Disclaimer: Still the same disclaimer… and notice the summary change, by the way.
Euqnip and creampuff520 - thanks for putting this fic in you favorites list, and for telling me to update soon.
Synchronized reviews are the next big thing…
Chapter 4: Kimi ga totsuzen awarareta! (You suddenly appeared!)
"Return me to my world" Kaidoh stated bluntly, with his calm husky voice. It showed a bit of hoarseness from all the roaring he did earlier.
Brought back to Louise's Victorian-style bedroom, he was currently seated on the varnished wooden floorboards, staring menacingly at the strawberry-silk haired girl standing a meter away in front of him. He was holding his filthy green bandana in his dusty hands, letting his medium-length matted jet-black hair down without a care. Around his neck was a large, pad-locked, black collar attached to a long, thick chain, fastening him to the wall and preventing him from running away again.
"Impossible" Louise replied. She was slowly but unworriedly unclasping the seal on her black cape.
Kaidoh was too preoccupied to notice her behavior. His head was throbbing horribly, trying desperately to take in everything he had just experienced.
A glowing manhole… falling into nothingness… a blinding, white light… people in strange clothing speaking in a foreign language… the kiss… the shock and awkwardness from the kiss… the burning sensation in his flesh… unconsciousness… magic and sorcerers, familiars and Louise… running faster than ever before… levitation…
He shook his head vigorously to keep himself from being overwhelmed in dread. When he got his nerve back, he closed his snake-like eyes and let out a long hiss…
Fshuuuuu…
He had put himself in deep concentration, and then started to speak calmly to Louise again.
"Why?" he asked bluntly, maintaining the same monotonous voice like before.
He only used this monotony when he was seriously talking with someone (even more seriously than he does in everyday life), usually preferring to shun himself out of conversations, speaking only when spoken to, and to never initialize conversations, even to his teammates, about his private life, the life outside tennis.
In reply to his question, Louise nonchalantly tossed her black cape into his face. It flapped over him, covering his head under the black cloth, which he pulled off himself with a bit of difficulty. She was now calmly unbuttoning her long-sleeved, white button-up shirt, slowly revealing the pink, translucent, night-dress she was wearing earlier that night.
"It does not matter where you're from…" she declared. "The contract is absolute."
At this, she finished unbuttoning her shirt, so she unbuttoned her short, black skirt and let it drop to the floor like earlier that night. She bundled up her shirt and skirt and threw them both into her familiar's face.
He suppressed his extreme desire to hurt this girl who was treating him like a servant, yet the irritation still manifested in his face. The irritation, however, was soon washed out by the blush slowly creeping into his face at the sight.
For a fleeting fraction of a second, he lost control of his senses. The same thing had happened when she had kissed him. But he soon regained his composure, and looked away, his face, a light red.
"What are you doing?!" he asked, actually breaking his monotone for the first time.
"I'm about to sleep so I'm changing" she explained, thinking that the answer was obvious.
She made a soft snap with her fingers and the flame from the single burner on the wooden table went out, bathing the room in the darkness and moonlight of the night.
Kaidoh kept his eyes averted, with good reason, for Louise had just slipped off her night dress.
"Why don't you do that where I'm not?" he asked, irritated a bit by the young lady's lack of awkwardness. He was trying (and failing) horribly to maintain his composure.
"Why?" she asked, without the slightest hint of embarrassment in her voice.
"Are you fine with a man seeing you like this?" he growled at her, to which he promptly got a night dress in the face.
"A man?" she asked him. Something about her tone leaked out that she was seriously asking him that question, not as an insult, yet he was still very much offended. "You're just a familiar."
"What?!" he roared at her.
This time, his question was totally ignored. The young lady had changed her underwear as well, throwing the used garment at her familiar's face, causing him to turn a deeper shade of crimson. She then slipped on a light pink sleeping gown and climbed into a double-sized, four-poster, green-curtained bed with yellow sheets.
Though he intended to not waste his energy in this predicament, his rage overcame him bit by bit, driving him to the edge of his patience. He let out a long, slow hiss to calm himself down…
Fshuuuuu…
"Well then, go wash those" she ordered him, interrupting the calm state he was trying to put himself into.
"I refuse" he stated, dead serious.
His reply brought a hint of annoyance to the young lady's face, and he could sense it, even though she was lying in a position where she was facing the window, with her back turned to him.
"Who do you think will care for you?" she replied in an irritated voice, confirming the hunch he had. "You're my familiar, right? Cleaning, washing, and other miscellaneous activities are all naturally your duty."
A look of surprise made its way to Kaidoh's face. She had a good point, although he was not planning on taking her whims just lying down. His pride would never allow him to do so, especially since the lady is not even older than he is, and worse, is a complete stranger.
"Also, prepare my clothes in the morning. Rest assured. If you work properly then you'll be fed…" her voice lowering to barely a whisper.
He was planning on arguing back, but he noticed that her breathing had changed, and when he stood up to look at her face, her eyes were closed and her expression was relaxed. Her hands seemed to have been tightly grasping the sheets before, but were now half-open. She was already asleep.
With a sigh, he looked to his left and saw the pile of straw he woke up on earlier that night. He walked to it and lied down. He was still fuming from the argument, but he had to make the best of things. And he needed sleep, he needed the energy for the next day, he needed to calm down…
Fshuuuuu…
"Eh?! Ann-chan?" Momoshiro gasped comically. He had let go of his annoyed kouhai, Echizen, who was coughing, trying to catch his breath because he had been dragged like a football earlier.
"Momoshiro-kun?" Ann asked in reply. She was sitting on a dark figure sprawled on the ground. Five other figures were near her, cracking their joints and rubbing their sore spots from the fall they just had.
"Tachibana Ann-chan…" a low murmur came from the sprawled figure underneath her. "Although you are our beloved captain's little sister and the beloved team manager, and although you have been a very valuable asset to the entire team of Fudomine, I would like you to please, if you don't mind, get off me…" the figure muttered on.
She had a surprised look on her face as she tried to scramble up so she could get off her friend.
Momoshiro offered his hand to her, and she was about to take up his offer, but the helpful atmosphere quickly dissipated.
Kamio had just tackled Momoshiro ferociously. He knocked his spiky-headed target clean off his feet and onto the ground a few feet away. He replaced Momoshiro by offering his hand to Ann instead, making her look curiously at the two as she rose up…
"…and anytime you might feel like sitting on me, I would gladly oblige, although my back would not, but after all, you are the beloved captain's little sister…" the figure was still muttering, yet no one took notice, all of them being used to his murmur-like ramblings.
"Shinji-kun, are you alright?" Ann and Kamio asked simultaneously, interrupting the person's self-directed monologue.
"Why, yes. Thank you both for your concern…" he replied. He had spotted another familiar face in the form of the freshman in the white and red cap.
"Echizen" he went up to the now scowling freshman, who quickly turned stoic.
Echizen turned to him and raised a hand to signal a greeting, and then quickly lowered it again.
"How's the product?" Shinji asked in his usual monotone. He was referring to the black grip tape that they were both after, which ended up in Echizen's hands as the result of an impromptu tennis skill contest held between the two.
"It's good" Echizen replied in an equally monotonic voice.
"You must lend it to me sometime…" Shinji continued.
"It's running out" Echizen replied indifferently.
They continued this conversation of short one-liners, while the rest of the two tennis teams started to gather together.
In a rare moment of coordination, Kamio and Momoshiro pulled both of them in to the group.
"So you're saying that Kaidoh is lost in this strange place?" Kippei asked, looking at Fuji, who had been talking earlier.
"Saa, he is, Tachibana-kun. So we were going to look for him, and then you guys suddenly appeared" he replied with his creepy smile and closed eyes.
"Everybody!" Tachibana Kippei and Tezuka Kunimitsu called out. The two teams, Fudomine Tennis Club and Seishun Gakuen Tennis Club, all stood at attention, facing their respective captains.
"Do not let your guard down…" Tezuka spoke in his usual deep, stoic voice that commanded attention even from the other team. "Stay together, we will first find our common comrade, Kaidoh."
"Though we may be enemies in the courts, we must band together now. After we find Kaidoh, we will figure out a way to get back home" Tachibana added.
A short moment of silence filled the air.
"SEIGAKU!" Oishi, Seigaku's vice-captain yelled, interrupting the silence.
"FIGHT!" everybody on the Seigaku team answered.
"What are we?!" Kamio, Fudomine's vice-captain yelled as well.
"FUDOMINE!" everybody on the Fudomine team answered.
"Let's go!"
All of them were fired up as they started the search for the second time, this time, with even more of them together.
However, Eiji, usually the most energetic of them all, was relatively silent. He had a half-confused, half-curious face as he looked up at the sky, even though no one else had noticed. He had seen the faint blue glow of the moon just near the edge of the horizon, in the same direction that they were going to. But in addition to the glow from that moon, he also saw another glow, this time the source was a smaller, pink globe very near to the blue moon.
"Two moons?" he remarked, totally puzzled.
He was still walking forward, however, even though he was looking up at the sky, since he could sense obstacles in his path and avoid them easily. Distractedly, he walked onwards. He tried rubbing his eyes in an attempt to test if what he was seeing was true. Just as he was doing so, he walked under the shade of the forest trees as he followed the group in front of him, effectively hiding the two moons from his view. When they were all under the moonlight again, clouds had covered parts of the night sky and he could only see one blue-tinted moon.
"Eh? Keep up, Eiji!" Oishi shouted to his doubles partner from the front of the pack.
"I'm coming, wait!" Eiji playfully replied as he sped up, dismissing what he just saw as his imagination playing tricks on him.
He roughly pulled off the yellow sheets off of her sleeping form. The sudden movement was enough to stir her from her slumber, but it wasn't enough to fully awaken her.
"Who are you?" Louise groggily asked him.
"Here, your clothes" Kaidoh said, tossing her folded uniform onto her chest.
She looked at it with a befuddled expression, as she did not yet realize what it was, or what she was supposed to do with it.
He let out an exasperated sigh, which unexpectedly, sounded like a hiss…
Fshuuuuu…
As he did so, the entire incident yesterday came flooding into her memory as she yawned out the remaining grogginess she still had.
"Oh yeah, my familiar… Didn't I just summon you yesterday?" she finally realized, though still a bit sleepily.
She looked at the bundle of clothes.
"Where's my underwear?"
"I don't know" he monotonously said, though his face was light red at the thought.
"In the bottom drawer" she indicated to him.
"Why don't you do it yourself?!" he growled, glaring at her with his snake-like eyes.
"I'll take away your meal, then" she threatened, glaring right back at him with all the ferocity she had.
He let out another exasperated sigh, and turned around; making the chain his collar was attached to clank noisily. He opened the bottom drawer, grabbed the first one he saw, tossed it to her, and closed the drawer, all done in less than three seconds. He remained with his back turned to her as she changed her underwear. She then tossed the rest of her clothes to her familiar, and he promptly ignored her, suppressing his rage.
"Dress me" she ordered him.
"I refuse. Put on your own clothes" he replied bluntly.
This brought a half-annoyed, half-dumbfounded look to Louise's face.
"When there's a servant, a Noble never puts on her own clothes!" she spoke heatedly.
"I refuse" he replied bluntly again.
"Then no meal for you. I won't take off the chain" she said smugly.
Despite his pride, he gave in. In any case, his self-control against women was something he highly prided himself in.
He proceeded quickly and efficiently as he dressed her. After which, he glared at her expectantly, the thick, long chain in hand.
"Take this off" he said indifferently. "As you promised"
"Fine…" she said, irritated.
She took out a small silver key from her skirt pocket and held it up with her right hand. With her left hand, she pulled him down by the collar to about her eye level.
Even though he was already slouching, letting his arms hang limply, Kaidoh was still taller than Louise, so he had too slouch even more while she worked on the large pad-lock.
He stared at her long, wavy, strawberry-silk hair, breathing deeply, waiting for her to finish, and all the while observing her.
To him, as long as she stayed calm, she seemed alright, almost lady-like. It seemed that her claim of nobility wasn't as far-fetched as he had thought.
She caught him staring at her…
"What?" she asked him, still irritated with his earlier lack of respect towards her.
"Nothing" he looked away.
She opened the collar and threw it to the floor. Then, she walked past him and took a small wooden stick, the same one she used earlier that night to accidentally create the explosion, off the table.
He rubbed his sore throat, and then, he let out a sigh of relief, which also, and unexpectedly, sounded like a hiss…
Fshuuuuu…
"Let's go" she ordered him.
"Where?" he asked her.
"Breakfast, of course" she answered.
The sun rose on the far horizon, bathing the group in life-giving sunlight as they arrived wearily at their destination.
They had walked all night, moving through the thicket of trees and shrubs in the jungle. Most of them were tired, but not wiped out. They were, after all, the regulars of two of the best tennis teams in Japan, so they had to have more-than-average endurance.
However, both Momoshiro and Kamio were, almost literally, dead beat. They had been fist-fighting and wrestling each other all night as they walked, and they had exhausted most of their stamina. However, they were still going at it, neither refusing to give up and admit defeat to the other.
Ann was walking behind the two, stifling a laugh at their ridiculous antics. Even though she was a bit confused at their unusual behavior, it was hilarious nonetheless.
As they approached the walls of the castle-like structure from the last trees at the edge of the forest they had just went through, they saw a large, silver gateway with strange markings carved into it. They passed under its sentinel-like stone arc and looked around. There was no gate there; just the arc of the gateway was marking the entrance to the structure enclosed by the walls. In the middle of the structure, there stood an enormous stone tower, with a window overlooking the entire place. It was a majestic place, with vast lawns of green, freshly-cut grass and many other towers surrounding the central tower, although these were nowhere near as tall as that tower.
As they continued to look around, they saw a number of people in brown, black, and purple capes heading hurriedly and noisily to a building on the far west side of the medieval structure. They tried to approach the people, most of whom did not even look older than they were.
In their rush, however, the people did not even notice the group coming and had already closed the ornate, double wooden doors behind them before the group could get within ten meters of their vicinity.
"Nya, they ignored us!" Eiji complained loudly.
"Eiji…" Oishi tried calming him down. "They were probably in a hurry"
"Did you all see them?" Ann asked the group. "What they were wearing, I mean. Capes?"
A few of the others nodded.
"Maybe they're cosplaying!" proposed Momoshiro, with a huge grin on his face.
"Yeah, says you" Kamio snidely remarked.
"You guys, quiet!" Kippei ordered the two of them. "Can you hear that?"
They all strained their ears, because from inside the building, a muffled sound had resounded through the air. They could tell that many people were inside the building, and that those people were the ones creating the sound.
They all looked at each other in confusion…
As if SLORS wasn't bad enough, my review per hit ratio has gotten worse, it's now two reviews every seventy hits.
I've abandoned the five reviews per chapter. I believe that I'll go stoic on the whole reviews system. It's not like I started writing this fic to get reviews, and I swore to myself when I started that I wouldn't become dependent on reviews (I mentioned this in Chapter 2, minus the five-per-chapter bit). Godspeed!