exhaled sharply, her hands flying to her face as she whispered,
"I'm so sorry... I--I didn't mean--"
"Clearly his influence," Krow said frostily, and shoved into Kaya's arms a large brown envelope.
"Take it. They are papers required for the witness. Go through them later and tell me if there are any irregularities."
He stalked off rigidly as Kaya held the envelope with shaking fingers. Quite suddenly Krow snapped,
"If I see him around this place again, I will assure you I will report him. Do not meet with that pompous fake again!"
He then walked away so quickly Kaya didn't have time to think up enough words to phrase the thoughts in her head. And now here she was - Usopp's cell phone was off, Krow was acting horrendous, Merii was worried yet irritating and Kaya felt extremely angry and confused.
She didn't know what to do about that stupid envelope, but she'd go through the papers later. She tried to get past her coughing fit, not wanting to open the door for Merii to question her blotchy eyes.
Vivi was extremely frustrated.
Not only was she able to talk to anyone about the strange connection she felt with Kohza, a student she had never spoken to in her life but knew the name of, but her room-mate had locked her out for a night and was now missing.
"Damn it Nami!!"
Vivi muttered, jiggling the card key into its slot when she noticed a little boy wandering towards her. A little boy? At this time of night? She looked at him look around for a moment before he noticed her. His eyes flitted to the acryllic numbers at the door before he smiled.
"Is Nami in?"
He chirped. Vivi shook her head wordlessly, frowning. There was something strange about this boy. Just as he'd asked her his question, his eyes had looked up at her from behind his glasses - and she was sure she'd seen something similar before.
"Right. Sorry to bother you."
Smiling sweetly, the boy continued across the floor.
"...Uhm, sorry, but have I met you somewhere before?" Vivi blurted out. The boy stopped and frowned, running a hand through his black hair.
"I... don't think so," He said hesitantly, and without another word turned and practically ran out of sight. Vivi frowned. Weird... She entered her dorm to find it empty once more, and the thoughts about Nami clouded her mind so much she failed to notice that the pented pain and frustration in her had disappated the moment she'd seen the young boy.
"I really hate it when I confuse dreams with reality,"
Nami complained,
"and what with this whole reincarnation business I'm mixing everything up worse than usual."
"I understand exactly what you mean. I woke up this morning at dawn and began cracking eggs and cooking bacon at 5AM when I remembered I wasn't a chef for a crew anymore. So I still have a load of omelette in the freezer!"
Sanji sighed, shaking his head as Nami laughed. He poured more lemon tea into her mug, and as she sipped he settled back into his chair looking contemplative. There was a moment of comfortable quiet before Sanji spoke.
"Nami-san."
Nami noticed the change in Sanji's tone - from blissful and pleasant to quite and thoughtful - and looked at him. He was cradling a mug of lemon tea in his hands as he murmured,
"You're a very smart woman so I'd like to ask for your personal opinion on this matter... because I was thinking of it quite a lot. What... what do you think will happen to our bodies when we go back? You know, to the other dimension and everything."
She blinked before her brows furrowed as she bit into another orange cookie.
"Well... it would depend whether or not we stay in this world or not, right?"
She said carefully. The model frowned.
"Do we have a choice?"
Nami shrugged, her eyes flickering to the face on her wristwatch.
"I don't know... all I know is that I think we have choices and that fate can't exactly exist. It's getting late... I-- I think I should be going."
She gave him a weak smile as she stood up slowly.
"Thanks for the cookies and your time, Sanji-kun. You... you know I appreciate it."
Brightening her smile the best she could, Nami turned around to head for the door - when quite suddenly, she felt his warm hand grab her around the wrist. The smile fell from her face as she spun round to face his concerned eyes in surprise.
"Nami-san... I did say that you're a very smart woman - and I do believe it, I really do... but I-- I still think you could use help sometimes. Like when you're in internal conflict... I mean, I know I don't know that much about emotions and feelings, but--"
"No, Sanji-kun," Nami interrupted, her eyes downcast, "you're quite the contrary... you're a really expressive guy with a strong outlet for your emotions. But I'm not quite sure if that's what I need at the moment."
She looked sadly up at him as she whispered, "To be truthful with you... I'm feeling quite emotionally fragile at the moment. I'm not sure I can take the strain if I poured myself out to you."
The blonde suddenly looked so sad and lost, Nami felt her heart twist as he asked almost desperately,
"Is there nothing I can do?"
"...It still hurts to look at you."
Nami took his fingers off from around her wrist, and giving him a last smile she left the dormitory and shut the door with a snap.
He stood there, his mouth still open as he stared at the door as his mind remained blank.
Then all the words Sanji had wanted to tell her - to ask her to tell him what he could do, what it would take - to make her understand he didn't care about himself as much as he cared for her -- came tumbling in a flood of words into his mind, and he ran to the door and wrenched it open.
He darted into the hallway, but it was devoid of anyone. His eyes searched desperately, and he quickly took onto the front staircase and bolted down it.
His footsteps echoed away, and Nami smiled sadly from her place in the back staircase. It was late, and the security teachers were going to come patrolling soon. She had to make it back to her dorm soon, and she noted how empty the back staircase was - there were no couples trying to sneak in secret snogging sessions, or any random passerby. She supposed it was because it was getting fairly late; she quickened her step, hoping she could get back before...
She stopped before she could finish the first flight of stairs, and teetered dangerously at the edge of a step as she swayed on the spot. She had been feeling awful the entire day, and the battle for her soul still raged on at the back of her head, though she was successfully blocking their voices out. However, she knew what was going to happen... she could sense it.
She was losing. Her soul's voice was growing more and more tired and feeble, the other voice sounding stronger and more arrogant every passing moment. She wished she could carry Luffy around in her pocket, but even she knew she shouldn't depend on anyone that much. She had to be able to depend on herself... but as Nami pressed a hand to her forehead and felt sweat break out from the powerfully grinding headache in her brain, she'd known all along that she wasn't enough.
Nami still didn't know what it took for the full revival of her soul, but the deprivation of her source of strength, personality and emotion - namely, her soul - had been increasing as she continued to resolutely exchange denial for short-term painlessness. But the price she had to pay for those short moments of ill peace were devastating enough to make her feel extremely weak and tired, the pains and aches too constant to matter now, and Nami knew she was losing control...
That's right... just let go... you're tired...
The other voice crooned invitingly. Nami's soul moaned pleadingly,
...Don't do it...
Her knees gave out and she grazed her knees as she fell onto the concrete landing three steps below, her shoulder taking the brunt of the fall as she fell with a harsh thud onto the ground.
She saw another brief vision as her eyes clouded with dark, stormy skies and splattering rain, a searing pain in her throat and spine as she saw her hand soaked in blood that wasn't hers... and a piece of black cloth... Sanji's tie-- then she blinked and she saw the gloomy darkness of the back staircase swim back into view, an ominous pounding in her ears.
A twisted smile briefly flickered across Nami's lips as she realised - she didn't want this anymore.
She didn't want the responsibility, the burden, the pain... she didn't want to face Sanji again with this sort of demeanor or ambiguous smiles. Everyone... was expecting too much from her. She wasn't like their strong mentalities. No... she just couldn't take it.
Her vision blurred suddenly, and hot tears spilled down her cheek to the concrete. Her soul reached its limit, and the twisted smile faded.
"I'm so sorry Luffy."
She whispered.
And Nami let go.
A/N: Are we... getting anywhere? O_o;; Uhm... will bring you the 'Reborn' website sometime soon. By any case, sorry for the late update. I guess next update is next Thursday/Friday again... and now it's 12:30AM and I should be getting to sleep, I'll just have to SINCERELY THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND WORDS and all your support. ;_; Thank you! Especially for standing me until now. *bows*