(Rewritten: 1/10/03)
Zero entered his quarters and was greeted by a 'humph' and a 'hello'. Hiead
turned his back on Zero as he walked in, and continued to change his clothes.
Clay on the other hand was very inquiring and asked Zero where he had been.
"Clay, just go to sleep. I'm really tired." Said a yawning Zero.
"Fine but I'll get it out of you tomorrow."
"Can you two just shut up?!" said a growling Hiead.
"Whatever, just go to sleep." With a wave of his
hand, Zero fell into a light slumber. Hiead just 'humped' again and soon
followed Zero into a land of dreams…
Kizna sighed as she walked back to her quarters after she had to literally drag
Zero back to his sleeping quarters. She shook her head at the thought of Zero. 'Man,
I have to do everything don't I? I have to look after him and myself too don't
I? Gosh...what will I ever do with that boy?!' she sighed again as she
pushed the door that led into her quarters.
Ikhny heard the door creak slightly and knew someone had come in. She slid her
glasses on as she peered around the dark room for the intruder.
"Oh, hey Kizna. It's just you." Said Ikhny, looking very relived.
"Sorry if I woke you. Is everyone asleep?" asked Kizna looking around
the darkened room. "I had a bit of trouble getting Zero back to his
quarters again."
Ikhny just giggled at her friend. "Well I'm tired so if u don't mind I'm going to bed now. Good night Ikhny." Said Kizna as she collapsed on her bed, instantly falling asleep without changing her clothes.
"Good night Kizna" whispered Ikhny into the darkness, as she too fell
asleep.
*The next morning*
Saki woke up and stretched for a bit before getting out of bed. She slowly
walked to the bathroom and took a shower before deciding to wake the others
up. Once she put on her clothes, she
wrapped a towel around her wet hair.
She made her way back into the room where the other two girls were
sleeping. She looked up at the clock
that was above the door and nearly screamed.
"YOU TWO! WAKE UP!! It's almost 8:00! Azuma said we have to be in the
battle room by 8!" screamed Saki before grabbing the hair dryer and drying
her hair. Kizna slowly opened her eyes, the screaming waking her up. She looked around through heavy eyelids, seeing
only Saki awake and hair drying her hair.
Kizna turned her head to the right and saw Ikhny fast asleep.
"Saki, what's going on? What was
that horrid noise that woke me up?" asked a confused Kizna.
Saki glared at Kizna. "That would be me, yelling at you two to get up. Kizna look at the clock. Then you'll find out why I was asking you to get up." Said Saki, as she turned back towards the mirror and continued hair drying her hair.
Then all of a sudden, there was a loud scream through the girls' quarter. Kizna's scream could be heard two rooms away
and consequently woke the other three repairers who were sleeping in the room
next to Kizna's. Instantly, all the girls
were awake.
"What's wrong Kizna? Why were you screaming?" asked Ikhny as she
looked for her glasses.
"LOOK AT THE TIME!! WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE!!" screamed Kizna as she
jumped out of bed and rushed to the showers. Ikhny finally found her glasses
and slipped them on. She glanced at the
clock, her eyes widening when her brain registered the time. She scrambled out of bed and ran to the room
next door.
"You guys, get up now!" the usually quiet girl hollered.
"What's wrong with you Ikhny?" Wreka asked, lifting an
eyebrow. Ikhny frowned and pointed at
the clock above the door. The two other
girls looked at the time and ran to get ready too.
"AHH!! Where's my shirt! Tukasa, did u take it!?!" asked a furious
Wreka, as she threw her clothes over her head while looking through her dresser
for the lost shirt.
"Nani? Why would I take your shirt? It doesn't even fit me!" said the
quiet and reserved girl, who at this moment was running around the room trying
to get ready. Once the girls were ready, they rushed out of their respective
rooms. They finally made it to the battle room and surprisingly, all the boys
were there before any of the girls had arrived. It was usually the boys, particularly Clay and Zero, who were
never on time.
Right after the girls entered, Azuma came in and the door closed behind him.
"You girls got lucky today seeing that if u didn't make it in time, you
would have had to run 50 laps around GOA." Said Azuma, chuckling to him
self after seeing the looks on the girls' faces. "All right lets get
started. Now, Yamagi, you're pairing up with Roose and going against Zero and
Clay today."
The four boys got into their pro- ings and went onto the battlefield. "You
ready to go down Yamagi?" asked Zero, as he got into position. Clay
followed suit and prepared to battle. As Clay and Roose got ready, Zero and Yamagi
charged for each other. Soon after, Roose attacked Clay and ended up knocking
him out or disabling his pro-ing, if that's what you want to call it.
"Clay, you baka!!" yelled Saki, as she helped Clay get out of his
pro-ing once it came back inside. Now it was just Zero against Yamagi and
Roose.
"All right! I can take you both down!" screamed Zero as he charged
for Yamagi as Roose attacked from behind.
"Zero, don't get so cocky!" Said Kizna in a scolding manner. "Watch out, Roose is behind you."
Zero let out a scream as he charged for Yamagi, taking no notice of Roose. Once Zero was in kicking range of Yamagi, he brought his left foot off the ground and connected it with the side of Yamagi's pro-ing. Zero's kick made Yamagi loose his balance and the purple haired boy fell to the side.
"You're done for Yamagi!" Zero said in a haughty voice. Before he could attack again, Yamagi activated a defensive force- field. When Zero released a punch that was intended to finish off Yamagi, Zero's arm hit the force- field, rebounded, and his whole body was propelled through the air and he landed flat on his back on the hard ground.
Zero groaned in pain, but nevertheless, got up with the same vigor. He pulled himself off the ground and fixed Yamagi with a glare. "That was cheap…" Zero mumbled while rubbing his arm. Once he saw Yamagi off the ground and armed with a beam rifle, ready to attack, Zero started moving. He flew to the right just in time to avoid Yamagi's attack.
'It looks like Yamagi's trigger happy today…' Zero thought as he once again, avoided Yamagi's attack. Zero ran around Yamagi and hid behind a big boulder. Since it was a mountainous terrain, he used the rocks and boulders to his advantage. Once Zero thought it was safe enough to come out from behind the boulder, he took a look at where he thought Yamagi was and caught sight of Roose instead. A light bulb went off in Zero's head and he shot off towards Roose.
Zero shot off the ground and flew behind Roose. Luckily, Roose did not see Zero's shadow and took no notice of him. Once Zero was behind Roose, Zero slid his arms around Roose and twisted his arms back. Roose screamed in pain and tried to squirm his way out of Zero's hold. Roose's screaming caught Yamagi's attention and he whipped around. Yamagi ran towards Zero, with a power blade in one hand, ready to attack. He pulled his arm back, then plunged it into what he thought was Zero's pro-ing. When he stepped back from the scene, he realized he disabled the wrong pro-ing.
"ROOSE! You idiot!!" Yamagi screamed. Zero just laughed.
"Don't worry Yamagi. Roose couldn't move. I moved for him and put him in your path." Zero explained, grinning like a Cheshire cat.
"Roose is disabled." Azuma said. Wreka just frowned.
Yamagi's eyes widened and his anger towards Roose went to Zero. Once again, Yamagi tried to attack Zero head on but his anger was blinding him. Yamagi heard his repairer's voice through his pro-ing. "Yamagi, don't let your anger cloud your judgement…" Tsukasa warned.
'That sounded like it was out of a storybook or something.' Yamagi thought as he chose to ignore what she was saying. He continued to throw punch after punch at Zero but only managed to hit the air every time. Zero finally decided to go to the offensive side and took out his power blade. With the blade in his right hand, Zero ran towards Yamagi, letting out an animalistic scream. Yamagi was heading towards Zero when he saw his opponent ready to attack.
Yamagi panicked and tried to stop his body and dodge the attack. But it was too much for his pro-ing to handle. Yamagi, once he got his body to stop propelling forward, tried to move out of the way soon after, but it was too late. Zero pulled his arm back when he was standing in front of Yamagi. Zero heard Kizna's voice fill his pro-ing. "I'm rerouting all power to the power blade." He heard her say. He nodded in agreement. He bent down slightly, and then rammed the blade into the chest of the other pro-ing. The circuits were fried and tiny pieces flew everywhere.
"Yamagi is disabled." Azuma said in a monotonous voice. 'Hum…
Candidate 88 has some potential to become a pilot.' He thought as he
watched Zero more closely.
"YEAH!! I TOLD YOU I'D BEAT YOU!!" yelled Zero as he jumped up and
down in excitement. All three boys returned back inside as Zero jumped up and
down happily. Kizna looked over to Zero and grinned. 'Still as childish as
ever, but I can't blame him. He did win!' said Kizna cheering for herself
mentally.
"All right, you all know what to do. I have some business to take care of
now, so get started on repairing. The next pro- ing battle is day after
tomorrow." Said Azuma as he walked out the doors.
Zero frowned and stopped jumping. "Do
you think it has to do with the Goddesses?"
He asked to no one in particular.
"What are you talking about Zero?" Clay asked, coming to Zero's side.
"Azuma said he had something to take care off. Do you think it has anything to do with the Goddesses?" Zero asked once again.
"Don't bother about it. It's Azuma's business. Let him deal with it." Clay said with a 'that's-final' tone.
The four candidates followed the repairers into the pro-
ing hanger to fix the pro-ings. Lucky for Clay, he didn't have any damage on
his pro- ing since he was knocked out immediately. Ikhny continued to work on
Hiead's pro- ing seeing that it was almost un- repairable, by the time the
battle between Zero and Hiead was over yesterday.
"Kizna..." whined Zero. "Can we go eat now? All that battling made me hungry."
"Are you CRAZY? We just got here, now quit complaining and give me a hand.
It won't take long if you help me, cause thank god you didn't do much damage to
your pro- ing." Said Kizna looking over the pro- ing again. "Though I still think you could have
prevented hitting the force field."
Kizna mumbled to herself.
Zero took no notice of her mumbling.
"All right, I'll help you." Said Zero, walking up to the pro-
ing. "What do I do?" Kizna just shook her head in defeat.
Since there was not much repairing needed for Clay's pro-ing, both Clay and his
repairer were waiting on the side of the hanger. "Hey Clay, do you think Kizna and Zero would make a cute
couple?" Saki asked out of the blue.
"Where did that come from?"
"Just answer the question."
Clay just pushed up his glasses in response. "Well, if you observe both
sides of their relationship, and the pro's and con's of them getting together,
then I guess you can say they do make a 'cute couple'." Said Clay as he
stared at the 'cute couple' as Saki called it.
Tsukasa overheard Saki and Clay's conversation. "What are you two talking
about?" asked Tsukasa as she gave them a weird glance. Saki walked over to Yamagi's pro-ing and
stood beside Tsukasa. "I was just
asking what Clay thought about Kizna and Zero as a couple." Saki said.
"But they're not a couple." Tsukasa pointed out.
"I know… but there was this saying… if two people fight a lot, the more the care about each other… something like that." Saki said, scratching her head, her eyebrows knitted together in deep thought. "Anyways, that's what gave me the idea. They sure do fight a lot, but one can see they really care about each other."
"I guess I can see what your saying." Tsukasa said nodding her head. She turned back to the pro-ing and started repairing again with the help of Yamagi.
With the pro-ing beside Yamagi's, Wreka made Roose do most of the work while she helped out now and then. She claimed that he had to loose more weight. Roose just shook his head and thought, 'The things I'd do for a girl.' He sighed as he wiped his forehead. "All done Wreka?" he asked as he backed out a few steps away from the pro- ing. She narrowed her eyes and surveyed the pro-ing. "Here. It's almost done." She made some minor adjustments, explained to Roose what needed to be corrected, then said in a very cheery voice, "Yup! It's all done."
Both of them turned around, and walked over to Clay and Saki and waited along
side them for the others to finish so they could head out for lunch in the mess
hall.
"Hi!" said Wreka, making Saki jump up slightly.
"Don't do that!!" said Saki in a
slightly scolding voice.
"What were u staring at Saki?" Wreka asked, looking innocent.
"Oh, nothing really. Hey, what do you think about Zero and Kizna as a
couple?" said Saki, her eyes shinning.
"Zero and Kizna?" said Roose overhearing the conversation. He burst
out laughing. Soon, his face started
turning red from the lack of air. Wreka just gave Roose a weird look and turned
back to Saki.
"You know, I think they just make the cutest couple." Said a gushing
Wreka. "Just look at them!!" All four of them turned and looked up to
where Zero and Kizna were.
Zero was fighting with Kizna about what he should get to repair. Kizna kicked Zero in the knee and by accident, Zero let go the screwdriver in his hand at that moment and it went flying towards the group of four who were watching the 'cute couple' bickering.
Roose, who didn't take notice of the screwdriver, got hit in the head
unfortunately.
Zero looked over to where the screwdriver went and took notice of three pairs
of staring eyes. Roose was knocked out apparently. "Hey you guys, have you
three seen where the screwdriver went?" Zero asked, looking around the
vicinity. He spotted it by Roose and
ran down to retrieve the screwdriver. "Sorry about that Roose." All
he got in response was a groan out of Roose. Then all of a sudden yelling could
be heard throughout the pro-ing hanger.
"ZERO!! Get your butt back here and finish helping me with the
repairs!!" yelled a fuming Kizna. Clay, Saki, Wreka, and Zero all turned
their heads away from Roose only to see a red faced Kizna glaring at Zero. Zero winced.
"Hehe..." Zero sheepishly rubbed the back of his head as he walked
back to where Kizna was.
Yamagi looked over his shoulder when he heard Kizna holler at Zero. He shook
his head and sighed. Tukasa looked up
and wondered why Yamagi didn't answer her when she called.
"Hey Yamagi?" she asked sweetly.
"Huh? Oh yea, what is it?" said Yamagi, a little bored.
"I called you like five times and you didn't
respond. What's wrong?" said Tukasa with a worried look on her face.
"Nothing. Are we done yet?"
"Yup. Your pro- ing is all fixed." Said Tukasa with a satisfactory smile on her face. Then, she grabbed Yamagi's hand and dragged him over to where Clay, Saki, Wreka and a knocked-out Roose were waiting.
Yamagi looked
over at Roose wondering what happened to him.
He voiced his thoughts and asked the others about it. "Oh, he got hit by a screwdriver."
Wreka said, looking over to Tukasa and Yamagi.
Yamagi blinked a few times, then, shuddered at that thought.
"What were you guys talking about?" asked Yamagi, once he got over
what happened to Roose. Saki and Wreka looked over to him with a sparkle in
their eyes. "Uhhh... I don't think I want to know," said Yamagi, slowly
backing away from the quickly advancing girls.
Lucky for Yamagi, Ikhny decided to take a break and walked over to the other
repairers and candidates. "What's
going on here? I heard Kizna screaming… something about a screwdriver and when
I turn back around, the girls are ganging up on Yamagi." Ikhny
explained.
Clay pointed to where the other girls were, explained Saki's theory to Ikhny
and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Oh..." was all
Ikhny said in response.
"So Ikhny, what do you think of Zero and Kizna as a couple?" asked
Saki as she grabbed the brown haired girl by the shoulders. She turned back to Yamagi and asked, "So,
what do you think?"
"Like I'd care about those two." Said Yamagi as he turned around and
sat down on the floor. Saki just glared at the back of his head and turned back
to Ikhny.
"Well?" Ikhny turned and took a look at Zero and Kizna. Kizna saw Ikhny look at her and waved to her brown haired friend. Ikhny waved back.
"I think they would be all right for each other." Ikhny said as she gave a tiny smile.
"Ok then, how bout we get them together? You know, both of them like each
other but they're both too stubborn to see it. Let's be the matchmakers. Just like in the movies!" said Wreka,
going into a dream like state. Saki
gave a smile and agreed on Wreka's plan of action.
"Ok, who's in?" asked Saki. Ikhny raised her hand, and so did Clay,
Tukasa and Wreka. "All right then, it is Ikhny, Clay, Tukasa, Wreka and
I." Said Saki, looking the hands over again.
"And don't forget Roose!" said a smiling Wreka, her eyes having an
evil glint in them. "Ok, now it's Clay, Tukasa, Roose, Wreka, Ikhny and I.
Cool." In a slightly lower tone, Saki started explaining her plan to the
group. "Here's the plan you
guys." Saki started. "We'll get
them to sit together at lunch, side by side and who ever is sitting next to
them, nudge them into each other from time to time." Saki said.
"That's your plan?" Yamagi scoffed. "Even I could think of a better plan than that… and I'm not even a part of your little "matchmakers" group."
"Well, sorry! That was the first thing that came into my
head so we'll go with that." Saki
countered, sticking her tongue out at Yamagi.
Just then, Zero and Kizna walked up to the group.
"Hi you guys. What are you all talking about?" asked Kizna, wondering.
Unfortunately, Kizna couldn't find out because Zero interrupted.
"I want to go and get lunch now. Can we go already?" asked Zero as he
grabbed his stomach. Kizna shook her head. "It's all about you and food
isn't it?"
"Well no, I also think about becoming a pilot!" said Zero, putting a
fist into the air. Everyone laughed at that. Kizna sighed and dusted off some
dirt that had gotten on her pant leg from repairing the pro-ing.
"Ok mister. Come on, we'll go and eat now." Kizna said as she grabbed
his ear and pulled him to the door leading out of the pro- ing hanger. Everyone
else just followed, whispering to each other, while Yamagi got stuck carrying
Roose.
TCG: Well, hope you liked the re-written chapter. I think this is a lot better than the one I previously had. ^_^ I will soon be working on the third chapter. I might re-write the first chapter again. If I do so, then I'll put up an author's note saying so.