I Don't Like The Catcher in the Rye

Chapter 7

The setting sun cast pastel rays in the darkening sky, the remnants of rain clinging to the leaves of the late summer trees and in small puddles scattered across paths. In the distance, various crashes and swearing could be heard.

"God, Sano, chill!" exasperated, Tsukioka Katsuhiro finally looked up from the painting he was trying to finish. "Why are you so worked up anyway?"

"You don't know her like I do, Katsu," Sano replied, slamming his fist down onto the wooden table. Katsu watched a pencil roll across the table, over the edge and to the floor. "She's smart, and funny, she doesn't dedicate herself to impressing guys like most girls and most importantly, she's completely honest with you. With her, you never have to worry that she's trying to use you for anything." He kicked a trashcan over, spilling its contents over the park grass.

"I can't believe she has a crush on that damn stoner," he muttered darkly. "I only ever brought him up because he happened to be there, I was just trying to tease her… I never considered in a million years I'd be freaking right!"

"So what?" Katsu asked irritably, bending over to pick up the stray pencil. "Just because she has an adolescent crush on some guy you don't approve of, you throw a hissy fit and start throwing things around? She's 17, as are you. Grow the hell up, you're acting worse than she is."

"You don't get it," Sano said in frustration, kicking the overturned trashcan again. It bounced off the grass. "The guy she's crazy about, he has like half the school's female population going ga-ga over him, freaking pretty boy… Misao should know better than to go for the tall, dark and handsome thing. It's such a… Childish and stupid, typical female thing. Misao is not a typical, boring, shallow girl. That she can fall so easily for someone so… Stereotypically attractive!"

"If I didn't know better," Katsu remarked, turning back to his painting. "I'd say you were jealous."

"What, jealous?" Sano spat venomously. "Because of that weasel? I think not."

"If you say so," Katsu replied absently, flicking his paintbrush artfully over his canvas. "So why are you getting so worked up over it then? I can't imagine why else you would be so angry over something as minor as this… Unless you're upset that the object of her affection is not you."

"I just think that Shinomori is an ass okay?" Sano snapped, finally sitting down. "I mean, he never smiles. How can you trust someone like that? Weasel girl can get annoying, but I wouldn't want her to get hurt or anything."

"That's your case?" Katsu asked, tearing his eyes away from his painting to afford Sano a disbelieving expression. "I hope you're not considering a career in law."

"I just don't have a good feeling about the guy okay?" Sano said almost sulkily. "Look, are you on my side or his?"

"Whatever you say, Sano," Katsu said, concentrating on his work. "Just, sort out your 'feelings' first. You don't want to make a fool out of yourself. As usual."

"Oi!"

-

"Ne, Aoshi, what do ya wanna eat?" Misao asked cheerfully as they stepped into the Kyoto Station building. "Tempura? Ooh, I've been wanting to try out the 'Ten Ichi' tempura, it's supposed to be really good! Did you know that the American president Bill Clinton was taken there during a presidential visit? Oh! Or do you want negiyakiI've never really tried it, I wonder if it'll be any good… The tonkatsufrom the 'Katsukura' is supposed to be really nice…" She looked up at him expectantly.

"…Tonkatsu sounds fine," he said, giving a slight nod. She grinned widely.

"Misao-chan!"

"Megumi-chan!" she jumped, whirling in the direction of the voice. Her eyes widened. "Himura!"

"Misao-dono!" Kenshin said, looking as surprised she felt. "Ah, Shinomori-san…"

"Why, Misao," Megumi said, grinning mischievously at the now nervous girl. "I didn't know you had it in you, how did you snag this hottie—" out of the corner of her eye Misao thought she saw Aoshi stiffen imperceptibly "—all for yourself?" She flashed Aoshi a flirtatious smile. His face completely emotionless, he stared at her with cold eyes that held just the slightest hint of boredom. Megumi's smile faltered.

"It's not what you think!" Misao protested, her hands in the air in a gesture of surrender. "I'm just treating Aoshi-kun here to dinner, I kinda owe him one for getting him into detention."

"Oh?" Megumi arched an eyebrow, recovering. "What, pray tell, did you do to get him into detention?"

"Oro? What did Misao-dono do to get into detention again?" Kenshin asked, looking confused. "And how did you get Shinomori-san into it?"

"It's not my fault," Misao said defensively. "Saitou is a crazy bastard and you know it." She scowled angrily as she thought of Sanosuke. "Him, and that stupid chicken shit Sano being an ass, as usual." Both Megumi and Kenshin blinked at the ferocity in her voice.

"Did you two have a fight?" Megumi asked curiously. "Up to this moment all you had to say about that boy were only good things." Kenshin looked increasingly confused.

"Misao-dono, with good words about Sano?" he echoed faintly, not really addressing his question to anyone in particular. Misao blushed a bit, remembering belatedly that she was supposed to be helping Kaoru by breaking Megumi and Kenshin up.

"He has his moments…" she mumbled. Brightening abruptly, ignoring Kenshin confused and Megumi's questioning looks, she asked, "Anyway, what are you two doing here?"

"Oh, we just came out of a movie," Megumi said, grinning slyly as she slid her arm through Kenshin's.

"Oro?"

"We're going to grab some dinner now," she said. "Why don't you guys join us, we can double date!"

"We're not on a date, Megumi-chan!" Misao protested, sneaking a peek at Aoshi, who up to that moment had not said anything.

"Well, it looks it!" Megumi said coyly, twirling a lock of hair around her finger.

"Well we're not," Misao said firmly, stubbornly crossing her arms across her chest in defiance. "Right Aoshi-kun?"

"No, we're not," he agreed calmly. "I'd rather a quiet meal, alone, if you don't mind," he said in a voice that indicated he did not, indeed, care if they did. "Enjoy your date." He gave a stunned Megumi and Kenshin a rather curt nod, and, a shocked Misao hurriedly following after him, walked away from the couple and towards Kyoto Station's The Cube shopping mall.

-

"Geez, who does he think he is!" Angrily, Megumi bit into her garden salad. Her free hand was drumming impatiently on the tabletop.

"Maa, maa, Megumi-dono," Kenshin said nervously, trying to sooth the furious girl. "That's just his way, don't be angry."

"One day I'm going to get you to drop the whole '-dono' thing," Megumi said irritably, anger at Aoshi temporarily forgotten. She frowned. "But right now what I don't get is what he's doing with that... girl. Someone as physically attractive as he is surely has his pick from the cream of the crop." Kenshin gaped at her, shocked.

"Me…Megumi-dono!" he stuttered. "I'm sure Misao-dono has her redeeming qualities! In any case Shinomori Aoshi doesn't seem like the type to go for looks, and they could very well be having an innocent dinner together with absolutely no other intentions.

"The way Misao-dono got so angry when she thought of Sano, I'd say she really did get Aoshi into detention by accident, and knowing Sano, he's definitely behind it, some way or another. Perhaps Misao-dono really did feel incredibly guilty about causing Shinomori-san to have to spend a day in detention and offered to make it up to him. It doesn't seem all that far fetched, and indeed is a logical explanation, de gozaru."

Megumi stared at Kenshin incredulously.

"For as long as we've been going out—" (Oro, going out?) "—not once have you given as long a speech as the one you just gave." Her expression suddenly darkened ominously.

"Ken-san," she said in a low, dangerous tone. Kenshin found himself backing up, grateful for the table that separated them. "Do you have… FEELINGS for that weasel girl?!"

"OROO?!?!?"

-

He wants to be alone with me!!!!

It was all Misao could do to keep from doing a little jig right there in the elevator, much less suppress the huge grin that was threatening to split her face in half. Next to her, Aoshi did not seem to notice her unusual silence, her attention focused on the struggle to contain her excitement. He stared stoically ahead.

Aoshi-kun wants to be alone with me!!! Me!! Argh!!

Ding!

"I think this is the floor," Misao sang, practically skipping out. "11th floor right, Aoshi-kun?"

"Aa."

"This way, Aoshi-kun!"

They somehow managed to find a seat in the nearly filled restaurant, in a quiet corner near the back. Misao smiled to herself. This is really feeling more and more like a date! She ordered a chicken katsu set for herself, and Aoshi ordered a tonkatsu set.

"So, Aoshi," Misao said once the waitress had taken their order. "What were you staying so late after school for?"

"I had kempo," he said simply. Misao looked puzzled.

"Kempo?"

"Aa," he replied. "It's the Japanese way of reading the Chinese words 'quan fa', which literally means 'fist principles', or 'fist method'. Generally it is used to refer to a wide variety of martial arts in general, especially in East Asia, although there are instances where it's used as a blanket term for all martial arts.

"There are many variations of the Japanese Kempo, like Okinawa Kempo and the traditional form of Japanese karate, Kempo Kai. Here in Kyoto High we practise Nippon Kempo. It is a widely known and popular martial art system, especially in Japan and Europe. Here in Japan, it's practised in over 100 universities and is part of the training in many police forces."

Silence.

"...Wow," Misao said, gaping at him. He met her shocked gaze levelly.

"Sorry?" She blinked, and flushed.

"Ah, no!" she said hastily, looking away in embarrassment. "It's just, I didn't think you'd be so… Passionate about it!"

"Passionate?" he repeated, frowning slightly. "I was merely giving you a brief idea of what kempo is." Misao giggled.

"Yeah, but, well, you don't speak!" she exclaimed, laughing at the slight crease between his brows—the closest thing to looking confused Aoshi could ever get.

"I'm sorry," she said, clamping down forcefully on the hysterical giggling bubbling up in her chest. "It's just, well, you don't seem like the kind of person who speaks much unless you feel the need to. That you could churn out such a long speech detailing what kempo is all about shows your interest in it, and that it is something important to you." Although his expression never changed, Misao thought she saw something shift behind his impenetrable mask. He studied her innocent expression in silence, and she felt herself behind weighed, judged. She realized she was holding her breath.

"…I see," he said, finally. She felt herself deflate. Had he judged her, and found her wanting?

"I-I'm sorry!" she blurted out, desperate to dig her way out of the self-dug grave. "What do I know, right, haha, silly me, I barely even know you! In fact, aside from the 18th of April we've never even spoken before today, who am I to say what you are or are not."

"The 18th of April?" he asked, completely unfazed by her rather frantic outburst. If Misao did not know better, she'd have sworn there was a glimmer of… Amusement in those steel grey eyes.

"N-n-no!" she stammered, desperately wanting to change the subject. When would she learn to think before she said anything? "I mean, yes, wait, I mean, I don't know what you're talking about, oh look, our food is here! Let's eat, I'm starving Aoshi-kun." Carefully keeping her eyes fixed on the platter of food that the waitress had set before her, she took a big bite of a piece of chicken katsu.

"Mmm!" she said theatrically, finally looking at him, her eyes wide with exaggerated pleasure. "Wow, Aoshi-kun, the food here is nice! So nice…" Averting her gaze again, she ate with large, exaggerated bites and chewing, making sure she was so absorbed in the food she was too busy to talk or look at him. In reality, all she could taste was cardboard, her mind could not focus on the delicious food she was (embarrassingly) loudly proclaiming a new found love for.

"…Aa," Aoshi finally said as he too dug into his meal, albeit with smaller, almost delicate bites and a lot less noise. They continued dinner in this manner. She eventually dropped the ridiculous act after it became apparent Aoshi was not going to pursue the matter, and began talking nearly non-stop between bites. She talked about everything she could think of, though she occasionally stopped to ask Aoshi his thoughts on the matter, something he would divulge, rather succinctly, in a word or two—his only contribution to the mostly one sided conversation.

Author's Rants ( 5th September 2007 - Wednesday, 3 days late and a week after the last chapter! ) :

Eep guys, I'm SO sorry for taking so long to update! Well, okay it's not long, but I'm LATE! Hahaha, I'm really really sorry, I had the ideas in my head, I was just having trouble getting them out, and was too busy with work to be able to properly write so yeah, I'm so so sorry... This chapter is a bit haphazard I feel, I wrote like 30 of it while I was at work so pls pls pls point out any glaring grammatical or spelling errors. I'm on my 2nd week of work now, hopefully I'll have another chapter up by Sunday, but this time I'm not promising anything k guys, I'm sorry. Don't worry tho, next week I DEFINITELY will post at least one chapter, that's my quota, by end of next week my training'll be done and i won't have to work daily 8:30am to 5pm so I'll have alot more free time :) After that, beware an influx of chapters! (I hope)

anyway, the only thing I guess I really wanna say about this chapter is this: I did my research! The Cube is an actual shopping mall in the Kyoto Station (the central one), and the Katsukura is an actual restaurant on the 11th floor! As is the Ten Ichi, and it really WAS visited by Bill Clinton! Fun facts huh? I've been looking at pictures of Kyoto and everything, it's a really cool place... I've got like, the details as to where Aoshi lives, and where everything is in relation to everything more or less mapped out, haha, so yeah. And everything Aoshi said about kempo, it's true I think, i got it off the wikipedia stub on kempo and Nippon kempo. Oh ya, and tonkatsu is pork in breaded crust, chicken katsu is chicken in breaded crust, and the Katsukura really did get good reviews in the site I researched it on. Just thought you should know. Personally I've never been to Japan so I'm really sorry that this isn't really very believable.

OK people, that's all I have for my Author's Rants today. I'm really, really tired, I kinda forced myself to finish this chapter, which is why it's a bit short, sorry bout that, I had one more thing I could fit in but I really wanted to post it ASAP and I don't think I can survive writing some more AND write the Author's Rants so I can post it. I slept at freaking 3:30am this morning, woke at 7am and have been out and about every since and it's 11pm now... Plus e previous nights also I didn't sleep much. Gonna lie down, stupid annoying chinese screwed up festival downstairs making a huge racket with annoying people who can't freaking sing. argh, I'm refraining myself from swearing up a storm man, but i'm damn pissed!

OK lying down bye people review and i'm sorry again for the late update, review please. My eyes really really ache man... they burn!!! And i'm not even kidding... night...