A/N: Part Two
Chapter Nine: Secrets at the Beach: Part Two
Ryu cracked the bones in his neck, wincing at the pain, but relieved as the tension vanished for a while amidst a series of pops.
Hidden in the kitchen of the Café, he had textbooks and answer material spread out before him like the topography of some grand paper mountain range.
He had almost gotten out of the hotel scot-free, but Yui had spotted him before he could reach the lobby, presumably on her way back from the bathroom or some such, and cornered him.
Even half asleep you couldn't get past her if you didn't pay her the attention she was looking for, as Ryu had found out the hard way.
He had finally been forced to manhandle her aside with a brief explanation as to where he was going when the manager had happened upon them and requested that they return to their room to do "That sort of thing", apparently having assumed that he and Yui were a couple.
He had made her promise not to tell anyone the specifics, knowing that a vow of silence from Yui was impossible, but she could usually keep the details to herself if asked.
After being left to choice but to make a rather open ended promise to pay her back when he got chance, the lack conditions for which displayed both a great deal of haste and disturbing lack of forethought on his behalf.
Still he was out, free, and with any luck would be able to complete all this work in the allotted time and still have some left over afterward assuming he wasn't interrupted.
Sara had taken to calling him "Ryu-dobe", when he asked her about using the kitchen like this as equal parts library and hideaway, but had agreed as long as he remembered to lock up and return the keys to her when done.
He had already heard the other girls come and go, luckily none of them had asked Sara where he was as he had been unable to convince her to lie to them about his whereabouts, or even just to have told them she hadn't seen him since that morning, which was technically true.
Returning to his work, Ryu didn't notice how swiftly the time began to pass.
Ayu and Kanna were taking part in a race.
Not so much a race over a set distance, or within a set time, but a race to a goal, a goal that neither of them had the slightest clue as to how to find.
It was also a race they weren't entirely sure the other girl was actually part of, lending a kind of frantic air to the whole proceedings, which didn't fail to amuse and/or bewilder the onlookers as the two girls combed the hotel, and parts of the town during the early hours of the day.
Ayu sat down despondently upon the concrete wave barrier out by the beach, looking out over the sunny dunes and silently miserable that it looked as if she wouldn't be spending anytime with Ryu here or anywhere else for that matter.
If only she had some sort of clue, anything that might point to his whereabouts, but she had no such luck.
Even knowing Ryu as well as she thought she did, she couldn't predict where he might go if he didn't want to be found, and she was still uncertain as to why he would want to hide from them all on their vacation.
She was fairly certain he didn't dislike any of them, even Yui wasn't much more than an annoyance to him, and that was only when she was feeling…playful.
She found herself wondering how he would react if she were more forward, and was unable to stop blushing until she promised herself she would do no such thing.
Ok, so he wasn't hiding because he hated them all, so what was it?
Dimly she remembered something he had told her. He had been complaining about all the assignments he had been given while she had been doing her best to stay interested seen as it was one of her still rare private conversations with him.
He had mentioned something…something important that could tell her where to find him if only she could remember it.
---"At least it's quiet in here most of the time, I suppose that helps…"---
Yes! That was it, he had said that about where they were at the time, the kitchen of the Beachside Café. Ayu could have slapped herself for missing something so obvious.
Too happy about her deduction to notice the butterflies in her stomach, Ayu raced off, one hand holding down her summer hat while her dress rippled in the breeze.
"Huh?", was Ryu's articulate question when he realised there was someone standing in the doorway to the kitchen watching him.
"Oh, it's you…did Yui tell you where to find me?", a shake of the head was his reply.
"Sara?", another shake.
He was quiet for a few moments, "I guess I should have known that there was at least one of you that could find me if she really wanted to, shouldn't I?".
A happy nod and a small smile this time.
"Sempai!", Ayu called as she entered the building, heading immediately for the open door to the kitchen, and coming to a halt as she registered what she had found.
She had been beaten.
"Make that two", he said rubbing his eyes, and setting down his pencil.
"Chii-chan?", Ayu asked, confused as to how and why the other, younger girl was here.
The small blond shuffled her feet for a moment before walking over to Ryu, one small hand tugging lightly on the back of his shirt to get his attention after it began drifting back to his books.
"Play", she said simply, looking up at him with solemn, yet hopeful emerald eyes.
Ayu sagged a little. No one could turn down a request that adorable, or at least she wouldn't have been able too in his position.
"Found…you", Kanna wheezed as she staggered through the door, taking a few moments to catch her breath before realising she wasn't alone with Ryu.
"Play", Chii repeated her request, tugging a little harder on his shirt as he cast an annoyed glance skyward.
"I guess I don't have much of a choice do I now that you've all found me", he said with a sigh, closing the textbook he was working on and standing, "Lead on Chii".
The young Molmolian girl nodded curtly, somewhat ruining her usually unflappable look with the blush that graced her cheeks as she took his hand and led him out between the two confused older girls.
Kanna was as usual the first to speak.
"…What the hell just happened?"
As it turned out, Chii had wanted Ryu to come down to the beach where the rest of the girls were currently residing while Kanna and Ayu had been looking for him. They had been good enough to bring along the girls bathing suits, though Yui had wanted to 'upgrade' Ayu's but had been told she couldn't by Sara, and if there was one person other than Chii that Yui might listen to, it was she.
Ryu was fine of course in his loose shirt and shorts, so there had been no need to bring anything for him to change into.
Waiting on the sidelines, subjected to what should have been the humiliating task of building a sandcastle with Chii, something that looses it's childish edge however when the girl in question has brought blueprints and sand orientated construction equipment with her, Ryu was in for an interest surprise when he first caught sight of Kanna.
The bikini was a startling scarlet in hue, and cut in a fashion, not quite, but almost as severe as Yui and Mizuki's mid-rift baring wrap around one pieces.
A little dazed when she had walked right up to him, pivoted on one foot and asked him what he thought, he had put a hand through one of the walls of the lower floor of Chii's sandcastle.
Chii hadn't seem too put out, merely glancing between Kanna's barely concealed assets and her own washboard smooth chest quizzically before shrugging and setting to work on repairing the damage Ryu had unintentionally caused.
Kanna was still teasing him about his response and trying to get him to admit he had thought something perverted when he'd seen her, and utterly confusing him as to why she wasn't mad about that possibility, when Ayu chose to step in, worried about the performance the other girl was putting on.
"Ano…s-sempai", she interjected, resisting the urge to tug at her strapless blue one piece or to hide behind Chii's ever increasing sandcastle.
Cheeks lightly flushed, hands clasped demurely in front of her in a way that seemed to accent her slender physic rather than hide it, Ryu put a foot through one of the walls this time.
Chii looked mildly put out for a second before commencing a second set of repairs after Ryu gave her an apologetic look.
"So?", Kanna asked, frowning as she noticed his reaction to Ayu, clasping her hands behind her back and smiling.
"So what?", he asked, confident he had regained control of is extremities and feeling his pulse settle down again.
Kanna pouted and pushed him, "Don't try and play it cool after that display".
"…I have no idea what you're talking about", he looked away with a small cough, annoyed that this seemed to only widen her smile rather than make her drop the subject.
"Reeeaaaalllly?", she sung, ducking down into his view, more than happy that she was having such an affect on him. There were few people who had ever seen Ryuuya Kisame shuffle his feet and sweat quite as he was doing now.
"Is this a private game or can anyone play?", Yui asked, having held back as long as she could and thoroughly enjoyed watching Ayu and Kanna's tag team.
"As cute as he is when he sweats", Yui said with a wink, "How about we all actually have a little fun today…unless you three had something private in mind?"
"Yui!", both Kanna and Ayu blushed from head to toe while Ryu wondered if it would be possible to spend the rest of the day inside Chii's sandcastle.
"How about a little volley ball?", Natsuki chimed in, saving them all from whatever Yui was planning to say next, "And then we can all have a little watermelon"
Ryu had the sneaking suspicion some god was toying with him, what else could have inspired her to hold the volleyball and the watermelon side by side like that.
"Sounds good to me", Mizuki voiced her approval, quickly seconded by Yui and more grudgingly by Kanna and Ayu.
"I guess", Ryu added when they all looked at him expectantly, following the girls as they began to lead him away from where Ema, Sara and Chii were gathered.
"Wait", he said a thought occurring to him, "Chii-chan?"
The young girl's head poked out the window of the first floor of her construct.
"You want to play?"
Looking at him for a moment, she vanished again without a word.
She appeared from behind the structure and walked toward him silently, taking a place next to Ryu when the others began picking teams without waiting for a position to be assigned to her.
"Are you sure she's Su's kid?", Sara asked, tilting her sunglasses down to rest low on her nose to watch from where she and Ema sat in the shade of their parasol as the others played.
Chii was barely moving, only reacting when the ball came straight at her and only enough to bounce it back in the direction it had come from.
"She has her moments", Ema said, relating the story of the Mecha-Chiho, Chii had been trying to invent based on her pet, the puppy that was currently sitting watch with them in the cool.
"I suppose it's better than sixteen foot death ray equipped robo-turtles at least, but I do miss Su's energy some times", Sara said, thinking back to her days spent crawling through tunnels in the Hinata Sou, and the brief time she had spent in Molmol before Su had gotten married.
A startled cry drew their attention back to the game. Yui had apparently tried for a spike which Ryu had tried to deflect only for her to land on top of him when she misjudged her jump.
Most of the shouting they heard was muffled, coming as it did from Ryu who was currently being suffocated by Yui's chest.
"Yui knock it off!", Kanna shouted before she could stop herself.
"G-get off s-sempai!", Ayu added, her tiny fists held up in front of her angrily.
Yui smirked to herself and pretended to get up only to 'trip again.
"Any doubts that she's Amala's?", Ema said, wincing at the volume of Kanna's shout even at this distance as Ryu finally got out from under Yui only to end up with Kanna accusing him of doing nothing to stop the tanned beauty.
Sara had met Amala once on her trip to Su's homeland, that had been…interesting. She hadn't known Kitsune had a hyperactive twin.
They continued to watch the group until the day grew long and even their young companions began to tire.
As night slowly encroached upon day, the residents of the Hinata Sou made their exhausted but happy way home.
Ryu glared at the girls as they all poked fun of how adorable he looked with the sleeping Chii on his back, undaunted by his dire threats and spine shuddering promises of the unspeakable horrors he would exact upon each and everyone of them.
Unaware of the bickering going on around her, Chii sighed in her sleep, snuggling closer into Ryu's back, a tiny smile on her tanned faced as Chiho padded happily at Ryu's heels.
The corridor was dark, and considering her other experiences with dark passages, and the nature of her visit tonight, it was understandable she would be a bundle of nerves.
Clutching a small envelope to her chest, Ayu cast one last anxious look around as she stooped in front of Ryu's door.
Now was her last chance to chicken out, after this there was no going back at all.
With trembling hands she eyed the paper one last time was it vanished under the gap at the bottom of his door.
Standing she retreated down the hall with a small prayer.
After months of trying, she had finally kept her promise to herself. Now all she had to do was wait for a reply.
Ayu was sitting in the hotel's café poking at her lunch with a certain lack of enthusiasm the following day.
Ryu hadn't responded yet, though when she had seen him earlier that morning he had just looked at her strangely for a moment before walking in the opposite direction.
She hadn't held too much hope that he would say yes, but she had been sure she would at least get answer.
Distracted by her own melancholy, she only stared when a small piece of paper landed in front of her on the table.
Reaching out when she had shaken off her stupor, Ayu unfolded it and read.
It was just the note she had given Ryu the night before and she was about to screw it up as her eyes brimmed with tears when a voice called over her shoulder.
"Turn it around", she yelped and Ryu smirked at her reaction, emerging from the booth behind her fully and folding his arms patiently.
"W-what?", she asked, holding the paper as if she had no clue what it was, or what it was for.
"The other side of the note", he repeated slowly, obviously enjoying her embarrassment.
She did as instructed and scanned the opposite side, her eyes refusing to focus and her mind seemingly having forgotten how to interpret what she could see for a moment before she read the new writing aloud.
"Yes", she said, her voice amazingly even considering the room seemed to have begun to spin a little.
"Sempai?", she asked trying not to sound to hopeful in case this was all some sort of joke.
"I don't really have anything to do that can't wait", he lied, thinking about the homework he still had left, but he had reduced the pile enough for one day. Besides, he'd most likely be dragged out by the rest of the girls at some point anyway, and if allowed to choose between all of them as a group or one, and the least troublesome of the lot to boot, he knew which was the sane option.
Also…, he thought, feeling his smile mellow into something else as a lightly flushed Ayu continued to look up at him with the shy smile he had gotten used to seeing from her.
"And I never really thanked you for…before", he admitted gruffly, looking away as her eyes widened in understanding, one of her hands reaching out to him instinctively before she caught herself.
"I'll meet you here in about half an hour, is that ok?", he took it as an agreement when she didn't voice any objections and left her to her own devices.
"I…have a date…with sempai…", Ayu pinched herself, both wincing and smiling when it hurt.
"I have a date…", she whispered to herself, hugging his reply like a small child, her eyes closed with happiness, "Sempai…"
When she left, Kanna relaxed a little, slumping down on the table in the booth she had been sitting in, feeling a little dazed.
Ryu, and Ayu…were going out…together, on a date.
"Why do I care?", she asked herself as the first droplets of moisture fell onto the uncaring wooden surface.
No one answered.
Ayu was as happy as she could ever recall being. No, scratch that, she hadn't been a miserable child exactly, but she had never experienced anything quite like this.
After she had turned up wearing the best summer dress she could find, a white one piece that looked as if the top half were actually a second garment that was bunched into the dress by a thin ribbon that circled her narrow waist, and a wide brimmed sun hat, Ryu had taken her into town.
She had never been here before, and neither had he, so there was plenty to see and to do.
Being a town that relied heavily on tourism for profit, there were an number of hastily erected shops and stands owned and managed by various pioneering individuals hoping to make a living off those that came to admire and enjoy the beauty of their home.
Each new stall brought something different, and Ayu was content to wonder amongst the vendors, talking shop so to speak with those serving various foods.
The old woman who ran a rather desolate looking but well run soba stand had chuckled at all of Ayu's questions, catching Ryu's eye as he stood patiently behind her, a small smile gracing his thin lips as he watched the animated behaviour of this normally shy and reserved girl as she traded recipes and so on with the old woman.
At one point she had smiled benignly at the younger woman and told Ayu how it was so touching to see her so determined to do her best for her boyfriend, something becoming increasingly rare in young women these days by her reckoning.
That assumption had left Ayu a shuttering wreck for several minutes as she tried to explain that she and Ryu weren't an item while he developed an intense interest in a stall several stands away.
The old woman had shook her head laughing after they had walked away, wondering why young folks were so shy about their feelings.
It always seemed that by the time you got over that awkwardness you were too old to do anything about it, but at least you got to watch the next generation dancing around each other like fools.
She stopped her giggling when she noticed another young woman with dark hair streaked with lighter highlights using the edge of her stall to hide behind.
The old woman was about to shout at her when she noticed the line of her gaze.
It was aimed straight at the backs of the blue haired young girl and her handsome blond friend she had served moments earlier, her face screwing up as it ventured back and forth between angry and worry as the couple ate their meal and talked as they perused the other booths.
The old store owner raised one grey eyebrow as the young woman darted over to another stall a few meters away, her gaze never leaving the young couple.
A jilted lover, or jealous girlfriend?, the old woman mused with a shake of her head.
It was so sad, the youth of today were so complicated, and he had seemed like such a nice young man as well.
Her commentary unheeded by Kanna, the dark haired girl continued her silent pursuit, focusing solely on her target so she wouldn't have to think about why she was doing this, what was motivating her to follow them no matter how many times she told herself it was just a failsafe in case Ryu tried anything funny with Ayu.
If that were true, her mind reminded her, then you would have accepted Yui and Mizuki's help when they asked.
She almost lost sight of them for a moment, panicking but relaxing again when she managed to locate them before they turned down another street, bumping and apologising her way across the growing crowd in an attempt to keep up.
She followed them in secret for the rest of the day, as Ryu and Ayu wandered seemingly at random, stopping only when something caught one or other of their eye, or simply to rest for a moment before moving on.
They watched a small street play together, a performance about two lovers who snuck away from their friends so that they could be alone.
It had Kanna cracking her knuckles as Ryu and Ayu cast sidelong looks at each other during the play, noticing how close they were standing and scooting further apart as a few of the older members of the crowd smiled at them knowingly until Ryu gave them all an icy stare that convinced them to mind their own business.
As she trailed them through a small park, she noticed that Ryu was only listening, rarely interrupting Ayu as she spoke.
The fact that he had managed to relax her enough for her quiet friend to talk for such lengths or so eagerly was troubling for reasons she couldn't pinpoint, but no more so than the way her was giving the impression that he didn't mind what she said. Not in a sort of 'talk all you want I can't hear a thing' way, but as if he was genuinely interested by what she was saying.
He had done the same thing on their date she remembered, not catching that she had failed to correct herself as she began to wonder whether that meant he was just good a faking an interest, and whether that was a good or a bad thing at the moment.
She was glad when they decided to take another break, ducking behind an information kiosk in the park as they took seats on a comfy looking bench.
This far away, she couldn't make out what they were saying, but it didn't seem to be anything amazing or even romantic as far as she could tell, unless Ayu had suddenly become much better at hiding her responses.
She let herself sink to the ground, massaging aching feet when Ryu left for a moment, Ayu staying behind for some reason.
Whatever it was it gave her time to relax her vigil for a moment, and it was a moment her throbbing feet were loudly informing her she needed.
If she was right, they would probably be returning soon anyway, there wasn't much more they could really do in such a small town surely.
Her 'break was over quicker than she would have liked, Ryu returning moments later with two ice-cream cones in hand.
"Here", Ayu jumped when Ryu held the ice-cream out to her. She had been lost in her own little world, replaying this day over and over in her head to be sure she had it all committed to memory, so that even should she wake at this very moment, she would have something to cherish from her dream.
Ryu sat down next to her, instantly feeling better. It wasn't a particularly hot day, but after spending almost all day walking he was close to overheating.
Still, it had certainly been nice. No pressure, no worries, just a leisurely stroll with a cute girl.
Just like any normal teenager, he scoffed, fighting the urge to let his darker emotions and memory taint the day thus far. It was bad enough that he found himself wanting to look over his shoulder every five minutes to see if they were being followed, but paranoia is a hard habit to kick, especially when it has been so useful in the past.
He stretch a little, regarding his cone for a moment before taking an experimental lick.
The cool flavour was refreshingly welcome, and the irony of how those that truly knew him would react if they could see him now was not lost on him.
The cold indifferent bastard that was Ryuuya Kisame…eating ice-cream in the park with his date. It was so absurd it should have been novelised; they always say a little humour makes tragedy more poignant.
No, now was not the time to allow such thoughts in. There was nothing he could do about that right now, so far away from his only lead, and he had to face the fact that after all this time with failure after failure, he might never succeed at the task he had set himself.
Ryu frowned darkly.
In which case he would be forced to leave the Hinata Sou to continue the search elsewhere, and yet he found himself confronted with a question he could neither explain nor answer.
Was that really what he still wanted?
Power, the Sword…they had been his goals for so long, and yet they were still as far away as when he had first made his choice, while…other, things, new and uncertain possibilities, were so very close.
"Sempai?", his eyes drifted over to Ayu unconsciously, the smaller girl looking up at his vacant expression with concern, and something he couldn't identify.
He wasn't aware that he smiled as he registered the small blob of ice-cream that clung tenaciously to the tip of her nose, or that he was doing anything until his hand drifted into his vision as it reached up to wipe away the offending matter, lingering on her face for a moment, and then another even after its job was done.
"Sempai?", her voice was quieter now, her body trembling lightly under his hand, but something told him it was not fear.
What would it be like, he found himself thinking as seemingly random flashes of his life over the past few months ran their course through his mind.
Scenes that had had a surprising impact on him and how he thought about his own goals and those of others, things like the mishap in the basement with Chii's failed experiment and his words and actions following that.
Mostly though, he thought of two girls, one of which was sitting before him, a hand over her heart as her eyes drifted closed, her pursed lips crowing closer by the second.
What would it be like…to just be a normal teenager, just once…to let myself be…human…
Ayu's lips were warm and soft, softer than he could have expected.
It was inexplicably intoxicating, he felt like a man dying of thirst who had just stumbled upon an oasis, and for this reason he pulled back, taking care not to be too sudden, but needing to escape the confusion for a moment.
Ayu's eyes fluttered open, her cheeks coloured and her breathing coming in short, ragged gasps.
If she hadn't already made sure she wasn't dreaming, she would have had to check right now. Her date with Ryu, and it had ended with her first kiss.
She wondered what he was thinking about at this moment as he pulled away, looking like he was trying to compose himself.
What could be going through his mind?
"Kanna…", Ayu blinked, of all the things she might have expected him to say, why would he mention Kanna at a time like this.
She turned to follow his eyes as he looked at something over her shoulder.
Kanna-chan!, she cringed inside at the stricken look her friend gave her, unable to even think about why Kanna was there in the first place, too lost in the guilt of what Kanna had just seen.
Kanna didn't say a word to either of them, just turned and fled in the opposite direction, her feel beating a hollow retreat, but not before Ryu could see the tears streaming unchecked down her face.
"Kanna…", Ayu whispered.
Ryu was on his feet before she noticed he'd moved, running in the direction Kanna had taken off in without even a quick word in her direction.
Soon he too had faded from sight.
"Sempai…", Ayu felt numb, all the joy she had felt the moment he kissed her gone in an instant.
As Ayu made her way back to the hotel, anyone looking closely enough within the shadows of her hat, might have noticed a broke hearted girl's solitary tear…
Kanna wasn't the star runner on her track team for no reason, and Ryu was finding that out the hard way.
He wasn't in bad shape by anyone's definition, and he was amongst the top players when it came to athletics, but he was till having a hard time keeping up with her.
Now that most of the tourists would be back in their hotels or indoors at bars or restaurants, the stalls were closed, and the previously pleasantly busy streets now seemed bare in the growing twilight.
"Damn it Kanna, would you stop already!", he found himself shouting at her back as she ploughed on.
"Get lost Jerk!", she shouted back without stopping, "Go bother someone else, just leave me alone!"
Her legs burned, she hadn't been running properly so she was more tired than she should have been, otherwise Ryu would have never kept up for this long.
She couldn't stop though. It was bad enough that she had been unable to stop the waterworks when she had seen him kiss Ayu, but if he actually saw her crying because of him…
She stumbled but managed to keep going, however her mistake allowed Ryu to gain ground on her.
"Leave me alone Ryu!"
"Since when have I taken orders from you!", he fired back, noticing how hard breathing was becoming.
Kanna cursed when she felt a twinge of a smile cross her face, ducking her head and willing herself to run faster.
She cried out as she connected with something sturdy, the rebound setting her back solidly on her backside.
"Owwwww!", she moaned, rubbing her head, "Hey! Watch where you're going you…".
She trailed off as she caught sight of just who she had run into.
The boy sitting across from her wasn't anything impressive. Small and greasy, with slicked black hair and tiny wire rim glasses, he would never reach the title noteworthy even if he tried.
However, that didn't stop Kanna feeling the stirrings of fear.
The boy she had just run into was one of those types who surrounds himself with lackeys, thugs with little brains but a great deal of strength and a complete lack of morals, easily taken in by the smooth talk of men such as this.
Toshima Takahashi came from an old family from the Chiba prefecture and had been sent her highschool in hopes that living and interacting in a calmer environment would temper his ambitions, but all it had done was expose a number of unexpecting individuals to his manipulative nature.
The fact of the matter was that Toshima was the head of the largest gang in the Hinata area, a dangerous man to draw the attention of, and she had just run him down and shouted at him.
Perhaps she could have gotten away with it, seen as this was not his 'territory', and he would be unlikely to be looking for familiar faces, however, there were three rather large, and angry looking witnesses.
"You ok boss?", one of them asked, Toshima adjusting his glasses and making an irritated noise as they helped him up and made a show of brushing the dirt off his trousers and plain white shirt.
"Of course I'm not", he snapped at them, shrugging off their attentions and checking himself over before levelling a cold look at Kanna as she attempted to back away unnoticed.
"Going somewhere?", he asked in a chilling tone, freezing her on the spot and forcing her to look at him.
"Found you, I…", Ryu let his gaze travel slowly over Kanna's new friends as he finally caught up, stepping over to her side and glancing at her questioningly before looking back at the others.
As mad and confused as she felt around Ryu at the moment, she was relieved.
"This young woman was just about to apologise to me for so rudely knocking me down", Toshima drawled, giving Ryu a once over with his eyes, glancing away when he met Ryu's icy gaze but forcing himself to meet it again.
"Kanna?", he yelped when she stamped on his foot, glaring at her but she ignored him and plastered on a smile.
She had done that for two reasons; firstly because she was insulted that he had sounded so disbelieving when it was suggested she was going to apologise to someone, and secondly because Toshima Takahashi was not someone she wanted to remember anything about her when they parted company, and giving him her name wasn't conductive to that.
Toshima frowned as if trying to place something for a moment before dismissing it as irrelevant.
"Yes, well, I'm really, really sorry", Kanna said, her face aching from holding her unnatural smile, "So we'll just get out of your way now…"
"One moment more if you'll indulge me", Toshima answered as she turned to go, tugging at Ryu's arm to indicate he needed to follow her.
"Perhaps there is something else…", he smiled in a way that made her want to vomit, it was a look all women instinctively fear on some level, "A small kiss, as a token of your sincerity".
Oh, why me? Ok, I need to find a tactful way out of this…, she wracked her brains for a plan trying to ignore the looks passing between Toshima's 'associates'.
"I think not", Ryu's voice held the same warm as the artic winds as he took a halfstep toward Kanna, taking her arm and pulling her back a little, "She's already apologised, so we're leaving".
Toshima shook his head as he watched them begin to walk away, Kanna's back glances showing that she at least understood.
Something about her had caught his eye, and not just her looks, though those certainly were a bonus, and her name tickled his memory.
Besides, surely this blond haired punk didn't think he would just be allowed to disrespect him and walk away.
"Hiro, Takashi, Aiji", he spoke his three enforcers names and they moved without further prompting, the centre one moving to place a restraining hand on Ryu's shoulder as he adjusted his slipping sunglasses.
He never made contact.
Even as Kanna spotted the movement and made to call out, Ryu halted, lurching back into the personal space of his opponent, his elbow lancing out and striking his solar plexus with inhuman precision.
His companions could only watch as their friend coughed out the contents of his lungs and crumpled without another word.
Ryu looked back over his shoulder slowly as the first thug hit the dirty, the little warm that shone through in his eyes completely absent.
"I said we're leaving", his voice made even Toshima pause, and his goons stopped, looking back at their boss uncertainly.
Toshima fired back a cocky smirk when he recovered. His interest was truly piqued now. The beauty had an impressive guardian, which would make taking her all the more satisfying. This had just gone beyond a simple apology.
Kanna was similarly shocked, but not for the reasons you might have thought. Hers was not a paralysis born of fear, though she was scared, but rather, one of impossible recognition.
The way Ryu had moved, she had seen that done before, but only by her aunt.
Where did he learn to do that?, she wondered as the other two began to move again, sticking with the simple tactics and placing themselves to either side of him as Ryu continued to eye them back, his face unreadable.
Ryu was worried. He had been advised by his instructors time and again to avoid combat, especially in any circumstances he had an emotional tie or vulnerability to.
He thought of Kanna and swallowed a reflexive burst of concern.
He couldn't afford to get worked up, that would be disastrous for everyone involved, Kanna included.
He saw an image of a little boy, his small robes covered in blood, a pair of glowing red eyes watching him from the darkness as he wept.
Not the time, he told himself sternly, focus on your goal, everything else comes last.
"You're quite impressive", Toshima commented as Ryu blocked a series of very poor but powerful blows from both opponents, keeping his movements short and precise, forcing them into each others path as often as possible and not wasting energy striking back before he could end this with a single blow.
Toshima spared another look for Kanna. Even more intriguing than her appearance was her reaction to this little scuffle. She didn't seem to be playing the part of the quaking girlfriend,. It was more like she too was evaluating Ryu's skills, but there was more than observation, she seemed to be doing an active analysis.
How utterly sublime, he thought, snapping his fingers when he finally placed where he knew her from and smiling at the irony.
To think there had been someone like this right under his nose the whole time. True he rarely involved himself with the school itself as anything more than a recruiting ground, but still.
"He fights well", he spoke as if they were making light conversation over tea rather than observing a street brawl he had started, "I have to wonder where you found him Urashima-san".
Kanna's attention was drawn back to the fight before it had even left as one of the grunts managed to clip Ryu's jaw in a moment of inattention, the distraction proving enough for the second to land a heavy blow to his gut, forcing him off his feet and crashing into the floor after a moment of flight.
"Ryu!", Kanna looked down as something small struck her face struck her face, catching it before it struck the ground.
"What in the world?", she asked, unable to understand what it was she was seeing, or rather, she knew what it was, but she couldn't understand where it could have come from.
The two thugs, apparently convinced Ryu was sufficiently humbled to allow some gloating time as he regained his knees.
They frowned when he ignored them, his eyes seeking Kanna out instead.
Kanna felt her breath freeze in her throat. The look in Ryu's eyes was something she had never seen before, it bordered on malicious with a touch of dark humour, but that wasn't any stranger than the fact that one of his eyes was no longer blue…
Clearly angered by his actions, Takashi and Aiji looked to their boss, their desire to correct his 'mistake' clear in their eyes and posture.
Toshima looked at Kanna, frowning when she didn't return his gaze.
He smiled minutely and nodded, "Finish it".
Chuckling at each other, Takashi and Aiji advanced, cracking their knuckles in anticipation as Ryu and Kanna slowly turned toward the sound of approaching footsteps.
The residents waited for the two men to attack.
Without a word, Takashi, Aiji and Toshima toppled like puppets with their strings cut, leaving Ryu and Kanna to hold their breath as all three men hit the ground and went still.
Still hardly daring to believe what had happened Kanna walked past where Ryu was crouched, kicking Toshima with the tip of one foot, and turning her perplexed frown on Ryu when the small man didn't show any signs of waking.
Ryu didn't return her look; he seemed to be scanning the rooftops as if he expected the answer to fall from the sky at his feet.
"Hey, earth to moron", she said, hoping whatever had come over him a few moments ago was gone, and hoping it wasn't linked to whatever had made three grown men pass out cold at a glance, "Are you ok?"
He didn't answer, keeping his back turned to her as the silence stretched between them, "…Yeah, I'm fine…same as always".
Walking over to where the first thug lay, he plucked his sunglasses up from where they had fallen, donning them before looking back over his shoulder to face.
"The others are probably worried, lets go", he began walking, pausing for her to catch up.
Kanna walked alongside him, casting the occasional glance back at the fallen forms of the group that had attacked them.
"They'll be fine", Ryu said, seeming to guess what she was going to ask without her actually doing so.
The dark haired girl nodded slowly.
What did I just see, she thought as she tried to watch both Ryu and her path at the same time.
They reached the hotel without another word, Ryu parting from her without even a word of farewell.
"Ryu", she hesitate, unsure what to say, finally settling on the only thing that came to mind, "Thank you… for coming after me…I…I think you'll need to talk to Ayu though…"
"…I'll see to it…is there anything else?"
Kanna felt her eyes watering for the second time that day. He had just saved her from an attack, leaving his…girlfriend, behind to do so. Why was he being so cold all of a sudden?
"Goodnight Ryu", she whispered, waiting for a reply and receiving none before leaving him alone in the lobby.
"Goodnight", he echoed to the empty entrance hall, checking the sunglasses as he made his way toward his room, "Urashima…".
---Author Notes---
Yeah, one secret revealed, others hinted at/developed, everyone confused as to who is whose parents yet? Super.
Poor little Ayu-chan though, will things ever go right for our little blue haired girl? Find out in Chapter Ten: River Below: Ryu confronts Kanna as Ayu tries to come to terms with what happened, and Ryu calls out his 'Guardian Angel' for a chat. Nothing will ever be the same again, this is the beginning of the end in Love Hina: Children of Ice and Fire…
Till next time, Betweenheavenandhell