Gen sat a bit away from the others after having gotten her student packet and was now engrossed in it. Taka watched whom he was now convinced was Tasuki for a moment longer before leaving and walking towards another building on campus. He paused at the door of a classroom and smiled at the wild, blue hair of his friend, who was leaning over his desk, busy writting. His first thoughts had been to call Miaka, but he had decided to hold off on that. The Seishi had all realized, as they regained the memories of their past life, that while Chichiri was glad to see them, something was missing. When Chiriko had been found, leaving only Tasuki missing, they had all realized that Tasuki was something special to the monk. It was with this knowledge that drove the one previously known as Tamahome to seek his blue haired friend out first. Now, the only problem was how to tell him. Not just that Tasuki had been found, but the bandit had been reborn as a woman hating... woman.
Chichiri felt Taka's ki enter his building and a small part of him followed his progress as his friend came through the building to Chichiri's room. However, most of his attention was focused on his schedule, which he was working feverishly on getting done, seeing as they were to be turned in to the office in about an hour. He did not look up when Taka entered his room and stood at the door, but finished his schedule before raising his head, smiling with genuine pleasure at his friend. "Back from picking up the exchange student, no da?"
Taka pushed away from his leaning position against the door frame and walked in, figuring he would just get Chiri to see Tasuki for himself. That was the best option. "Hai. I have something I want to show you. You done with your schedule?" Chichiri nodded and gathered up the papers on his desk. "Hai, I just finished the last one, no da. I do need to stop off at the office and get rid of these, but then I am free for the day, na no da."
Taka nodded "Good, the office is on the way, come on." Chichiri followed curiously after his old friend, questioning him about what he was to see. Whatever Taka was planning, he was obviously keeping to himself. The former monk was beginning to feel a bit uneasy.
Dropping off his papers, carefully keeping his "no da's" out of his speech, he followed the warrior down to where freshmen orientation was. He stopped outside the door and looked at the closed door, causing Taka to look back at him expectantly. Chichiri paused. "I think Tasuki's in there, no da." He looked curiously at Taka. "His ki is as calm as the rests were before they were awakened, but I would know his ki anywhere, no da."
Taka resisted the urge to correct the "he" in Chichiri's speech and opened the door, pulling his friend inside the large auditorium. Only the three students seated near the door looked as the two professor's entered. Taka's eyes lit upon Gen almost immediately and then he looked to Chiri's face and waited for the moment when his friend spotted the remaining Seishi.
Chichiri leaned against the wall, fighting his growing excitement. Finally Tasuki would be among them, they would all be together again. With his excitement under control, he finally began to search the crowd, looking for him. He almost missed her, not having been expecting a woman as his Tasuki. He was very glad to have the wall at his back as he slumped against it. He turned to find Taka looking down at him and understanding look in his eyes. Their woman hating bandit had been reborn a woman.
Taka pushed from against the wall and with one final glance at the Tasuki woman, Chichiri followed his friend into the hall. They were both quiet till the reached Taka's class, which was closer.
Taka rounded on his quiet friend and studied his face. "Unexpected, wasn't it." Chichiri nodded. "Maybe she wasn't him. Maybe he was hiding somewhere and we missed him, no da." He looked up at Taka shaking his head "No, definately her. I just spent over an hour in her presence. She is definately Tasuki. Down to her woman hating and bad attitude." Chichiri smirked at him. "So, she likes men, what is wrong with that? Doesn't mean she is him."
Taka shook his head and began to tell of everything that clued Taka into that she was Tasuki. The final being her words and reaction to her roommates side of the room. Chichiri was laughing, still having problems coming to grips that the woman was his Tasuki, but knowing it sounded a great deal like him.
However, as they finally sat down and started working on a plan of action to get this "Gen" to come around to who she had been, they had to get her in contact with the others. This required thought and a group meeting. Time to call Miaka.
Gen sighed to herself. Ok, orientation was officially boring. It had only been going on for , looks at her watch, 37 minutes and she was about to fall asleep and catch some z's. She knew not all of that could be blamed on the dullness of this meeting, but it had been a long flight and she was tired. No one could blame her for not being awake. She had been up for about 37 hours so far and had only slept about 4 hours her last night home. It was getting to her.
Hoping anything would take her mind of her sleepiness, she shifted her eyes and started to study the other students. A movement at the door had her turning her attention there and she sat up a bit straighter as what she thought might be the teacher who had brought her here and a man with blue hair, much like the one she thought of as Chichiri. Blinking in shock for about 10 seconds, she settled back in her seat, focused her eyes towards the front and spent a good minute trying to get her brain thinking again.
Ok, what was the coincidence that not only was Tamahome here, but also Chichiri? And why did that thought make her want to jump up and down for joy like a little girl? The last thought sickened her and left a bad taste in her mouth. That was definately not something she was going to be doing anytime soon, no matter what that blue haired man did to her insides.
She realized, with a start, that everyone was rising and she did so as well, grabbing her folder. She hung back and let the others walk ahead of her, watched with disinterest as they paired off with friends and walked out, leaving her one of the last to leave. Walking from the building, she shivered slightly at the cooler then normal temperature. It had to be about 70 degrees outside. How could these people be wearing shorts and t-shirts? She was wearing jeans and light long sleeved shirt, knowing that planes always made her cold. Even now she was chilly. Considering that when she had left home it had been a nice 99 degrees outside. If she wasn't careful, she was going to get sick from the weather change, something she had inherited from her mother. She didn't relish a cold this early in the school year.
With a sigh she turned and made her way back to where she assumed her dorm to be. She was stopped in her tracks though when ahead of her was the teacher, Sukunami-sensai and the Chichiri haired man. She was quiet as she watched them. Her eyes however widened when Sukunami-sensai looked at her over his companions head and then said one word to the blue haired man, which made him turn and look at her.
Her startled cry, loud enough to reach the two men, escaped her lips before she could keep it in. "CHICHIRI!" A hand smacked over her mouth and she looked around for a place to escape too. She was between buildings and in her panic and confusion she couldn't just get her mind around the idea of turning and running back into the building she had just exitted.
Taka and Chichiri were both surprised into stillness when they heard her cry out "CHICHIRI!". However, her panicked actions brought them out of their temporary paralysis. Not even realizing why he did it, or if it was the right thing to do, Chichiri moved towards the female Tasuki, his senses telling him that her ki had grown since he had last seen her in the orientation room. However, he hadn't expected Tasuki's reincarnation to bolt like a frightened doe. A hand on his shoulder stopped him from following her and he turned to look at Taka.
Taka shook his head at Chiri. "Not yet, we need to talk to Miaka and the others, come on. You know they are waiting for us." Chichiri nodded and looked at Tasuki as she rounded the corner of the building and disappeared from sight, before turning and following his friend.
Miaka practically launched herself at Taka when he walked in the door. "Omigod, did you really find Tasuki? Where is he, did you bring him with you?" She was peering past Taka and Chiri, trying to find Tasuki when Taka pushed back on her, and directed her to the living room, letting Chichiri get the door. They were both surprised the others were already there when they entered the living room, waiting for the two seishi to appear.
The others wanted Tasuki back with them as much as Chichiri and Taka. Well, maybe not as much as Chiri. The two teachers found themselves peppered with questions almost immediately and giving each other bemused glances they took seats in the room and waited for them to quiet. Nuriko was the first to speak, from her seat next to Hotohori. Reincarnated as a woman, she and Hotohori were married now. "So, where is the hothead?"
Taka smiled "Well, currently Tasuki is getting settled at the college." He looked at Chichiri and his look clearly said "Do I tell them or you?" Chiri shook his head emphatically and Taka said before continuing. "That is if Chichiri didn't scare her off."
He let his words hang in the air, waiting for the reaction. Chiriko was first to reply, having caught on to it. "HER?" Chichiri nodded "Apparently our Tasuki has been reincarnated as a woman hating woman." Nuriko and Miaka stared at each other and then burst out laughing. The rest seemed floored by this development.
While waiting for the two women to calm down, Chichiri thought on the problem of getting Tasuki into their group. Nuriko and Hotohori were already engaged when they met Miaka and Tamahome in this life. Chiriko was a child genius and was a second year college student at the same school Tasuki went to now. Mitsukake was a doctor at the college, having switched to there after he was found by Miaka in the ER, where he had been working, thanks to her breaking her leg. Tamahome had found Chichiri almost as soon as the former monk began to work there. A little time with Miaka and the growing group of old friends had restored their memories, however.
"Tasuki goes by the name Smith Genevieve now. She is a foreign exchange student from the United States, although her Japanese is very good. She sounds like she is a local." He continued on, telling of all that had transpired dealing with Taski that day, all listened to Taka as he spoke. They were nodding, each going over different ways to possibly get her to start talking to one of them. They planned long into the evening.
Genevieve glanced around curiously as if she expected great evil to be haunting her. This really wasn't far from the truth. She was avoiding... the roommate. Seeing no one around, she settled onto the grass and pulled out her sketch book and idly began to draw, not paying much attention to what she was sketching as her mind moved to her roomie. The girls name was Suki. She didn't remember the last name, nor did she care.
Upon arriving back to her room after escaping and hiding from Tamahome and Chichiri for a few hours, as she thought of them and she had found an overbearing, flaky girl bouncing on the flowery blankets of the other bed. Gen had flinched inwardly and prepared for the onslaught of girl that she knew was coming. She was not let down. She had barely been able to make out a word of the other girl's Japanese. Not that she had an accent or anything, but she had been talking so fast that Gen was sure if the girl had been speaking in English, she still wouldn't have understood her. Gen, sighingly, had told Suki that she was tired and was going to bed. The irritating brunette had not taken a hint and had pestered Gen to come and hang out with her and her friends, as they would be the best of friends. This had snapped Gen's already frayed nerves and she had rounded on her roommate and had bared her fangs, stopping the other girl short, and rendering her quiet, which Gen was sure was a first. Quickly counting to 10, Gen had not so calmly explained to the girl that she had been awake for 2 days and was severely jetlagged and needed sleep... in not so nice of terms. The girl had blanched and nodded, leaving her grumpy roomie to sleep.
Then Suki had shut off her alarm clock "I thought you could use the sleep, you seemed so exhausted when we met." Gen had missed her first class. She had awakened in time for the second one, with Tamahome and had not said anything to him, just did her work and kept on going with her day. Only problem,her roommie continued to pester her since then, whenever they were in the room at the same time.
It was now day 4 of her life in Japan. She was over her jetlag, but the sudden dip in weather was really starting to get to her. The constant sinus headache and the now scratchy throat were making her really contemplate seeking out the campus infirmary before it got worse. She usually tolerated anything, but refused to go without seeing a doctor when her throat became scratchy. She knew from experience that if she let that go to long, she would be sicker then a dog in about a week and it would last for months. And since this was only the end of August, it also meant it would last all winter, till sometime next spring. However, for now she had a class. It was with the same teacher that taught the class she had missed on her first full day in Tokyo. A Mr. Ri.
Standing, Gen walked towards the building where his class was. She had hunted it down the day before, although no one had been in there. She had hoped to get to meet her teacher and apologize for missing the class. It really was not her fault that she had an evil roomie who had turned off her alarm or that she was overly jet lagged. With a sigh she followed a small group of students into the room when she arrived at her destination.
She entered the room, quickly surveying the room. Once again, like with every other student and class she had seen since she got here, they were all dressed as if it was hot outside. What the hell was wrong with these people? Gen knew she stood out in her wranglers, shit kickers and Alamogordo Tigers sweatshirt. She didn't really give a shit about her high school team, but it was the warmest thing she had right now. Most of her winter clothes were in transit, coming in boxes and such. She turned and looked around for the teacher, but did not see anyone up front so she found some open seats near the back and sat down. Then she began to study the others in the room. A group of girls sat in the front, preening and looking in their compacts. The rest of the students were evenly distributed around the room, but it was the giggly girls up front that caught her eye. K'so, so it would seem that the teacher was a 'hotty'. Rolling her eyes, she focused on the door at the front as it opened and felt her breath hitch in her chest as Chichiri entered the room.
She found herself studying how he moved and when he started to talk, calling roll, the way his voice sounded. How the hell had her dreams been this descriptive? He was just the way she remembered, although with something missing. Hell, it wasn't like he hadn't been in her dreams last night anyways. She was staring foolishly at him that she almost missed her name and blinked once when he called it again. All the other students were looking at her and she gulped. "I'm here." and then gave him a fanged grin that made a few of the students near her start whispering. She gave them no notice as she made quick eye contact with Chichiri and then he dropped his eyes to his list and continued on with roll call.
Class kinda went by in a blur for her. All she could see was him, his mannerisms, voice, walk, body.. Wait, what the hell. Even if he did look like Chichiri and Sukunami Taka looked like Tamahome, didn't mean they were. It had to be a coincidence. It was a big world, surely out there, somewhere, there was some who looked like her, right? As long as none of the others from her dreams showed up, she would just chalk all this up to coincidence and move on. Plus where were his "no da's"?
The bell ringing pulled her from her musings and she stood, watching the teacher move to his desk and she moved forward, while the rest headed out of the class. Chichiri look alike or no, she had to apologize for missing his first class.
Chichiri had somehow made it through the class without staring like a fool at the redhead in the back of the class. To see such a feminine and delicate form of his Tasuki sitting there was hard to take. And to have two classes with this woman in them, his General from the first day, the one she had missed, and this class on Religion, well, it was more then he thought he could take.
He felt her ki moving towards him as he felt the rest of the class leave. Repressing a sigh, he looked up at her, his gaze quickly taking in her nervous face. Oi, please don't let her say anything or call him Chichiri. He didn't think he could take it right now.
Her voice was sweet to his ears as she spoke, bowing low to him, formally. It flittered in the back of his mind to know where she had learned Japanese and traditions. He focused on her words. "...mean to skip Tuesday's class. I had been up for over 48 hours and was so tired when I got to sleep that night that I guess I didn't hear my alarm going off. Please forgive me, Ri-sensei."
Chichiri gave a small sigh of relief that this was just about her missed class on Tuesday. Jetlag he could deal with, she had just arrived the day before and considering she had done him a major favor when she hadn't shown up, as he wasn't ready then to face her, he could forgive her for it.
Chichiri nodded to her and opened his notebook with his lessons and flipped to that day. "We just went over the first chapter, no da. Just make sure you have the next chapter read by next Tuesday and are ready for discussions and you will be all set, na no da." He looked up from his notebook and found her staring at him, shock and a curious longing was in her gaze. It was then that he realized he had slipped to using "no da" with her. He had not used those in his teaching at all. He was always very careful to keep them out of his vocabulary at the school. All but his friends would not understand that it was an OLD habit.
After standing shock still for a moment, Gen gave herself a mental shake of the head and bowed to Chichiri again. "Thank you. I will be ready for class on Tuesday." She gave another bow and left the room, trying not to blush when she felt his gaze on her. She had almost convinced herself that it wasn't her Chichiri, due to his "normal" speech in class. However, just now, he had slipped into the way of talking her blue haired monk used in her dreams. This place was definately getting weirder by the moment.
Gen made her way to a table in the semi crowded cafeteria. These weird people still thought it was nice enough to eat outside after all. She had just decided to eat lunch and then go to the infirmary to get her throat checked out when she felt a presence sit across from her. She was very grateful that she had nothing in her mouth when she looked up to see Chiriko sitting across from her, smiling happily at her. She stared at the youngest person from her dreams, her mouth moving open and closed. He was just smiling in understanding and waited for her to finish her fish imitations.
Finally she managed to choke out "Chiriko", and blushed, knowing that probably wasn't his name, after all Tamahome and Chichiri were known by other names here. However, this strange boy, as that was what he was, he looked to be about 15 or 16, just smiled wider. "Some call me Chiriko, but my name is Ou Dokun. You may call me whatever you wish, Chiriko is fine with me."
Not even waiting for her to reply to this, he set down to business. "I am sorry to search you out, but I was hoping you would do a favor for me?" She blinked at him and her face showed a bit of mistrust. "What favor?"
He was not affected by her tone at all. "I was wondering if you could be a tutor, for English. I am assuming that your English is up to par for tutoring, correct?" At her bemused nod, and the way she returned to her food, he continued. "We are having a meeting on Saturday at this address" he slipped a piece of paper across the table. "If you don't know how to get there, please call me, my number is on that paper, or go and ask Sukunami sensei. He is in charge of the tutoring program." He waited for her acknowledgement, which came with a nod and a tucking of the paper into a notebook and would have stood up to leave, except he noticed something interesting when she opened her notebook. Something that looked familiar.
He stopped half rise and nodded to the book "May I?" Looking up she gave a nod, half forgetting her usually framed sketches were in there until he opened it to that page. She about gagged as he looked at the picture. He had to recognize himself there. However, he didn't comment, just studied it for a moment and then flipped to the one of Chichiri. A few more pictures were looked at till he stopped at one of a mountain she didn't know. Sure, she had sketched it, but it had flowed from her hand, and she couldn't name it. However, he flipped the page one more time and came across two pictures, side by side. These she knew by heart, having seen them almost every day of her 18 years. The mountains that surrounded the Tularosa Basin. The picture of the sacramento mountains, where her home city was at, was done at sunrise, the colored pencils giving it the color that only, she felt, the sky could turn there. The other, of the sunsetting over White Sands and mountains on the other side of the basin were also done in color, the sky about 5 shades of purple, blue and red, fading to orange and yellow then green and blue. He was studying these, and smiled, looking up at her. "Where is this at?" She smiled, trying to not thank her lucky stars, or Suzaku, that he hadn't mentioned the previous pictures. "These are of scenes near my hometown." He smiled at her and handed her the notebook. "You are very talented." She smiled at him. "Thank you." and began to cough, covering her mouth and nose.
Worry was in his eyes when she looked at him. "Sorry, I get sick in winter." She said this matter of factly that he felt he had to point out. "But it's not winter, it's still summer." She smiled and picked up her emptry tray, throwing it out as she spoke to him. "Not for me. This is the start of winter. I think I need to go to the infirmary and get some medication. I'll be there on Saturday for the tutoring meeting." She picked up her books and gave a slight nod before walking off. He watched her go before smiling and leaving the room, quite happy and went in search of Chichiri.
He found Chichiri in Taka's room, the two in discussion. However as Chiriko arrived at the door of the room, both men looked up. "She will be at the 'meeting' on Saturday. I told her to come to you, Taka, if she can't find the place, as she is new here. However, I saw something interesting." Seeing he had their attention, Chiriko told them both about the sketchings.
Chichiri looked floored. "So, she has sketchings of us as we were in the book, no da?" Chiriko just nodded "And a few of just you alone, Chichiri. Isn't that great? Even if she doesn't remember, she still knows us. She even called me Chiriko before I could introduce myself. I told her that only my friends call me that, but if she wanted to, she could." He smiled at them.
"Where is she now?" Taka was frowning slightly. "She is on her way to see Mitsukake. She is catching a cold and starting to sound horrible." Chichiri frowned, realizing that Gen had started to sound sick to him. He wanted to follow and see if she was ok, but trusted her to Mitsukake's care, knowing the Seishi would care for her well.