Disclaimer: You know the drill.
/ / /
New Blood: Winds of Change
Chapter 4: How Normal is Normal?
\ \ \
"We should have been done a half an hour ago, Haru."
As much as Violeta felt that she had learned a few things about the art of self-sufficiency, there were still the various things that the young girl still had to learn about the art of self-sufficient living. One lesson being that you shouldn't rely on your roommate to be your personal alarm clock.
"It's not my fault. Your body just hasn't readjusted to Japan time yet." Haru voice came from downstairs.
"That's why I wanted you to get me up early, you fucking idiot!" Vio hissed. "Now I have to rush through everything if we want to grab breakfast and not be late for school!"
"Couldn't we just eat at school?"
"If you don't mind going through the day trying to keep your stomach from rejecting that abomination they claim is food." Vio frowned, "I have enough trouble with socializing with strangers now; I don't need 'puking in class' to be the first thing that comes into their minds when they think of me."
"No. There's plenty of embarrassing things you've done that they already think about. Remember how you ran into the door in the middle of class when you tried to go to the bathroom?"
Vio just gave a frustrated grunt as she struggled to put on the jacket that went with her new school uniform. After getting everything straightened up, she looked at herself in the makeshift mirror she found. The sight of the somewhat bright colors of her uniform made her grimace. Viohad always preferred darker shades for her clothes; it was just something she was comfortable with. Her hair was a wet stringy mess, but it would dry out as she made the trip to school.
With everything in place, the two agents quietly left, catching the bus to get to their school. It was a short ride, but for Violeta, who didn't exactly feel comfortable being in such close quarters with so many people, it felt like a eternity. She made a mental note to consider taking earlier buses to school in the future.
They arrived to school with the usual chorus of greetings. Among them were the two Kirishima brothers themselves, who had actually put in the effort of making it to school on time today.
As they sat down for homeroom, the two generally took that time to observe their actions. Raven and Krysten seemed to be dead tired, since the former seemed to be dozing off at times, and the latter had no interest in whatever subject was going on.
Vio scribbled some notes down as class wore on, but she soon found herself too becoming guilty of daydreaming as Vio found herself doodling in a picture of Sonic the Hedgehog racing around the edge of her notebook.
"Yeah, I'm bored too." Vio turned to see Krysten, who had his head laid on crossed harms, muttering to her quietly. It was hard to see his eyes through the mob of disheveled brown hair tinged with occasional hints of red, but she could tell he wasn't listening to the teacher at all.
As Haru packed his bags, she turned her attention back to Krysten. He had spent the entire class with his head down. Vio hesitated for a second, but she extended her hand to nudge him.
"Don't worry, I'm awake."
The violet haired student retracted her hand, slightly embarrassed. "Oh, I thought you dozed off during class."
"I did. But my internal clock is never that off, so I rarely oversleep." Krysten replied.
"I suppose since you've been here for a few days, it wouldn't hurt for me to ask, but…" Krysten paused for a bit, "…what's your parents like?"
W-what? Suddenly Vio felt somewhat sick. I'm not prepared for this…My…er…I…."
Thankfully, Haru sensed his friend's nervousness at the question. "They're not around much. You know, high working officials doing important business shit." He answered. Krysten looked satisfied with the answer, shrugging his shoulders. "I understand."
Vio, relaxed after that save, decided to make the situation a bit less awkward. "What about your parents?"
"I don't have any parents." He said simply, "I'm sure my brother already told you, but we don't exactly remember a good chunk of our childhoods…."
"That's awful…" While they had both heard about their memory loss from their reports, it was still quite a thing to hear from a teenager.
Krysten smiled, shaking his head at their concern. "Not really. Raven always told me not to concern myself with the past. Besides, I still have a family; it just so happens that it consists of the girl that took us in, her vagabond of a brother and her little sister. I have more than enough memories with those three to keep me content."
The sounds of the warning bell reminded Krysten that he had classes in another part of the school. "Haru, we're going to be late if we don't hurry."
"Right." Haru got up, casually ruffling Vio's hair as he passed her by. "See you at lunch."
Vio merely nodded as they both left, her mind still stuck on what Krysten had said. Don't concern yourself with the past, huh? She thought, memories of her own sordid past flashing briefly through her head. Not being able to remember your childhood….I wish I had such a luxury….
\ \ \
"Thank you for everything!" Anya called out to the staff as she departed the hotel. Her stay was over, and she was back to where she had started before; no place to stay.
However, with some time to examine her current situation, she had a better sense of what to do next.
If what I heard is correct, I might be able to stay at an apartment for free if I help the landlord with tenants and stuff like that. She thought. Truthfully, she had no idea if that assumption was close to being right, but she was sure as hell going to give it a try anyway.
She started wandering aimlessly, searching for someplace that might not mind her squatting there till she got a steady source of income. It was a few minutes into that endeavor that she started to have the feeling that someone was tailing her. She didn't need to turn around to confirm those suspicions; the feeling in the wind told her everything. She was being followed.
Having gone through this enough times already, Anya already knew exactly what to do to counteract this. As she pretended to be unaware, she gradually shifted her direction of travel to a more secluded area. If things turned ugly, she wanted to be no people around to get caught in the crossfire.
As soon as the coast was clear, she stopped in her tracks, and turned around to face her stalker. "Why are you following me, sir?"
The person that she saw was just a normal looking man in a regular outfit; nothing that would be of suspicion to the average person. But Anya could feel something about him that was a bit disconcerting.
"I finally found you." He said, "To be honest, I was starting to get worried for a second that I might have gotten over my head trying to locate you in a city like this."
So he knows me? I guess that means he's not just some pervert, but that also means…
"You were looking for me?" Anya asked. She would play along, just to give him the benefit of the doubt.
"You're Anya Sorenstein, right?" She nodded and he continued, "My name is Rier, and I've been sent to retrieve you."
And with that, all the positivity I was slowly gaining back goes straight down the toilet. Anya's face seemed to sink a bit at his words. Fuck my life.
"I'm guessing by that dour look on your cute little face you know why this is happening, right?." Rier continued.
"Let me guess: I'm some crazy girl with evil demon powers that someone wants dead because I disemboweled one of his friends or something?"
Rier couldn't hold back a smirk at her answer. "Got quite the mouth on you. Anyway, all I know is that some guy in Europe wants you sent back for some incident or another involving some men you…well, I don't know specifics, but I do know you're quite the odd chick."
"Odd? That's a kind way of putting it." Anya responded. "I figured you'd be a lot more damning of me than that."
"Like I said, I only know what I've been told by my employer. I don't have a clue what or why you caused so much chaos, all I know is that I'm getting a loooot of money for this job, so don't make this any harder for either of us. I'm not that bad of a guy as long as you don't piss me off."
"How ironic, you could say the same thing about me." She shot back. Anya felt the wind around her start to stir violently as all of the anger she was feeling started to seep through her thoughts. If this Rier guy was going to try anything stupid, she'd have no qualms about leaving him a broken wreck on the side of the road.
However, if she wanted to remain incognito, she'd have to withhold her violent tendencies till she was absolutely sure it wouldn't be traced back to her. This wasn't some quaint village in the middle of Europe; this was a big, metropolitan city. If she caused too much trouble, then she'd have half the country looking for her. And considering her powers….
Damn it. The winds calmed down. Anya chided herself for nearly giving in to bloodlust. Alright, you can think of something. Not everything has to end with violence. You know that. Fortunately for her, help would come from an unlikely source…
"Well, well, what are you doing in this filthy place, Anya-chan?"
Rier, surprised that someone noticed them in the otherwise empty alleyway, turned around to find himself staring into the eyes of a completely different girl. However, this one looked to be a student, going by the uniform, and, from a quick glance, she was a bit taller and had a body slightly more, well, toned than the first girl. Also, she looked quite annoyed.
"Ah, you should know that dealing with guys like these will only lead to trouble later on? Especially with a scruffy guy like him." She folded her arms and cast a dour look at Rier. "You can do so much better than that."
Rier face shifted from surprise to a dark glower. Who the hell was she to stick her nose in her business, "I don't know if you're a friend of hers or some girl trying to be a hero, but you really need to get lost. Now."
"My, my…are you threatening me, a Diamant? You must be quite the masochist." She laughed, "I don't usually like to get guys jollies off for free, but if you insist…"
"Okay, don't say I didn't warn you, girl." Rier tried to surprise her with a quick punch, but she dodged, reached a hand out, and grabbed him by the wrist.
"Ah, ah. You might want to be a little nicer than that. I rather not fight in my uniform, but I have no problem breaking your arm if worse comes to worse." She gave it a painful twist before letting go.
"Idle threats. I'm not some creepy guy sneaking porn tapes under a coat. You'll have to do a lot worse than-"Rier's words were cut off a roundhouse kick to the ribs.
"Are you going to leave us, or am I going to be forced to put you into traction? The choice is yours." She raised a leg, showing that she was more than willing to keep going all day if he persisted. Rier had no choice but to retreat for now.
"Fine." He turned her attention to Anya, who was still standing in the same spot all that time, "But sooner or later, your cute little ass is coming with me, whether you like it or not." Trying not to let the fact that he was still feeling that kick show itself, he stumbled away and into the street.
"Teh, dummkopf. Probably should have just suplexed his ass and got it over with." Shiori turned her attention back to the dumbstruck girl. "Uh….nice to meet you again."
Anya said, trying and failing to hide the sheepish smile that threatened to form. "Yeah…you too…"
\ \ \
Urg…this is something I never get used to….
Sakari Toshino first thought as he awoke in the dim room, the steady beeping of the various machines that stood next to his bed being the only sound that he could hear. His mind took the time to try and reconcile his memories, coming to the conclusion that he was waking up from the medically induced coma Luka had put him in right before the process of injecting him with NESTS latest nano-technology. His mind still quite fuzzy, the young man tried to get all of his bearings in order, so he surveyed his surroundings.
There were many such rooms in this building, but Sakari could instantly tell this particular one was the lab that Luka 'claimed' was his own by the amount of junk that littered it. He had been down here on a constant basis, primarily during preliminary testing, but also to provide the occasional assistance with whatever project Luka was engrossed with at the time, though most of that was spent goofing off.
With no reason to be there any longer. Sakari went about the task of removing all of the equipment that had been attached to his body. Tubes, electrodes, things attached to the various monitors that made sure he didn't flatline during the process, and several long needles which, thankfully, didn't hurt nearly as bad as he expected.
Taking a few minutes to stretch some of the kinks out of his muscles, Sakari slowly put himself on his own two feet, making sure that his legs was capable of supporting his own weigh, or else he'd fall to the floor like a sack of clothes. There was a note at the empty bed right next to him, one that he assumed was for him.
Sorry I wasn't there for your comeback party, but the powers that be are making me go on another fun run for them again, if you know what I mean. If you're reading this, then you're awake, and alive, and if we're lucky, the procedure didn't regress your mental state to a 5 year old boy. You have some time to recover before they start testing you out on missions, so feel free to do your usual activities, and I'll see you soon.
Luka
P.S. If you're looking for your two friends, then the contact information is on the back of this card.
The note was quickly stuffed into his pocket. Sakari just left the room as it was and started on the march to his own quarters. On the way to the elevator, however, he just so happened to run into one of the other main scientist in their sector—Kirou Tsuyomi.
"Welcome back to the world of the living." He casually remarked at the sight of his associate's favorite test subject. "How are you feeling?"
"I feel like crap, thank you very much. All I want to do is get to my room and relax for the time being." He said, inwardly hoping that his room was still in good shape. That is…unless she had been occupying it during his time in the lab, in which then it'll probably stink of tequila and shame. If that's the case, then he had a lot of cleaning up to do. "Anything interesting happen the past few days?"
"Same old situation. I'm stuck dealing with a whole room of girls that are either in comas, barely able to sit themselves up or have become glorified ice statues." Kirou's tone had no lack of irritation in it, "The best girl in the bunch, Iso-something, I believe, is still so weak that she'll probably die in a matter of months."
Sakari nodded in understanding; He and Luka were saddled with an rather urgent project as of late, a project which, with the exception of one particular subject, was a glorified failure that was kept going solely by the cartels refusal to let the thing die. "That sucks. I don't know how much we can do. How is it that only one girl has managed to successfully survive the process I'll probably won't figure out anytime soon."
"Good genetics is all I can come up with. Some of the others are suggesting that I perform harsher treatments on them, but I just can't do that on these girls…." Kirou heaved a long sigh as he shook his head. "But enough of my personal failures, I'm assuming you're curious about where exactly my son and Violeta are at the moment?"
Sakari . "On another mission, I know. I'm used to their wacky schedules."
"Quite a long mission to be more specific. They're off on some undercover work, and won't be back for some months." Kirou answered, and it was clear that his young associate was none too pleased.
"Months? Are you kidding me? What could be so fucking important that I can't see my friends for so long?" Sakari's expression darkened at a sudden realization, "It has something to do with those Shin Sekai guys, doesn't it?"
"Can't get anything past you, can I?" Kirou affirmed, "That is the case, but I can't help but wonder why exactly would you be surprised about that?"
"I'm not, but how could they not send me along with them?"
"Now, now. We needed you in order to test the new nanomachine system that tech ops created. Besides, you're not exactly the crown prince of social skills when it comes to strangers. I'm sure they'll have a mission for you as well, but you need time for the nanites to get accustomed to your body." Kirou looked at a sheet in his hands, "That will take around two or three days, depending on how active you are during that time. And since you barely do anything but train and sit in front of a screen all day… "
"Yeah, yeah. I get the point, smartass. You can be as bad as Luka sometimes…." Sakari walked past the now snickering scientist, before stopping, "Hey, Kirou?"
"Yes, Sakari?"
"You think Vio is going to be okay out there?" He asked, "We all know that she's not exactly the most sociable girl when she's outside her comfort zone."
"Violeta is an agent first and foremost. I'm sure she'll push past any emotional issues she encounters if it means the mission will be a success." Kirou turned around, "Anyway, I have more Anti-K' work that needs to be done. I'll check up on you later to see if there are any complications…."
Sakari watched as the scientist disappeared around a corner. He knew Kirou had his concerns about the entire situations, but he kept his emotions to himself most of the time. What little things he heard from both Haru and Luka , apparently something had happened shortly before he joined NESTS that shook him quite a bit, but whenever Sakari tried to inquire further, he usually got shut down quickly. The one time he asked Vio, she walked away with not so much a word, and he knew pushing her for an answer would only lead to him in a hospital bed.
I don't think I'll ever understand the people here. Sakari headed toward the elevator. Whatever. Time to see how much of a mess that girl has made to my room.
/ / /
Xion hated high school.
No...That was a bit too vague. A more accurate statement would be that Xion hated HIS high school.
From the moment he first stepped inside its halls, he hadn't gotten along with anyone, even though he was never confrontational towards the students. It had gotten to the point that Xion had become a virtual loner in his school without so much as putting an ounce of effort into it. Only through sheer luck that he managed to make the few friends he did have. Aira was one of them.
"Xion, why do they keep making us do essays all the time?" She asked as they walked through the halls. "It's boring."
"Well, this is literature. How else would they be able to tell if we're actually reading the material?"
"Maybe if they didn't give us such crappy books, we'd be more likely to read this stuff. All these light novels in the bookstores and we're reading…." Aira took out one of the assigned books, "Heart of Darkness?" She said in accented English, "It's the most boring story I've ever read!"
"Such as any book that doesn't consist of Yakuza members or girls with mech suits battling giant insect creatures…"
"Bite me. Anyway, I have to go home and work on this god-forsaken essay, so I won't have time to hang out with you for a while…"
"Don't worry about it. I'm sure they'll rather have you at home anyway…."
It was about that time that a young silver-haired student crashed into Xion, bouncing off of him and falling on his butt. "Sorry, Xion-san."
"You're being reckless again. Don't hurt yourself." Xion helped him up, "You seemed to be in a hurry. What's the rush?"
"Mikoto is coming today, and I wanted to meet with her before she does her routine with staying locked up in tutoring till lunchtime." He brushed his uniform off. "I got a girl from another class to bake some sweets for her. Do you think she'd like them?"
"She'll enjoy them just fine, knowing her." Xion answered. Akiyo was considered by some to be the school's resident nut job. His right arm was constantly bandaged up, and his right eye was covered with gauze. Nobody seemed to know what exactly happened that caused Akiyo to look like that, but rumors ran rampant with all sorts of crazy stuff. Xion himself had his doubts that the arm was even real. Any attempts to press Akiyo about the subject usually got a shrug and an overly ridiculous excuse-he once claimed for a few months that it was a result of him trying to acid drop off of Tokyo Tower on a skateboard-so most students stopped bothering.
"Akiyo, you should take better care of yourself, especially running around the place when you only have one eye. Aira commented as she walked past the two, "I'm surprised you ever gotten far in any form of martial arts. When are you gonna take that thing off?"
Closing his one good eye, he smiled. "Whenever that happens, you'll be the first to know, Aira."
She obviously wasn't taking that. "You keep giving me that bullshit response every time I ask that question." She crossed his arm, "One day I'm going to pin you down and take it off my self."
"As tempting as it sounds, I don't think Mikoto would like that." He smiled, before dashing off again. "I'll see you later!" He sprinted off, leaving Aira to recognize the context of her statement.
"I really hate Akiyo sometimes." She muttered, holding down the slight flush on her face. "He's my friend, but sometimes I want to beat him within an inch of his life. He and Shiori are the most irritating people at school right now."
"Don't be too harsh on him. We both know how he feels about being asked that." Xion suddenly remembered something, "Speaking of Shiori, I heard she actually made the effort to come to school today, so where is she?"
"Xioooon!" Shiori's cheerful voice reached his ears before she jumped on him from behind. "How are you feeling? Good? Bad? Wallowing in the depths of despair?"
"I'm just fine Shiori." He shook her off. Xion could here the other students murmuring, but a sharp glare from him sent them on their way.
"Don't be such a stick in the mud, Xion." The half-German girl teased as she gave him a small peck on the cheek. "There's something I need to discuss with you, by the way."
"About what?"
"You'll see. Just follow me down the hall." She sauntered away. Xion had known Shiori long enough to know that she could be a lot to deal with, but she usually wouldn't do anything crazy without at least warning him.
"Xion, don't you have class to go to?" Aira said, but he merely waved her off. Even if Shiori wanted to do what he was expecting, it was still better than sitting bored at class all day. Xion quickly caught up to her and they made their way to the A/V room; an area that was the most barren place in the entire school.
"I'm hoping this is something that's actually important this time around, Shiori."
"Well, I'm sure it's something of interest to you." She smiled as she took a seat on a nearby desk, "It's about that girl that is currently sitting in one of my family's hotel. You know, the nun-looking one?"
It took the black-haired fighter a few minutes to remember about the girl who called herself Anya Sorenstein. "Her? Oh, that's right…she was supposed to leave the room today, right?"
"Yes. However, I couldn't let the poor girl rot out in the streets, so I arranged to give her a more 'permanent' residence till she can get settled in the country."
Xion, obviously, was a bit skeptical of her intentions. "You didn't make her your new maid, did you?"
"Oh Xion, you know I have enough of them to deal with already." The girl answered, flicking stray locks of hair behind her back, "I merely found her a much more reasonable place to stay. I hope you don't mind me getting involved."
"It's not a big deal, I guess. You mind telling me where she's at; I want to see how she is faring." Xion said.
"Oh, I think you'll find out eventually. Now that we got the issue settled," She smiled, "I believe you owe me a little…something for being so kind."
All Xion could do was roll his eyes. This is what their relationship had boiled down to since they initially broke up. Xion didn't mind too much, but there was still the concern about their relationship being based on random bouts of casual sex. Shiori constantly stated that she wasn't using him for her own hedonistic pleasures and that she liked hanging out with him, but Xion sometimes felt like he was more her plaything than a friend.
"What are you waiting for? AV club is going to be here shortly and we need to have enough time to clean up once this is over." Shiori grabbed him by the collar of his uniform, "Get over here, liebste."
Xion bit back a snort before their lips met. At the very least, it was a slight reprieve from his boredom. "Okay, just try and not make so much noise this time around."
\ \ \
"Alright sis, what do you want to do?"
Zyon waited for his sister to finish packing her bag before she gave him an answer, "I don't know. Feel like a movie?"
"Eeh. Not really feeling anything at theaters at the moment, but we can if you want."He didn't want Emil coming around and trying to butt into their personal time, so he wanted to think of something quick. "Just make sure the movie you pick this time isn't two hours of overly tsundere teenagers trying to hook up this time."
"I'd much prefer that than horror movies and martial arts flicks where big breasted women fly around with constant panty shots everywhere. Your taste in movies are terrible, Zyonii."
As the two started to argue playfully, just outside, they noticed two figures outside. One was Athena Asamiya; the other was a smaller girl, with short brown hair. Her name was Yuki Kushinda.
"She's here again? Doesn't she have pop star stuff that she could be doing right now?"
"Don't be a sourpuss Zyonii; she came here to visit us. There's nothing wrong with that." Tera turned to greet the Psycho Soldier, "Athena-chan!"
"Tera! It's wonderful to see you!" She gave her a big hug, "It's hard to believe you've grown so much since I last saw you."
As the two girls were preoccupied with each other, Zyon focused on the other girl. Yuki was probably the only other girl in this school that noticed him, and she'd been pestering him since he first started. At the time, he didn't know that Yuki was Kyo Kusanagi's girlfriend; all he knew was that her incessant attempts to gain his friendship got kinda annoying at times. Considering how infamously arrogant Kyo was known to have been at times, Zyon was genuinely surprised that a girl as nice as Yuki could deal with him.
"Zyon-kun, I didn't know you were friends with Athena…" She commented, "Friends with a pop princess. The mystery of your past is slowly becoming clear."
"Quiet you." He tried to suppress a smile at his friends gentle teasing, "What are you doing here? Don't you usually go straight home after school?"
"I…" She paused. "I'm not sure the best way to explain this, but for the past few days, I been having the feeling that I'm being watched by someone."
"Watched? You mean someone's stalking you?"
"Maybe. Maybe not. It's just something strange I keep sensing. I don't know where it's coming from, but I can just tell that someone's tailing me." She said. "I'm trying to ignore it, but it's starting to worry my parents, so…"
"I'm going to walk her home!" Athena finished, "And you're going to come with me!"
"The hell? Why?" Zyon was concerned, but he'd figured the girl with the magical powers would be more than enough protection for Yuki. "Me and Tera are going to the movies."
"Certainly you're not going to leave three poor girls alone with some dangerous, mysterious and most likely perverted individual if something was to happen, right Zyon-kun?" Yuki replied.
Poor girls? Athena could probably beat up the entire student body without breaking a sweat, much less some creep on the street. Zyon thought. It was fruitless however; if Athena wanted something out of him, most likely, she was going to make him do it whether he like it or not. She could be quite forceful when it came to protecting her friends. "Aright then. I'll help you out. If anybody comes within striking distance, we'll beat them within an inch of their lives."
Yuki rolled her eyes. "I'd prefer if you just kept a look out, Zyon-kun." She sighed, "I get enough grief over my choice of boyfriend, and I don't want them on me for you beating up some guy on the street."
\ \ \
Normally, Anya wasn't very picky about where she stayed at. As long as she didn't have to worry about bugs crawling up her dress or bathing outside because there was no water, she could settle anyplace perfectly fine. This apartment, while not the worst, however, was pretty boring.
It seemed like a place that was too maintained to be run-down, but not maintained enough to look extravagant. As she trudged through the hallway, she could hear various things in the rooms she passed. Dogs barking. A baby giggling as she watched what sounded like a children's show. Parents complaining about the room above playing their rock music too loud.
"I certainly hope Shiori was right about this place being decent." Anya said, but she knew that she would be staying there regardless. What other choice did she have?
Finally, she reached the door. Using the key that Shiori had given her, she quickly unlocked it, and after a low muttered prayer, pushed the door open. This was where she was going to be staying for the time being and….
…
And good lord, it was a mess. Granted, it wasn't like there was wall to wall trash all over the place, but there were a lot of empty boxes, dirty clothes and other junk around the area, and it was clear not a lot of effort went into cleaning as far as this tenant went. It wasn't her place to judge, though.
Trudging around the small space, her foot hit a rather long metal object on the floor. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a sword. A rather exotic looking sword, to be exact, and there was several more surrounding the bed.
"I hope I've haven't accidently entered the room of some kinda psychopath." She muttered to herself. Anya placed the sword back down and turned her attention to the fridge.
"Boxes, boxes, nothing that isn't in some kind of Styrofoam container, I see. The guy probably can't cook worth a damn, but I can't expect a huge four course meal every day." She pushed through a stack of leftovers. "I don't smell anything rotten, so that's one good thing, at least.
Shifting her attention to the entertainment system, she noticed that he had a pretty good stereo system. She was very much tempted to turn it on, put in one of her CDs and just start thrashing about, but she didn't want to risk having anyone come in to see her dancing like a moron.
Speaking of which, the sounds of keys reached her ears. Looks like whoever it was that Shiori had asked to let her stay here was about to arrive. Making sure her clothes weren't a total mess. She opened her arms to greet her (somewhat) savior from slumming. "Hello, my name is Anya…." The remainder of her words died on her tongue the instant she saw who it was that occupied this apartment.
Meanwhile, Xion blinked as his mind registered Anya standing in the middle of his apartment. "I really need to stop letting Shiori do this stuff to me all the time…"
/ / /
"Your taste in music is so vile!" Athena exclaimed, "Don't you know any songs that doesn't involve so much foul language?"
"Aw, come on! You have to learn to expand your options." Zyon shrugged, "Are you planning on singing songs about love and feeling good and cute things your whole career?"
"Yes, because that's what I like to sing about!" Athena shot back, "Surprisingly enough, there are some musicians that actually write their own songs rather than get handed generic tracks to sing by record companies."
"Yes, but even then, hearing the same thing out of you for every album gets kind of tedious. Why you think Raven and Krysten and Xio-kun crap on your music every time I mention it to them?"
"Er, how long have those two been arguing?" Tera whispered to Yuki.
"Fifteen minutes. Enough time to make me regret asking him along, to be exact, though I think that might have been Zyon-kun's intention..."
As they argued, the four of them neglected to notice that they were indeed being followed. There were a few cars on the street, but a non-descript van was the one that stuck out the most. It looked like a work vehicle, but one didn't have to watch a lot of films to know that someone was probably waiting for their chance to pop out, put a bag over someone's head, stuff them in the van and drive off.
"Are they alone yet? We can't do anything as long as all these people are here." One of the guys in the van, muttered.
"Don't worry, I'm sure they'll split up when they think the coast is clear. Or at least I hope. Either way-Huh?"
"What is it?"
"That guy….isn't he the man that was reported to have went AWOL on us a few months ago?"
On the lookout for a chance to strike, what they found was something a bit more unexpected. A man coming towards the three and he certainly wasn't a part of their little operation. Though he did look familiar.
"Excuse me, but you mind answering a question for me?" the man asked as soon as he was in earshot of the three.
"Sure," Zyon shrugged, "I'll see what I can do. What's up?"
"My name is Rier, and I'm looking for a girl here; she's about my height, long blond hair, possibly wearing some kind of church uniform…" He took out a photo, "This is old, but it should do quite a bit."
"She's quite beautiful, but I'm afraid I haven't seen her." Yuki said. "Foreigners usually don't roam this part of the city."
"Actually, now that I seen this, this girl actually looks quite familiar…" Zyon said.
Before Rier could inquire further, his eyes strayed to what was behind the people he was talking to. It was a van. A van containing people that seemed to recognize him. Oh, crap….
"Uh, thanks for your time, but I gotta get going…" the man suddenly turned around and walked off. The sounds of a scuffle caused them to turn around in time to see two figures jumping inside a van and speeding off, almost as if they were trying to catch up to him.
"That was….kinda weird." Tera said. "Maybe he was some kind of criminal or something."
"That didn't look like any police vehicle I've ever seen," Athena added. "And now that I think about it, that van was behind us for an awfully long time. You don't think…."
Zyon thought about that possibility for a brief moment. "Nope. Most people wouldn't make it that obvious they were following someone. This was probably just some dumb coincidence that we should just ignore and keep walking."
"I suppose you're right." Yuki was sure Zyon's logic was flawed, but the sooner she got home, the sooner she could stop worrying about it. "We're almost there, so you two can go ahead and do whatever you were planning now."
"Finally…" Zyon looked around, "I'll be seeing you two girls another time then. Come on, Tera."
"Yuki, I'm surprised you two can stand each other." Athena said as Zyon and his sister walked down the street. "Doesn't he get on your nerves?"
"He can be a bit, well, out there at times, but in the end, he's a good person." Yuki answered, "You should know that. After all, you've known him longer than I have, right."
"Um…right…" Athena voice became slightly distant at that question, "It's just that…"
"Hmm? Are you alright, Athena?"
"Huh? Y-yeah, I'm fine, just spaced out there for a minute. Let's get you home." Athena grabbed her arm and the two raced towards Yuki's home.
/ / /
"Phew…that test was something else…" Krysten sighed contently. School was over and all he wanted to do was relax for the rest of the day. Of course, part of him knew that he should be training, but the temptation to play video games for the rest of the day was too great for him to ignore. Besides, training bored him. If anything happened, he could rely his natural talent.
His brother had gone off somewhere with one of his kouhai's, stating that he'll be home later that night. He was always running off somewhere, doing this and that, trying to help out as many people as he could, Krysten, on the other hand, usually wanted to be on his own. Not that he didn't like the students here, but he often found interacting with them to be quite awkward sometimes, however well meaning his friends were.
Reaching into his bookbag, he took out his riding jacket, as he started his way out the school. But walking outside, he noticed the two new students, mulling around near the gate. "What are you two doing?"
They must not have expected to see him, because the both of them looked slightly caught off guard by his appearance. "Oh, Krysten! We didn't see you coming!" Haru was the first to answer, "Me and Vio were just discussing about stuff."
"You guys haven't joined a club?" Krysten asked as he zipped up his jacket. "You'll probably find something interesting."
"We tried. Specialty clubs aren't our thing, I guess." Vio said, "Some other students invited us for some sweets, though. You wanna come?"
"Er…I have other plans at the moment. Thanks for the offer though." Krysten said. "Honestly, I'm a little off today, so I'm just going to go straight home."
"It's my high speed XQL 200 sports cycle." Krysten said with a bit more glee than one should have for such an object, "Took up a good chunk of my prize money from KOF, but its well worth it."
"Ooooh…." Vio said as she stared at the red and silver bike. "Sweet…can you ride it?"
"Of course. I've known how to drive one of these things for a while now." He smiled, "Now that I have a license, though, I can do it in public without getting arrested."
"What about your brother?"
"Raven prefers to run around all over the place." Krysten carefully pulled the bike out of the stand. "I'm sure he'd like to get a license, but considering how irresponsible he can get sometimes, it won't be happening anytime soon." He held back a snicker. "Are you two doing okay? Everyone seems to have taken a liking towards you two; hopefully it's not overwhelming."
"Oh no, it's fine. We've gotten used to the kids here." She said, "It's been good so far."
"Alright then. I'll catch you around." With a roar of the engine, Krysten tore off into the streets on his bike.
"Sweet…" Vio was obviously engrossed with Krysten's vehicle, "Damn it, why can't we get cool stuff like that back home? I'd love to have something to drive around in between missions."
"Yeah, that's something we'll put on the list of stuff that we're getting shortchanged on, along with that flatscreen TV and the mini fridge." Haru tone was conceited, "Now shh! The other students are about to arrive."
And just as Haru finished, the doors burst open and several students filed out, quick to surround them in their effort to go to the cake shop.
As the group was walking around, Haru noticed something peculiar going on across the street. Someone was running from two people that looked kinda like the ground forces that NESTS would use sometimes when they needed stuff done without a lot of unnecessary spectacle and stuff.
Why would they be out there? While they usually had a way of making themselves known to other operatives, any other person would probably not even so much as glance at their direction, as it was required to them to dress in normal clothes in order to not attract attention. He turned to Vio, who looked to have noticed it herself, but was too busy fielding questions from their fellow students to say anything.
Oh well. If there was something going on, I'm sure we would have gotten some sort of warning ahead of time. Haru wasn't about to let paranoia ruin his day.
/ / /
"Alright, Shiori, I get the picture….no, no I don't think it….yes, I trust her, but you could have at least told me ahead of time that you were…Hello? Hello?"
Xion shut his cell phone in irritation. He had just gotten finished with a long tirade with Shiori of having Anya sneak into his house as his surprise roommate, as his friend put it. Not wanting Anya to hear him swear up a storm, he chose to take the conversation to his balcony and close the door. Granted, it probably didn't block out everything, but Anya was far enough that she probably wouldn't have been able to make anything out aside from a few Chinese curses and the occasional use of the word 'bitch'.
"Stupid girl. Hooking up with her was the biggest mistake of my life…." Xion leaned against the railing. Looking around the surrounding city, he slowly started to regain his composure. Shiori was great and all, but she liked to butt in his business a lot of the time when she thought he needed her help-or, most of the time, her money.
But it was no use contemplating that at the moment. It was already cold out, and he wasn't wearing his school jacket. Xion opened the door and walked back inside. Anya sat on his couch pensively, not even willing to look at him out of sheer embarrassment. It was as if the slightest word from Xion's mouth would cause her to burst into tears.
"So….how are you feeling?" Xion tried to sound as casual about the situation as he possibly could.
"Okay…" Anya kept her eyes fixed on the table in front of her. Xion decided to try to change the topic to help her relax.
"Er…Sorry about the lousy state my apartment is in. I have a lot of people going in and out of here and it's hard to keep the place straightened up for more than an hour."
"I'm not exactly Miss Neat myself, so I'm not very concerned." Anya managed a small smile, but didn't last for long. "Sorry, Xion."
"Eh, I'm not really that upset about it. I assumed that Shiori sent you over here as another one of her jokes." Xion moved to the refrigerator, looking for something that she might want to drink. "You drink soda, right?"
"Hmm? Oh, right. That's perfectly fine." Anya felt a little better now that she knew Xion didn't care that much. "Are you the only one who lives here?"
"According to my landlord, yes, but like I said, people are constantly coming around here and staying over, I sometimes wonder why I chose such a small apartment." Truthfully, Xion welcomed having so much company, but didn't want to encourage them to ransack his house even more. "It won't win any awards for style, but I've been in less habitable places, so…"
"You're preaching to the proverbial choir. You have no ideal how many times I've had to resort to sleeping in dilapidated housing just to get out of the elements." The girl took a sip of her drink. "You can't imagine how much a relief one hot shower can be to someone like me."
"Uh, yeah…." Xion quickly blotted out the image of Anya washing herself out of his head. "Anya, I know that this is going to be kind of a personal question, but be honest with me; what's really going on that you have to be constantly traveling all over the place?"
Anya raised her head up, and stared into Xion's waiting eyes. "I'm…..I have something that I've been burdened with for the past few years. This thing I speak of is something I'd rather not talk about at the moment, but it's caused me to become a bit of an outcast. I've been run out of every place I've ever tried to live." Her hands gripped the front of her uniform as she tried to keep her composure. "But I'm tired of running. So I came here, hoping to find a little peace, but that's not going so well, obviously."
Xion just stared at her. The rather spirited girl he had saw the other day had been replaced with a melancholy, emotionally drained figure that just wanted to live a normal life. Something Xion could easily sympathize with.
"Anya…" He placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's really been that bad for you, huh?"
"Yeah, it has. So much that someone has sent some guy here in order to drag me back to Europe."
"Yeah, Shiori told me about that Rier dude. It must have been some thing. I guess this is why she sent you here; she wanted me to act as some kinda 'bodyguard' or something.
"Had I known that this was going to happen, I wouldn't have even agreed to this." Anya suddenly stood up and headed towards the door. "A thousands apologizes for this, Xion, I'll show myself out."
"Anya, wait!" Xion nearly fell over the couch as he rushed to her and grabbed her wrist. "If someone is trying to capture you, I'm sure as hell not going to let you walk out the door." He took a deep breath as he prepared for the reaction his next statement might cause, "So, go ahead and stay over here if you want."
"Huh?" Anya wanted to say that she could easily take care of Rier in a matter of seconds if she wanted to, but was too surprised at Xion's sudden act of generosity.
"O-of course you don't have to if you want; I was just saying that if you're worried about finding a place to stay, I'm willing to….OOF!" Anya practically tackled him back over the couch.
"Oh, you have no idea how much I appreciate this, Xion." She nuzzled him like a cat that had just gotten food for the first time in days. "Thankyouthankyouthankyou…"
"H-hey! Easy on my ribs!" Gently prying Anya's arms from his waist, he got back up. "Now then, I guess first thing we need to figure out is what the hell we're going to eat tonight. Do you know how to cook?"
Anya could only shake her head. "Only a few things. I rarely had the luxury of staying at a place with a working stove," she said, "I can learn, but it'll be a while…"
"That's fine." Xion dug inside the fridge and took out some boxes, "My fridge is always stocked with LO-RI leftovers, anyway. Will that be good enough?"
She beamed at the though of more delicious food. "That would be wonderful, Xion. Thank you." For the first time in years, Anya was feeling optimistic for her future.
\ \ \
Shikkoku: Alright, time to get back on track. Nothing really to note here at the moment, so…
Notes:
Meet Sakari Toshino. He's basically a slightly introverted friend of both Haru and Violeta, and when he's not rotting his mind away in front of some type of screen, he's usually assisting Luka and Kirou with their various projects.
So…how many chapters are left? I haven't really though of it much, but I think….4-5 will be enough? I had a few more ideas, but I think I'll leave them for the beginning of Act 2. Speaking of which, I think I might have came up with a title for that, but I'm still skeptical, so I won't say at the moment.
I might sneak in a little flashback scene next time that'll give a hint to Violeta's sordid past. I'll avoid spoilers for now, but believe me when I say it's not pretty.
So that's that. I'm surprised that this story has gotten noticed even though it hasn't been updated in about a year. Thanks for sticking around. As usual, let me know if you see anything strange. I try my best to catch mistakes and sentences that end unexpectedly, but I still miss stuff sometimes. And so…
Next Chapter:
Until Next Time, Sayonara (and don't worry, Kurai Tenshi will be updated soon…)
