This is the result of a few boring days at school... Hope you enjoy...
CHAPTER 2 (Sparkly…)
'Swim, Reiko…' a voice in Reiko's head whispered, urging her to swim toward the surface.
Opening her eyes, Reiko saw a faint light a few feet above her.
"Help me…" she tried calling out but she already knew that it was no use.
The cold water compressed her petite figure as she tried to kick forward to reach even just a few feet closer to the surface.
Just before her fingers broke the surface, her vision went black.
A hand reached over and grabbed her wrist, pulling her pale figure out of the raging river.
A few hours later…
Reiko's eyes fluttered open as she felt the confines of the water leave her.
"Kazuya she's awake!" a voice exclaimed from somewhere beside her.
"How many times do I have to tell you Chin? Don't call me Kazuya," another voice stated.
A guy with brown hair and brown eyes suddenly came into Reiko's line of vision making her yelp a bit. As she tried to crawl away she felt her school uniform being tugged back.
"LET GO!" she tried to scream but all that came out was a mere whisper.
"You shouldn't tire yourself out too much. We just managed to pull you out of the river a few minutes ago," the guy, presumably Kazuya, stated as he gently picked her up.
"Put me down," she whispered, trying to get out of Kazuya's hold.
"Sorry but no," Kazuya replied, squeezing the base of Reiko's neck.
Before she could do anything about it, Reiko's eyes immediately closed.
Takeshi wandered through the town, eyeing the items that were for sale at the different stalls.
'This is all so much like a bargain hunt. Prices are low so people bring less money to pickpocket. How nice,' he thought as he went up to a stall that was selling what looked to be jewelry.
His eyes wandered to the part of the stall where the earrings were displayed. Noticing a pair he thought looked good on him, he instinctively plunged one of his hands into his pocket.
After a moment of groping around his pocket for some spare change, Takeshi picked up the earrings and walked toward the merchant who was talking to a now-paying customer.
Looking over the person's shoulder, Takeshi noticed that he was paying the merchant in what looked to be solid gold coins.
Glancing at the coins that were in his right hand and at the pair of earrings that were in his other hand, Takeshi decided on the one thing that he thought was best…
…STEALING.
'I could just steal some of that other guy's gold but that would complicate it further,' he thought to himself as he put the earrings in his other handalong with the coins.
He strolled further down the road, tossing the coins and the earrings in one hand while glancing casually at the stalls.
"You there!"
Takeshi turned casually to see an old crone curling a finger in his direction, beckoning him to come closer.
Thinking that he had nothing else to do, Takeshi walked toward the crone at the same time pocketing the earrings and the handful of coins.
"You look to be the sort of child who wears these trinkets," the crone wheezed as Takeshi took his position in front of her.
"One, I am NOT a child and TWO I do not wear trinkets," Takeshi stated, without even bothering to examine the things that were displayed in front of him.
"Well, I think that you might reconsider that statement when you see this…" the crone said holding up a chain that held silver that was in a shape of an unknown animal tooth.
"I don't do teeth either, especially silver ones," he commented, his eyes leaving the amulet and gazing up at the rest of the stall.
After a few seconds of silent window shopping, his eyes landed on something at the back of the store. He walked, as if in a trance, toward it, his eyes never once leaving the object.
The crone's gaze fell upon him the moment his hand went around the blue fang hanging on a chain. She gasped as Takeshi took the necklace off its hook and put it around his neck. She watched in silence as he took it off and replaced it on the hook.
Shaking his head, Takeshi stepped away from the stall only to be stopped in his tracks by the old lady.
"You can have this," the crone said, pressing something into his palm before walking back to her stall to attend to her slightly forgotten customers.
Opening his palm, Takeshi was surprised to see the chained blue fang resting on it.
"Have you seen a boy wearing foreign clothes walk by here?"
"Yes, actually we have."
Takeshi turned toward the conversation only to see several guards roaming the marketplace looking for him.
"OH SNAP!" he muttered before breaking into a run.
"Where the hell am I?" Reiko groaned, propping herself up on her elbows.
"Don't get up yet, big sister!" a young boy's voice floated toward her ears and she felt herself sliding back down on the bed.
Looking over to one side, she saw the boy who the voice belonged to and he was looking at her with glimmering eyes.
"Where am I?" she asked the glimmering-eyed boy.
"You are in the town of Saikyo in the country of Kutou," another voce answered making Reiko's gaze dart toward the door.
A slightly tanned boy with the most enchanting green eyes looked back at her with a big grin plastered on his face.
Disregarding the grin, which annoyed her to high hell, Reiko thought he looked rather handsome with his hair in a low ponytail and the blue robe hugging his slim physique.
"It's rude to stare," he voiced out, snapping Reiko out of her reverie.
"I was NOT staring!" Reiko snapped though she was blushing slightly.
Choosing not to react to her comment, the guy just approached the little boy and said, "You sister is waiting for you outside."
"You'll visit us later, won't you Kazuya?" he asked the guy as he led him out of the house and Reiko remembered the name of the person that had pulled her out of the river.
She stared at the 'Kazuya' again and tried to remember what the other guy looked like.
Kazuya, not noticing her gaze, moved toward the table and started to slice what appeared to be a t-bone steak into smaller pieces.
"You hungry?" he asked her.
Ignoring the question, Reiko swung her legs over the edge of the bed and tried to stand. Finding that she could actually stand, albeit a little unsteadily, she made her way toward the table. Grabbing a seat directly in front of him, Reiko continued to stare at him.
"I know I look good but that's not enough reason to stare at me," he commented, staring back at her.
"Don't be cocky, you prick!" she retorted, turning half-way around.
"I was only joking is all that really necessary?" Kazuya stated as he placed a plate on the table in front of her.
"What? My staring?" she questioned, a fine eyebrow arched.
Nodding, Kazuya placed her part of the steak on the plate as well as a bowl of rice.
"I was only trying to get a better look at you. The guy who saved me from the river, a little boy called him Kazuya and I was trying to see if you looked like him," she answered, ignoring the food that he had set up in front of her.
"Does he have brown eyes and brown hair?" Kazuya asked, digging in to his own plate of food.
Reiko nodded as she watched him eat the food warily.
"I know him, he brought you here. I'll introduce him to you if you want."
Reiko smiled at him slightly as she retreated back to the bed.
"You don't want to eat?" he asked, turning to find her already asleep.
"Well more for me then."
Finding a place to hide in was difficult especially if you don't know exactly where you are. It was more difficult for Takeshi since he was still in his mud-caked school uniform and lugging two backpacks filled with god-knows-what.
"This is the mall all over again," he growled as he hid himself in a narrow alley between two houses.
He was about to relax when he heard footsteps thundering down the main road.
"Where did that hoodlum go?" he heard the owner of heavy feet say.
"Hoodlum? What next juvenile delinquent?" he muttered to himself, his sarcastic attitude never once leaving him.
The guards started to question random people about him again and when that yielded nothing they left for another street to look for potential witnesses.
"Aren't they stupid?" Takeshi muttered as he walked to the opposite direction of where the guards were heading.
He was rummaging through his backpack when he bumped into someone making the other person topple over.
"Sorry," he muttered not even bothering to glance at the person or help the person up.
"BOY!"
Takeshi turned to see the crone that had given him the choker that was now residing around his neck.
"Are you the one that those guards were looking for?" she asked.
Takeshi looked over her shoulder in case one of the guards was still there.
"Isn't it a bit obvious?" he replied, lookingthrough his pack once again.
The crone seemed to think twice before she handed him some clothes.
"Here take these and make sure that you don't get caught!" she said before turning to return to her stall.
Takeshi stared after her for a moment before shaking the bundle of clothes apart to reveal an oriental looking shirt and a pair of matching pants.
"That woman doesn't expect me to wear these, does she? They don't live up to my standards!" he muttered and was about to stuff the clothes into his pack when he heard the guards question another one of citizens nearby.
"Have you seen a boy about your height walking around here? He's not hard to miss he's wearing clothes that are not from here."
"Damn it." he muttered before pulling the oriental shirt over his own mud-covered one.
The guards and everybody else didn't even notice him as he walked off, determined to go and do what he was supposed to.
The ending kinda sucks but I wasn't thinking properly at the time. Hey, you try writing an ending during trigonometry class and let's see if your brain functions properly...