Chapter 7: "Arigato!"
Disclaimer: AL is © by Clamp™. Except my characters; Akiru Takahashi, Hajima, and Ichiro his angel. All events in this story are entirely fictional. Thank you, for your time and attention. :)
Icchan watched the sidewalk from inside the brick wall. He had pulled out the bricks and put them back in. He planned to make one of his famous entrances, and burst out
theatrically from the wall. But he would have to wait, under hot clay, in 90-degree weather, for 7 hrs. His choice.
Akiru was going to practice again, and play another game. The first had been fun, as his opponent had been a good sport. But this time, he would stop at Hajima's and say
that he might be gone for a couple of hours, and maybe pick up 4 hundred yen to practice, and his own music. He walked out of the school courtyard with Misaki, Kotaro,
and Tamayo. As usual, Tamayo was being loud.
"SOOO, ARE YA GONNA SWING BY PIFFLY PRINCESS AND KICK A COUPLE OF OTHER ANGEL'S BUTTS?" She yelled.
"Technically, if I win the game I am going to play, yes." Akiru answered. "Are you going to stick around?" He asked Tamayo.
"WELL, DUH! RIGHT, GUYS? Um, right?" Misaki shifted her shoulders, embarrassed. Kotaro rolled his eyes. Just then, a little girl, with long dark hair, down to her
waist, and an angel hanging out of her bag, tugged on Kotaro's sleeve.
"Kotaro, you promised that we'd go to Piffle Princess! You promised! Come on, loser!"
Kotaro sweated. "Akiru, this is Hatoko Kobayashi. My little sister. The Angelic Layer nut I told you about. And this," he said, snatching the angel out of Hatoko's bag
while she tried to grab it back, "is her Angelic Layer namesake. Suzuka. Lightspeed Suzuka, Goddess of Victory, to give her her full title." Hatoko finally succeeded in
grabbing her back.
"LOSER! YOU SAID WE'D GO TODAY!" Hatoko wailed, pouting.
"Yeah, Hatoko, we are going. Akiru is going to play a game. You too, I presume." Hatoko squealed.
Akiru, seeing as they were at his stop, ran inside to his room, grabbed a cd and 400 yen, waving goodbye to Hajima, explaining where he'd be. Then he raced his friends to
Piffle Princess, Kotaro beating him by a foot. He rented a room, and sat down.
"Hey, can I practice, too?" Hatoko asked.
"Um, sure." Akiru said.
He sat down, throwing Ichiro into the layer. Hatoko did likewise. He put in the cd, and they danced for the whole time, finally finishing up with some skill drills. They
flipped, jumped, slid, kicked, and punched. Then their time was up.
Akiru walked over to the desk and got a game card. His was in just a few minutes, game 27. As game 25 finished, Hatoko walked up to the stand.
"C-can it be? HATOKO AND LIGHTSPEED SUZUKA! This will be one heck of a game, folks! Angelic fight!" The announcer stopped talking, and the audience
exploded. Apparently, in Angelic Layer, Hatoko was very popular.
Hatoko threw Suzuka into the layer. "Exceed the speed of light, Suzuka! Angel, fall in!" The other deus threw in their angel, and the battle began. Suzuka began with a
punch to the stomach, and a kick to the head. The opposing angel only just managed to block the ferocious attacks.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Icchan waited.
Suzuka held the other angel's head, and kicked her legs out form under her. The angel did a full flip over Suzuka, who was still holding her, and then Suzuka executed the
finishing blow. The infamous rolling thunder hit the angel right back into the deus's hands. The game was over.
Akiru stepped up, throwing Ichiro. His opponent was a boy named Hiroshi, with a girl angel, Gin. Hiroshi grinned, as if he had something to hide.
Akiru, puzzled, looked at his friends for support. Tamayo grinned and gave him a thumbs-up.
"ANGELIC… FIGHT!"
Gin began to twirl, her kimono of pink and gold, whipping around. She twirled so hard that her kimono's string zipped out of the kimono. Maybe that was supposed to
happen. Probably, because soon the angel knotted it deftly into a lasceau. A lasceau, or a double-ended lasso, was lethal in most western movies. Gin swung it into the air.
Ichiro dodged, but it caught one of his arms, tossing him cruelly to the floor. His damage points zipped down a couple notches, but not too many. Ichiro tried to get closer,
to attack, but the lasceau leapt at him like a live animal, weaving a dance around his shoulders, knees, or stomach, throwing him everywhere. Finally, he knew he couldn't
take it anymore. Ichiro's stomach had marks on it from the rope, his cape was frayed, and he had rope burns on his hands.
Akiru focused on the battle. He ran towards Gin. He concentrated, and at the last possible second jumped. Not a high jump. He leapt right into the belly of the beast, in
this case, the middle of the lasceau. However, he could tell by the way his opponent moved that she was a lightweight. He was a heavyweight, with an emphasis on attack.
He grabbed the rope, and swung it over his head, Gin still on the other end. She grabbed at him and caught Ichiro's shoulders, but he just went with it and fell backwards,
using Gin as a cushion. He only lost 5 damage. She lost 40. But he was only 10 ahead, and he knew that could be taken away verrry quickly.
Gin twirled the lasceau again and got up. She cast it at Ichiro, and he leapt away, but she whipped the other end around and it caught Ichiro's neck, and slung him to the
ground, hard. She followed with a spin-kick, which sent Ichiro spinning across the layer. He got up, and thought hard. Maybe it was time to use the second button. Ichiro
slowly pressed the second button on his hood.
It was like a little golden net was on his hand, from fingertip to fingertip. The lasceau twirled around yet again, and Ichiro swung the net at it. It seemed like the twirling
sound was gone. The lasceau dropped to the ground, like all the energy had gone out of it. Gin yanked it back in, and started to twirl it again. She swung both ends at him,
crisscrossing over each other, so he would be caught by one of them or caught in the middle. However, with his little net of light, all the fight seemed to go out of the
lasceau, and the loops dropped to the ground, as though tired. There were only 4 minutes left on the clock. Ichiro darted towards Gin. She ran towards him, at top speed.
Ichiro swung his hand with the net, which was growing bigger, on it, at Gin's legs. A look of confusion swept across the deus's face. Gin's legs went limp like noodles. She
crashed to the ground and retreated, deciding to use the lasceau and her body. The net on Ichiro's hand was huge. It was time.
Ichiro's other hand grasped the net in it. Ichiro placed it on his head, and pressed the button again. His hair started to grow. All Akiru had done, really, was put some more
hair inside the head, and at this signal, the hair started to slide out. Ichiro's hands swung the net over his head. Whatever was inside was impossible to see. It rushed out and
was caught in the meshes of Ichiro's hair, which started to move.
Akiru had threaded wires at the base of the hairs that had told them to respond to kinetic energy. The net had captured it, and Ichiro could put it wherever he wanted, to
have more speed, he could use it as a shield, by stretching it out and releasing the energy. However, Ichiro needed something to counter-attack the lasceau. Rope.
He swung his hair at the lasceau. It curled around it and pulled. Gin was reeled in. Ichiro stood on his hands and sprang forwards, bringing his foot up and catapulting Gin
out of the layer, her lasceau still firmly in Ichiro's grip.
"LAYER OUT! GIN IS LAYER OUT! ANOTHER BIG SURPRISE FROM THE NEWBIE, AKIRU TAKAHASHI!" The announcer boomed. The audience cheered.
Hiroshi held out his hand.
"Good game. I'll have to rethink my lasceau tactics, huh?" He grinned, and they shook hands.
Tamayo squealed. "Akiruchi you are the second coolest, right next to Misakichi!"
Misaki clapped along with everybody else. At the very back, Ohjiro Mihara watched. He approved. The hair idea had been good. He walked away inconspicuously, so as
to avoid any fangirls that might be lurking in the shadows. He would have to inform his brother.
Akiru walked happily out of Piffle Princess. Hatoko was balancing on the brick wall they were right next to. Tamayo was going on and on about how she had the luck of
meeting the coolest people, Kotaro was sweat-dropping, and Misaki was taking something out of her bag and fiddling with it. Akiru waved goodbye.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Icchan watched. He saw Tamayo peel off from the group, followed by Misaki, Hatoko, and Kotaro. Akiru was alone. Finally. He burst out of the brick wall, yelling,
"ICCHAN GO BOOM!" Akiru screamed. Icchan chuckled. "Calm down. It's only me." He said. Akiru sighed.
"Um, Arigato!"
"For what?"
"For the package you left me!"
"Darn! That was supposed to look like an accident… oh well. Anyway, good job on your games! My brother told me about today!"
"Your brother?" Akiru asked.
"Yes, I know, WEIRDOS IN LAB COATS AREN'T SUPPOSED TO HAVE BROTHERS! BUT I DO! WAAAAAAAAAA!"
"Poor brother." Akiru muttered under his breath.
"What's that?"
"Oh, nothing." Akiru looked up to heaven.
Icchan waved a briefcase. "THIS IS WHERE A PRESENT FROM ICCHAN COMES INTO THE PICTURE!" He held out an angel card with the words Angelic Layer at
the top, and a slip of official-looking paper, along with a couple of photos and-money!
"Take it!" Icchan said. Akiru decided it couldn't be money, and he put whatever it was in his pocket. He looked at his angel card. It had his name, picture, angel points, and
Angel's name, and stats on it.
"Arigato!" Then he looked at the slip of paper. He caught a glimpse of some verrry long words before Icchan said that it was just an entrance card to the tournament
building.
"Slot this in the side of the building, right next to the doorknob, between bricks #8 and 9. You can practice in the tournament arena that way, for up to 1 ½ hours each day."
Akiru checked out the photos. "These, Akiru, are some photos of moves that previous champions have done." Akiru glanced at all of this and said
"Arigato!"
Then he bid Icchan goodbye, and walked into his home. He looked into his pocket, and drew out…
3500 yen.
Maybe this maniac wasn't so bad after all.