- A Beautiful Tomorrow - An Ambient Generation
. . . Manic Star . . .
Bah, I'm not coming back to America till around May, late May. Ahh I'm kinda homesick. I miss all the trashy Americans! Nah, just kidding. Still miss home though. I had to write this whole chapter over because the original is at home I didn't want to bring you guys down so I felt like. Hehe.
Alice Elliot waited patiently for Kurando Inugami to come out the boys' bathroom. She had been extremely worried about his safety. After all, he was her best friend. The first minute Kurando went in there, Alice waited by the door. But she had received too many weird looks from the guys coming in and out of the bathroom, so she moved.
"Let's go, Ali." Her companion called, coming out of the bathroom while pocketing his inhaler.
His black hair was doused with water and laid plastered all over his head. Every now and then, a drop of water would streak down his face. Alice flinched lightly and looked away.
"You don't mind dropping me off, do you?" She asked anxiously.
"Are you kidding me? After what you did for me today?" He paused, "I owe you big time, Alice. You're really brave, you know that?"
The girl laughed as they exited the building and slung an arm around his shoulders. "I'm only brave for you, Rando."
They walked towards Kurando's rental car in the school lot, talking and joking before Alice abruptly stopped. There, standing a couple of feet away was Yuri. He was shoving something into the trunk of his car.
Alice kept watching him and after several failed attempts of catching her attention, Kurando gave up and followed her gaze.
"You ought to thank him," He said in a matter-of-fact tone, "He did save your life."
He saved your life.
It echoed in her head. Now where had she heard that from before?
The lady looked at her. "You should thank him. He saved your life!"
Yuri saved her life then, Yuri saved her life now. Twice. He saved her twice.
Alice looked back at him and saw that he was getting into his car to leave. Without another thought, she quickly ran towards him. "Yuri," She called to him, "Yuri, wait."
He didn't wait. He was about to shut the door when she slid her hand between the door and the car. Yuri looked at her hand for a second before glancing back straight ahead. "What?"
Alice took a deep breath and removed her hand slowly. "Thank you. For--for helping me and stuff."
"No problem," He said, expressionless. "Later."
"No!" Alice grabbed his door handle before he could shut it again. "I also wanted to tell you thanks for the other cab incident."
"You already thanked me for that."
"Not properly." She suddenly became very nervous, "S-So, if there's anything I can do for you… let me know, okay?"
"Mhm. Can you please let go now? I really have to be somewhere."
She released the handle and stood back. "Sorry." She murmured, leisurely turning around, "See you."
Kurando momentary looked at her when he saw her return. "Did it go okay?"
Alice just simply shrugged. "I don't know. He's too… too hard to get through…"
She smiled wryly at her friend. "Am I making any sense?"
"Doesn't matter, c'mon get in." He held out the passenger door for her and which she gratefully climbed in.
"Gee thanks, you know you'd make a perfect husband for some lucky girl." She teased playfully.
Kurando glowered at her as he got in, "Yeah. Some unlucky girl I'd make a perfect hideous husband."
"Kurando--"
"Let's talk about something else," He interrupted, "Like Miss Iasant's test tomorrow. I think I'm all ready for it, how about you?"
Alice groaned. "I am not talking about school. I hate school!"
He stared at her, shocked. "You don't mean that!"
"Yes I do," She said back to him, "I'm only keeping up with everything because I made a promise with Mr. Simon this morning."
She sighed, running her fingers through her hair. "Other than that, I despise it. Please Rando, let's talk about… look, what're you doing this weekend?" She asked brightly with a smile.
Kurando chewed on his lower lip as he drove out the school lot. "Well on Saturday, I'm going to go to the tournament." He carefully avoided her eyes.
Alice's mouth dropped open. "You are? Why? You don't even like it! You don't even understand it!"
"Yes I do!" He said defensively, "I know a few karate moves and… um this one thing is called--"
"Why are you going?" She asked, astounded.
Kurando shook his head. "Because my dad is on my back about how I should do guy stuff and not sit at my computer all day typing an essay or researching something."
He stopped at a red light and turned to her. "Can you come with me, Ali? Please? I mean, we can sit there not understanding anything together!"
Alice groaned again, "Kurando, that's not the point of going. We're going to waste 10 dollars just for tickets and--"
"I'll pay for you!" The young man cried earnestly. "You don't have to pay! I'll--I'll even pay for your food! Please, please, please come with me, Ali. You never do anything with me anymore…"
"Geez Kurando, okay, okay I'll try and come just calm down!
"I'll pick you up!" He promised, "At exactly 6:30! I even have the tickets! Third row, seats 11 and 12!"
"You bought the tickets already?"
Kurando blushed and quickly looked back to the road as the light changed. "Well I was planning to ask my dad to come with me, but he was supposed to leave for another business trip today at 2:00. So… you'll come right?"
She shrugged. "Of course."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Muffins?" Alice stared down at her plate Friday morning. Mrs. Elliot beamed at her. "Yep! Blueberries! Your favorite!"
Alice poked at it softly. "It's frozen."
Mrs. Elliot's smile faltered slightly. "Yes, well. You have to heat it up--muffins for breakfast! Normal people eat that everyday!"
When she said 'normal' she meant people who had a family and where their mother wasn't working fulltime and was always there to make them proper breakfast. To Alice, that's what she meant anyway.
"They're frozen." Alice repeated, staring at the bits of ice stuck to a blueberry.
"Yes, we're going to heat it up." Mrs. Elliot looked a bit uncomfortable.
"You took it from the freezer?" She looked up at her mother.
Her mother nodded lightly. "Yes. I--I didn't have time to make--"
Yes. She never had time to make a proper breakfast. She's too busy.
"…because I have to get to my office in 15 minutes but the other occupants loved it!" The older woman finished her explanation in a rush.
Her daughter merely nodded. "That's great mom." She pushed her plate away. "I'm going to make myself some eggs." She stood up and passed her mother who had a crestfallen look on her face.
But Mrs. Elliot quickly recovered. "Well… I'll be going to work… have a nice day at school, okay sweetie?" She said delicately.
She heard her mother get up and leave for the living room to get her suit case. When she finally shut the front door behind her, Alice stopped pretending to cook some eggs for herself and went upstairs to get her back pack and leave for school, sighing.
I wish I was normal.
------------------------------------------------------------
"Did everybody leave their Lord of the Flies copy at home?" Miss Iasant called. There was a murmur of 'yes' and 'yeah' around the room. Some students just simply nodded their heads, not saying anything.
Alice's hand was on her table, holding her pencil in her hand, getting ready to write as Miss Iasant walked around, passing out her 5 paged, 100 questioned test packets. Alice real wasn't worried. The test should be a real pushover for her.
She saw Kurando neatly placing a spare sharpened pencil at the edge of his desk and holding another one, ready in his hands.
Alice felt her heart thud as her eyes landed on Yuri. What if he didn't pass the test? What would Miss Iasant say? What would Miss Iasant think?
Well that's obvious, she's going to think I'm the worst tutor there is. Alice doubted herself.
"Alright you may start."
The blue eyed girl bent down quickly and began filling out her answers on the pages. She couldn't worry about Mr. Arrogant. She had to worry about herself right now. If she failed the test, she was going to be extremely angry with herself.
The time passed by slowly and Alice's fingers flew across the page. Around her some kids sat there, chewing on the end of their pencils or pens, struggling to make up an answer. Alice noticed that they sat like that for quite a long time.
Come on, She thought. No one can be that stumped.
Whenever she looked at Yuri, he was hunched over his paper, but his fingers weren't moving. At some points he was writing, but then he would stop to think. It made her restless, but the only way to take her mind off of him was by finishing her own test.
Which she did 30 minutes before the bell rang.
"Alright, everybody drop your pens and pencils." Miss Iasant alleged. There was a collective cry out among the room. "The person from the back, pass it to the front, and the student in the front, come hand it to me."
Alice waited patiently for Nina to pass her the sheet so Alice could pass hers up.
"You all may go." Miss Iasant said, once she collected all the papers.
There was a rush to leave the classroom and Alice found that Kurando and she were the last to leave.
The dark haired teacher smiled at them, "I'm not worried about you two. I'm sure you both passed in flying colors!" Kurando returned her smile, as did Alice.
Once they were out in the halls, Kurando reached out to squeeze her hand. "Can't wait for tomorrow!" He grinned broadly and turned around, walking down the halls and leaving her there standing by herself.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Excuse us… Excuse me." Alice muttered, as she and Kurando plowed through. The stadium was having a racket. Some sort of marching band was marching around the field, pounding their drums and blowing their flutes and clarinets and whatever they had to blow. They acted as if Martial Arts Tournaments were a new kind of sport.
The tournament hadn't started yet, but already Alice could hear Nemeton High's cheerleaders encouraging and screaming "WHATS YOUR FAVORITE COLOR? BLACK AND RED!"
"Here!" Kurando said breathlessly, upon finding their seats. "Ah, perfect view!" He sat back and smiled.
Alice slightly winced as somebody pushed her and sent her slamming into her seat.
"Are you okay?" Her friend asked, quickly helping her sit up right.
"Fine." She garbled slumping slightly.
"Go-o-o-o-d evening everybody!" Came a male's voice on the loud speaker. "My name is Kevin, and this is my good friend, Jack, a 10 year veteran. Today we have the Nemeton High V.S. Kuhuai!"
There was a roar of cheering as the Martial Arts kids came walking out.
"There they are! There they are!" Kurando yelled excitedly as they came out. "Ali! There they--"
"I see Kurando." She had been a bit frosty that evening but it wasn't really her fault. She didn't want to be here. At all.
She watched as Yuri and an opponent lined up against each other. She could hear Yuri's distant voice shouting; "Alright! I'm going all out, buddy."
Alice blinked when she saw them ram into each other painfully.
"Hyuga's going long!" Said Kevin over the speaker.
Alice watched through squinted eyes as Hyuga backed up and then violently starting throwing random punches at the rival's stomach.
"WOW!" Screamed Kevin exuberantly. "That's a great rebound!"
The spectators screamed wildly.
Even Kurando had joined the cheering. "That was something!" He squealed excitedly, jumping in his seat. Alice thought that maybe she was the only one in the whole stadium, seated. "You mean some punch." She muttered.
Kurando didn't seem to hear her and kept screaming. "GO YURI! GO! GO! GO!"
Once again the competitor slammed into Yuri catching him off guard. Slamming wasn't even a karate technique... what kind of student is that?
Alice sighed and slumped in her seat as Kurando started booing with the crowd energetically.
They were just going to be repeating the same boring stuff over and over again. She couldn't believe how many females were there. Did they actually enjoy it?
I am wasting my time; I should be home right now… studying Adv. Calculus. Alice closed her eyes tightly.
She soon sat up and rubbed her knees. They were getting… bored. She looked back at the field to see Yuri showing off as he beat his opponent.
Suddenly, she was up on her feet. A gasp arose from her throat.
The new contender who was visibly large, was making his way for Yuri from the left side--
"Oh!" Kevin said as gasps filled the entire place. The opponent leaped on Yuri. "A 215 pound crushing tackle by Tsukitawa… yes helps coming."
Alice observed with her mouth open wide, as some aids rushed to Yuri's unmoving structure.
"Is he dead!" She shrieked at Kurando, who was screaming in surprise with the crowd.
The boy turned to her, "I DON'T KNOW! THAT CRUSH WAS PRETTY INTENSE! DIDN'T YOU HEAR HOW MUCH THAT GUY WEIGHED!"
Two hundred fifteen.
"Yes… yes, we see movement and it seems as if, Hyuga is going to be alright! Well, Jack, what do you think is going to happen to Nemeton High now?" Kevin asked happily.
"Well, maybe they might stand a good chance still… but he was some combatant!" Jack answered, just as merrily.
Alice was surprised that she felt furious at that. That's it? Yuri is hurt and now the tournament resumes? Without even waiting for Kurando, Alice fled the stands and rushed onto the fighting ring, where two guys were carrying Yuri. A worried couple was standing there.
"Yuuuri!" Screamed the lady. "Is my baby alright? Oh darling!"
Alice took it that they were Yuri's parents.
"Foul!" The man was saying wrathfully. "That's just wrong isn't it? Injuring my son should be…!" It seemed he was so furious he could say no more.
Alice reached to them, "Is he okay?" She cried breathlessly holding her hands close to her heart, "Is he hurt? Is he dead?"
The red headed lady looked at her irritably. "Dead? No miss, my son is NOT dead! How inconsiderate of y--YURI! YURI ARE YOU ALIVE!" The lady resumed her screeching when her son groaned audibly.
"YURI! YURI TALK TO ME!" Mrs. Hyuga bawled frantically, "PLEASE BABY! DON'T DIE! YU-U-U-R-R-R-II!"
Alice couldn't keep silent any longer. "Don't scream," She said indignantly. "Why don't you just try shaking him and talking softly to him?"
The woman looked as if she was about to scream at Alice when her husband rested a hand on her arm. "She's right dear, try talking gently…"
"Yuri?" Anne simpered, "Darling? Please wake up! We'll take you immediately to the hospital! Don't worry sweetheart! We'll sue that wretched beast for doing this to you my sweet lovely little baby. When you wake up I'm going to give you your favorite stuffed bear when you were small and tuck your preciousness into bed and I'll feed you all of your favori--"
"I'm alive." Alice heard Yuri's irked voice say faintly. "Please stop. Someone might be listening, mothe--"
"Don't worry, lovely!" Mrs. Hyuga said fondly, "It's only a silly little girl. You don't even know her, don't worry."
'The silly little girl' was about to say something but decided against it.
Yuri didn't need to know she was there. "Well," she coughed lightly. "Get well."
Quickly turning around, Alice made her way through the crowd and back up to Kurando.
Yuri opened his eyelids and his light brown eyes peered out, catching sight of a blonde haired girl's back.
Ooooh! Yeah it was hard to write the Martial Arts stuff so I just rushed it and got to the good stuff. I used Kuhuai after Kuhuai tower… yeah I didn't know what else would be a good name! And Kevin is obviously Mayor Kevin from Bistriz. He just looks like an announcer to me. So does Jack, well, kinda... Haha.
Kendra- Hi! Sorry I haven't e-mailed you lately, I will when I get back home, kay? I've been really busy here and having so much fun. Yeah, I did see lots of Japanese boys. Cuties, hehe. Want one? Hehe. How are you doing by the way? Look at me, conversing with my reviews. I make friends with them! XD
SonChan – Hiya, look update. Heh, hmm I'll go check out your stories. You lazy person! Maybe you should update them if you didn't lose intrest… that happens a lot.
Angelic Kamaria - Sorry for not being online for awhile. You I've been busy. Hope you like this chappie though, I rewrote the whole thing mainly because you wanted to read it and other people to probably.
Bella – AAAAHHH MISS YA! I'm in Tokyo right now, but I was also in Yakushima. Not to be confused with Yokoshima. Most people do! I also visisted the little town I was born in which actually IS in the boonies. Haha. It's called Yorido and it's by the sea, very small not many people at all. So, I basically knew everyone that lived there .I love it here, everyone is all geeky and videogame crazys like me.You should have seen all the Shadow Hearts 3 posters in the mall like it was a big deal. Whoo!
I like how they're all original and were unusual clothes out on the street cuz no one gives a damn. See, now I don't want to go back to boring America! Where in Japan did you go? Wow... big note. squeeze hug
heather – Hiii I still have to read your stories, don't worry I'll get to it! They look interesting. foams at the mouthLook, your baby Kurando is all over this chapter!
Anime-Alee – Aw, you're welcome. Your fics are very cute. Sorry for the wait. And you better update yours soon!
Lord Kain – We all gotta love that Roger! Don't worry he has something in store for Nikky.
Asnee - pukes at the yaoi guuurls I don't want to be mean but… I'm just not into that stuff but everyone has their own opinions… I just don't know how you can think two guys going at it is hot!1!1one. And Keith sends you kisses... …. ….
Crescent-Wish-Forever – Hahaha everyone is jealous cuz I'm Japan. I like Karin, but her with Yuri is… meh. I just don't like cuz it shows they obviously never played the first Shadow Hearts or don't really listen to what Yuri thinks about the whole damn time in Covenant. Ugh. Glad you like my story though!
MusicalDragons – Heather, you get two notes. Because I didn't see this one yet… Hehe. Of course you can add me! Why would I say no? Author buddies! Whoo!
MikoNoNyte – You're going to hit me, huh? I updated AGAIN. But I have a reason this time, my uncle was out all day and it was pouring down rain, sooo not much to do in that. Miko, you called me a little boy! I was really laughing at that. Nadi-kun. - Kun an affectionate way to speak to a young boy. God, I love ya. Hehehehe
Offspring1014 – Yay another fan. Yuri's a jerk in the game? Well in the first one. The beginning he is but not really that much in the 2nd, now in my story he's a big poo poo head. Hehe.
Roxsheena – No more waiting for you! -hug-
Diabolic Angel – Yay you love cliché romance as much as me. Let's get married, kay:P Hope you thought this chapter was cute too!
Jackie Almasy – Aww your comment made me all warm inside. I'll be reading more of yours too!
Fireinu – Yeeess you're reviewing again. Glad you're still reading. Hmm… Where to find Koudelka? I got mine at a local game store for 5 bucks. It was also pure luck. Everyone else I know got theirs at e-bay for about 16 to 20 dollars. Hope that helps… irk.
Unknown Heart – Ooooh.. Dehuai you mean? In SH1. Hehe I don't even remember that part, did that really happen. Ahhh maybe I have a bad memory. Thanks for the reeeview.
psychedelic aya – You'll be going to Japan too? You'd love it here if you're a Manga freak. There are tons all over the darn place. Anyways, hope you liked the.. well kinda fluffy cheesy moment at the end. And I hope I did well with my exams too! I won't find out till I get back in America. Eeeek.
I-luv-Dom – Hey pushover. J/k. I updated! No fear. Ooooh don't worry Alice will not get raped I can assure you. I knew that'd piss someone off. Sorry! –bows-
Tiger5913 – It's good to know you're working on TBH. Yeeess I simply cannot wait to read that sucker! Also nice to know you still read this. And don't worry no one else is getting their haircut! I have no idea how I'll make Anastasia meet Kurando though.. I may have them not met at all. DON'T KILL ME! Oh yeah, DEATH TO JULIA CHANG! Had to say that. :D
aegis – Yeah Halley is a lil piece of crap. Hehe. Sorry for not being online, like I said busy busy. Buit when you do see me on I'll tell you about the competition. Surprise right now. Two words – I'm happy. :D
/ A Lifeless Beauty /