Surprise update! I have COVID and am stuck at home, so enjoy :D

Prepping for Nationals

The next three months went much like that first day, with Soujiro trying desperately to buddy up with her and growing more frustrated by the day. It shouldn't be this hard! All he'd been paid to do was form a friendship - and possibly a romantic interest - with the little princess. But she blocked his efforts at every turn. She also seemed to keep her own counsel on exactly why she was rejecting his company. Kaoru, Misao, and Tae - the only ones she seemed to honor with the title 'friend'- were clueless as to why the girl kept giving him the cold shoulder. He'd managed to fool everyone. Hell, even her brother was taken in by the little orphan boy act! What was the matter with the stupid American?

"Hey Aggie-chan," he said cheerfully, having learned of her adorable nickname two weeks ago. He took great pains to address her as a friend would. Instead of relaxing her into letting her guard down, the girl tensed and Soujiro watched her much as one would a malfunctioning piece of equipment.

"Hello, Soujiro-san," she answered. Determined to get through a full conversation with her, he pressed on.

"Are you excited about the trip to Tokyo to compete in the national championship tomorrow? I hear that Metropolitan Fuchu Nishi High School is the school to beat this year."

"I am looking forward to representing our school and making a good showing at Nationals this year. Last year was a great competition."

"Oh, come on! That's Mr. Takahashi's answer because he's not allowed to say any different. I want to see your passion! I know you can express passion; I've seen it often enough with Kaoru and Misao. Come on, Aggie-chan! Don't let me down."

"Maybe you shouldn't have such high expectations for me. I'll talk to you later, Eiichi-san." With that, she walked away from yet another conversation that he was trying to have with her. The clever girl had become an expert at disengaging from conversations he was involved in, much to his eternal frustration over the past few months.

"Maybe you should just leave her be," Eiichi-san said in a kind tone. "Agatha-chan isn't one for thrilling conversations. She's very cerebral, keeping her opinions to herself."

"I just know that I can get her to talk to me like a fellow human being! I know I can…" The boy looked at him with sympathy.

"I think she's right, you're expecting too much of her." He went back to practicing, nervous about Metropolitan Fuchu Nishi High School this year. They were undefeated this year. And although their school was too, it would take very little to change that this year. After practice, Soujiro went back to the boy's locker room only to receive an unexpected call from an unexpected number. He took it outside, suddenly paranoid about eavesdroppers.

"Yes," Soujiro said shortly once he was sure he was all alone.

"How goes the plan? " Kirei asked.

"Slowly," he answered in a frustrated manner. "You didn't tell me what a cold fish the girl was. It's proving difficult to secure my place in her affections."

"You said that you were capable, Soujiro. Were we wrong to trust you with this task? It's been three months."

"All you've got to do is bang the bitch! How hard can that be?" Gohei asked in frustration, eager for his revenge.

"Very difficult when the stubborn chit is refusing to acknowledge me as a friend and is a strong martial artist. I need more time to-"

"You're out of time," Gohei shouted. "You've failed, assassin. We'll be taking our business elsewhere." Soujiro stared at the phone in disbelief, then cracked an eerie smile and answered the threat.

"Well, that's your choice, Hiruma-san. Just remember that without this job I will have plenty of time on my hands and I am not known for failure." The brothers shuddered at the same time, having forgotten for a moment just who they were addressing. People who challenged the Tenken didn't live to regret the mistake. And this was a very unique case, as the men didn't want her dead, but humiliated.

"My brother spoke in haste," Kirei said after a long silence. "We acknowledge that this is a very difficult task we have assigned you. Please continue with your efforts, Tenken. We look forward to your results."

"I appreciate your time and patience, Hiruma-san. I will endeavor to speed up my efforts. With the kendo national championship coming up, there may be an opportunity to bypass her distrust and accomplish what you want in one fell swoop."

"Oh, do tell," the smarter of the two brothers said in an ingratiating tone. Soujiro frowned at the slimy man's attitude, but quickly regained his usual smile.

"Just be ready to grab the girl in Tokyo should my plan succeed. It would have been easier if she trusted me, but I believe that she will be sufficiently cowed for what you have planned if I can pull my plan off."

"Excellent! We'll be in touch once we get to Tokyo."

"Don't bother. I'll contact you when I'm in position." The line went dead as Soujiro ended the call. Inside he was seething. The girl was making him look like a fool. He'd carried out a hundred or more assassinations in the three years since he'd murdered his sorry excuse for parents. They'd been cruel and abusive towards him all the years of his young life, only increasing their cruelty as he'd gotten older. He'd had a baby sister and when she'd died under 'mysterious circumstances' at age two, it had planted the seeds in the six-year-old's mind of how to get revenge. Killing them had been a jarringly easy task. Getting their dead bodies to the drop-off spot had been even easier. Sitting in his bloodied father's lap while driving them off the cliff had seemed the easiest, most natural thing in the world after spitting in both of their faces. He'd simply guided the doomed vehicle to the weak spot in the rail (he'd always found it funny that no one had thought to check the rail for sabotage), making sure that the car was speeding, and jumped from the vehicle before it went over. After that, it had been a simple matter of beating the cops home.

He'd already had an excuse for his bruises. He'd been suspended for fighting that very day after all. The hardest part of his plan was acting suitably grief-stricken when they'd told him that his parents were dead. And he knew that he hadn't pulled it off. Otherwise, that intrepid reporter would never have had an excuse to go investigating their deaths in the first place. No matter. The reporter had never been able to prove anything concrete, so he'd gotten away with the crime.

It hadn't been the last. He was extraordinarily good at planning and executing plans that left his victims dead in perfectly natural, or at least, explainable circumstances. It was his trademark. This latest job was the first to frustrate him since the murder of his own parents though. First was the fact that the clients didn't want her dead. Usually, he would have slit her throat and left her body where her father could see it. But apparently that wasn't feasible this time. So he'd done the next best thing and infiltrated her lonely life. The plan was simple: befriend the reclusive girl and lead her to an undisclosed location where the brothers could grab her, have their way with her, and then offer her back to the leader of the Dragon Council in exchange for his seat. But like when he'd had to act for his parents' deaths, he'd done something wrong, because she refused to be his friend at all. She avoided him like the plague and only spoke to him at all because it was polite to do so. He'd managed to get the whole school on his side and still the girl resisted his charms. What the heck was wrong with her?

He was reasonably attractive according to his fan club and unfailingly polite. What was he missing that he couldn't get this one little girl to trust him? Shaking his head violently to clear it, the child assassin dismissed the question as irrelevant. Didn't people go missing at tournaments like this? Sure it was a little odd that an accomplished martial artist would, but it wasn't completely outside the realm of possibility; she was just a child after all. It would work, he'd collect his money, and life would go on.

… …

Aggie was covered in sweat by the time she finished her nightly katas. She tended to practice the katas of the Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu and those of the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu for the exercise. But tonight, she felt something else, something important with the exercises. There was a merging of the two styles in her mind that made her sigh in satisfaction as she worked her body to exhaustion. It also helped that she'd called her best friend for the first time ever tonight, taking advantage of the empty house to really explain all her personal issues with Soujiro to him.

"I just can't explain it, Tyr, not really. But when I talk to him… It's like talking to a puppet. The strings move like they're supposed to, but there's just nothing there. I don't like it. And then there are the strange circumstances around his parents' deaths. Something about that just… Unsettles me. I don't feel comfortable around him. He's always smiling, yet he masks his emotions according to Kenshin. He's always polite, but there's a coldness to him. The school adores him, but I don't trust him. And I don't care that the few people who I consider friends are distant and cold towards me because I don't want to be around him. He freaks me out."

"First of all, I'm very proud of you for sticking to your beliefs and trusting your gut on this one," he said in that sinfully smooth voice that always made her shudder with pleasure. "If the boy makes you uncomfortable, then he makes you uncomfortable. No amount of friends' persuasion is going to change that. Tell him straight out that you don't want to be friends. If he asks why, tell him that he makes you feel uncomfortable, or tell him that you already have enough friends to go around."

"That… That sounds reasonable. I just… Something about him sets off my weird-shit-o-meter! I've never felt like this about anyone before. And Kaoru said that maybe it's because I like him, but I've never liked someone before. Does liking someone usually make your skin crawl when you're near him?"

"No, it doesn't," The eighteen year old said quickly, feeling jealousy over the suggestion. Aggie was his and no one else's. "When you like someone, you can't keep them off your mind. And what you feel for them is all of the symptoms that you hear about in songs and poems. Sweaty palms, heart rate acceleration, dizziness, warmth and gooey feelings deep inside."

"I'm sure you've had plenty of experience with this," she said dejectedly.

"No, only once," Tyr assured her emphatically.

"Wow," Aggie gushed, a funny feeling lodged in her gut. "She must be one special girl. I've never heard you talk like that before."

"Oh, she's very special, but she hasn't really realized how much I love her yet."

"Well, don't give up," Aggie said. "I'm sure she'd come around if she just knew how much you care about her. You're an amazing person, Tyr." That unidentifiable feeling was lodged in her chest now, that feeling like she was losing her best and oldest friend. It confused her.

"Thank you, Agatha. I happen to think that you are a pretty amazing person yourself. You have a fierce heart and an unbelievably strong personality. You're smart and creative and physically tough too. You-"

"Woah, woah, there! Easy on the compliments, cowboy! I'm likely to get a swollen head," she said quickly. In truth, she was blushing like a maiden despite her skin tone, that knot in her gut and chest completely gone.

"You could never think too much of yourself, Agatha," he told her. "I don't think you realize just what an awesome girl you truly are."

"Oh Tyr," she said glibly, still blushing profusely. "How are you doing, looking for a date to the prom?"

"I'm still thinking of skipping it. I wouldn't want to go without you and your Poppi would never allow you to come to America just for that."

"That's really sweet of you, but you need to worry about your real friends, not some distant penpal. Find some ordinary girl to go to the prom with."

"Why settle for ordinary when I can have extraordinary?" She could hear the smile in his voice and it warmed her through and through. Suddenly wishing that she were the lucky girl that he loved, she pushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear and snuggled in her chair. "Have you mastered trigonometry yet?" The two talked about their studies for a while, both desperate to keep the conversation going, but soon life got in the way. If they'd been in the same room, his head would have been in her lap as she massaged his head or redid his locks. There wouldn't have been a need for words then. But they were in two different countries and would be for the next month.

"I'd better go practice my katas, Tyr. I have the kendo championship coming up tomorrow too. The next few days will be busy. But I'll try and write you a letter updating you on the situation, okay?"

"Then I will look forward to that letter, my lady." She giggled and they said their goodbyes.

That had been at seven in the evening. Two hours later, she was dripping sweat and in desperate need of a shower before bed. Instead of heading off to the bathroom to clean up, the girl sat seiza to attempt meditation. Tonight felt like a perfect time to try it; she usually skipped - or greatly reduced - her meditation time. She was usually too fidgety or interested in other things to sit still for long periods of time. But after such a productive training session, she felt the need to quiet her mind and see what Aoshi-san found so fascinating about this state. She opened herself up to the energy flowing around her, really trying to feel it. And after a few minutes, she did. No one was in the house, of course, but she could feel the energy of the night animals and trees outside. The winds were restless, as was wont to happen in mid-April. It would be her birthday soon. She would officially be fifteen at last. She pondered briefly the idea of being Tyr's date to the prom, but the notion struck her as ridiculous. She was too young; she'd end up making him the laughingstock of his school. And then she'd disappear like a fever dream, leaving him to deal with the fallout of such a huge mistake. That just wouldn't do. Maybe when it was time for her prom she'd work up the nerve to ask him. That is, if he didn't hook up with this mystery girl that he was in love with.

The pull of her meditation soon let this concern pass away. The feeling of tranquility settling over her was… nice. Suddenly she could see why Aoshi-san liked to meditate. She wasn't sure just how long she spent in this meditative state, testing her ki against the environment. She felt it when Hiko and Kenshin returned home. She felt how late it was, but she was concentrating so hard that she didn't want to stop.

"So, my little one has discovered her ki sense," the mountain of a man smiled down at her. She pulled out of her meditation slowly, knowing that the man would want her to take her time so as not to lose that fascinating sense of knowing. It was like a strange combination of smell, sight, taste, touch and hearing. But also none of them.

"I've never felt anything like that before, especially not while meditating," she said in wonder, trying to find the words to express what it had been like for her.

"Ki sense is an important part of martial arts. I'm glad to see you taking an interest in it. You don't usually meditate, little one."

"Practicing my katas tonight felt different. It was like I was combining the two styles I know. It felt, not weird, but strangely natural. Like the two halves of me were coming together. I don't know what those two halves of me are though."

"Two halves?" Hiko prodded, feeling guilty because he knew exactly what she was talking about. Her dragon half would always be at odds with her human half until she was able to resolve the two. It was true of even full blooded dragons. And he was denying her the chance to resolve this inner conflict by refusing to tell her who she was. By refusing to let any dragon tell her who she was. He knew it was cowardly, but he just couldn't stand the thought of what she might do if she knew what he'd done to her family.

"Yeah. I've always felt… at war with myself. Like there's a part of me that I present to the world. But there's this other, secret part of me clamoring to be let out to play. I'm not exactly sure what that part of me wants. But tonight, I felt a little closer to solving the mystery, you know?"

"Yes, well, it's late, little one. And you have that tournament in Tokyo tomorrow. No more meditation tonight, alright?"

"Yes, Poppi," she yawned. While she was anxious to explore this fascinating new facet of her life, her guardian was right. It felt late to her. Time for some true rest before the tournament. Her legs almost didn't want to support her as she finally stood from her time sitting seiza, but she managed it without the help of her guardian. She stumbled off to shower and get to bed, too tired to notice Poppi's troubled gaze on her all the way to her room.

… …

Poppi took the morning off work to come down to the bus with his wards the next morning. He advised his daughter to practice her meditation nightly now that she'd started down that path and threatened her brother within an inch of his life if anything happened to her during the trip.

"Poppi! Will you stop worrying? I'll be fine, I promise," the girl laughed, giving her guardian a hug and kiss. He still had a bad feeling about letting his daughter out of his sight, but there was very little chance she would be talked out of going.

"Hello, sir," a cheerful, altogether irritating voice interrupted their conversation. Soujiro had wrapped his arms around each of the siblings and was talking to the CEO boldly. "I don't know if Agatha has told you about me, but I'm her friend, Soujiro Seta. It's a pleasure to meet you sir." Hiko ignored his outstretched hand and bowed slightly to the boy. He noted that while both siblings were trying to get the overly friendly boy off of them, his Aggie was a little more desperate about the task. And with good reason. The boy masked his emotions better than most adults and something about him screamed of evil intentions and glee. The man reached across and removed the boy's arm from his daughter.

"You are competing with my children?" he asked.

"Yes, sir," Soujiro laughed, looking at his daughter as he spoke to the guardian. "I've had the honor of-"

"We practically don't need the rest of the team with Sou-chan around. He's so fast," Kaoru gushed, coming up behind her boyfriend happily. Hey, Hiko-sama." He panicked a bit at the thought of his little girl with this smiling boy, but she seemed to sense his… wrongness even if the others didn't. And something about the mention of speed tugged at his memory too. Giving the youngsters a non-committal nod, Hiko went back to his car. Somehow he was thinking that he was making the biggest mistake of his life letting his daughter on the bus with Soujiro, but what could he do? Agatha would never agree to stay safely at home while her team fought for the honor of their school. And it was only for three days.

A light tap on his broad shoulder turned him around to see the subject of his troubled thoughts standing there. She jumped into his arms and kissed him on the cheek before running off for the bus. He smiled after her; no words were spoken, but he knew that she had felt his anxiety about the trip. He watched as she queued up with the others to get on the bus. He was still standing around after the bus had pulled away from the curb, the laughing students talking on and on about the competition and who was going to be there.

Speaking to himself presumably, Hiko said in an Alpha's commanding tone; "Find out who that boy is with my daughter. He has super speed and is a swordsman of extraordinary skill. He can mask his emotions. First name Soujiro. Last name Seta. I want all the information you can get on him by tonight." The Oniwabanshu who served him immediately set out to do his bidding. Feeling better about the whole situation now, the CEO decided to go into work a little bit early to see what his employees were doing while he was away.

… …

"Whatcha doing, Aggie-chan?" Soujiro asked curiously. The girl had settled herself away from the main group and had been sitting quietly for the last fifteen minutes.

"I'm meditating," she said without opening her eyes.

"In this noise?" the boy laughed in disbelief. "Come on and join us," he said, grabbing for her arm. Aggie dodged him without opening her eyes, knowing that his frown must have made its brief appearance.

"I'm not in the habit of making idle chit chat in groups," she told the smiling boy angrily, finally opening her eyes. "If I wanted a conversation, I would have started one with one of my friends. As it is, you seem to have taken over my circle of friends - along with the rest of the school - so why don't you go enjoy them?" Soujiro gaped at her, no longer smiling.

"Agatha… it was never my intention to steal your friends from you. I only wanted-"

"Well, you have stolen my friends from me, intentional or not," she said hotly. "Leave me alone, Soujiro-san." She threw on her headphones since it was clear that meditation was off the agenda with her mind in such turmoil.

"It's Sou-chan!" he ground out angrily, taking her headphones off. "Why don't you ever call me 'Sou-chan'?"

"Beauty is a woman's weapon, courtesy her armor. I may be essentially unarmed, but my armor is damn near impenetrable." She glared at him until he went away, snatching her headphones from him and putting them back on.

"Are you okay, Sou-chan?" Kaoru asked, concerned that the boy wasn't smiling. He was always smiling.

"Yeah, but… She thinks she's ugly," he shook his head. "I've never met a female who genuinely thought they were ugly."

"My sister is a complicated female," Kenshin said, his arm around his girlfriend. "I doubt she meant it that way."

"Oh, she meant it that way," Misao said, also uncharacteristically frowning. "Aggie-chan is very cerebral. She would have thought a statement like that through." She moved to go talk to her friend, only to have Sou-chan block her path.

"Leave her be for a while. She's all riled up at the moment, talking to her now would only start a fight." Somehow he'd recovered his smile. She decided to trust his evaluation of the situation. He was right after all; Aggie would take offense to anything anyone said to her right now. She needed to seethe and possibly sleep before she'd be willing to converse again. What was more disturbing was the fact that Aggie seemed to believe she had no friends left. Just because she hung out with Sou-chan so much didn't mean that she'd forgotten her old friend. Resolving to clear up this misunderstanding before the weekend was over, the girl launched into one of her silence-killing monologues that soon had everyone talking and laughing.

No one even noticed when Aggie woke up from her nap two hours later and started trying to meditate again. This time, with no distractions, she was able to slip into that calm state, despite the noise, reveling in the power she felt from her newly discovered talent. She could feel the other people on the bus through her ki sense. There was boredom and anxiety and contentment and… Something dark was radiating off of Soujiro, even though he was smiling. God, couldn't anyone else feel it? It was like a thick slime, one that felt like it was coating her as she examined it. Backing off, she decided to probe Kenshin with her limited abilities. His head snapped up the moment she pressed against his aura with her own. He stopped talking abruptly, stood up and walked over to his sister, who was still feigning sleep in order to be left alone.

"Technically speaking, it's not considered polite to use your ki sense to probe so deeply into someone without their permission, little sister," he said quietly, pushing her feet off the seat next to her and sliding into the seat.

"Sorry, oni-chan," she said automatically. Was that why Kenshin was such good friends with Soujiro? Because he couldn't feel that oily intention from the boy? Perhaps if he did, he wouldn't be so quick to befriend a virtual stranger.

"Don't worry about it. You're new to this. And even if people knew about your newfound ability, they wouldn't really mind. What's dark and shrouded in mystery in one person may be no big deal to another. I've found that the only time that reading emotions comes in handy is during battle, when everything else is set aside. I admit that I'm a bit jealous. Battle is the only place where my ki-reading shines. I'm hopeless at it in day-to-day life. What did you see when you probed Sou-chan?"

Aggie thought about telling her big brother what she'd seen in Soujiro's aura that made her reject him so thoroughly. It would maybe win her friends back to her. But somehow that seemed like cheating. This ability was new to her after all, couldn't it be wrong? Or could it be reacting to her dislike of the boy, creating things that weren't there? It was a chicken-or-egg scenario and she wasn't good enough at this new ability to be able to tell the difference. In the end, she held her peace.

"You should go back over there," Aggie said, turning her back on her brother.

"Agatha…"

"No, Kenshin. You like him so much, go hang with him and your other friends. The tournament is going to take up a great deal of your time over the next three days. Better take the time to be with the people that matter most to you, right?"

"In that case, I'm right where I belong," the red haired teenager smiled a stubborn smile. She looked at him in shock and for the first time, he was able to clearly see how much this situation was affecting her. Her own ki screamed of desperate loneliness before returning to its usual state of mild indifference. "Where are your hair supplies? I think it's only fair that I get to play in your hair like you do in mine."

"Kenshin, we haven't played in each other's hair since before high school! You can't possibly-"

"I'm very serious, little sister. Get your supplies. I think you could use a few new plaits." She looked him over to see if he was serious, and gasping in shock when she realized that he was, she scrambled to pull her hair supplies out of her suitcase when they stopped for a bathroom break in Hamamatsu. The two sat up near the front of the bus and played with each other's hair like old times. Aggie went first, making a seemingly random assortment of plaits in his hair and ultimately combining them into a large French braid all the way down his back. The effect brought the sharp angles of his face into stark relief, making him look more dangerous and alluring than normal. He looked at himself in Aggie's large hand mirror and was impressed. "I think I'll keep this for the whole tournament. I like this look on me," he complimented his blushing sister.

"You don't have to…"

"You're right. I don't." He stared deep into her expressive brown eyes until he was sure that she believed him. She grinned after that, quickly taking down her own locks for her brother's inspection.

"Kami, Aggie-chan! How long is your hair now?"

"It was just hitting the back of my knees the last time I took a proper measurement of it," she smiled, secretly proud to have shocked her brother so thoroughly. He recovered quickly, taking fistfuls of her thick hair and marshaling it into a style he was happy with. It took a couple of tries to come up with a style he liked, but he kept at it until he was satisfied. By the time he'd finished, her hair was half done up in a regal-looking crown, while the rest flowed freely to her knees. Aggie, unused to having her hair swaying freely, grinned and hugged her big brother tightly in thanks.

"What exactly are you two siblings doing up here so secretively?" Misao asked teasingly. She and Kaoru had left Soujiro behind for once and made their way to their other friends after giving the siblings two hours to bond. "Oh my gosh, Ken-kun! You look so good!" she gushed at the look of him. His girlfriend looked half dazed and half like she wanted to pounce him right then and there. In the end, she settled for sliding down into his lap and kissing him senseless. "And Aggie! You look so different with your hair down! It's as long as mine and I never knew!"

Misao's voice was naturally set at an octave that could be heard plainly in the middle of a hurricane. So it naturally attracted the rest of the team to the place near the front of the bus where the siblings had set up shop. The team members were very impressed with the hairstyles, especially with the effect Aggie's handiwork had on their team captain's appearance. But no one could miss the difference in their only black member of the team. She looked regal, exotic and like something forbidden. Even with her plain street clothes on, she looked stately, like an African queen.

"We need pictures of the both of you," Misao finally said as they approached the next rest stop.

"Would you do my hair, Aggie-chan?" Kaoru asked humbly.

"I would think you'd want Kenshin to do it," she blinked.

"No! I mean, no, Aggie. I'd like you to do it. Please?" The two teenagers stared at each other until Aggie looked away. The past three months had been rough on their friendship. Kaoru had really taken to Soujiro and resented Aggie's rejection of his friendship.

"O-okay, I guess." She sat back down and Kenshin and Kaoru switched places so that the African American could get at her hair to style it. It was a little nerve-wracking with everyone staring at her, but she managed to put Kaoru's long tresses into a daring style that incorporated a zigzag pattern and plenty of her dwindling supply of hairpins compliments of Kenshin. She looked amazing and amazingly different than she did with her usual high ponytail. While Aggie was working on her friend's hair, Kenshin sat Misao down in a seat and was taking out her trademark long braid. He hadn't quite worked the hairdresser itch out of his system with Aggie's long locks. She dug into Aggie's seemingly endless supply of tiny black rubber bands and styled her hair with a large amount of tiny braids that he turned into a half ponytail with two extra long braids capturing the mass at shoulder length. Both girls looked amazing once the siblings finished with them.

"I wish my hair was longer, so Agatha-san would play in it."

"My Kaa-chan says that long hair is for girls," Hironori said quietly. "She'd have a fit if I tried to grow mine out."

"It might be worth it to have Aggie-chan's soft hands working through my hair," Daichi muttered. He cast one more longing look at the black girl before moving back to his spot at the back of the bus.

That sparked Soujiro's attention from where he'd been taking a nap. His sharp eyes picked out Aggie from the crowd and he blinked at her hairstyle. She looked like a fairy princess, and suddenly he didn't want her to fall into the hands of the Hiruma brothers. She didn't deserve that fate. She might see right through him and drive him absolutely bonkers with her stubbornness, but the brothers would break her spirit for the fun of it, and when they couldn't, they'd likely just kill her. Recognizing that he was having second thoughts about his mission for the first time ever and that he was questioning his employers' motives for the first time ever, he settled himself back down to feign sleep. His thoughts were too turbulent to be acceptable company at the moment. As it was, he got the impression that little Aggie knew he was awake and was grateful for the lack of interruption to her visit with her friends.

The four spent the brief rest stop posing and taking pictures of each other in different action poses after going to the bathroom. The last hour of the trip was spent in a lively conversation about the other teams and different strategies to defeat them. Everyone participated in this conversation, even Aggie and Soujiro. When the bus finally pulled up to Metropolitan Fuchu Nishi High School, the teenagers were pumped and confident in their ability to win the championship.

Here we go, the meat of the fic. Hope you're all enjoying it. See y'all next week! :D