!-Chapter Three-! A different kind of day
Lily caught her white blade in her hand while the others put theirs into their pockets. Wrapping their bent boxes nearly in cloth they walked out of the courtyard. The teacher that had been watching the blocked the doorway.
"You four, stop." Lily sopped telling Kai and Mark that it would be in their best interests to learn teamwork as they looked up at him as a group, with the same annoyed "what?" expression.
"You are seniors. You should realize that sports like that are forbidden on school grounds."
"It didn't say we couldn't blade in the courtyards, per say, just the building itself." Lily retorted smartly, perhaps too much so.
"Well you can't," the teacher snapped at them, "If you ever pull them out again so much as a fraction of an inch they will be confiscated until year end and you'll get a detention."
"Yes, sir." The four said in unison. The teacher left so that they could go back to class on time. A minute later Tyson, Hillary, Max, and Daisy ran past the courtyard. Hillary was yelling at Tyson for making them most likely late for sixth period.
"Drats, I guess they left already." Tyson though, chagrined, now he couldn't stop his deserved verbal tounge-lashing short. Although it was getting a little long for the offense. They happened to run in just as the bell rung for class to begin. With a sigh of relief Tyson took his seat. Hillary sat next to him, irked at the world champion, Daisy sat unaffected behind him, and Max sat far away silently. The American blonde looked distraught about something.
During the middle of the period, the front doors to the school opened. In walked three people, two guys and one girl. The girl's blue hair, kept in a long thin high ponytail, trailed behind her, waving from side to side as she walked. A teacher in front of them escorted them to the main office. A few minutes later, the three walked out of the office. The youngest boy, one with green hair, ran down to a freshman homeroom. The girl walked passively down to the junior wing, the second homeroom. The remaining boy walked down to the third senior homeroom.
He walked in, handed the teacher in charge the pass he had been given a took the only empty seat next to Rei, "Hi. How are the bit beasts?"
"They're fine. Is the rest of your team here as well?"
"Yes they are, except for Dunga, he's too old."
"Boys!" the teacher shouted, "I understand that you can't wait to talk, but either go outside or wait until the end of class." A few students laughed, much to Rei and Ozuma's chagrin.
By the time sunset came, most of the students were more then ready for the end of the day. All the separate teams met just outside of the front gates to regroup. Kai inwardly groaned as he opened his eyes from his position leaning against the fence to spot Tyson coming up, "Couldn't he have to stay after?"
Max, uncharacteristically, sighed rather gloomily and looked around. The he brightened when his light blue eyes spotted the girl that had come in late, standing next to her was the young boy with green hair, "Mariam! Joseph! Its great to see you two!" He ran over to talk with them.
"That's more cheerful then he's been lately. I don't understand."
"You don't? Here's a hint, he was saying Joseph to be polite; he really meant Mariam."
"Oh, I get it not." There was a sly tone to Tyson's voice, somehow making Molly regret explain Max's state of mind to Tyson.
Kai looked up as the White Tigers came out of the building with Rei and Ozuma coming along after.
"What took you so long?" A younger boy with brown hair that blocked his eyes asked Rei.
"A teacher wanted to talk to us, Chief." Rei said, shrugging.
"In trouble on the first day? That's pretty bad, Rei." Said the boy that had joked with him earlier.
"I wasn't in trouble, Lee."
"I know, I was just playing around. Can't you take a joke?"
"Of course."
"Hey let's get going." Daisy said, noticing that Lily was slowly and deliberately leaving along with Lea. The both had grown bored with the inconsequential conversation.
"Yeah, I'm starving" Tyson nodded, agreeing with the notion.
"Tyson, you'd be starving even if you had just eaten out a buffet," Max had finally re joined the group along with Mariam and her brother.
Tyson was about to retaliate against Max's comment, however, a kid wearing a black school uniform ran up to the group and over to Lily, effectively cutting him off short, "Are you Lily Hirotome?"
"Hm?" She looked over at him questioningly, "What about it?"
"I was asked to give this to you." He held out a slip of folded paper. She took it from him.
"Thanks." The boy left as soon as his job was completed however, and didn't hear the statement. Lily shrugged it off and held the paper between the tips of her index and middle fingers. She twisted her wrist several times before shrugging and pocketing it. "Hey, I have to pick up my little brother. I'll see you all tomorrow."
Later that evening Lily lie back in her bed. She picked up a piece of folded paper from the desk next to her bed. She stared blankly at it for a moment, turned down her lamp's light and opened it. Scrawled neatly on the lone leaf of white in the black ink of a fountain pen were two lines.
Higara Park.
12:00 P.M. April 19, 2001
Lily checked her clock for the date, it read We-18-01, tomorrow was a school day. She groaned inwardly. She slumped downward, this didn't bode well. She didn't want to play hooky on her second day of school. She looked the paper over, flipping it several times, looking for a hidden message.
Kai pressed his 'blade onto his launcher. He shook slate bangs out of his silver eyes. He clenched his teeth and launched the metallic blue top. The 'blade whirred with the sound of a bench saw, landed on the ground with a small clattering sound as the parts settled to spin about on solid ground. Kai locked his gray oculars on a series of empty soda cans he had set up. They were heavily dented and cut through in several places. His Dranzer Gigs spun in tight circles for a few moments before spinning in one spot for a split second and spun at the cans. Each can was knocked over or sent flying. Kai was about to knock down the last can when something else did. His eyes darted about the area, sliding over the stone walls surrounding the dojo. There had been a breeze. Dranzer spun in lazy circles without a command.
"Who's there?" His only response was the night's still air.
He held up his hand, clad in a fingerless glove, to catch his top as he walked towards the mysteriously downed can. A metal square was stuck in the tin cylinder. When he was a foot away, the square beeped. Kai jumped backwards, away from it, as the beeping mechanism exploded. Kai landed on his back, being caught the edge of the bright ball of fire.
"Damn." He stood up, "Who did that?" He looked around the quite empty area angrily.
"Kai, come to the beach at 1:30 in the afternoon tomorrow." Kai narrowed his eyes into a hate filled expression in the direction of the voice. He was about to leap up and follow when several voices called out as people emptied out of the dojo. He stalled, a moment to late to take any action.
"Kai! What happened?"
"You all right, dawg?"
"What was that explosion?"
"What were you doing, Kai?"
Kai pocketed his top and looked over at his bleary-eyed pajama wearing teammates. Doubtlessly, the explosive in a can had woken them up.
He closed his eyes and walked coldly past them, "Its none of your concern."
Kai didn't know what this person had against him, but several people in Aru seemed to have a grudge against the BladeBreaker. There was a slight chance, more then slight, that it was one of his fellow students.
He toyed with the thought, then promptly tossed it out. None of his peers should have known where he was staying, that he was up, or have access to explosives. A moment later he reconsidered the idea, then put it down once more. What was more likely was that this was an alert to yet another dangerous adventure that would start by someone wanting to challenge the BladeBreakers.
He turned under the sheets of the make-shift bed in a spare training room. Thankfully, Tyson slept in his own room, saving everyone from his snores, and Kai slept by himself, so it was quiet. So when he fell asleep ten minutes later, he should have stayed asleep. Unfortunately, life didn't favor the oldest member of the BladeBreakers.
A well aimed rock snuck through a narrow opening high in one of the walls that protected the room for the outdoors. It clattered by his head, narrowly missing him. Red eyes snapped open and narrow at the rock. Quickly tuning into the outside, he heard someone moving around. Would he be given some measurement of peace already? He silently got up and went outside. Moving around as quietly as humanly possible, he moved to where the noise had come from.
There was what he was looking for. He caught movement in the shadows. The person that had nearly hit him with the rock. He quickly darted towards the assailant. The person was completely caught off guard. The rock thrower was quickly pinned to the ground.
"Hey, Kai. Nice to see you too."
Kai grumbled, and let the person up, and crossed his arms in vague irritation. It was only Lily. She stood up. "What are you doing here?" His voice was a harsh whisper.
"Simple, I couldn't sleep."
Kai stared, incredulous, "So you decided to wake me up."
"Not really. I was wondering why there was smoke coming from over here."
"And you couldn't wait until morning."
"It's a little late for a bonfire. Besides, those are illegal."
Kai knew she wanted him to tell her what had happened, but he decided to answer her with silence.
"What happened." More of a demand then a question.
"Explosion." He said it simply.
"Oh great." She rolled her eyes, making an exaggerated motion, "You were experimenting with explosives, or was that some new move?" More silence, she crossed her arms as well, "Some random crazed person?" A nod.
!-Author's Note-!
Yes, holy crap, Kai cursed. I just don't feel that with so many teenagers in this story that at least a few of them wouldn't curse. And Kai seems the most likely to swear every once in a while. Won't get too bad tho'...
Digi
