The last couple of days since I captured The Song were quiet. Nothing really interesting happened unless you care about Taran. He has been such a good friend of mine since my freshman year, and I believe I had a crush on him ever since. He was one of those types though - you know, those types that sometimes they seem like they like you and sometimes they don't. Sometimes he would look me directly in the eye and show such interest when I would talk to him, and other times he would avoid me and just converse with other girls. It was at those times that I felt insecure. There was just something about him that made me feel comfortable. And whenever he would look into my eyes, I could feel the world around me stop so that I may bask in the moment. This is a part of me that I have never told anyone, not Suraiya and not Kero. I contemplated telling them, but something inside of me would hold me back and silence the words. One day I would tell them, just not today. Tell Taran? If I can't tell Suraiya or Kero, what makes you think I can tell him? I don't know, maybe someday I will tell him. I believe that there will be that one moment that Fate seems to grant you and everything just leads up to this one moment - that one perfect moment that those three powerful words could be uttered. Although that moment hasn't come yet, I spend many times wondering whether or not I missed that moment, that maybe I missed my one and only shot. I get paranoid about those things though, and all I can do is hope. In the past days I didn't get a chance, mainly because I didn't see him much. The only time I actually talked to Taran is when he invited Suraiya and me to watch the Fencing Tournament at his school. Taran was one of those guys that got involved in every sport that I could think of. It was weird though, because as interested as I was in Taran, I was more interested in meeting the two most famous members of his "clique": Zahur and Arlen. Anytime you would call him, he would always be either talking to or going to hang out with those two. Any crazy story he told involved those two. They were the other two competing in the Fencing Tournament. Fencing seemed to remind me of that vision I had. But as I thought about it, I could not remember the person's face, nor could I remember exactly what the vision was about. All I remember is that is had something to do with fencing. Therefore, I just brushed it off as some memory lapse (I had a lot of those) and never told anyone about it. It didn't expect that I wouldn't tell them as late as I did.
The sounds of Soul Calibur 2 woke Medea up in the morning. She grabbed the adapter wire and pulled her cell phone towards her to turn off the alarm. Medea rolled to the right and fell onto the floor.
"Hah!" Kero laughed, "That's what you get!"
"Hah yourself," Medea moaned as she picked herself up, "I do that on purpose. It's the only way I'll actually get out of bed."
An half an hour later, Medea returned from the bathroom to her room and slipped on black jeans with a red quarter-sleeved shirt. She grabbed her book bag and her cell phone. "Do you have your phone Kero?" Medea asked. Suraiya and Medea had both chipped in to buy him a prepaid cell in case of "unfortunate events" as they coded it. Kero nodded his head and wished Medea a good day at school as she left the room. Medea waved goodbye to her uncle.
"You're going to be late today, right?" her uncle asked her.
"Yeah, I'm going to the Fencing Competition."
"You have your cell phone?" Medea pulled it out of her pocket and showed it to him. "Have a nice day."
"You too." Medea put on her sneakers and walked out of the house where Suraiya awaited her.
Suraiya and Medea walked through the gates of the parking lot and saw a police van parked a couple of feet away from the doors.
"Great, scanning," Suraiya said monotonously. The two took their place on a long line as they waited. "Aren't you excited? We finally get to meet the two people that make me question Taran's sexuality!" Medea laughed slightly. "I swear, if even one of them seems gay, I'm gonna question him."
Medea gave him a skeptical look, "I don't think he is."
"Think about it, when was the last time he had a girlfriend?"
"That doesn't mean anything," Medea defended, "Maybe he's just looking for someone in particular."
"Maybe that someone is a guy." Medea gave Suraiya another skeptical look before they swiped their IDs and entered the school. The day seemed to go by slow for Medea, at least the first two classes did. Her U.S. history class was especially boring because her teacher just talked about the Progressive Era and its social reforms and her Calculus class was always boring; it was the worse class of the day.
The rest of the day went by fast and finally it was time for the Fencing Tournament. Suraiya and Medea met Taran at their school and he drove them to the college where the tournament was going to be held. Once there, Suraiya and Medea took their seats and awaited the tournament to start. After an half an hour of waiting, Taran walked towards them with two other guys. Both of them had dark hair and dark eyes and close to the same complexion. However, the taller of the two was slightly darker than the other.
Medea and Suraiya gave each other a bright smile before they stood up to meet Taran and his two friends. Taran introduced them, "Suraiya, Medea this is Zahur and Arlen." Arlen was the shorter of the two who wore a gentle smile on his face as opposed to Zahur whose smile was more flirtatious and seductive.
"Ah, we've heard a lot about you two," Suraiya greeted. "It's nice to finally meet you."
"Same to you," Zahur replied, "He always said you were beautiful, but I guess words can't describe." Suraiya blushed and looked at Medea who rolled her eyes. "And this is Medea, a girl with beauty that is magic on its own." Medea's eyes shot toward Zahur who gave her a seductive smile. The word "magic" has kept her on edge lately; anyone who mentioned it she would be suspicious of. Medea didn't believe in coincidence, at least, not anymore. "She does talk much." Zahur was still looking at her but speaking to Suraiya.
"No, she does. Things just kind of got a little hectic lately." Suraiya smiled at the inside joke she just made. "Anyway where are you from?"
"That-" Zahur paused slightly and then smiled, "is, more or less, a mystery."
Medea could tell that Suraiya got confused by the answer and decided to help keep the conversation going. "I heard you were last years' fencing competition winner. How long have you been fencing?"
"Well, I'm trained in all sword fighting techniques, and out of all of them I'd say fencing is the easiest. I've been training in all techniques as small as I could hold a sword."
"Is it like a family thing?"
"It is for me," Zahur replied, "but as you know, some people achieve skills that do not require it to be of lineage." There was a glimmer in Zahur eyes that caused Medea to shiver. Medea wondered if Suraiya was picking up the same things Medea was. Or was she just paranoid?
"What about Arlen?" Suraiya asked, looking at Medea.
Medea was unsure of what Suraiya meant, but Zahur answered the question. "Arlen doesn't know where he is from."
"I'm adopted," Arlen replied warmly, "My parents died when I was very young."
"I'm sorry," Medea and Suraiya replied simultaneously.
Arlen smiled, "Don't worry about it. Sometimes blood isn't enough to determine who your real parents are. Don't get me wrong, I love my biological parents too. It's just that I can't love them more than the mother and father who raised me for fifteen years."
"Medea's parents died when she was young too," Taran mentioned.
Zahur suddenly became interested again. "Really? How old were you?"
"I was about seven at the time," Medea answered. "and I live with my uncle now - my dad's brother. My mother and father died in an airplane crash. I was lucky enough to survive."
"Very lucky indeed," Zahur said solemnly. His attention seemed to be focused on the swords and he stared at them suspiciously. Medea did not expect an attitude change to be so sudden. She would've asked him what was wrong, but Taran mentioned the competition was about to start and that they should take their places.
The tournament began five minutes later. Queens College, the college that Taran, Zahur and Arlen attended, had a perfect record and were on their way to the semi-finals. But Baruch College had a perfect record as well, and this was the game that would determine which of the two schools would advance. The best of three duels would win the tournament. The first duel included Arlen, who was very talented with the sword. His feet positioning was perfect, and his movements were graceful. He defended himself very well, but his weakness was attacking past his opponent's defenses. The Baruch's fencer was very skilled, and after a long and tough battle, Arlen was defeated. Zahur, next to duel, was especially good at getting around others defenses, and he seemed flawless. Every move of his seemed like a perfectly choreographed dance with every move of his opponents fitting into his. The crowd seemed very impressed, and they should be, as Zahur took the victory.
Finally, Taran was up. Taran was better than Suraiya and Medea expected him to be. He his slashes and thrusts were faster than his opponents and his defenses were simple and quick. With one final blow, Taran slashed and disarmed his opponent. As Taran held the edge of the sword at his opponent's neck as a signal of the defeat, the commentator announced that Queens College was the winner and would advance to the semi-finals.
The gymnasium cleared out and all that was left were Suraiya, Medea, and Taran. "Bet you didn't think we would win," Taran mocked.
Medea crossed her arms, "On the contrary, you made it this far, if you didn't win, then we'd have to kill you."
Taran smiled sarcastically as he drew a sword and began thrusting it into the air. Medea grabbed her stomach and stumbled back a little as the sword began to glow blue again, this time spreading across Taran's body.
"What is it?" Suraiya asked Medea, holding her up.
"A Sakura Spirit," Medea stuttered trying to control her breath, "Inside the sword."
Taran grabbed the sword and thrusted at Medea. The two girls screamed as Suraiya pulled Medea away and the two fell onto the floor.
"What's wrong with him?" Suraiya cried as she pulled herself up.
"The sword!" Medea cried out, "It must be controlling him!" Taran sprinted toward Medea and thrusted the sword into the floor, missing Medea by a centimeter. As she screamed and rolled away, she cried, "It's after me!"
"I'll call Kero!" Suraiya pulled out her cell phone and called Kero. As she demanded Kero to come, Medea continued to dodge Taran's efforts to kill her.
Kero showed up a couple minutes later and called out "Summon the wand!"
Medea held Taran's arm as she struggled to stop him from stabbing her, "I'm kind of busy here!" Suraiya ran up and pushed Taran to the ground and Taran now turned on her. Medea pulled out the key and chanted "Key that hides the power of the stars, reveal thy true form to me! This by the contract, Medea commands thee! Release!" The star key transformed into the wand. "Uh...What do I do now?"
"Hurry and think of something!" Suraiya called back. Taran was about to take other thrust at her when he stopped and turned back to Medea.
"Uh oh." Medea said to herself and she watched Taran leap high into the air and dive towards her, with the edge of the sword coming at her.
"Look out!" Suraiya cried, and Medea tightened her grip above the wand and held it above her head, ready to block the attack. Taran plunged and Medea felt someone push her down. When she opened her eyes, she saw the white cloth of someone's clothes and nothing else. The person got up and ran off, disappearing before Medea could see his face. "Who was that?" Suraiya asked Medea.
Medea shrugged, then Kero flew from behind her and handed her a sword. "You want me to fight him! I can't fight him!"
"Just try!" Suraiya called back.
Medea and Taran were now engaged in a duel. Medea accessed a part of her she didn't know existed, but it seemed to know how to fence as her sword clashed with Taran's. They exchanged offensive and defensive techniques for about five minutes, but no one was getting anywhere.
"It's not working! He's too good." Suraiya yelled at Kero. Kero concentrated on the two, putting all his faith into Medea. "Come on Medea! Do something! Anything!"
Medea continued to block all his attempts, until she stopped. "Screw this!" Medea cried out and threw the sword to the floor. Taran stopped and gave her a puzzled look.
"What are you doing?" Suraiya asked, panicking.
Taran moved in and lunged at her once more. Medea grabbed his arm and pushed it aside. As she moved the sword out of her way, she thrusted her fist straight forward and punched in straight in the face.
Suraiya and Kero flinched back as they cried out "Oh!" at the same time. Taran fell back onto the floor as blue ribbons escaped from his body and the sword floated in mid-air.
In the shadows, a hidden figure wearing white clothes said to himself "Nice arm."
"Damn!" Suraiya commented, "He's gonna fell that one when he wakes up."
Kero yelled out, "Now seal The Sword Card!"
Medea held the wand above her head. "Spirit of Sakura! Cast off the true form designated to you and yield to my control! By the sacred contract, I command you! SWORD!" The sword turned into ribbons and entered Medea's body. Suraiya ran to Taran who was still on the floor begun to come to.
"What happened?" he asked, rubbing his head.
Medea hid the wand behind her and yelled "Didn't I tell you stop being so damn arrogant? I told you one day I was gonna clock ya in ya face, and I did! So don't even complain. You deserved it!"
Taran looked at Medea who shrugged and Kero slipped out of a window, not drawing any attention to himself.
Did it hurt to punch Taran like that? I'll just say that I didn't regret it. It was kind of a stress reliever for me. Besides, it made for good stories. I still don't know who saved me from Taran's blow, but I figured it was the same person I had the premonition about. But that day I discovered that I had many hidden talents that I had yet to discover. Being a damn good fencer was one of them. But I don't think that I'm going to challenge Zahur just yet. He was really good, and it seemed that he knew who I was. It also seemed that he knew that one of the swords had the spirit inside of it. Normally, knowing myself, I would be very suspicious of him and watching him closely. But also knowing myself, I was distracted by the Sword Card and completely forgot to tell Kero again about the guy who was watching me play Volleyball. I still have yet to use any of the Spirits that I hold inside of me, but I know eventually that one day I will have to. I just hope that when that day comes, I will be ready for it. Then again, I'm not ready for anything. The only thing I can do is expect the unexpected. As if though I haven't heard that five million times. Who know? Maybe it will work. I guess we just have to wait and see.