My Way

by Ashishu

Modern time Taki and Sophitia are penpals but don't know it and hate each other in real life. They have to learn to cope when they live together. Shoujoai in later chapters, get used to it.

7. What a Festival Can Do

Do not own SC characters.

I KNOW! I KNOW! I took an inexcusably amount of time in updating this and I GREATLY apologize. This chapter kind of caught me in the middle of my final month of school, so I had to hold it off for that month so that I could actually pass this year. I'm really really really sorry for the delay.

In recompense for the lateness of this update, I tried to make this chapter good and long, and I don't believe I failed length-wise. I actually had more going on in this chapter but I had to cut it off until the next chapter because I was afraid that this chapter was going to be too long and take up too much time. I figured it would be better to give you this instead of making you guys wait longer. I hope this chapter was worth the wait for you, let me know how it was to you, like always :) And again, I apologize… and again and again.

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Chapter 7: What a Festival Can Do

Mitsurugi casually walked through the halls with his backpack slacked over his arm. It was still the end of the school-day and people were still in classes, he was late for his own but he figured since he was late anyway, why hurry?

As he reached the end of the wide hall, he heard somebody speeding towards him from behind. When he turned to see who it was, a white-skinned yet hazy-black figure sped around him while grabbing his arm tightly then swung the both of them around to a deep corner behind the hallway. He felt the both of them hit the wall, making him grunt slightly as he looked down to the person who was now holding him close against them. His eyes widened as he finally realized that it was a tensing and panting Taki. Not saying anything, he felt the pressure of her chest expanding and contracting against his own as one of her arms wrapped around to his back while the other was wrapped rather snugly around his neck. Feeling himself become rather excited at this close contact, a smug grin forced its way onto his lips.

"Even in the middle of school, you just can't control yourself huh? I had a feeling our break-up wouldn't last long." Mitsurugi spoke in a low, soft tone as if trying to act sensual. Taki's palm suddenly lashed out and clamped over his mouth, making her feel his rather poorly shaved facial-hair poke at her palm.

"Shhh!" Taki hissed as soundlessly as she could, which didn't blow over very well. Mitsurugi was now thoroughly confused as he heard several pitter-patters of quick footsteps come towards them. Taki held him closer as this happened as if begging for his protection, which made Mitsurugi even more bewildered until a group of students ran to the end of the hallway. Mitsurugi easily guessed that they were looking for Taki to play a game of 'twenty-questions' with her about her upcoming match. He stayed close to Taki, who hid her face hidden in his baggy, blue-collared shirt, and waited until they left. They soon did, running down another hallway in hopes of catching up while completely missing the two in the corner who just appeared to be a couple and nothing else.

When they left, Taki softly pushed Mitsurugi away while sighing in relief and running her fingers through her hair. "Thanks, I hate it when the newspaper club comes after me. I mean, what could they possibly ask me about anyway when the soccer match hasn't even started yet?" She complained as she walked back down the opposite hallway where the club members had come after her. Mitsurugi didn't answer as he followed her lead, not having much else to do, well, besides actually going toclass.

"Of course, you do know they're not going to leave you alone until they get what they want." Mitsurugi noted in a tone of soft warning.

Taki eyed him and his remark. "I pretty much know that by now, but thank you for your helpful advice." She replied sarcastically, which Mitsurugi rolled his eyes at, being quite used to those remarks. Taki rubbed her nape as if to help relieve the stress she was feeling. "Now I know how the President feels when mobs of reporters come after him. It's like having a Jack Russell Terrier gnawing, growling and ripping at your pant leg, never wanting to let go until you give it a biscuit!" She compared with an aggravated growl.

"So then how are you going to avoid them during the school-day?" Mitsurugi asked curiously.

Taki smiled faintly yet almost proudly as she glanced towards him. "I have nothing left for the rest of the day; my last class is a study hall, so after I get the professor's permission I'm just going to leave then. I'm going to have Sophitia help me with my homework anyway during tonight's study session."

Mitsurugi quirked an eyebrow in surprise. "Study session? Since when did you have the perseverance to actually do 'study sessions'?"

"When I actually realized that I should." Mitsurugi noticed the pride in Taki's declaration, although he let his eyes narrow slightly at her as he knew that she would be hiding the real possible truth.

Taki's smile fell as she noticed his expression and sighed. "Alright; when she and my professor saw my grades, they both basically made me have tutors a couple of nights a week." She admitted in a low tone.

"So then, she helped you for the test today?" Mitsurugi questioned normally.

Taki seemed to sigh with slight agitation. "For four nights in a row. I'm pretty much shot by now with all that studying and that test today. At least it wasn't too difficult with her help. Of course I'm willing to wait for my grade. I'm just glad it's over for now."

"So are you going to that festival later tonight since you appear to be free? For the time being at least." Mitsurugi added with a quickly quirked eyebrow.

"No, I don't want to anyway. I've seen them every single year of my life and they haven't changed a bit. They can be rather boring after a few years." Taki asserted simply as if she was completely sure of her decision.

Mitsurugi looked at her for a moment before giving her a confused eye. "What about your father though? Isn't he the one who literally makes you go every year?"

Taki snorted as if brushing the statement away. "He may have done that for many years as well as to all of my other siblings, but I'm not living under his roof now so he doesn't have that power over me. And, he should know that I'm plenty old enough to think for myself. He doesn't know my schedule now anyway so he can't suddenly decide to have me do things like that. I'm actually going to tell him that today to prove that he doesn't have the upper hand." She proved as thoroughly as she could, having complete confidence in herself.

Mitsurugi blinked at her with a sort of calm concern, which he quickly brushed off as he looked away and tugged the strap of his backpack higher onto his shoulder. "Ookay, do what you want just don't involve me; your old man is a pretty tough guy for his age. I remember one time while we were still dating that he seemed to be suspicious of me for some reason; he kept giving me some sort of evil glare which still makes me shudder today so I can't imagine what he looks like when he blows a fuse." The man with the longest ebony hair that Taki knew commented with a tone of slight warning.

Taki merely chuckled as if trying to appear fearless. "You are a wuss to just be afraid of his glare." She commented with a smirk. "Don't worry, I know I can handle him; he's not that difficult." Stating with a tone of complete confidence, she looked at him in the corner of her eye. "Maybe you should get back to class; teachers will get suspicious with you wandering around. This is a city school after all." She warned coolly.

Mitsurugi rolled his eyes and sighed. "I suppose, but I won't like it." He turned the next corner to take another long-cut back to class. He waved once behind him. "Good luck with your father."

"Humph. You worry too much." Taki smirked as she continued down a different hallway. "I can take him."

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"No way! Absolutely NOT!"

Taki's eager shoulders and jaw dropped at her father's reply; she had gathered up enough courage to actually stand before him and lay down the line of her not going and yet he was still being irritable about it! Toki stood in the kitchen and she stood out of it in the family room staring at him over the counter table. Keiichi was in a cushioned chair in the same room with his game controller in hand while Sakura was laying back on the couch with her headphones on and eyes closed. However both their attentions turned to their father's rant, now very interested in the situation as Keiichi paused his game while looking in the corner of his eye and Sakura pulled a single earphone off to listen.

Taki huffed as she tried another round. "What is the big deal? I've gone to it before as well as several others! Can I just not go this one time?" She tried to raise her voice but only a little since it was her father.

Sakura's eyes widened before she jumped off the couch and pointed at her elder sister almost accusingly. "Hey! No fair! I'm not a big fan of these festivals either and yet you're considering letting her go? Do you know how boring and embarrassing it is to have your two brothers surrounding you and not having a sister as back-up?" The purple-streak-haired girl protested, folding her arms over her chest and narrowing her eyes slightly.

Keiichi blinked at Sakura beneath the rectangle-lenses of his specs as if bewildered at Sakura's statement. He soon shot up from his seat to defend. "Hey! I'm not as bad as Haitani! I mean, you know that between the two of us I'm the most considerate!" He abruptly pointed in the direction of where Haitani was at the time, which was in his room in the hallway. "I don't hope for strong winds to pick up in the summer for the only purpose of watching girls' skirts fly up!"

Suddenly Haitani came out of his closed room and poked his head into the living room, not realizing that all four within were tensing because of the issue. "I heard my name and the word 'skirts'." He stated with a quirked eyebrow as his gaze swept over all four, waiting for an explanation.

Taki sighed as she rubbed a hand down her face; this was more trouble than she needed. She looked back up to her father whose eyes were intense and had his arms folded over his chest. "Father, can't I skip it this time? I… I have a lot of st-!"

"Don't give me any excuses, Taki." Her father interrupted, his dark eyes never wavering from hers. "This is our own tradition and I would like it if you'd not break it. It may not be like the festivals in Japan, but it means a great deal for us to all go. Tsukoto still does it, I know since she writes to us almost every week. And besides, you'd let all your siblings down if you didn't come; Sakura has already expressed that." He spoke in a slightly cooler tone that before, which made Taki's muscles become less tense.

Taki quirked an eyebrow at him; she had the perfect solution of saying that she had to study but then he had to say those things. Taki slowly turned to look at Sakura. 'She couldn't be that desperate to have me there-whoa!' When her eyes landed on Sakura, she found that her little sister had snuck up just behind her, placed her hands together and portrayed a cute innocence in her big brown eyes as though she was a pleading puppy. Taki looked at her in a strange gawking expression as she pulled back slightly and lifting her arm up as if defending herself from Sakura's cuteness. Taki sighed as second thoughts came into her mind.

"If you really hate the festival so much, perhaps you could ask that roommate of yours to come along and keep you company." Toki suggested, making his gaze lose their intensity as he noted Taki's failing defenses against her sister.

Taki's wide eyes shot up to him but she couldn't find the words to speak for a few seconds, although it was obvious that she was trying to speak since her jaw kept dropping up and down slightly. "F-father, I kind of doubt that Sophitia would come; she didn't seem very interested in it the last time the festival was mentioned." She tried to explain as she tried to renew her composure.

Toki seemed to smirk as he shifted while leaning back against the edge of the counter. "It wouldn't hurt to ask, now would it? You never know, she might like it more if she goes with someone who's more familiar with it." He explained simply, making Taki hesitate again before she tried to find another excuse until he broke in again. "You will have to find your kimono though; I don't know where you hid it after last year's festival." Taki's eyes portrayed extreme fear as they darted.

'Not the kimono. Anything but the kimono! There's no way Sophitia's going to see me in that kimono even if she did decide to come. I have to wear it every single year and I hate it every time! It just doesn't suit me, plus I can hardly move in it! Not to mention how long it takes to actually put it on!' Her thoughts raced through her mind at an almost incomprehensible speed. Having a masculine personality, wearing very feminine clothes was her least favorite thing to do.

"Uh-erm…" Eyes continuing to dart, she tried to come up with an excuse to not wear it. "I-I took it over to Sophitia's a-and I can't seem to find it." Her speech was rather rushed but she figured it would work; Toki was already looking down and running a hand over his bearded chin in contemplation.

"Can't find it? What do you mean you 'can't find it'? Didn't you leave it in your closet because you didn't want both Sophitia and yourself to see it-mmph!" Sakura spoke up with furrowed eyebrows of confusion until Taki whipped around and covered her mouth with her palm. Her little sister was a bit frightened at the crazed look in Taki's eyes as her face was so close to her own.

"And didn't I tell you to keep your mouth quiet about that?" Taki spoke in a forced whisper, her crazed eye quirking a dangerously high eyebrow at her. Sakura's eyes darted to the side as if thinking "Oh… yeah… oops…"

Toki chuckled slightly, making Taki abruptly turn to look at him. "Nice try, Taki." He smirked.

Taki could only smile in a pitiful nervousness. 'He must love doing this to me.'

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Sophitia glanced at her watch; she had been writing essay papers for her Economics class for the last hour and a half since school ended. From the kotatsu, she turned her eyes to her doorway, wondering what was taking Taki so long as she knew her sporty roommate rarely took the time to go to the library or anything of the sort. She quirked an eyebrow as she wondered if she should be so concerned over a girl older than herself and didn't get along with from time to time.

Just as she looked down, the door swung open as Taki seemed to drag herself in with a depressed expression. Sophitia didn't say anything as Taki dropped her bag on a tool by the kitchen counter while keeping a small, rectangular cardboard box under her arm. Her eyes furrowed in curiosity as Taki seemed to look at the box for a moment before shaking her head slightly and sighing as if releasing stress.

"Took you a while to come back." Sophitia suddenly noted, making Taki abruptly turn to her as if she hadn't noticed her until now.

Taki looked back down as she dropped the box back to her side. "Yeah, I had to stop at my family's place to tell my father that I didn't want to go to the festival. But, once again, he made me." The ebony-haired woman paused as she glanced at Sophitia who looked at her with what looked like slight indifference. 'I'm kind of afraid to ask her if she wants to go with us; what if she becomes bored quickly, not that I most likely won't either, but…' She contemplated as she looked away. 'Hmph.' Taki inwardly shrugged. 'I'll ask her and if she wants to go, she can and if she doesn't, she doesn't.' She figured as she turned completely to Sophitia, who had looked down for a moment but looked back up with slightly raised eyebrows as she heard Taki's sudden movement.

Taki took a breath. "W-would you want to go to that festival we spoke about in Mina's car?" She spoke rather quickly.

Sophitia blinked; she didn't have a real desire to go, although she wondered what made Taki bring this up. The reason that she didn't want to go was mainly because the last time she spoke to DragonMistress, her friend had said that she had had enough of festivals for her lifetime already and said that she wasn't willing to go. Sophitia just left it alone after that, plus she figured it would be pointless to search for a person who you didn't know the real name of or what they looked like.

"Um… why do you ask?" Sophitia asked as she dropped her pen onto the kotatsu table before steepling her fingers together. As Taki hesitated, she spoke up again. "Is it today already?" She asked in slight surprise.

The older woman nodded slightly. "My father thinks you might like it if you go with someone you knew." Taki stated in a low tone as if trying not to make Sophitia feel that she was limited in options.

Sophitia looked away as she pondered for a moment. "When would we be going?"

Taki pulled back in slight surprise that Sophitia was considering it. "Erm…" She quickly looked at her watch. "Eight, maybe." She answered uncertainly. "I remember there being shops, food and sweet stands as well as game booths; it's pretty much like a carnival." She added, although she felt like hitting herself for saying that it was like a carnival since festivals and carnivals were obviously the same thing except festivals had a little more meaning into it, at least in her opinion.

Sophitia quirked an eyebrow as if intrigued. "Cassandra would like it too then. I've heard she's been pretty bored lately." She thought aloud, not noticing Taki raise her eyebrows beneath her long, slightly parted bangs as she wasn't expecting for Sophitia say yes and even agreeing to bring her sister along. After a few minutes, Sophitia's gaze landed on Taki's. "I think I'll go; it sounds interesting." She smiled slightly as she agreed.

Taki felt a smile sneak onto her face in reply although it was without permission. She looked down as she quickly ran her fingers over her lips to make her smile sink back within herself. "All right. Perhaps our sisters should come over here then and we can all leave together since Sakura needs to come over here anyway." Taki thought aloud with a slight shrug as she left for her room to unbox the infernal Asian robes.

Sophitia's eyebrows furrowed in slight confusion. "Why would your sister need to come here?" She asked curiously before Taki could even enter the hallway.

Taki froze; she now knew that she would have to tell the Grecian about what she had to wear that night and she knew the reaction she might get. "I-uhh…" Taki gulped as she decided to get it over with. "Whenever we go to a festival of some sort all the females in our family have to wear kimonos to be respectful. It takes a second person to help put a kimono on properly so Sakura's coming over and helping me with mine then I help her with her own." Taki explained quickly and in a low tone, making sure to keep her eyes off of the blonde until she finished and tentatively turned to look at her in the corner of her eye.

Sophitia couldn't help the anxious smile that took over her lips. She leaned her chin into the palm of her hand. "You're going to be in a kimono huh? That's very feminine of you. I can't wait to see that." The younger girl declared teasingly, her smile turning into a wide grin as Taki's gaze seemed to drift on and off of her as if trying to find a place to lock her eyes onto as she spoke.

Taki chuckled cockily with a slightly twitching lip. "Oh I bet you can't." She pretended to grumble irritably as she headed for her doorway.

"By the way…" Sophitia called as Taki had her hand on her door handle, making her still herself as she listened. "Since you're wearing something respectful, I suppose that I would need to as well?"

Taki's eyes darted slightly; she had no idea, she never really paid attention to whether people of other nationalities dressed more nicely when they visited the Asian festivals. "Hmm, you can if you want." Was all Taki could answer then waited for Sophitia's reply, which took a small delay.

"I guess I'll keep that in mind." Sophitia seemed to chuckle slightly at Taki's dubious reply before her roommate entered her room with another cocky sound through her throat. Sophitia figured that she would eventually tell Sakura of the new plan of her coming over so she planned to do the same after she had finished her essay. Thusly, with a smirk, she continued to write the remainder of her essay…

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Sophitia decided to dress herself up respectfully for Taki's sake as she knew that the masculine girl would most likely feel tortured in feminine clothing. So she was in her room picking out her best, most comfortable as well as warm clothes against the chill of autumn. She was having a lot of difficulty in this until she found a dark blue skirt that went down above her knee-cap and a white, collared shirt with cuffs at the wrists.

She pulled it out of her closet as she examined it for wrinkles then laid it out on her bed before she went to collect the jewelry appropriate to it. When she had everything together, she figured to start getting dressed now just to have everything ready just in case she would eventually forget something else she would want to put on later.

Tossing off her light blue shirt, she put her other white shirt on and buttoned it up to her breastbone without any trouble. Next was the jewelry, which was mostly Onyx stones and silver. Then was the blue skirt which had the zipper at the side and hidden beneath flaps of the material. She went to put it on with the zipper at her right hip then looked at herself in the mirror on her dresser. Looking at herself in different directions, Sophitia didn't seem to care much for the skirt anymore since it looked a little out of place with the black of the Onyx and the white of the shirt. She had many more skirts to choose from so it didn't really bother her, so she went to pick out another skirt and eventually found a jean skirt the same length as the one she had on now.

Throwing it on the bed she went to take off the skirt she had on now, only to find that the zipper was caught on a loose string within the flaps. She growled in frustration as she tried to force the string to break by moving the zipper only to find it becoming more stuck. Of course the band around the waist was a little tight so she couldn't just push it around her hips. She took a breath as she paused, exhaling upwards so that her breath moved her bangs up slightly.

"Now what?" Sophitia thought aloud as she tried to think of a way to get her skirt off, and she need it done fast as she had called her sister to come an hour ago so she knew that both Sakura and Cassandra would be on their way to her apartment. She knew that Cassandra wouldn't be much help in helping her as she knew that her dear little sister would laugh at her.

Sophitia froze as she heard a knock on her door. "Hey Sophitia, it's six o'clock now so Sakura should be here anytime to help me with my kimono. Just thought I'd tell you so that you wouldn't be surprised when she comes." Taki spoke through the door. Sophitia stayed in her position as her eyes darted.

"A-alright, thanks." Sophitia answered before she closed her eyes and scowled at the idea that came into her head, knowing that she'd have no choice but to do it. "Taki could you come in here for a second?" 'This isn't going to be good.' The blonde thought as she kept her pinched fingers on the zipper. Her heart sped up at Taki came through slowly.

"Yeah?" Taki quirked an eyebrow at the position Sophitia was in. A smirk appeared on her face before she continued, "having troubles?"

"Just a little, yes." Sophitia had a cocky look on her face as she answered, watching as Taki brought her whole body into the room before shutting the door behind her. "My zipper's stuck." She explained in a low, embarrassed tone as she averted her gaze away from Taki's amused ones.

"I can see that." A grin could be seen on Taki's face. "I'm even more surprised though at the fact that you decided to dress up." The slightly taller girl mentioned as she placed her hands on her hips and shifted her weight to one leg.

"I bet." Sophitia quirked an eyebrow slightly as she responded, still feeling very aggravated. "Before our sisters come, could you help me get this off?"

Taki blinked tentatively, raising her eyebrows as if her surprise had heightened by that request. "Uhh, sure." She came forward, kneeled down and moved Sophitia's fingers so that she could clearly see what she had to do, only to blink again in confusion as the zipper was apparently part of a complex knot of loose strings. "Geez, what'd you do to it?" Not looking up as she spoke, she pulled lightly at the strings as if she thought they would just easily fall right off.

"I didn't do anything." Sophitia defended sternly.

"Yeah, that's evident." Taki replied cockily, making Sophitia half-sneer briefly as she looked away while feeling Taki continue to fiddle with the knotted strings. "What exactly do you suggest I do?"

Sophitia sighed slightly. "I don't know, get a pair of scissors and cut through the strings. I have a pair in a drawer in the kitchen." She instructed, watching Taki simply nod before she headed to the door. However, the door of her apartment could be heard opening from its loud squeak and soon Cassandra's voice could be heard yelling "hello". Hearing this, Sophitia abruptly grabbed Taki's shoulder and pulled her back, making her fumble backwards in the process.

"Problem?" Taki asked with a very quirked eyebrow at Sophitia's action.

"Don't you think it'll seem weird that you're leaving my room, waving at them indifferently, and then coming back to my room with a pair of scissors in your hand?" Sophitia explained with an eyebrow that matched Taki's.

The slightly taller woman's eyes darted as she heard this, realizing the awkwardness of that image. Her eyes slowly drifted up to Sophitia's before she blinked twice. "Then what do you want me to do?"

Sophitia sighed again, her eyes tightly shut and running her fingers through her golden bangs as she tried to think of something. Then, she heard Cassandra's voice calling for her again with confusion. "Just a second, Cass!" Sophitia called before she turned to Taki, knowing that she had to hurry. "Just… Just rip it off if you have to, I'm going to through them out anyway since they're obviously 'defective' now." She explained as calmly as she could.

Taki's eyes widened at what she was told. 'Ri-rip it off?' Her eyes drifted down to Sophitia's skirt as she kneeled down and took an edge of the zipper in her fingers. 'I can't believe I'm doing this.' She thought as she began to pull at the material in opposite directions, waiting for at least a small tear. 'It's certainly a new experience.' A smirk soon broke onto her face as she continued to pull.

Sophitia tried to stay as still as she could, although it was difficult as Taki's attempts of tearing her skirt made her hips move against her skirt. It was the most embarrassing situation she ever thought she'd be in. She soon noticed the amused look on Taki's face and felt her eyebrows furrow slightly. "What are you grinning about?"

Taki soon found herself giggling madly; a thing she rarely felt herself doing. "You know, never in my lifetime did I imagine myself having to rip a girl's skirt off, especially when it's by request." She found herself laughing a little harder as she spoke, although she tried to keep her voice level to a minimum.

Sophitia felt a smile creep on her face on its own accord. "I'd never thought I'd ask someone to rip my skirt off." She chuckled slightly, hearing Taki do the same.

It took a few minutes for Taki to even get a small tear, which wasn't enough for her to take her skirt off; the material was very strong for its light appearance. She sighed loudly at the amount of time this was taking; she knew that her sister would wonder what she's doing. "What are you doing? Just rip it off! Did you lose your muscle in the last few minutes?" She asked rather impatiently, while shortening Taki's in process.

Taki sharply looked up with furrowed eyebrows. "I am ripping it off!" She shot back loudly, making her grip and strength rise as she gave another hard tug. Sure enough, the skirt finally ripped and almost all the way down the hem, revealing a smooth vanilla-skinned thigh to the Asian's eyes.

Taki could feel an uncontrollable blush come to her cheeks; between the sight of her slender thigh and the somewhat thin white band of her underwear encircling her hip, Taki found herself having difficulty trying to move. It completely left her mind that she was going to see a glimpse of Sophitia's underwear and thigh if she was trying to rip her skirt off, although this was much more than a 'glimpse'.

Sophitia froze as well, her eyes darted as she slowly looked down to the very wide-eyed Taki. Both were at a loss of words for the eternity that seemed to pass as the moment occurred. Although, no words were needed as they were spoken by Cassandra as she rushed into her sister's room.

"What in the world are you yelling abou-!...?" Cassandra stopped as her wide eyes matched both Taki's and her elder sister's while they sharply looked back at her. Cassandra merely blinked twice at them as if still trying to comprehend what was in front of her. Sophitia and Taki were silent although their mouths were slacking slightly. Cassandra seemed to drop her head then sigh as she shook it. Sophitia heard a soft giggle from the short-haired blonde, making her eyebrows furrow slightly in confusion. Cassandra slowly looked up with a grin. "First under the table and now in your bedroom? Man, you two never stop do you?"

Much to Taki and Sophitia's shock, Sakura came in with curiosity before they could defend. "Never stop what?" She asked Cassandra in her confusion until she saw her own sister kneeling next to her roommate's more than half-exposed leg. Her eyes widened, as could be predicted by now.

Sakura was about to open her mouth, when Taki hastily got to her feet and shoved her sister out the door by the shoulders. "Nothing! Nothing! Nothing's happening! So, why don't we just start fitting on our kimonos just to have that over-with!" She defended then offered rather loudly as if she thought it would quickly avert her sister's thoughts, whatever they may be.

Cassandra watched them go passed her with a smirk on her face which she couldn't get rid of. She slowly turned to Sophitia, who was averting her gaze from her while ruffling the back of her hair slightly. When she finally looked up to her sister's cocky smile, she frowned slightly as she quickly took her torn skirt and tossed it in the waste basket.

"You know very well that nothing was happening, so don't give me that look." Sophitia gave her the 'no-no' gesture while glaring at her knowingly as she spoke.

Cassandra grinned widely while holding her hands behind her back: a true 'baby-sister' pose. "Yep, I'm beginning to know you two well."

'That's a dangerous thought.' While turning back to her closet to find a better skirt to wear, Sophitia half-muttered as those words ran through her head.

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The two Grecian sisters sat on the couch of the living room, waiting for the other two in Taki's room to be finished. In between them laid Ember, purring and rubbing against Sophitia's idle stokes of her fingers against its side. Cassandra just flipped through the channels, an expression of complete boredom on her face as she leaned the side of it against her palm onto the arm of the couch.

Almost an hour had passed and they were beginning to wonder what was taking the two Asian sisters so long. Neither complained, although they would make frequent glances at the digital clock close to them as they waited. After another fifteen minutes had passed, Cassandra was now ready to complain until the door of the hallway could be heard opening, along with faint murmurs. Sophitia and Cassandra could tell that the two were arguing over something although neither knew what, well, besides Sakura discovering her own sister taking another woman's skirt off.

Sakura was the first to come out, wearing a very dark green kimono with designs of trees containing large emerald leaves and a dark turquoise obi sash. Apparently, she was trying to motivate Taki to emerge from the hallway since she kept looking into the hallway and waving for her sister to come out. Eventually, she simply dropped her gesturing arms to her side and went back into the hallway.

Sophitia and Cassandra looked at each other strangely before standing and waiting for the two to finally come out. Sophitia sighed as Taki was still reluctant to come out. "Come on Taki; it can't be that ba-!" She stopped as Sakura used almost all her weight to push her out of the hallway. Taki leaned against her but once she was 'revealed', her attempts of going back stopped and she felt a blush come to her cheeks; she felt utterly ridiculous in her kimono but Sophitia greatly thought otherwise as she found herself staring at her.

Taki wore a vibrantly deep red kimono with thin branches full of white blossoms surrounded her in a very whimsical fashion while the sash was red and black: perfect colors for the blossoms to stand out. Red was a nice color for Taki, Sophitia figured; it brought out her chocolate eyes as did her ebony hair which was finally let down to frame her face and go almost passed the shoulder blade.

Observing Taki's outfit, Sophitia was grateful that she decided to dress up rather than not because if she hadn't then she would have quickly changed into something better than casual clothing; she would have felt a little out of place standing next to Taki in casual wear.

Taki averted her eyes from Sophitia's still ones on her, making the blonde quickly do the same. "I know; I don't look very good in feminine clothing." Taki muttered rather sheepishly as she rubbed her nape.

Sophitia looked up at her in slight surprise at her assertion before she went to get her car keys on the counter by Taki. "I don't think so." She defended softly, watching as Taki's eyes meekly met hers again from the corner of her eye. "You don't look bad at all in a kimono, and you look even better with your hair down. Perhaps you could let it down more often." Sophitia kept her eyes on the slightly taller girl's. Taki only blinked in response as she looked down, not finding the right words to say "thanks." Sophitia's eyes softened on the side of her face. "You look… really pretty." She grinned slightly yet cutely as returned the compliment Taki gave her the other night.

The blonde almost laughed as she noticed Taki turn pink on the cheeks at her compliment; she was still oblivious to the fact that Sophitia had been awake that night, so she merely thought of it as a coincidence.

Cassandra could be heard letting out a huff behind her elder sister before she grabbed her arm and led her to the door. "Gods; never in my wildest dreams would I see my reserved sister flirt!" She commented loud enough for only Sophitia to hear. The short-haired looked up to her for the only purpose of seeing her sister's expression of taken aback surprise.

Sophitia's eyes narrowed before she looked away and tried to whisper, "I was not!"

"You were too! You should've seen yourself! If mother and father had seen that, they'd turn as pink in the face as you did when you first laid eyes on Taki a few minutes ago!" With a wide grin, Cassandra accused as she pushed the elevator button.

Before she could protest, Sophitia hastily looked back to make sure that Taki didn't hear that, soon thankful that she hadn't and was talking to her own sister. The taller Grecian looked back with stern eyes as she felt like smacking her younger sister over the head. Instead she nudged the short-haired girl with her shoulder. "Oh just drop it!" She scowled again as she noticed Cassandra only grin wider as they held the elevator open for the other two close behind

888

Getting to the festival, both Grecians marveled at the surrounding lights of the lanterns hanging from the long cables above them. The darkness from the night seemed to come much more quickly than expected, although the time that passes from putting on kimonos may do that to a person. The festival area was composed of one main street leading to a small park along with three smaller streets branching out from the main one. The smaller streets were a little less embellished than the main street, but it contained the same types of lanterns, food stands and game booths. Asians were not the only ones to attend the festival, as it was proven by the many other Americans etc. who passed by them.

"You two look like you've never seen lights on cords before." Sakura spoke up from behind them as she referred to the lanterns above them. Taki stood next to her with her arms folded over her stomach with a look of slight indifference.

"Not this many." Sophitia responded while Cassandra nodded in agreement as she looked up towards the dozens of lanterns.

Sakura looked up at the lanterns as she let out a breath. Her gaze soon drifted over the crowds of people in the streets; there seemed to be an overwhelming amount participating in the festivities this year. Many of which wore kimonos as well and some were more embellished and vibrant than others, at least to her opinion. "Well," She turned to Taki with slightly raised eyebrows, looking as though she was about to propose something. "I don't see father and our dear brothers anywhere; I can't seem to find any spiky-haired people around here to be Haitani. So do you want to just walk around until we find them or what?"

Taki shook her head. "It doesn't matter to me; you can do what you want."

Sakura took a brief moment to think. "Okay, I can show Cassandra the games and you can show Sophitia, um, around. Work for you?" Taki only accomplished opening her mouth before Sakura grabbed Cassandra's wrist excitedly. "'kay great! See you two later!" Soon Cassandra and Sakura were lost within the crowds while Sophitia and Taki just stayed motionless, not exactly knowing what to do.

Taki rubbed her nape before she tried to speak. "Um… like my dear sister said, would you mind just walking around?" She asked uncertainly as she tentatively raised her gaze to Sophitia's.

Sophitia smiled faintly as she waved her hand forward. "Lead the way." Her smile widened rather charmingly. Taki just blinked at her as if still trying to comprehend her smile before nodding once and stepping ahead of her.

8

Cassandra rubbed her freed wrist gently as Sakura and herself finally stopped in front of a small sweets stand. She noticed that the middle of the street wasn't as crowded as the entrances so there was a tolerable amount of people surrounding them.

Cassandra's light green eyes landed on the side of Sakura's face curiously. "Did Taki explain to you the whole situation that happened in my sister's room?"

"Yep." Sakura nodded slightly as she reached over the wooden counter to grab a container full of dough-like balls covered with what looked like liquid brown sugar. Strangely (to Cassandra at least), the slightly older girl didn't seem as bothered by the incident as it appeared to be the first time she laid eyes on it. Sakura seemed to chuckle in amusement. "Of course, I made sure to ask Taki if she actually asked for Sophitia's permission in taking her skirt off. I was just trying to be funny but my sister looked as though she was about to throw me out the window." Her chuckle became more audible as she spoke before taking one of the sweets she bought into her mouth with a toothpick.

She offered one of the sticky balls to Cassandra, who had another powerful feeling of curiosity before taking a second toothpick and trying one. It was somewhat doughy, but it wasn't exactly what she guessed as the inside contained a thick, delectable substance in it but it was deliciously sweet. "Well, I hope our sisters actually enjoy this festival; they don't seem like the people who're willing to go out in a heartbeat." She short-haired blonde stated thoughtfully as she continued to chew the sticky ball in her mouth.

Sakura nodded in agreement. "I have an idea they will; my sister goes out in a heartbeat only when she has an energy rush and wants to let it out on her motorcycle." She noted as she took another ball for herself. "Besides, since my sister and I almost always become bored during and after festivals, we make sure to lighten the night by watching a movie or marathon or something. That's why I decided to stay the night with Taki and your sister tonight since it's become like a tradition now."

Cassandra blinked as her eyebrows rose; perhaps she should do the same since it would be more fun. "Really? What movie did you bring with you?" She asked before actually telling her friend her proposition.

Sakura shrugged as if she thought the movie was nothing to be excited about. "We usually like to watch either horror/suspense or fantasy/action movies together, so this time I decided to bring "The Grudge" and "The Ring". I figured we'd decide which later." She explained while drifting her eyes over each stand to see which game stand would be the most worth-while to go to.

Cassandra only quirked an eyebrow at the choices; she'd heard about them but never saw them. She could take suspense/horror, at least to a certain extent depending on the goriness, so she decided to take a try in watching either.

Sophitia, however, was a bit of a different story and she knew that ever since she was younger; she couldn't stand horror/suspense. Ever since the time she saw the Greek version of Jurassic Park when she was much younger, Sophitia ended up not being able to sleep for almost a week. Cassandra merely shrugged at the thought. 'Eh she's a big girl; she can take it, or she can just not watch at all.' She figured before Sakura suggested a nearby game stand to try out.

Cassandra turned to look at the game booth somewhat curiously; it appeared to be a dart game where the dart had to puncture a certain balloon color. Just when her eyebrows lifted in reaction to the appeal the challenge of the game seemed to serve, her eyebrows soon furrowed as gamers next to them seemed to make a noisy racket.

"Wow Mina, you're aim is soo bad, it's surprising!"

Cassandra looked to a game stand next to her as she heard a boy shout almost cockily.

"Oh shut up! You weren't exactly saying those words in the first round!" An older woman shouted back and Cassandra soon recognized the voices as well as the identical red-brown hair the two had.

Sakura turned to her curiously as she noticed the expression on the blonde's face. "You know them?" She pointed her thumb at the two who were sitting on stools and holding small metal water guns.

Cassandra nodded with a sigh as if regretting that fact. She rather reluctantly walked up behind the sepia-haired girl and tapped on her shoulder (making sure to do so lightly so to not set Mina off in the frustration she was already in).

Mina quickly took a glance behind her as to not take her focus off of the game. "Oh hi Cass. Interesting to see you here since this is my first time coming." She commented mildly before aggressively pulling on the gun's trigger, trying to get a higher score than the boy next to her.

"It's my first time as well." Cassandra paused. "Are you two at least trying to act respectable to each other?" She asked somewhat curiously.

Mina didn't look back at her as she answered simply, "Yep, trying and failing."

"I see." Cassandra had a knowing look in her eyes before she turned to Sakura behind her. "Want me to introduce you? Or would you rather wait until they are… miles away from each other?"

Sakura stared at the two for a moment in contemplation. "I think I'll wait."

"Safe choice." Cassandra commented before she heard another aggravated growl from Mina.

"Man Mina, are you daydreaming of your boyfriend Hwang or something?" Yunsung asked as kept firing his water gun away with near-perfect accuracy.

Mina grit her teeth before she spoke through them. "Shut-up! Hwang isn't my boyfriend; he's only a friend of the family!" She kept her now-twitching eyes focused on each target she noticed.

Yunsung grinned impishly. "Uh-huh, that's why you have all those love letters from him under your mattress."

Mina's eyes sharply switched to his confident face, staring at him so intensely that you'd think she thought she had laser vision which she so badly wanted to test out on her cousin. "You little… Those aren't love letters! They're just mail he sends me, telling me about how his days of military training are going!"

Yunsung let out a cocky laugh in disbelief. "I don't know, they didn't look that way for me. Some pretty disgusting stuff in those pages; I'm surprised that the words "in the back seat of a car" hadn't shown up while I was taking a good gander at them!"

Okay, Cassandra now knew that the best thing to do in this situation is to sprint for the hills and dare not look back (although, it was quite difficult to find hills in New York City), and this was proved true at the provoked look of utter shock on Mina's face.

The Korean girl wondered three things: 'How in the universe did that little snot-nosed snoop get his grubby little hands on those letters? How dare he actually say that to me? And where exactly did he learn such language?'

While she was gawking at him, she completely forgot about the game. That is, until he turned to her with a look of triumph on his face. "You lost." He informed mildly, still grinning widely.

That caused Mina to go over the edge; she stood up from her stool and, with three fierce tugs, she ripped her metal water gun right off of the counter which it was nailed into. All three, including the booth keeper, sputtered at the sudden violent act. Mina huffed, her eyes taking on an insane look as she looked down at the wide-eyed boy.

"Uh-um… I was just kidding…" Yunsung muttered as he started to slowly back away from the girl pointing the gun at her, which was still attached to the water filter by a large tube going into the counter. He knew two thing was certain about Mina; she can be way too over-reactive, and by the way she was holding that two-handed gun, she had watched the movie Scarface one too many times.

"You're going down, little boy!" Mina shouted in rage before she started firing the gun rapidly, finding, much to her pleasure, that the toy weapon held a lot of pressure in it since it went such a far distance and release so much water with each pull of the trigger. Mina soon gained a lot of eyes from onlookers, but she didn't care, although Cassandra and Sakura did as they stood stiff.

"Mina's father may not like this." Cassandra muttered to herself before she turned to Sakura. "We'd better leave before the security starts grabbing people."

Sakura eagerly nodded at her recommendation while her eyes remained glued to Mina and her hostile behavior. Cassandra took the other girl's wrist in her hand and nonchalantly lead the way around Mina and the boy who was ducking and covering his head from Mina's shots, since he was blocked from running by the many people passing by them.

Cassandra soon sighed in relief, followed by Sakura, once they had completely left the embarrassing scene. "Odd pair." Sakura remarked simply.

Cassandra shrugged. "Yeah, well, what can I say? They're my sister's friends." The blonde's light green eyes swept around their surroundings, nearly at a loss for what to do next.

Before Cassandra could even open her mouth to speak, an aggravated growl could be heard from a man who stood in front of a game booth not too far from them. "Come ON! These rules aren't fair! Can't I at least keep all my points if I pay for another round?" The man shouted rather loudly at the vender.

The two followed their curious urge and came up to the game booth that seemed a little larger than most of the others in the festival. A giant --like 'would take two people to handle it' giant—dartboard with several holes that were two inches in diameter and went all the way through hung on a large wooden backboard. Several darts could be seen all over the dartboard, however a single one could be seen poking out of a hole.

"Sorry, but rules are rules, so you lose all of your points." A strange, very strange man answered; he wore what looked like a joker-samurai outfit complete with the feudal-style samurai helmet. Cassandra noticed that he also wore the most hideous mask she'd ever seen. To her, it looked like the demented version of a Roman-style theater mask with a Japanese twist; the long golden horns and fangs, the sad eyes with the wide grin as the features of the mask were the top on Cassandra's 'weird' list. His voice had a very condescending tone to it as well, at least it seemed that way in his answer to the man who soon threw his hands up in exasperation while muttering "Screw this" as he left, cursing the vender.

"Better luck next time!" The vender yelled in a rather happy tone, ignoring his customer's cursing as he pulled out the rest of the darts from the dartboard with his left hand. "Are you two here to take a gamble on this game?" He asked eagerly, his voice already starting to irritate the short-haired blonde.

Cassandra quirked an eyebrow as she leaned against the counter. "Why else?"

The vender looked at her for a moment, his expression hidden beneath his mask until he replied with a simple "Heh." He gathered the rest of the darts before laying them out in front of the two. "Very few have been given the chance of having enough points to claim the best of my prizes, so I wasn't certain whether two girls like you would be willing to… sacrifice so much." He exclaimed simply as Cassandra and Sakura eyed the darts.

"Uh-huh." Cassandra answered as if she wasn't listening to him. "How much is it and for how many darts?"

The strange man merely chuckled at the statement he found comical. "Five dollars." As both girls pulled back in surprise, believing that the game was already a rip-off, the vender began to explain: "The idea of the game is like all the other's; the more points you get, the better rewards you receive, and as you can see, my prizes most likely beat the prizes of the many other game booths." He stated as he gestured towards all of the great Japanese prizes he contained with his right hand. Cassandra jerked back slightly as she noticed that his hand, and possibly his arm, was wooden. She found herself beginning to wonder if this guy was even human! "You can use as many darts as you like and then some." He continued. "However, if your dart goes out of bounds or goes through one of those holes, you lose the game, your score, and your money. My game can be very addictive for many." He stated as he casually leaned against the backboard. "Still willing to make a gamble?"

Cassandra turned to Sakura with raised eyebrows. Sakura shrugged as she brought out a five dollar bill. "Why not?" Both Cassandra and the vender grinned in response.

88

"Are you okay?" Sophitia asked in confusion as Taki's face seemed to whip to a certain direction again.

The taller girl sighed as her face drifted to look forward again "Yeah. I just didn't expect so many of my classmates here, that's all." Her chocolate eyes scanned the streets for any more familiar faces, as she had done several times in the last half-hour.

Sophitia's confusion only heightened as she heard this. "Why are you avoiding them?"

Taki glanced at her. "I'm sure same as you during the school day: I just don't want to talk to them. A lot seem to admire me for how well I do in sports." She explained as she rubbed her nape.

The Grecian pulled back at Taki's guess of why she avoids her own classmates. She was about to speak in her own defense but soon found that it was true. Switching back to Taki's explanation, Sophitia asked, "What do you expect them to do? Stalk you and take down notes of what you do after school?"

Taki chuckled half-heartedly. "Well, I have had stalkers from the newspaper club after my wins. But I've never had anyone follow me after school." Quirking an eyebrow at the thought, She was thankful that they hadn't done that to her after school yet.

Sophitia held her hands behind her back as she straightened it. "I hardly think they'll recognize you with your hair down since you seem to have it in that ponytail everyday. Having it that way will cover the sides of your face too, so they won't be able to really notice you with the change." Assuring Taki, Sophitia glanced towards her and noticed that she had taken some weight off of Taki's shoulders by saying that since her attempts of being discreet were lighting up.

"Yeah, I suppose that's true." Taki responded softly and simply.

Sophitia smirked slightly as a though hit her. "Speaking of change, are you wearing make-up? Or maybe more than usual?" She mentioned as simply as she could as if making a simple note even though she was very curious.

The slightly taller girl seemed to slouch in self-pity as she walked. "Sakura did it for me; she said that she wanted to try something new with me since I don't normally do that. Is it bad? She pulled me out of my room even before letting me look at myself, so if she made me look like some kind of clown-!"

Sophitia interrupted quickly as she noticed the sneer form on Taki's face. "No! It doesn't look bad at all; she did a nice job of bringing out your facial features." 'Especially her skin color.' She added in her head as Taki's eyes were locked on her own. 'And cheekbones, and eyes, and lips, and…!' The blonde abruptly stopped herself and shock her head lightly, wondering what made her thoughts travel that far.

Taki stared at her for a moment, as if suspicious, but then looked away as she crossed her arms over her stomach. "Alright. I guess I should be thankful for Sakura doing that since it would make me less recognizable, I suppose." She added as the thoughts of her bothersome classmates came back. "They can be very annoying at times, as you can obviously tell by now."

"Do they always crowd around you like they did in the library? The day we ran into reach other… literally." Much to her surprise, Sophitia found herself nearly grinning with amusement at the memory. She looked over to Taki to see what her reaction was, only to be too late as Taki was just opening her mouth to speak. However, she did catch get a glimpse of the corners of Taki's mouth curving upward slightly.

"Basically yes, but only after I make a win or break a school record. The 'mobs' only follow me around school, much like this morning with the newspaper club. So don't think that being a sports-lover like me has it easy every day." Taki pointed out as clearly as she could, hoping that Sophitia would understand her a bit better. She apparently did as she seemed to have a smile on her face.

The grin widened on the scholars face as she turned to Taki. "They're that bad, huh?"

Taki noticed a rather cute expression appear on Sophitia's face; it was the kind that Cassandra would give to her when she appeared to suspect the wrong thing between her sister and Taki. She wasn't sure whether the Grecian knew that she was wearing or not as she seemed comfortable showing it to someone who once annoyed her for different reasons. This made her composure relax.

"Oh yeah." Taki waved a hand simply as she smirked. "When I'm in the halls, I feel like I'm in some horror movie just waiting for some admirer to pounce on me, or maybe for a mob to jump out and encircle me with notepads and pens." She exaggerated, but her smile widened as Sophitia's did the same. "I mean, in my anxiousness my eyes just dart from left to right for an exit, thinking in a panicked voice "They're everywhere!"" Her gestures matched her explanation as she tried to be humorous. She grinned as Sophitia laughed next to her.

Taki's eyes seemed to soften as she watched and heard the younger girl laugh; the sound was soft and almost childlike while having a somewhat deep tone. It was almost infectious, but that didn't mean that it would be any less admirable to some, like Taki for example.

The ebony-haired woman's head suddenly bolted upright at what she found herself thinking and doing. She quickly yet discreetly shook it from her mind and focused on the path ahead. Suddenly, her eyes landed on one of her favorite game booths; she was surprised to see it as she didn't remember it in the festival last year. It was an Archery challenge where the rules were no different from their original: hit the bulls-eye.

Sophitia noticed Taki's sudden change of expression and soon became curious. "What's the matter? Did you see one of your bothersome classmates crawling around with cameras in their hands?" She smirked, then grinned as she saw Taki's amused expression slap onto her face.

"No, no." She chuckled slightly. "It's just that my favorite game is here and I have an urge to try it since I haven't done it in a while." Speaking thoughtfully, Taki soon brought her eyes back to the ground as if disregarding the game in a careless fashion.

This made Sophitia quirk and eyebrow. "What's stopping you?"

Taki looked up at her briefly before she turned back to the bows and arrows laying on the booth countertop, a small, diagonal distance from them. She didn't want to do try it because Sophitia hadn't done a thing the festival had to offer yet, but since she was so willing to let her…

Mahogany eyes met emerald as Taki smiled and guided Sophitia to the booth. "Nothing's stopping me." She responded in a tone of confidence as she stood before the keeper in his Matsuri Happi festival coat. Before he could explain the prices for amounts of arrows, Taki already slapped five dollars on the wooden table. "Six arrows, please."

Nodding silently, he slipped away the money from beneath her fingers and gave her the arrows. He stepped to one side as she tested the wooden bows for the best tension. Looking at the distance between her and the target, she guessed that roughly over twenty feet was between them. This not counting the distance to the back wall, which was wooden and had a metal beam going up the center to actually keep the wall stable. As she threaded the first arrow, she could see golden strands of hair two feet away in the corner of her eye. This almost instantly made her nervous. She quickly shook it from her mind as it was ridiculous to her that Sophitia or even anyone at all made her nervous while doing a sport she was very well used to.

Taki pulled back on the bowstring until the butt of the arrow was close to her lips and held it there with three fingers as she aimed the tip. Sophitia watched in silence as did the booth teller. The blonde found it very fascinating to watch Taki do something so seriously; her eyes were focused on the target and her arms didn't tremble as she held the tension of the bowstring. 'With a look like that – so determined and focused – I'm sure Taki won't miss.'

"T-wang!"… "Th-ock!"

Sophitia stared blankly at the lodged arrow, '…Maybe not.' She could hardly believe that the arrow was five inches away from the target as it passed by it completely and hit the back wall. Her gaze swept to Taki, who didn't seem be surprised or agitated at all by the outcome. "I'm guessing that was intentional since you seem so calm?"

"It was." Taki replied simply as she threaded the next bow. "I was checking for wind disruptions so that my aim won't be off next time."

"There isn't any wind." 'Is there?' Sophitia's eyebrows furrowed slightly at the after thought.

"There is." Taki pulled back on the bowstring and aimed again. "You just can't feel it."

"T-wang!"… "Th-unk!"

Sophitia's eyes widened; she hit the bulls-eye dead center! She blinked her eyes back to Taki, who seemed at least mildly pleased. "Do you think you can do it again?" She urged lightly.

Taki glanced at her then held her gaze for a moment, still holding her smirk but with slightly raised eyebrows aimed at Sophitia's implied challenge. She remained silent as she grabbed the next arrow, threaded it, then pulled back on the string. As she aimed, she held it there for a moment that seemed longer than necessary, as if contemplating something. Slowly, she rotated herself as well as the arrow's aim. This confused Sophitia but before she could even furrow her eyebrows again, Taki released the string. Her eyes snapped wide open again as Taki's arrow hit yet another bulls-eye, however was lodged into the target next to Taki's own.

Sophitia was silent as Taki pulled back and propped an end of the bow onto the floor while leaning her hands onto the other end. Taki's eyes landed onto Sophitia as the younger girl slowly turned to her with a look of surprise in her eyes. "Impressed?" Taki felt a grin try to force its way onto her lips but she tried to hold it back so that she wouldn't seem self-absorbent. Sophitia could only nod slightly as she looked back to both arrows. "Then why don't you try?" Taki suggested as she lifted the bow to the girl who sharply turned to her with stunned surprise.

"…Me?" Knowing how good Taki seemed to be at archery, Sophitia was now scared to death about making a fool of herself if she tried such a thing. "I-I'm not that good."

Taki merely shrugged. "That's okay, at least give it a try. You can use one of my arrows." The taller woman spoke as she pulled Sophitia into her spot and placed the bow into her hands. Sophitia could only stand stiff as Taki walked to where she had originally stood to watch her. Taki crossed her arms as she waited while Sophitia's hand reached for an arrow, threaded it, pulled it back, and aimed. "Nope." Taki suddenly spoke up, making Sophitia inwardly jump as the Asian had broken her concentration.

"What's wrong?" Sophitia asked as she eased the tension on the bowstring then looked down at her bow to see if she could find what she was doing incorrectly.

"Your stance isn't right." With that, Taki walked around her and placed her hands on either side of the blonde's ribcage, straightening her posture. Sophitia jumped slightly as she felt Taki's hands on her but tried her best to hold her composure. Then, her eyes widened to the size of golf balls as she felt one of Taki's warm hands on her inner thigh, pulling it back so that her legs were further apart and perpendicular to the target in front of her. The blonde knew that Taki wasn't trying anything anyway since her hand was closer to the joint of her knee than anywhere else, but still, it was her inner thigh!

"Chose an aquamarine skirt, huh?" Taki spoke up from behind her as her hand left Sophitia's soft thigh and straightened herself up behind the blonde girl.

Sophitia tried to stop the shiver that coursed through her as she felt the silky cotton of Taki's kimono brush softly against her back as Taki rose herself back up behind her. "Y-yes. Why? Is there something wrong with it?" She asked as she turned her head towards Taki's direction.

"No. It looks good on you. Aquamarine doesn't normally suit a lot of people but it seems to suit you really well; it matches your eyes." Taki's last note was in a soft tone, so soft that Sophitia found herself responding only with slightly flustered cheeks.

'Why does she sound like she's trying to charm me?' Sophitia wondered in her nervous state.

The taller woman continued to correct Sophitia's stance until finally she wrapped her fingers around Sophitia's which encircled the bow. "I also noticed that you weren't holding your bowstring the right way." Taki added as she moved her head behind Sophitia's. "You need to hold the string back with one finger above the arrow and two fingers beneath." She moved Sophitia's fingers as she had instructed while the younger girl could only silently follow.

The Grecian chose to pull the string back without Taki's consent as she felt that she needed to be back in control of what she was doing. She felt the older woman hold her elbow to help it from trembling. With one eye, Sophitia aimed at the black dot in the center of the target. "Am I right so far?" She asked cautiously while not wavering her eyes.

"Uhm-hm." Taki nodded as she spoke from behind Sophitia's ear again while having her own darker eyes on the very same target, as if double-checking the blonde girl's aim. "Now, release."

Taki's deep, confident tone and breath in her ear as well as the word 'release' caused Sophitia's whole body to jerk in surprise. In the process, the bowstring slipped out from underneath her fingers, firing the arrow in a completely different direction than she wanted it to due to her sudden jerk.

The arrow flew way passed the target and hit the metal support beam in the back. With a loud, echoing 'Tang!' it bounced off the rusty beam and flew upwards in the opposite direction back towards the two, who immediately ducked to avoid it. As it whizzed over their heads, they sharply turned to watch it as it soared towards a rather large, dark metal bell which hung at a corner of a booth's huge sign. The metal tip of the arrow rung the bell as it bounced off of it and went straight across the street again but further into the crowd to hit yet another object which was apparently an oriental bowl. It hit the bowl at the rim, making it fire upwards high into the twilight sky until gravity finally took its toll on it and fell right into the crowd like a torpedo. As the arrow disappeared within it, all that could be heard was a cry of pain from a man's throat.

Now, both Taki and Sophitia's eyes were the size of golf balls as they witnessed that little event in a motionless silence. Until Sophitia finally felt the pressure in her palm from holding onto her bow so tightly during that spectacle, she turned her head sharply towards Taki as she slowly moved her body back to the counter.

"I think I'm done now, thank you." Sophitia stated with a quick breath as she laid the bow back onto the table of the jaw-slacking booth keeper, who obviously had been watching as well.

Taki was silent as her eyes were still locked onto the arrows path through the street. Slowly her eyes softened as Sophitia's words finally registered in her head. "I think you should give it one more try. I'll even help you again if-."

"No!" Sophitia sharply turned to her as if suddenly frightened for reasons Taki did not know. The blonde's expression seemed to hastily soften as her eyes averted back to the bow. "I mean, no thank you. The last attempt was embarrassing enough, so perhaps I'll wait until there aren't dozens of other people around me." She stated firmly as her eyes swept over the crowds that passed them.

Taki could only let out a small sigh before she nodded; she wanted to see how well Sophitia could do in archery despite what she seemed to believe about her skill in athletics, but she guessed it would be best to do it when alone and not fearing if the eyes of others are on you.

Taki was about to open her mouth to ask what the younger girl may want to do next until a rather high-toned shriek broke into her concentration from a small ways behind her on the street. "Ugh! You lecher! Get away from me!" The girl cried nastily, followed by a loud, painful-sounding 'Slap!'.

Filled with curiosity and concern, Sophitia looked up the street into the moving crowds to see nothing but discoursing people. She looked back to Taki, who seemed more than a little annoyed as she too gazed in the direction same direction Sophitia had looked towards seconds ago. Sophitia quirked an eyebrow slightly, wondering if Taki had become defensive of the small assault.

The blonde girl placed her hands on her hips as she switched her weight to one leg. "You look like you want to kick the accused lecher into orbit." She smirked while Taki's eyes narrowed onto the crowds as if now wanting to try and spot him.

"I'm considering it." Taki sighed heavily as her annoyance grew. She ran a hand through her hair in hopes of trying to sooth her nerves. "Because that lecher is my dear brother."

"Are you sure?" Sophitia glanced back onto the street and sure enough, a boy with spiked hair walked passed a small group of people towards the two of them. With a slightly dazed yet hurting expression as his palm held his reddening cheek, he seemed to hardly notice them as he continued his slow pace passed them.

Taki and Sophitia just watched him in slight confusion as Haitani hardly seemed to notice either of them in his saunter. "Haitani?" Taki called.

"Yeah?" Haitani turned slightly as he heard his name, his eyes widened slightly as he finally acknowledged his sister. "Oh, hi." He waved slightly as he came towards her, his other hand still on his cheek.

Taki gave him a knowingly quirked eyebrow. "Did you say your version of 'Hi' to another girl again?"

Haitani's eyebrows furrowed as if trying to look innocent. "What's so bad about how I say 'Hi'?"

The elder sister sighed as she ran a hand down her face in aggravation. "Haitani, your version of 'Hi' involves a firm pat on the backside and the words: "Hey baby, how you doin'." Don't you think that would set some girls off into hitting you?"

Haitani merely blinked. "No." He just stared at his sister as she rolled her eyes, muttering the words beneath her breath: "Such a moron." The spiked-haired boy's eyes drifted over to Sophitia, who had a neutral to knowing expression on her face as though she wasn't surprised of his behavior. He became tense in her presence, a sight which the Grecian almost smirked at. "H-hi Sophitia." His voice was tentative, as if he was just waiting for her to strike.

"Hello Haitani." Sophitia could already tell that the outcome of what happened in the arcade still had a huge impact on him. From what she could tell from his saunter, he could still feel remnants of pain in his nether-regions. Granted, she did feel a little guilty for doing that but she felt that he had it coming anyway, and what happened just a few moments ago proved her point.

"Where's father and Keiichi?" Taki asked as she looked around him to see if she could find them before he could tell her.

"They're apologizing for me." He stated simply as he walked in between them to lean against an edge of the stand that the two women stood near.

Both girls looked at him incredulously. "Shouldn't you be apologizing?" Taki asked as she folded her arms over her stomach.

"I would, but as I find out, girls have the tendency of not listening to apologies because they think that I'm still trying to hit on them, which I'm not. It's as if they think 'once a pervert, always a pervert'!" He answered in an irritated tone until both girls spoke in unison under their breath, using Haitani as an example: "She's right."

"Well, well! Hello there Taki! Nice to see you joining in the festivities!"

Taki inwardly groaned as she recognized the masculine voice that came closer and closer to her. "Hi Mitsurugi." She answered dully, knowing that he was going to tease her about this for as long as she lived. She turned to her side to see him coming towards her with a strange limp despite his wide grin. "What happened to you?" She asked as she noticed a small hole in one of his shoes.

Mitsurugi looked down at his foot and grumbled slightly as he raised his right hand, which clutched a familiar arrow. "I don't know, I was just walking around, minding my own business and suddenly this thing shot down from the sky into my foot! It went through my shoe and gave me a bruise, but it didn't come down fast enough to break the skin at least." He aggravatingly huffed a breath as he turned his eyes from the arrow to Taki, whose eyes were wide as they were locked on the arrow. He waved the arrow a bit to try and bring the tall woman back to reality. "Something the matter there, Taki?" He quirked an eyebrow.

Taki quickly blinked. "Uh-erm…" She glanced towards Sophitia, whose eyes were just as wide as hers and her face was quite pallid. The Asian woman let out a nervous laugh before she snatched the arrow out of his hand. "Of course not. Here, I know where the archery stand is, I give it back to the booth-keeper for you." She insisted, wanting to break the arrow in half, although not as much as Sophitia wanted to.

"Ookay…" Mitsurugi looked at her strangely, noticing Haitani do the same, but both simply shrugged it off. His gaze traveled up and down her body. "Nice kimono." He commented. "Never thought I'd see you wear that, being feminine clothing and join the festival at the same time though. I take it your father was a little harder to get passed than you expected?"

Taki's eyes narrowed as he moved to hold the arrow behind her back, answering cockily; "What do you think?" She sneered for a split-second. "Both him and my sister."

"I see." The slightly-bearded man nodded slightly before he moved forward to gently place an arm around her shoulder. "Well I'm glad you came either way. Brings back some fond memories; our first date for example." A smug, sly look appeared on his face, making Taki inwardly sneer even more. His self-confidence could really get to her sometimes, and not in a good way. His arm tightened around her shoulder, pulling her slightly closer. "You remember, right? We did the spring festival a few years ago, and we tried almost every activity booth there was and received a lot of prizes. Then I took you to a movie; Sleepless in Seattle, the romance movie everyone wanted to see at the time. And then I treated you to a candlelight dinner in one of the best places in the city." Mitsurugi shrugged, with another self-applauding look on his face. "It was a pretty good day if I do say so myself." He grinned slightly despite the look Taki was giving him.

Taki sighed then paused before she turned to him with a very quirked eyebrow. "Oh yes, it was great. Except that wasn't a date at all." Taki's declaration caused Mitsurugi's grin to abruptly fall. She continued before he could question her. "We were schoolmates and you and I just happened to run into each other and decided to do things out of pure boredom because it was the end of the day." Taki started explaining the day in points: "That 'spring festival'… was the Chinatown fish market." Her lips pressed together as she gave him the cold hard truth.

Mitsurugi looked at her as if he just had a revelation of the truth, although his expression looked as though he was still questionable about Taki's statement. "I-it was?" He asked nervously.

Taki nodded slowly before she continued. "And all those 'activity booths' were fish stands with keepers who became pissed off at you; you tried to show yourself off to me by showing me one of those Tempu-Kosai-Ryu Kai, or whatever martial arts move you learned and accidentally hit the edge of one stand. Soon making it fall over and soon creating a domino effect for the many other fish stands nearby. And the 'prizes' we received were fish and vegetables thrown at us from the venders for knocking over their stands. We had to run for our dear lives to get away from the fish mob." Taki explained calmly although Mitsurugi could see the irritation in her eyes, signaling him to be quiet. (AN: 'Tempu-Kosai Ryu Kai' is Mitsurugi's training/fighting style in the SC series, thought it would be better suited than just saying 'karate' or something like that. A mouthful though isn't it?)

"The movie that we saw was Lethal Weapon 4. Mind you I liked it because it was an action movie and not romance, but you didn't exactly choose the right theater to go to because it was in the middle of a high-crime area. That was proved because after we left, I found out that there was a knife fight near there and a guy ended up being stabbed. And lastly, the 'candlelight dinner' was a pizzeria, ending with you leaving early for some reason and I ending up paying the bill." Taki finished with a dangerously-quirked eyebrow, making Mitsurugi just stand there speechless apart from the "…Oh…" he muttered. "So, with that, I end by saying; take it off, or I'll break it off." Finally, Mitsurugi could tell that she was referring to the arm around her shoulder and immediately lifted it off to prevent serious injury upon himself. The slightly older man cleared his throat nervously as he averted his gaze, shifting his eyes from one thing to another aimlessly. In the short but slightly awkward silence between them, Taki finally spoke up as something came to her. "Why did you leave so early anyway?"

Mitsurugi's eyes met hers for a split second before looking away, as if he knew she wasn't going to like the answer. "Um, ahem…. Tempu-Kosai-Ryu Kai practice." His voice audibly wavered as he rubbed the back of his head with his hand nervously.

Taki simply nodded as she looked away. "I should've seen that one coming." She commented in a low tone. A bit embarrassed for that little spectacle that Sophitia had to witness, her eyes were about to meet the green ones in front of her when her father could be heard calling out to her as he approached.

Toki's acknowledgement of his second-eldest daughter was pleasant in tone as he strode towards her with Keiichi soon behind, who held a rather neutral expression. Sophitia remained silent as she finally saw Taki's father for the first time; she quickly felt a bit of an underling in his presence as he held a sense of order and tradition around him with the distinctive way he was flawlessly dressed in his finely-detailed robes. His paternal nature could also be seen with the considerate, understanding look in his eyes, which were such a dark shade of brown that they almost looked black. His brown-black beard went long enough to cover the view of his neck with traces of white at the ends. The blonde also noticed that his hairstyle was quite different than what she was used to seeing; he had a relatively small patch of black hair in a small ponytail in the common area where many balding men wished they did have hair.

"Nice to see that you made it here, Taki." Toki commented in a light tone and a hidden smirk, knowing that he may receive a certain reward from his daughter in return.

His smirk grew as Taki gave him a look of slight annoyance as she remembered how adamant he was about not having her come to join the festival. "I didn't have much of a choice in the matter anyway, now did I?" She asked with a cocky look on her face, which again only heightened her father's amusement as he shook his head in return.

Toki's eyes feel onto Mitsurugi, who stood next to Taki in an obedient fashion; he wanted to look as respectable as he could in front of his ex-girlfriend's daughter. The tension Mitsurugi felt increased with each passing second that Toki stared him down. He gave a crooked smile in his nervousness. "H-Hello Toki, sir."

Toki inwardly laughed at the 'sir' Mitsurugi added. Unlike when he first met him, Toki held nothing against Mitsurugi, he wasn't even suspicious of the younger man's intentions with his daughter anymore as he knew that if he did try anything, Taki would surely beat him up more than Mitsurugi could beat up another man. At this point, Toki found it very amusing when Mitsurugi seemed intimidated by him, so he figured, why stop? "Mitsurugi." He greeted with an emotionless tone and expression before his gaze finally landed on Haitani, who stood close to his daughter's ex-boyfriend who was taking the opportunity of wiping the beaded sweat off his forehead.

Toki's eyes narrowed at his son, whose facial expression seemed untroubled but held fear in his eyes. Toki often wondered how Haitani expected to get a girlfriend, even if it was just for their looks, if he kept using the same inexcusable tactics.

With a finger, Toki motioned Haitani to come towards him. "Haitani, would you come here please?" He asked firmly, watching as his youngest son step towards him with his hands behind his back in a somewhat timid fashion.

"Y-yes father." Haitani stopped in front of him, their eyes barely making eye contact. "Now, for what happened back there with that girl I-" "SMACK!" With an "Urk!", Haitani discontinued his sentence as his father's hand whipped out and slapped the back of his spiked-head. He winced as he rubbed the back of his head. Thinking that there would be no use in arguing, Haitani answered obediently. "I apologize father, it'll never happen again." 'Why does everybody, the girl's I 'humbly' as out, father, Taki from time to time, and even Sophitia, take joy in beating the crap out of me?' The younger boy wondered pitifully as he continued to rub the back of his head.

Taki suddenly piped up as she lightly nudged her father with her elbow. "Ahem… Father?" Toki turned towards her to ask what her question was, only to watch her as she gestured towards someone across from her with her head. Toki looked over to find Sophitia standing nearby, simply watching and listening and finding quite a bit of pleasure in doing so; it felt like she was watching a live sit-com.

Toki immediately straightened his posture and took on an amiable expression, not wanting Sophitia to think that he hadn't noticed her or had brushed her off when he came. He gave her a quick slight-bow. At this visible sign of respect, Sophitia was left with a nervous question mark over her head and turned to Taki for help of what she should do in return. With a small wave, Taki simply shook her head as if to tell her not to worry about it.

"Ah, I suggested that Taki would bring you along to see the festival, but I didn't actually think she'd do it; she doesn't usually listen to me." Toki mentioned with a small grin as he raised himself to be level again to meet Sophitia's aventurine eyes. He could feel Taki's glare on his back, which was mostly the cause of the grin he wore. "It's nice to see that you could come along, Miss… um…?"

"Sophitia." The blonde girl answered for him with a smile; he wasn't the first to have troubles remembering her name. She could hear that his English accent hasn't developed quite as much as his children's have after living a few years in America, most likely because he had spent a great majority of his life in Japan and now, being his age, it would be hard to get proper lessons unlike his children who could get theirs via school and tutors.

"Yes, right." Toki responded quickly, keep his smile as he looked around the six of them for the seventh person he was expecting. "Where's Sakura? Didn't she come with you?" He turned to Taki as he asked, praying to the Kami that she made it to Sophitia's apartment and isn't lying in a gutter somewhere.

"Yeah, she came. She and Sophitia's sister, Cassandra, went off on their own. We thought I'd be easier to find you guys that way." Taki answered fully, recognizing the subtly distraught look on her father's face. "The left over half an hour ago, so we should run into them soon." She promised positively. Toki still looked at her with an expression somewhere between worry and disbelief. Taki quirked an eyebrow at this as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Hey, c'mon. It's been over half an hour so they will have most likely gotten bored at their side of the festival by now, so they couldn't have gone into trouble or done too much damage."

"Who got into trouble?"

As if on queue, Taki turned as she heard her sister's voice behind her. Taki's smile of triumph, after having won the debate of the two younger girls coming back or not, abruptly faded while her eyes went wide as she saw both girls holding huge masses of prizes in their arms. Taki sighed. "Nevermind." Her dark eyes darted from one load of prizes to the other, noting that there were many surprisingly good ones at the bottom of their loads. "You two won all of these?" She found herself inwardly amazed and wondered if any other person had gotten this much.

Sakura quirked an eyebrow at her sister. "No, we stole them." She answered sarcastically, making Taki mimic her quirked eyebrow while the word 'smartass' ran through her mind. Sakura shifted slightly. "You know, these are quite heavy, do you think we could take these to the car?" She asked, her trembling arms backing the statement of their weight.

Taki smirked. "Nope, sorry. You'll just have to hold all of that until your arms fall off." She nearly grinned at the sneer she received, knowing that her sister was thinking the same think that Taki had thought seconds ago. "Are you ready to go? You look like you have half the festival in your arms."

Sakura looked down. "Pretty close to that amount. We took a lot of stuff off of one booth keeper's hands." Taki noticed that the two seemed to be hiding a smirk but soon let that pass. "I'm ready whenever you three are." She stated simply, looking at Taki, Cassandra and Sophitia.

Cassandra seemed a little worn to Sophitia, who felt around the same, so she could tell that they were ready. All three knew that Taki just wanted to get out of her blasted kimono, so it was obvious what the outcome was. Taki turned to Sophitia. "Could you take them to the car while I get rid of this…" She brought up the arrow then finished, "Curse." Sophitia merely nodded and waited for the two younger girls to follow.

"It was nice to have met you properly this time." Sophitia spoke to Toki in a respectful tone, which made Toki smile beneath his beard.

"The same to you." He responded simply as he watched her leave with her sister and his daughter. He turned to Taki, who stood next to him and soon patted his shoulder.

"Sorry we couldn't spend as much time together as we did last year, but you know, Sophitia had me all tied up." Taki explained simply as she patted his shoulder a few more times before turning on her heel to leave.

Toki watched her as she departed then smoothed his beard with his hand, which had become a habit for him ever since he first grew it. 'Yes, I know that.' He responded to Taki's statement in his head. 'And I also know that you don't seem to be complaining either.' A smirk slowly grew on his face as he kept his hand stationary at the end of his beard.

8

Taki sped to the archery booth, wanting to get rid of the arrow as fast as possible. And of course the booth was nearly at the farther end of the line of other booths. It was as if she believed that the longer she held it, the more years the curse would be in affect.

After slipping around and between people as if swerving around cars on her motorcycle, she made it to the booth where one other customer stood, trying to hit the center of the target while the keeper leaned against a side wall.

Taki strode up to him and dropped the arrow on the counter with a 'clatter'. "Sorry about that." She apologized simply before she turned to leave.

"Oh, so you did find it. Good. Thanks." The keeper spoke as he held the arrow in his hand. He eyed it for a moment before turning back to the tall woman. "You can complete your game if you'd like."

Taki stopped and turned to him with a confused eye. "What?"

"Your arrows are still in the target you used. No one else has used it. And I remember the shots that you took so you can continue if you'd like?" The young man suggested calmly while gesturing to the target Taki had used.

Taki quirked an eyebrow. "Why? What would be the point?" She asked bluntly.

The man simply shrugged. "Winning a prize?"

Taki then raised an eyebrow, not in confusion but intrigue; it was as if the thought had completely skipped her mind. Prizes were things that she normally didn't care about, especially not when they were the poorly manufactured ones in fairs. But this time felt different. Her eyes dropped to the arrow. 'Sophitia never got anything the entire time she was here.' At that note, Taki came forward and took the bow from the counter. "Alright, I'll shoot that arrow last." She gestured to the arrow that she had just given back, and the keeper nodded. He placed a second arrow on the counter, since she had asked for five arrows the first time and had played off three.

In what looked like one swift move, Taki grabbed the second arrow, threaded it, pulled back on the bowstring, aimed, then released, only to have the arrow hit the center yet again. She didn't notice the wide-eyed look of surprise on the face of the customer next to her, nor did she really care for that matter. Taki then took the arrow that Sophitia had shot and threaded it. "What do I get if I hit the bulls-eye five times in a row?" She asked out of curiosity as she pulled the string back, waiting for the keeper's response.

"I believe you get this large fan." He reached under the counter and brought out the fan. Taki found that when he said "large" he wasn't kidding; it was probably one-third of his height and its thickness when folded was the length of her thumb. She wasn't too sure whether Sophitia would be interested in that, she wasn't too crazy about it either. However, when he opened it, she found that she highly admired the detailed work of the large, coiled dragon and apple blossom petals. The main colors were royal blue and gold, apart from the white of the apple blossoms.

Taki nodded her approval, signaling the keeper to fold it back up and lay it down. 'The colors uncannily fit her room, so I'm sure she'll like it as much as I do.' Her mahogany eyes dropped to the tip of the arrow and smiled inwardly. 'Sophitia's arrow… I guess I'll fire it for her just this once.' With that, she released the string;

"T-wang!" "Th-unk!"

Taki's smile slowly became visible as she swept her eyes to where her arrow hit. Once she found the spot, her smile abruptly switched to a slacked-open jaw accompanied by wide eyes. 'I… I missed! I hit the target but I missed the bulls-eye! And by only a few centimeters!' Taki inwardly growled; now she didn't have anything to give Sophitia in return for her coming with her. 'That thing really is cursed!' She thought accusingly before she turned to the keeper, who had a neutral expression on his face. Taki's eyes became pleading as she leaned over to counter towards him. "C-Come on, you have to admit I was pretty close! Can I still get the fan? It's important! P-plus my arm twitched, throwing my aim off so I deserve that fan!" Taki abruptly stopped as the young man seemed to burst into laughter, soon making her narrow her eyes. "Just how do you find this so comical?"

The keeper tried to gather enough breath so that he could speak. "Calm down! You still get your prize!" He still seemed to continue to chuckle, only making Taki thoroughly confused.

"What do you mean?"

"Getting a bulls-eye is pretty tough, so you can hit near bulls-eye only twice and still get the fan! I responded that you could get it by shooting it five times in a row because you get the same prize either way. So actually, since you hit near bulls-eye four times, you can have two of these fans." He explained in a simple, calm tone before noting the wrathful look that rapidly grew in Taki's eyes. She looked like she was about to pounce over the counter, smash his head through the back of one of the targets and use his head for target practice. The young man slowly backed away from the fellow Asian.

"Y-you… t-tell me this… now?" Taki looked like she was about to explode, her eyes locked on his through the jet black hair that curtained over the sides of her face. He had gotten her all worked up over nothing? After noting the fearful look in the keeper's eyes, she tried to calm herself, slowly. She pulled back from her leaning position and let out a long exhale, soothing her nerves while running her hands through her hair before tucking the locks back behind her ears.

"Alright, nevermind. I'll take the two then." Taki wasn't sure why she decided to take the second fan at all, but she figured that she might find some good use for it eventually. It was different than the other one and she found that she admired the work done in it as well; it had a crane instead of a dragon and cherry blossoms instead of apple while it contained the colors of white, red and black, all elegantly weaved into the strong material of the fan.

Taki scooped up both fans in her arms then waved slightly at the keeper while not looking back at him, as if she now knew that she'd had enough of this festival. "Arigato." She muttered unconsciously in her first language as she left.

"Not at all." The keeper's voice was still a little tense as he watched her make her way around the crowding people in the middle of the street. "Happy hunting." He finished in a mock-tone as he turned back to his other customer; he was obviously still a little shaken over the woman's hostile mood swings.

8

Sophitia leaned against a booth that was the closest to her car, which both younger girls sat on the bumper of while treating themselves to marveling at their items both won and bought until Sophitia returned with Taki.

The older Grecian glanced at her watch to find that over fifteen minutes had passed since Sophitia and Taki had split up. 'Does it really take a person this long to return an arrow?' She wondered as she impatiently began to tap her fingers rhythmically against the booth's countertop, propping her cheek into her palm, and staring straight out onto the bustling crowd in the streets.

Eventually, the constant tapping began to irritate the female vender, who was selling little glasses of clear-looking drinks to people who were willing to buy one or a few. She stared at the blonde woman for a moment, noting the stressed look on her face. After pondering for a few seconds, the woman poured a little bit of the drink into one of the small glasses then slid it over the counter to the blonde. Sophitia looked at it for a moment, unsure, until she turned to the woman, who's hair was even shorter than her sister's. "Drink it." She spoke simply as she wiped the counter table over once with a rag. "It'll calm your nerves."

Sophitia just blinked at her, then turned her eyes to the full glass. She inwardly shrugged as she wrapped her fingers around the very small glass. 'What could be the harm?' Since the glass was so small, she took all the contents into her mouth. Three seconds later, the disgustingly intense sweetness of the drink finally found her way onto her tongue's taste buds, making her grimace before turning to spit it all out against the painted back wall of the booth.

Sophitia looked back at the glass still in her hand with confusion and disgust before turning to the older woman who had given it to her and was now looking at her as if she was not something of this earth. "What in Hades was that?" The blonde asked as she shook the glass in her hand rather violently.

Before the woman could answer, the slightly taller girl that Sophitia had been waiting for finally came walked up to her, a look of confusion on her face since she had just missed it all. Taki turned to the vender with a quirked eyebrow. "What happened?"

The woman shrugged. "All I gave her was a little Saké to calm her nerves."

Taki's eyes widened slightly, nearly sputtering at the woman's answer. "Saké?" She looked down to Sophitia, who was now looking at the back wall with wide eyes. Curious, Taki leaned over her to find that the wall now had paint coming off of it in all the places that the bitter-sweet liquid had landed from the other girl's lips. Taki nodded knowingly. "Yep, that's Saké. It will soon your nerves but you won't be feeling the same way the next morning, that is if you're not used to it." Sophitia, still shocked that the same liquid that she was about to drink was also a paint remover, couldn't find the words to speak until Taki took her hand and leaded them to the car. "With the amount that I saw on that wall, I could tell that you hardly drank any, so don't worry." She reassured lightly as she continued to lead the other girl.

Both of their minds were taken off the Saké as they heard someone scolding someone else. The looked back into the festival grounds to find that two people, who were totally drenched from head to toe and differed greatly in height, were being chided by an older man that seemed to be around the same age as Toki. Both people hung their heads as the older man continued, their wet, red-ish locks covering the majority of their faces from view.

Sophitia and Taki just discreetly looked at them for a moment. The blonde leaned close to Taki to whisper into her loose black hair, "Glad I don't know those two; it would be a little embarrassing." Taki nodded rather eagerly at Sophitia's comment, feeling the same way.

88

Meanwhile, the masked vender who had held many prized rewards for people young and old who believed that they could attempt to achieve his prizes, now leaned completely over the counter of his booth, whimpering with his wooden arm laying over his head in shame.

"D-damned… teenage cheaters…!" He continued, rubbing the forehead of his horrific mask into the counter. "All my best stuff, even my prized katanas that I'd never thought I'd lose… gone! And by two young girls!" He curled his left, human hand into a tight fist. "I will have my vengeance!"

"Hey! Yoshi! Quit being such a drama queen and get back to managing your station!" One of the aggravated booth keepers near him shouted chidingly.

Yoshimitsu only sneered behind his mask before pushing himself up from the counter to stand straight, muttering curses beneath his mask while he reluctantly continued his job.

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Well? Did you like it? Did it make up for the time it took (and believe me, I'm not happy with the amount of time I had to take either)? Since this chapter was so long, I'd ask you to not hold back in your comments and reviews because I'm open for anything :) I also hope that I didn't ramble too much in these chapters. Since scenes can seem significant to me (try and say that five times fast OO), I tend to put as much detail into it as I can so that my readers can feel the scene's significance, I can sometimes go a little further than I need to in detail, so I hope I didn't pass a limit in this one.

I'll be trying to work on my next chapter of ANE, after having been working on the last few chapters of this fic and the amount of time both took, I've had a lot to think about. I'm not sure when it'll be done though; I've got a lot going on this summer and a few can be a bit time-consuming, but it most certainly shouldn't take the amount of time that this chapter took to complete :)

To Nightmare Alchemist: I hope you felt that this chapter was worth the wait as well, especially for its length :) And yeah, for Taki and Sophitia to be going at each other's throats like that, for me, it makes the soon-to-be romance relationship more significant and special for the characters. And I know that they aren't that way as much in this chapter, but… it's like looking at a Richter scale; the tension can increase then decrease at many different times. Anyway, the reason why I do the age-difference thing is because I don't want people to forget that fact about them; Sophitia is 4 years younger than Taki yet she has gotten into a better school than her via better grades. But I've been trying to not imply biased-like things in these fics, so I've been trying to lighten that for you :) Of course I know I described Yoshimitsu a little cruelly, but I was doing it from Cassandra's POV so I figured that that would be understandable.

And for your suggestion of Negima! I had/have already read it and I love it, but thank you anyway for telling me in case I didn't :) I'm waiting for the next volume to come out now and I have finished Akamatsu's first work; A.I. Love You. It's good but I like Love Hina and Negima! better. For Negima! I like the Love Hina aspects thrown in (as you said) as well as the take-off of the Harry Potter idea with the whole wizardry thing, I also like the fact that all the spells are in Latin then explained by the end of the book and that he explains all the Japanese culture he introduced or implied in different parts of each book to the American readers. (In fact, with the latin thing, I borrowed a spell or two from those books into a chapter of my ANE fic to make it a little better).

To Witch-Hunter 51: Heh, so much for the 'A.S.A.P.' part, right? Sorry for the delay and I hope this made up for the wait. I also hope you liked the more softy-ness brought into this chapter than the last one ;) Hope the Yunsung-Mina thing went alright as well for you and hope you enjoyed :)

To reika45: Reika45, first of all I'd like to thank you for your poking ;) it actually helped in giving me the motivation to complete this chapter. As I've said many times, I hope this chapter made up for the wait. I know I had a few of those 'mismatched' moments in this chapter so I hope you're pleased with those, as well as the feelings I had each imply during certain parts of the chapter ;) I think that Sophie pretending to sleep is what made the ending of the last chapter better, even though I know it's not something that many people accustomed to the SC game could easily see. And I'm glad you liked the bed scene and how portrayed Taki while she's on her motorcycle, I'm particularly please with those two scenes as well even after all the time it took in producing it correctly. For the 'Rothion and Taki living in the same place'-thing, I'll only say that it'll be both interesting and awkward ;) I'm sorry that this update wasn't as quick as many (including myself) would've liked it to have been, but I hope that you enjoyed this chapter enough to have helped make up the time it took to post this :) Enjoy your reviews, as always :)

To mentalretard: It's flattering to know that you like my stories because they're non-sexual shoujo-ai, a lot of people would read rated-r fics just for that purpose but it's rather refreshing to know that you feel that way and still like my fics :) Although it's actually kind of funny how you say that you don't like that stuff yet still like the scene where Taki brings Sophie to bed ;) Anyway, hope u like this 1, worked hard 2 get it done ;)

To Rain54: Ha! Hot moments, yeah, you can even make one at an archery booth, so you found out in this chapter ;) Yeah, I can't have Taki be reckless, I have to have her portray a sense of consideration as well, otherwise Sophitia and Taki (at least in this fic) would hardly every be compatible. And as for Rothion and Taki, it will be… an interesting scene, will have to found out how huh? ;P

To fireinu: Lol, yeah and I'm sure Taki would've liked so have seen the look on the guy's face as well ;) Hope you liked this chapter as well.

To Cococashu: I know I took a long time on this one and I apologize a million times for it, lord knows it drove me insane as well. This one was extra-long so I should hope that that makes up for the wait (again). I hope you liked the scene I had Yunsung and Mina in, it was short, I know, but at least I made sure that it was nothing but humor ;) And for Taki and Sophitia in embarrassing situations, more embarrassing better story :) And for the whole guy-male-bad-mannered thing, that does not at all mean that you are stupid, especially not when you given an explanation for what may have happened or if you apologize for it, I just want to point that out so that you could be assured. I just know a lot of boys in my own school who I'd love to do nothing more than blow them off the face of the earth, so I'm just using them as an example or reference ;P The thought of Taki's nightwear being moist in some areas makes you speechless? Heh, so just what are you thinking? ;P I wanted Taki do describe what she was doing because I thought it would be even funnier and better if it came from the character's thoughts instead of the narrator (me). Really glad you liked that bed scene :) The 'love and war' thing I figured as a good point for an ending statement, and it did mean that their relationship was going to be a little more 'involving' for them. Sophitia was asleep on the floor until Taki first picked her up off of it to carry her to bed, so it wasn't like she just laid there that way, waiting for her, that would be too creepy. When I was writing that scene, I was actually wondering whether Sophitia should be asleep the entire time or not, and actually, I'm glad a chose 'not' because it made the scene better. And YES you do have a dirty mind! Sophitia doesn't think those things when she's lonely and looks at Rothion's photo! Geez…

LOL, but anyway, I'm glad to know you were so eager to see what happens next, certainly hope that this chapter fills you in :) And things will get even more serious when Rothion comes into the picture ;) And yes, you were that 'eager reviewer' I was talking about with Witch-Hunter :)

I'm so so sorry that this one took so long, I wasn't intending it to take this long but the end-of-the-year had finally sent a wave over me that I couldn't get my footing on for a month.

And for your version of the ultimate battle between Taki and Mitsurugi, I know, I found the original rather weird, but I saw the Japanese version and that makes more sense than the English version. Also, Taki may have meant "haven't you had enough" in a mocking tone, like when Mitsu told her that he had enough of her, perhaps what Taki meant was "Oh I bet you did" as if she think that he really wants more from her. I know it's confusing, but if you really think about it, it may make sense. Either that or they dubbed the English wrong; it's not Taki's fault! It was the stupid producers/translators! ;P Anyway, you don't have to feel that you need to hold back in your next review, and I look forward to it :)

To Lokiador: Hope this chapter was worth your while :) Glad you're enjoying it so far.

To El Loco: I hope the updating of this fic has now soothed your nerves. (Will be getting back to reply to your reply soon ;) by the way) Hope you liked the mess I put Yunsung in this time :) Sorry the x's and y's hurt your head, I'll try and be more gentle next time ;) Glad to see that you're so pleased with my work thus far:) and as for Rothion, it will make the plot much, much thicker so that will only eventually help in making the relationship between Taki and Sophie… well, you'll find out ;P Again so sorry for the delay and I hope you enjoy this chapter :)

To Demonic Weasel: I hope that this chapter was more to your liking than the last one seemed to be. I added in Yoshimitsu in for you, and I thought he actually fit in well for a minor character. I'm glad to know that you're liking the story overall.

To pfvirgo13: Heh heh, sorry, believe me I wasn't too happy when I knew the time I was taking either, but I've been so damn wrapped up lately in other things, so again, so sorry.

To star shaper: LOL, You were sending me mixed messages there ;) Hope you liked the update and that you're not going to be a monkey ;P

To Majigen: I hope you liked this chapter, I know it's much longer than the other ones, I even had to cut a scene out so that this wouldn't be too long, but that scene will be carried out in the beginning of the next chapter so I hope it works out well. Glad to be getting your reviews :)