Flames of My Heart: Guess what? I've got a new story. Well actually, this story is pretty old, I just never had the chance to post it. I'm not sure if many people will like it, but I'm hoping so. Please read, and feed back would be much appreciated.
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh or Sailor Moon. I do, however, own the plot. Thank god for that.
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The bitter cold night made Rei shudder under her warm blanket. She was alone and even though she didn't want to admit it, it was killing her inside. The senshi had long since broken up, finding no reason to go on. They had handed in their henshin sticks to Luna, and had continued to live their normal lives.
Minako continued to excel at volleyball, and became the team captain, only to quit after getting a modeling job for a couture company somewhere in France. Ami had taken after her mother and had taken up an internship program in Germany. Makoto had gotten a waitress job in a restaurant and after lots of hard work got promoted to becoming the manager of one of the chain restaurants in the Domino district. Usagi got engaged to Mamoru and was currently living in his flat, waiting to be married in late July.
Hotaru managed to spend most of her reincarnated life as a normal girl, just entering her freshman year of high school in one of the most elite high schools. Haruka continued to race, while occasionally appearing in Michiru's concerts. She and Michiru continued to date, and where even considering adopting another child. Setsuna was currently in France with Minako, since she happened to work for the same company as the goddess of love, though she was a designer.
And what was Rei doing? Rei had been taking care of the shrine with her grandfather, until he passed away. Rei, in a moment of grief and stupidity, sold the shrine and moved into a studio in southern Juuban. She now worked in a movie theater, selling popcorn to bratty kids, about to start her final year at TA All Girls School.
If not for the fact that Rei still had her long thick raven colored locks, or her original glowing violet eyes, the other senshi would not have been able to recognize her. Instead of her temper growing with her age, it fizzled out like a dead fuse, only sometimes managed to spark up. Her features had grown softer, loosing all of the sharp contours of her face that matched her sharp personality. She no longer criticized those around her… because there was no one around her to criticize.
She may have realized it too late, but she definitely realized it. She had drifted away from her friends, probably intentionally. She had many chances to keep in contact with them, but had decided against going to the 'family reunions' that they held every year. But somehow she thought they would never forget about her… oh how wrong she was… while they continued to grow and mature, finally accomplishing their dreams, she had drifted away in the shadows… only to be remembered as the icy-hot fire sprite. And even now she had lost that characteristic. So what was left of Hino Rei?
Memories. And visions. Of what she had and lost, and what could have been. How pathetic. She thought bitterly, biting on her lower lip, a habit she had developed while spending nights like this brooding.
She crumpled the small piece of paper in her hands, as she rose up from the futon on the floor, letting the comforter slid past her shoulders and drop soundlessly to the floor. She was wearing a long men's button down shirt that reached mid-thigh, and black silk pajama pants. She walked bare foot on the cold wooden floor, and opened the sliding rice-paper doors. She exited the room and slid the door back into place, giving the room a once-over.
On the floor the paper continued to lie crumpled, almost forgotten. Only a few words were actually visible in the messy handwriting… probably male.
'Miss you… visit… playing… Domino elementary… Anzu.'
If one of the senshi were to find the note, they probably would have no idea what this was about, but then again they never did. But Rei knew very well, and she determined not to go back. But destiny and fate always did hate her determination.
vVv
"Oh, did I tell you?" Anzu said, poking at her chicken salad with her fork. "My otou-san invited that girl again."
"Who?" Katsuya Jounouchi took another bite of his cheeseburger. He chewed on it for a moment and then swallowed, giving his friends an overly happy grin.
"That girl that used to go to our elementary school. She was my best friend when we were little girls. Otou-san thought she was the cutest thing. Her grandfather died a year ago, and since then he's always been inviting her over," Anzu said, with a slight bitter tone in her voice. Her father was a very polite man, who sent the letters every vacation, but the other girl never even bothered to reply back. Anzu thought the whole thing was rude.
"Ok…" Jou blinked still not knowing who the hell she was talking about. "There were lots of girls that used to go to our elementary school… what was her name?"
"Hino Rei," Anzu laughed, as Jounouchi's eyes widened and his hand rose to clutch his jaw.
"Oh her," Jou was praying that the topic was changed quickly. But not so much luck. A couple of seconds later, Honda had realized who they were talking about, and he broke out into fits of laughter. Yuugi's face turned bright red, and Ryou just blinked, since he was left in the dark.
"Oh sorry Ryou," Yuugi apologized for the rest of them. "You weren't here when we were little. Rei was a girl that used to go to school with us. She and Jou have bad history."
Ryou was actually curious to hear the story. There wasn't many times that Jou's face managed to turn ghostly pale. "What's so special about her?" the comment was a little unusual, since it sounded slightly harsh. Maybe it was his darker half talking for him… or maybe Bakura was just rubbing off on him. Oh I dread the thought.
Honda continued to laugh, his face turning different shades of purple but he managed to choke out. "She… HAHAHA… punched him…. PFFTT… in the jaw! Broke it, too!"
"She's the she-devil reincarnated!" Jou tried to justify what had happened.
"You deserved it," Anzu mused, a small smile on her face as she recalled the memory.
vVvFlashbackvVv
"Hey Anzu?" a small blond boy of 10 poked his friend's elbow. He was dressed in white t-shirt that had a few stains of dirt on it, and ripped blue jeans. But what more could you expect from the 5th grade bully. He was always rolling around the dirt.
The girl he poked turned around to look at him with her big blue eyes. She had shoulder length brown hair (I know she has short hair in the series but things change) and was wearing a light blue colored dress. "Hai, Jou-chan?" the girl's voice was quiet and sweet, very soothing to the ears actually. Nothing like the other squeaky voices of the girls in his class.
"I wonder why that kid Motou is so short. I mean sure we're all short, but he's like a midget. You think he's an oompa-loompa?" Jou snickered at the thought.
"Jou, we're not in 2nd grade no more. Stop being so immature!" Anzu scolded.
"I'll stop being immature when you grow breasts!" Jounouchi poked at Anzu's flat chest, as her face turned red and she pushed him as hard as she could. He stumbled back about a foot but then remained his composer. And just to spite Anzu he shouted out to his favorite midget—
"HEY, YUUGI! CAN I DIE YOUR HAIR GREEN AND PAINT YOUR SKIN ORANGE? PLEASE? YOU CAN BE OUR SCHOOL MASCOT! THE KING OF THE OOMPA-LOOMP—" Jou's rant was cut off by a fist colliding with his face.
He fell to the ground, his white shirt absorbing more of the dirt on the floor. He jumped up about to punch the offender back, but then stared. Standing in front of him, was a girl with dark violet eyes and raven colored hair. She was actually kinda pretty, with her hair in two pigtails on either side of her head, and she was wearing a white shirt and a red skirt.
"YOU HIT ME!" he jumped up and pointed an accusing finger at her.
"And I'll hit you again if you talk to him like that," she countered, her voice cold and bitter.
"What does he have to do with YOU hitting ME?" was the only intelligent counter he could come up with.
"Don't ask stupid questions. Just remember this: You hurt his feelings, I break your face," and she gave him a shove, to prove her point. Jou remained silent and she walked away.
Jou turned to glare at Yuugi, only to find Yuugi was looking at the girl that had walked away his face beet red. "Aw, he likes her," Anzu commented, giving out a girlish giggle.
Jounouchi rolled his eyes. "Who cares?" he said sourly. "All I care about is getting REVENGE!"
Too bad Jounouchi never got the chance. A week later, Rei's mother died and she moved to Juuban to live at her grandfather's shrine.
vVvEnd FlashbackvVv
"What did I tell you? SHE'S A MONSTER!" Jou huffed, still trying to prove he had a point. Then he turned to Yuugi, who's face was still slightly red. "Oh sorry about the oompa-loompa thing, Yuge."
Yuugi gave him one of his innocent child-like smiles, and just nodded his head, accepting the apology. "Don't worry about it."
"I still think you deserved it," Anzu countered. "But it was cute how Yuugi had the biggest crush on her after that."
"Why don't you call her?" Honda commented. "I wanna see her punch Jounouchi's face in, again. Maybe you can convince her over the phone."
Anzu sighed, and pulled out her camera phone. She scrolled through her phone book until she found the number, and then pressed send, while putting the phone on speaker.
vVv
Rei slid out of the shower, her body wrapped in a small white towel, and her hair wrapped in a light blue one. She heard the familiar buzzing of her home phone and wondered who would call at this hour. Who would call in general? She sighed, feeling slightly depressed.
vVv
"Hello?" they all listened closely to the angelic voice. It sounded nothing like what they expected. They had all expected her voice to be fierce and strong, like the roar of a lion, demanding respect. But she sounded frail and weak, almost like a scared child.
"Hi, Rei-chan?" Anzu asked in a cheerful voice. She knew it was disrespectful to address the other girl this way, but it just slipped out.
They all continued to wait for her to answer, but they were greeted with an almost eternal silence. They had almost thought she had hung up until the soft voice spoke again.
"Hai, who is this?"
"Oh, it's Anzu remember me from—" Anzu's sentence was cut off by the girl.
"Yeah, I remember." The quiet tone had disappeared, replaced by a slightly louder one, probably because she realized who it was. "What do you wa—What is it?" the voice sounded like it was struggling to be polite.
"Did you get the letter from my otou-san?"
"Hai." Rei paused. "I'm sorry now is not a good time."
"That's what you said last time," Anzu asked, feeling slightly rejected.
"Hai." Again she paused. "Because times have not changed."
"That was last year! How could things have not changed?" Anzu knew it was wrong, but her temper was getting the best of her.
"…Things and times are very different things, Anzu-chan." The suffix almost sounded dirty the way she pronounced it.
"Stop being so cryptic! Please for once come!" She was begging and pleading hoping it would work.
vVv
Rei stared at the cordless phone in her hand. Why would this stupid girl she hadn't seen in years want to see her so bad? Anzu was going so far as to actually start an argument with her. Fighting with the master at battles of the wits was not exactly the best idea. But then why was Rei so hesitant to say no?
Domino had brought back memories of death, and loss. She had lost three things that day, and only managed to gain one. She lost her mother's life, her father's love, and her humanity. But she had gained her grandfather's love, only to lose it again.
But was it Domino's fault that the events had happened there? How could she fear something that did not have a brain, or a body or a soul? It was just a place… a place she hadn't been to in a long time. Right about now, a vacation didn't sound so bad. Maybe she could spend the first semester in Domino, and if she hated it there she could transfer back.
"I'm not cryptic!" Rei pouted, trying to mock anger. A smile then came to her face as she felt some of her 'old humor' return to her.
"Then what are you?" she heard a gruff voice shouted out. Rei broke into fits of laughter, not even understanding why. There was silence on the line, and Rei knew she had shocked them.
"I'm just a sadistic bitchy pyromaniac," she said composing her laughter, trying to sound as serious as possible. But after she heard the boy on the other line gulp, she started to laugh again. "I'm kidding, baka. Just because I like to punch your face in doesn't mean I'm a nutcase, Jou-kun."
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Flames of My Heart: Yeah, Rei-chan is a little bit of a depressed child, but don't worry, she'll return to her 'sadistic bitchy pyromaniac' self, soon! Please read and review, so that I have the fuel to help me continue!