So... I just want to say that you guys are awesome and I really appreciate and am thankful for all the love for this story!
You guys are awesome!
Genma seemed really boring. He didn't speak much. And the easy smile on his face was so small that it barely seemed real. But he also had a dangerous glint in his eyes, and the fact that he rolled that senbon around in his mouth as if it weren't a dangerous weapon made me feel as if he were the kind of person that would have no qualms in hurting another if he needed to. Even with his relaxed demeanor.
"Okay, minions. Rest up now. You're going to need your strength for tomorrow."
I looked over at the man with a quirked eyebrow, before nodding slightly.
We had just finished our meal. Genma was rolling that senbon around in his mouth complacently, while Sai and Haku remained silent beside me. After he'd said this, though, he stood up, offered a small wave, then walked out of the small eatery with his hands in his pockets.
All three of us remained seated for a few seconds longer without saying a single thing. Then Haku stood up with that ever present smile on his face.
"It was great to spend an evening with my new team." He bowed softly, "I do hope we are able to continue being one after tomorrow."
After this, he walked away and left me alone with Sai.
"I'm going to do my best tomorrow, you know."
"Huh?"
"Genma Sensei warned us that we would need to be prepared for anything tomorrow." Sai explained himself with an almost expressionless face. "And he said that if we failed, we'd most probably be demoted from being genin."
Had he really said all that? When? I had been pretty sure that I paid attention when Genma had been speaking.
"It was implied, Aoi."
Ah... That made more sense.
"I really wish to continue being a team. So I hope that we are able to work together well enough to be able to continue being one."
With this, he stood up and left. He didn't say goodbye or anything. Just walked away.
"That is one strange kid..."
But I had nothing else to do here and the dinner rush was only a few minutes away, so I stood up and walked out as well. But when I was out in the streets, glancing from one side to another, I noticed something extremely important I had not thought about before.
"Where am I supposed to go?"
The sun was setting and people were walking about, continuing with their normal lives as if there were nothing wrong. And, to them, most probably everything was right.
But considering how I wasn't them and was stuck being me... I couldn't act as if there was nothing wrong.
Where was I supposed to go?
I didn't know where I was supposed to go now.
Stepping out into the long, sandy roads that were to be found all around this place, I began to walk. My feet seemed to know where they were going. So I just allowed them to go their own way as my mind began to wander.
This was odd. There were dozens of different ways to describe this situation, but I wasn't really sure if I wanted to break my head thinking of them all. It would be a bit more productive to break it thinking and wondering about just how in the world I had ended up in this place rather than to try and describe it.
Everything had been normal at my house from what I remembered. I had done everything like I usually always did. There had been no changes to my routine from what I could remember.
But... Maybe I shouldn't really be counting on my memory too much seeing how I had forgotten what my real name was!
Seriously, who forgot their actual name? It just wasn't right!
The sun was setting and I was still walking through this place. And as I passed a place I swore I had seen at least two times before, I began to think that maybe, just maybe, my feet had no idea where they were supposed to go.
I had really hoped that they would know considering how I had no idea where it was that I was supposed to go.
The sky was growing darker and I could tell the moon was just minutes from appearing. And that was when I began to wonder for just how long I must have been walking if it had already gotten to be so late.
I didn't know just how the hell I had ended up here. I had no idea where to go. And now I was completely lost... Actually, I had been lost from the second I had woken up in this weird place. But the reality of everything that was happening decided to hit me right freaking now.
"I'm going insane... That's the only true explanation..."
As I whispered this, I looked around my surroundings. The buildings around me seemed real. Just like the people. But they couldn't have been! This whole world was just a creation from some old guy's (amazing) mind. These people were just images on a TV or on pages, depending on what kind of fanatic someone was. They weren't supposed to be flesh and bone.
The moon was up now.
It was already night and I had done nothing to try and fix the problem I now found myself in.
Tears sprung into my eyes. And this made me frown.
I was prone to crying. I cried in just about every movie I watched. Especially in the ones for kids, seeing how there was always that one scene in which the heroes lose everything before they manage to regroup and survive. But just because I was used to crying didn't mean that I enjoyed it. Especially when I wound up crying in public when I wasn't watching a movie.
With a heavy frown, I began to walk once more. Staying around in one place wouldn't get me anywhere. And now that I was an inch away from crying, I didn't want to be close to people that might be able to see me.
Suppressed sniffles and harsh swipes at my eyes were my only companions as I walked through the night.
Or, they were, until I remembered the notebook that had appeared in my hands the moment I had arrived into this unbelievable new world.
"It's going to be blank..." I murmured softly, even as my hands went into the large pockets in my pants to pull them out.
The pants I wore were black, baggy, and rather comfortable. They were tight on the waist, but flared out perfectly until they ended mid-shin and allowed a bit of my legs to be scorched by the sun. The shirt, though, was a tight gray one without any sleeves. And I wore a dark red scarf bunched up around my neck.
Whoever Aoi had been, she'd dressed for comfort and effectiveness in the battlefield. Although I wasn't sure if the splash of red in the scarf was a right thing to have, seeing how she was supposed to be a ninja.
The gloves on my hands were the same shade of the scarf's red. I noticed that now that I had my hands right in front of me as they opened up the notebook.
"Don't even know why I'm checking."
"But Oi do!"
The sudden shout had me jumping and glancing all around my surroundings. But there was no one near me. The streets I was currently on was completely desolate except for myself. And it was pretty dark too... Shouldn't I be avoiding dark places in a world as dangerous as this one?
"Who's there?" I shouted out, even though I kind of knew that my question would go unanswered. "Where are you?!"
"Down 'ere!"
My head snapped down to the floor. I kind of expected to find a little person of some sort. But what I found was just the ground.
"No, no, a bit up."
So I looked up at the buildings in front of me. Which made the still disembodied voice sigh, "In your hands, lass. Oi'm in your hands."
So I looked over at the notebook that was in my hands. And my eyes widened so much at suddenly seeing the notebook glowing that I was surprised they didn't pop out of their sockets.
"Witchcraft!"
With that surprised shout, I quickly let go of the book. Then I turned around and made to run away and never look back. If I had been worried about my sanity before, then this surely answered all questions. I had gone insane. And was doomed to live a life of insanity in a world that was supposed to have been an anime.
"Oy!"
My plans of getting the hell away from the notebook were shot, though, when the damned thing suddenly flew right into my face and smacked me in the nose. Sharp pain sprouted up in my face at the sudden hit and I moved my right hand to grab at my poor, abused nose, all the while the notebook forced itself into my left hand.
"Don't run away like that! Hurts when Oi fall..."
Tenderly I touched at my nose to see if there was any blood. When I found there was none, I turned a glare onto the thing that had caused me such pain.
"What the hell?! You're a notebook. Get with the program, you don't talk and you don't move!" I hissed over at it, then decided I had succumbed to the insanity that had been trying to eat me alive.
The notebook fluttered slightly within my hand, then opened itself to reveal to me the first page it held.
Much to my surprise, it wasn't blank like when I had last seen it. There was writing within it. Plain, simple, English writing. Something that wasn't supposed to exist in this world.
... Speaking of things that weren't supposed to be in this world... The notebook, now that I thought about it, had an Irish accent.
Property of Aoi Akagawa. Just call me Aengus, lassie.
If lost, don't worry. I'll hunt the lass down without any trouble. Just don't burn me. It hurts.
After this, in cursive, I read:
Plans for World Domination... Uh... I mean PLANS FOR SAVING THE WORLD!
Step 1: Find the lass
Step 2: Stay with the lass
Step 3: Try and fix the broken world
Step 4: Repeat Steps 1 through 3 until the world is finally fixed
... ... ... I blinked in stupefaction down at the notebook because I had no idea what else to do.
Then the notebook turned its own page. And in the following two pages, I noticed something weird. Even though the left one had writing within it, the one on the right did not.
This is home
Was at the very top of the page. Then there were thick arrows pointing towards a small, crude map on the page. It began from the Academy, followed through very unidentifiable buildings, then ended over on the edge of the picture.
"Now ye know where to go, lass."
I just stood there for a few minutes, staring down at the notebook in my hand. Not only was there now writing, but there was also a picture taped onto a page.
What the in the blue hell was going on?
"One foot in front o' the other, lassie. On ye go."
Numbly, I began to walk towards the Academy. From there I could follow the vague directions and hope that they would bring me somewhere safe where I could freak out and try to understand just why I was going insane.
Coming up next: Brand New Day!: Now that our heroine has some kind of idea what she's supposed to do (Saving the world? Really? Could this notebook be any more useless?), it's time to live as the genin called Aoi Akagawa! Meet the Crazies!: Aoi had not signed up to meet the insane monsters that worked at T&I. And her teammates agreed.
~./.~
And here's the new chapter!