I Turn To You: Chapter 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis
Author's Notes: Here's the second chapter. Thanks so much for the reviews, it really encourages me to continue this fanfic. This chapter is just interaction between Kari, Kaidoh, and the regulars. Kari is trying to make herself comfortable back in Japan. I changed my female OC's name from Mina to Kari, I changed it because it seemed to be a better name.
Once again, the song in the beginning of the fanfic is "I Turn To You" by Christina Aguilera.
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When I'm scared, losing ground
When my world is going crazy
You can turn it all around, yes
The regulars just watched Kaidoh walk away with the mysterious girl at the gate. They watched him walk away hand in hand with the mysterious girl at the gate. They watched him walk away holding her hand. They were all shocked, confused and quite honestly stupefied. Fuji had his contemplative smile on masking his smirk. Tezuka stood stoically ignoring the fact that his entire team was just spying on Kaidoh. Momo's jaw was still dropped and if you were close enough, you could see drool slowly making its way out of his mouth. Eiji was strangely quiet, very quiet. Oishi was poking Eiji to see if he's still conscious. Inui's eye glasses were gleaming as the sun went down. He never looked up from his notebook. He was still jotting down notes like crazy.
Inui thought to himself, "This is the biggest development I have ever seen in terms of Kaidoh's personal life. It is quite important to write all of this data down and further research this mysterious girl. In the mean time, I should write down everyone's reactions as well… good data, good data."
Momo seemed to have regain his ability to talk, with a nervous laugh, "Uh… ehehehe, what just happened here? Did I really see what I saw? Sempaiii?"
"It seems that our Kaidoh has a mysterious girl in his life, how very interesting." Fuji responded to Momo, with his smile getting a bit wider.
"Ne, ne, why didn't Kaidoh tell us he had such a cute girl?" said Eiji.
"I'm sure he has reasons Eiji, but he did look surprised… I guess she wasn't in trouble, which is a good thing." Oishi tried to calm Eiji down.
"I say we follow them." Inui said out of the blue.
"Inui." Tezuka said clearly as a threat.
"I think that would be fun. We should follow Kaidoh just to see if there's noting wrong. Don't you think so Tezuka?" Fuji responded unfazed by Tezuka's threat.
"Hoi! Hoi! It's unanimous, well, almost! Let's go follow Kaidoh!" said Eiji quite energetically.
"Let's not get too close, we don't want them to know that we're following them on their date," directed Inui.
"Date? How do we know it's a date?" spilled Momo.
"Of course it's a date! What else would it be?" questioned Eiji.
"I still don't know about following Kaidoh. It seems wrong. What if we get caught? What happens if Kaidoh can't trust anymore? What if we scare away his girlfriend?" said Oishi clearly worried.
"We'll just follow for a little bit" said Fuji. He started to walk ahead and looked back to see the rest of the regulars following, even Tezuka. He figured Tezuka was following along so that no one would cause so much trouble for Kaidoh and his companion.
They began to follow, all together, trying not to be noticed. Kaidoh wasn't that dumb. He could hear people shuffling behind him. Six people to be exact. He could hear six people trying to hide the fact that they were following him.
"Sempai-taichi" he muttered to himself as he continued to walk with Kari.
Kari turned around only to see Kaidoh looking cross-eyed. "Ehh? Is something wrong Kaoru-chan?"
"No, just keep walking, and hurry."
"Um, okay. If you say so." Kari started to skip towards home.
"Good data, this is very good personal data on Kaidoh" said Inui secretly as he begun to write furiously again.
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"Ne, Kari? Why didn't you tell me you were coming back?"
"It wouldn't have been a surprise then, Kaoru-chan."
"Kaoru-chan?"
"Of course I'm still going to call you Kaoru-chan! You liked it when I called you that when we were younger."
"Well, we were five then Kari."
"So? It doesn't matter."
"You don't call Hazue, Hazue-chan."
"Because he's not Kaoru."
"Your reasoning is still lost on me Kari. How long are you staying?"
"What do you mean?"
"You know, when are you going back to Bartley."
"Hm… never."
"Never?"
"Well, not never. But for now, I'm staying Kaoru-chan. I'm gonna enroll in your school and stay at home."
"What about tennis?"
"Tennis? Hm, well, tennis can wait."
"You still play, don't you?"
"Yes and no."
"Kari?"
Kari didn't answer right away. She wanted to avoid the topic "Kari and tennis" as much as possible. She couldn't be anymore relieved when they finally arrived home.
"Yay! We're home!" Kari dropped Kaidoh's hand and ran for the door. "We're home!"
"Kari? What about tennis?" Kaidoh thought to himself. It's weird that she didn't even answer him. She went to America to play tennis, and now she comes back and doesn't even want to talk about it? sigh She's still weird and complicated as ever. I'll just ignore it for now and be happy that she's home.
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They went into the house. They went into the house together. What does this mean? That's what all the regulars who were following were thinking. They couldn't think of a good reason why Kaidoh and a girl would go into his house together. They must be saying hi to Kaidoh's family before going out. They must be putting his tennis stuff away. All of the regulars couldn't fathom the thought that Kaidoh would bring a girl home.
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Dinner felt like a grand affair. Laughing, crying and hugging. There were now five people around the round dinner table. They all looked picture perfect. A mother's dream. Kaidoh-san felt like she had her whole family back. Her little daughter has come back home and made the family whole and complete again. Two years was too long. She didn't know how long Kari would actually stay. Kari never liked to be in one place too long. But for now, they can be a complete family. They all had two years to catch up on. It wasn't going to be easy, but as a family, they can do it together.
Kari had grown up so much. She hate the fact that she was gone so long. She wanted to see her grow up and become the wonderful person she was now. Kaidoh-san wanted to see her daughter love, laugh, live and win in life. Not only win in tennis, but win in life. She wanted her to be happy. She felt relieved that Kari felt happy here back in Japan, here back in Tokyo where she really belongs.
"Kari?
"Yes mama?
"You have your placement exam tomorrow afternoon at Seigaku."
"Tomorrow? Already?"
"Yes, I didn't want you to get behind on your studies you know. I hope Bartley sent your transcript and everything."
"I'm sure they did. Don't worry mama. Ne, Kaoru-chan? I'm going to take an entrance exam for Seigaku. Isn't that fun?"
"No." Kaidoh said dejectedly.
"Ahahaha, aren't you excited? We could be in the same class!"
"I'm sure that'll be interesting."
"Kaoru-chaaan! Do you have tennis practice tomorrow afternoon again? I can wait for you after my exam is done."
Kaidoh lowered his spoon and was staring out into space. He was thinking about the team and what they would think if they saw Kari with him again. He didn't even want to know what they were thinking after practice today. The thought of Kari waiting by the tennis courts was a bit unnerving. He didn't really want to answer all of the rest of the regular's questions. Kari was always one to cause trouble and attract attention. The thought of any of the regulars being more than friendly with Kari was a bit annoying. He knew Momo and his large obnoxious head. No, he didn't want Kari anywhere near him at all.
"Kaoru-chan? Are you listening to me? I'll be waiting for you at the tennis courts tomorrow, okay?"
"Ahhh, Kari," said Kaidoh who sounded a bit nervous.
"Great! Tomorrow then I'll wait for you," said Kari cheerfully who totally ignored Kaidoh's nervousness.
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"Bye Kaoru-chan! I'll see you after practice. Wish me luck on my entrance exam!"
"Uh. Yeah. Good luck Kari. See you later."
Kaidoh decided to leave unceremoniously early for school. He figured he'd head to school early and try to hide from all the annoying questions sure to come from his teammates. He'd deal with meeting up with Kari after practice later. He just wanted to get through the day without completely going insane. Kaidoh stepped beyond the gate looking particularly relieved to see no one he recognized from the team.
Out of the blue, Kaidoh heard a familiar voice. "Good morning Kaidoh."
"Sempai? What are you doing here, I mean doing here so early?"
"100 that Kaidoh would come to school early in order to try to avoid questions about yesterday and his female friend."
"Sempai."
"Also, 100 that Kaidoh would not expect that any of his sempai would be here so early as well. Isn't that right Kaidoh?"
All of sudden, Kaidoh saw a red head come running their way yelling and waving his arms wildly, "OHAYOOO!"
"Ahh, Kikumaru. Good to see you got my message to come to school early," said Inui expectedly.
"Of course, of course. So, where is she?"
"Later Kikumaru. We still should get the story from Kaidoh here."
"Ah! I'm glad I'm not late for the meeting," Fuji-sempai just came out of the blue.
Kaidoh looked around him and saw that Taka-sempai, Oishi-sempai and Tezuka-sempai were right behind him. He felt cornered. He shouldn't have underestimated his sempai. He knew they were going to catch him sometime. He just thought he'd be prepared for this, instead of this ambush.
"Oy! Mamushi!" yelled Momo being followed by Echizen.
"Oh good, everyone's finally here. Now Kaidoh…" started Inui.
"Fshhh. Inui-sempai. School will start soon, I'm going." After that Kaidoh made his way, quite quickly which Inui recorded down toward the school's doors.
"Hm… well, that didn't go exactly as you planned, ne Inui" said Fuji.
"No, but there's always practice."
"You don't give up do you?"
"Not when there's good data to observe and record."
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Kaidoh wished that school would never end. He saw Kari pass in the halls and she waved and mouthed, "Hi Kaoru-chan!" Luckily, Momo didn't see her pass by in the hallway since she was quickly ushered away by one of the school's secretaries to take her entrance exam in a separate room.
Unfortunately, the day went unceremoniously fast and it was already time to warm up for tennis practice. Where all the regulars were going to be and where Kaidoh couldn't run from them and their questions.
"Are you even sure that Kaidoh will show up today? I mean, we followed him last night and cornered him this morning. What if he feels pressured to talk about the mysterious girl. I don't want him to feel uncomfortable around us. Will this be okay?" Oishi asked sounding very concerned.
"100 that Kaidoh will show up today. You know that he would never miss a practice unless he's dead. He will show up. We just need another subtle way to get information out of him."
"We could follow him!" interjected Eiji.
"Eiji! I don't think following him would be a nice thing to do, even though we already followed him home" said Oishi.
"It only gave more questions than answers. The direct approach is better, 52 better than trailing him home again" said Inui.
"What do you think Tezuka?" asked Fuji.
"Run 10 laps now, everyone" said Tezuka showing no emotion.
Kaidoh came to practice to already see everyone except himself, Taka-sempai and Echizen running. He was perplexed and quite confused.
Quite surprisingly practice was quiet. No one mentioned Kari or anything. Kaidoh was getting a bit worried, worried that they would corner him again when he was trying to change back into his school uniform or something.
He thought he was almost saved, practice was coming to end. Tezuka looked ready to end practice for the day, and then Kari showed up at the tennis courts. Of course, being Kari, was attracting a lot of attention.
"Do you see that girl? She's pretty cute!" said one junior. Kaidoh felt like serving a tennis ball at his head.
"She is cute! Do you think she'd go on a date with me?" said another tennis club member.
"No." thought Kaidoh. Run Kari, just leave Kari. Wait somewhere else until practice is over.
Not only the juniors and freshman were paying attention to Kari but the regulars finally caught her eye. She was now smiling and waving to them.
"Kari? What are you doing?" thought Kaidoh.
Instead of changing, Kaidoh would just walk away with Kari. He'd come back later with his clothes. Just as he was planning his extremely complicated getaway, he heard her yell, "Kaoru-chan!" He looked over at her and she started to wave frantically to try to get his attention. Oh yes, she got his attention. She got the whole tennis club's attention on him.
All of sudden the whole tennis club's attention went from Kari directly to Kaidoh.
"Kaoru-chan? Did you hear that? Kaidoh knows her. Seems like they're pretty informal with each other" whispered one member.
"Kaoru-chan? Wow! That's so cute!" Kaidoh heard Eiji yell over to Oishi. "Ne Oishi, can I call you Oishiii-chan? Wouldn't that be cute?"
"Eiji! I don't think you need to call me Oishiii-chan."
"But Oishii! It's so cute. Kaidoh doesn't mind being called Kaoru-chan. Ne, how about it Oishii-chan?"
"Eiji" said Oishi clearly defeated.
Out of the corner of Kaidoh's eyes he can see Inui and Fuji walk towards Kari. Kari could see them coming towards them. She smiled sweetly and gave them a small wave. It seems they were on the same tennis team as Kaidoh. They could be some of his friends. She was quite happy to finally meet some of Kaidoh's friends.
"Hi! I'm Kari." Kari said sweetly. They looked completely nice. One of them was extremely beautiful. He could have passed as a guy if he wanted to. He had amazing piercing blue eyes, pale skin and light auburn hair. He was very beautiful. The other one was amazingly tall. He very imposing eye glasses that covered most of his face. You couldn't see his eyes, which was a shame. He had dark spiky hair and was carrying around a green notebook and pen.
"Hello. I'm Fuji Syusuke and this is Inui Saddaharu."
"Oh hello! I'm Kaidoh Kari. Nice to meet you." Kari him a little bow.
The very tall guy started to jot down in his notebook. "Kaidoh Kari?" he said never looking up.
"Ah, hai! My names Kaidoh Kari. But please, feel free to call me Kari."
"Does that mean you're related to Kaidoh?" Inui asked again.
"You mean Kaoru-chan? Of course I'm related to him. I'm his sister."
"Sister?" they both asked in unison.
"Hai, his twin sister."
"Twin?" asked Inui.
"Hai! We're not identical twins but we are fraternal twins."
Inui looked up and stopped writing in his notebook. He looked up and finally saw Kaidoh Kari up close. They weren't identical in the least. But she looked like the same age as Kaidoh. They did look similar, but she had softer face and bigger eyes. She was truly pretty and gave off a sweet aura unlike his teammate who often gave off a scary aura.
Meanwhile, Ryoma and Eiji were finally done with their little match.
"Ah! Ochibi-you're too good! I'll beat you sometime and you'll never expect it, ahaha."
"Mada mada dane."
"Ohohoho ochibi! Let's go see what Fuji and Inui are up to! I want to meet the cute girl too!"
"No."
"Oh come on ochibi! It'll be fun!"
They started to walk over to Inui, Fuji and Kari. Eiji was practically running towards them leaving Ryoma behind.
"Hoi hoi! I'm Kikumaru Eiji! Nice to meet you!"
"Ah! I'm Kaidoh Kari! Nice to meet you too!" Kari gave Eiji a little bow and nice smile.
"Kaidoh? Kaidoh Kari? You mean you're not Kaidoh's girlfriend?" questioned Eiji.
"Ehhh? Girlfriend? Ahaha, not in a million years! I'm Kaoru-chan's sister."
"Twin sister to be exact" said Inui.
Ryoma finally caught up with the group. Kari was conversing with Inui and Fuji and Kikumaru where talking amongst themselves. He couldn't believe his eyes. It was Kari! His old team captain at the Bartley summer camp before the Junior US Nationals.
"Boucho?" Ryoma said outloud even though he didn't mean to. Unfortuantely, Eiji-sempai and Fuji-sempai heard him.
"Boucho? I don't see Tezuka here anywhere Ochibi. This is Kaidoh Kari, Kaidoh's twin sister! Can you believe that?"
"No, Kikumaru-sempai, I was calling Kari boucho."
"Hm…., why Echizen?" asked Fuji. "Do you know her?"
"KON-I-CHI-WA Ryoma-kun! I didn't know that you were in the same school as Kaoru-chan" Kari said out of the blue. Apparently Kari and Inui saw Ryoma approach and of course she couldn't ignore her little prodigy.
"Ehhh? You know Ochibi? And Ochibi, you know Kari?" Eiji yelled.
"Of course I know Ryoma-kun! You see, when he was in America, he went to my old school, Bartley for their summer training camps. The Bartley summer tennis session was mostly a gathering for those who qualified for the Junior Nationals. It's pretty intense. It's like an invitational for the Nationals. I was one of the girl captain for the teams. In Bartley, there are two captains, one boy and one girl for both teams. We both are captains for the two teams at Bartley. I mostly work with the girl's team, but I also work with the boy's team, and Ryoma-kun was on the boy's team for three summers in a row."
"Wow" said Eiji, apparently speechless.
"Interesting" said Fuji, who was quite intrigued by the story and of course Inui was scribbling furiously in his notebook.
"Kari-boucho, you didn't have to tell the our whole history together" said Ryoma.
"You're so silly Ryoma! It doesn't hurt for them to know more about you like you absolutely love shrimp rice crackers and the jasmine---"
"Boucho!" interrupted Ryoma.
"Okay, okay, maybe they don't need to know that" giggled Kari.
"Hmph"
"Ne, Ryoma-kun?"
"Hm… boucho?"
"Five laps."
"Hmm?"
"Five laps, you know the drill."
"Usual bets then?"
"Mhmm, I'll buy you a grape Ponta if you beat me, you buy me a Raspberry Ice Tea if I win and of course I'll win."
"Mada mada---""
Before he could finish saying "dane" Kari lept ahead and started to run around the court. She looked back and yelled, "You'll never win if you're just standing there Ryoma-kun!"
"Hm?" Ryoma started to run as well, and he was catching up to Kari.
While they were running, Tezuka, Momo, Oishi, Taka-san, and Kaidoh approached Fuji, Eiji and Inui. Apparently practice was finally over but Tezuka was a bit annoyed that hald his teammates didn't finish out the practice.
"What's going on here?" asked Tezuka.
"We're just watching our little Echizen race with his former boucho, Kaidoh Kari, Kaidoh's sister," replied Fuji.
"SISTER?" yelled Momo.
"Twin sister," Inui said correcting Momo.
"Why didn't you tell us Kaidoh?" asked Oishi.
"Fssshhhh" was Kaidoh's only reply.
"We thought she was your girlfriend," said Fuji.
"WHAT?" was Kaidoh's only reply.
"OY OY! SHE IS BURNING! BURNING!" yelled Taka-san, apparently Momo slipped him a tennis raquet to hold.
"You're lucky I'm not making all of you run 10 laps as well," said Tezuka threateningly.
In the distance, they could hear Kari yell, "Ryoma-kun! Don't let me win now, it's not a time to be a gentleman, but a real man!"
"Mada mada dane" Ryoma started to run faster, he wasn't trying to let Kari win, but he did hear rumors that she injured her knee.
"AHAHAHA! I win Ryoma-kun!" Kari started skipping towards the last corner of the tennis court.
"You never race me seriously, you know that boucho?"
"You know you never race me seriously either O-CHI-BI. Ahaaha, I actually like the sound of that." Kari took Ryoma's cap and put on her head and making the victory sign with her hand. Ryoma was just looking up at Kari and gave her a small smile.
All the regulars were watching the two. All of them were surprised to see the interactions between Ryoma and Kari. Ryoma avoided the opposite sex at all the times. If they had someone like Tomo-chan following that around with that loud voice of hers, they'd avoid women as well. Ryoma rarely smiled, and he rarely made himself comfortable around girls like he did with Kari.
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Kari made her way to the vending machine to both buy them a grape Ponta. Ryoma followed her and graciously took the Ponta.
"You know, I won, I should've bought you the Ponta instead of you buying Ponta for the both of us."
"Well, than you owe me" answered Kari, then she stuck her tongue out at him.
"Boucho?"
"Kari, call me Kari. I'm not your boucho anymore Ryoma-kun"
"Ehh… Bou—Kari?"
She smiled at him, "Yes?"
"Why are you here in Tokyo? What happened to Bartley?"
"I'm here to be with my family of course!"
"Then, what about Bartley, and tennis?"
"What about?"
Ryoma new Kari too well. She was dancing around the subject, she was avoiding it. I guess she didn't want to talk about tennis.
"How about your knee boucho?"
"My knee?"
"I heard from Touya-boucho that you injured it."
It was then that Kari accidently dropped her Ponta, being the klutz she was. Ryoma had a suspicion that she did it on purpose.
"Ahhhh, my ponta!"
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Meanwhile Tezuka noticed the two together as well. Some people saw Tezuka and Echizen like similar people. They were serious about tennis, they were unreadable, never conveyed their emotions and they were detached from many people. They didn't let many people into their lives. There were not many people that they could be laid-back with, especially if they were female. They both avoided their fanclubs like the plague sometimes, while at the same time being polite. This is the first time Tezuka ever saw Echizen with somebody he could relax with. Out of all his teammates, he had never really found any girl he could be comfortable with, to relax with. In some sort, he was jealous of Echizen and what he saw he had with Kaidoh Kari.
"Aww, Echizen and his boucho reunited" said Fuji.
"Boucho?" questioned Tezuka.
"Yes. Kari was Echizen's boucho in America. Kari is the captain of the tennis team at her school in America, Bartley. Apparently Echizen went to the summer invitationals at Bartley. Bartley is a small, but prestigious boarding school that is founded on academics and tennis."
"You mean she went to a tennis boarding school?" asked Taka-san.
"Yes. Am I right Kaidoh?" asked Inui.
"Fshhhhh"
The whole team got ready to go home. Kari was waiting out the club house for all of them. Tezuka was the first to leave the tennis club. That was when Kari saw Tezuka Kunimitsu up close.
He was so tall. He almost towered over her. She was tall herself, but it felt like she was so small when he stood in front of her. His hair looked like silk in the setting sun. His eyes were piercing, but warm. He didn't smile much, and looked serious most of the time. But Kari respected that. She was awed by the presence he had. She had heard some of the team calling him "boucho". He had a quiet but strong personality. He looked like the person that didn't say much, but if he did, it made an impact. He never showed his emotions to no one. He didn't want to look weak. He was one of those people that everyone admired, from up close or at a distance. Kari wanted to be a captain like him. Kari felt so insignificant next to him. She criticized herself. She was very emotional person, and talked a lot. She was now doubting herself as a captain and it made her feel guilty for being such a weak person. That was then Tezuka interrupted her thoughts.
"Hello, I'm Tezuka Kunimitsu. Captain of the Seigaku tennis team. Nice to meet you."
Kari gave a little bow. "I'm Kaidoh Kari. I'm the Captain of the Bartley tennis team in America. It's nice to meet you too! Thank you for taking care and looking after my brother. He looks up to you a lot."
Tezuka gave her a little nod.
That's when everyone started to file out of the tennis club room. Kari saw Kaoru-chan and waved.
"Well, we should get going home now. It was nice meeting all of you! I hope to see you again!" announced Kari.
"Kari, by any chance, are you going to attend school at Seigaku?" asked Fuji.
"Oh yes! I passed my entrance exam today. I should start school tomorrow."
"Hoi, hoi! That's great! We'll see you tomorrow then!" said Eiji as he jumped for joy.
"See you tomorrow guys, I can't wait!" said Kari as she waved goodbye. "Ne, Kaidoh, say goodbye to your teammates!"
"Fshhhhh."
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"Well, that was a fun afternoon, wasn't Kaoru-chan?" Kari asked as they reached home.
"Fun? More like stressful, annoying and completely tiring," Kaidoh thought to himself.
"I can't wait for tomorrow, I'm sure it'll be even more fun!"
Kaidoh sighed and thought to himself, "I'm sure it'll be something, but I don't know about fun…."
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Author's Note: Well there you go. The second installment to "I Turn To You". I want to thank all of those who reviewed, you guys are awesome. I'm glad that you like the story so far. Well, the regulars finally meet Kaidoh Kari, and Kaidoh almost passed out from all the stress.
About the "twin sister" thing. I didn't want her to be older than Kaidoh. It wouldn't be as much fun. I wanted Kaidoh to be the "big brother" for Kari. I wanted him to be protective and such. I wanted Kari to be initially younger, but then she didn't really fit as a person to be a freshman at Seigaku like Ryoma. Plus, she really couldn't be younger since Kaidoh still has his younger brother Hazue. So, then comes the "twin" aspect. Kaidoh and Kari do have a special bond, so I hope it works for you as it works for me.
Well, this chapter took a couple of days, but it was a bit hard to write. It was initially going to be longer, but I thought I'd cut it off for now, and save what I have planned for the next chapter. For all of those who want to know, the next chapter is Kari at Seigaku, actually attending classes.
Reviews, flames, corrections are always welcome. Just give me some feedback!
bluemooneyez
