(EDIT: I'm sorry for such a late update, but when I finally finished this chapter, my laptop wouldn't connect to the internet! So I couldn't upload it… Once again, sorry! By the time you'll read this, it'll probably be April or something… and I'm writing this A/N at the end of February! Ah… My laptop sucks sometimes. -3-)
HEY GUYS! I was re-reading every chapter today… and I realised that in one chapter, I'd put Charice with purple hair. I think it was chapter 7…? But anyway, she's definitely a brunette. It's her eyes that are purple, not her hair. Sorry for any confusion caused! -3-
I can't believe we're at chapter 20, and almost at the 100 reviews mark! (EDIT: Now over a hundred – thank you so much!) I never thought this story would get this far… or would get this many reviews! Thanks to everyone who's ever reviewed on this! I love you all! I'm in such a good mood that you all get a plush of your choice! Hell, it doesn't even have to be a Beyblade plush! TAKE ANYTHINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG! XD
AND THE THANK YOU THIS TIME IS IN… FRENCH! MERCI!
Oh yeah, and did anybody notice anything different about last chappie…? I'll give you TWO plushies of your choice if you can work it out… :D
DISCLAIMER – You know what, forget this. I own Beyblade and Hetalia and Naruto and every single decent anime or manga there is. *shot* (But really, I don't own Beyblade OR Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji.)
Blading Brings People Together
Chapter 20: Leonidas and Alois Halkias
"Come on, Charice! Open the door!"
"This is totally unawesome, so open the door for crying out loud!"
"Please come out, Charice!"After they got no reply, the three other female members of RLS slumped against the brunette's locked door. Team SM had already left, while Alex was in his room, resting. Charice refused to open her door, let alone come out of her room. "It's pointless. She won't come out." Tazmin sighed, shaking her head.
"But it's her against Raven today, isn't it? If she doesn't show up, won't we lose the point? And since Alex," Mitsuki looked around fearfully, as if something bad would happen if said Blader heard her, "… lost… that would mean that it's all over for us!"
"Charice probably knows that. I think she's waiting for us to leave, and then she'll come out."
"Still, why did she lock herself in her room? What's the point?"
"Miku, be quiet! She's upset about the fight with Nile. Anybody would be. Even you, no matter how tough you try to act."
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?!"
"Look, Miku, what Mitsuki is trying to say is that Charice just needs some time to calm down and compose herself, yeah? She'll come out and get to the stadium when she's ready." Standing up, Tazmin began to make her way towards the front door.
"I'll leave a note in front of Charice's door telling her the way to the stadium in case she doesn't remember!" Mitsuki called after her.
"Yeah, that's a good idea! See you guys at the stadium!" A few seconds later, the front door slammed shut. Mitsuki went to get a pen and some paper, leaving Miku by herself. She sighed dramatically.
"Oh why, why is everything so complicated in my life? Why can't I just have a simple, normal life?" The black-haired girl spun around, bringing her hand to her forehead as if she were about to faint. With her other hand, she pretended to pick something up off of a nearby set of drawers. This something she brought up to her eye-line, sighing once more. "Tell me, oh skull of great wisdom. Tell me the answers! Tell me the solution to all my dilemmas!"
"Why are you pretending to talk to a skull?" A deep, steady, unfamiliar voice came from somewhere behind Miku. Startled, she whirled around… but there was no-one there.
"Who are you?!" She scanned the landing, but couldn't see anyone. It couldn't be Alex: he was asleep (his gentle snores could be faintly heard), and Mitsuki had long since left. And it probably wasn't Charice, since she had not yet expressed any wish to even talk to anyone. Besides, her voice would be hoarse and gravelly from not speaking for so long.
"Answer my question and I'll answer yours." The voice came from behind her again, in the direction of Alex's room. She turned around... still no-one.
"Because I want to. Now, who are you?"
"I am a person." The voice replied.
"That doesn't answer my question!"
"It does, technically." Miku's eye twitched.
"Alright then. So you're not going to give me a straight answer?" No reply this time. "You know, you're really annoying me! I just need to know who you are, so if you're not a friend of Spiritual Magic, I can kick you out!"
"I have already told you, I am a person." Now the voice was directly behind her. This time, instead of turning around Miku rapidly kicked her leg out backwards. Although she didn't injure whoever it was, as they'd managed to block her kick at the last second, she was able to at least startle them, which meant that they couldn't mysteriously disappear just before she turned around. And so, Miku spun around, gasping once she saw who it was.
Standing in front of her… was a person.
… No really, it was a person. Seriously, a real, live person. Yes, an actual person. This was the event of the year – no, make that the century!
"Y-you're a person!" Miku cried, her hand flying to her mouth.
"I told you I was." The ultra-rare person had lavender-grey hair tied back in a ponytail, which was resting on his shoulder, and had deathly pale skin. Violet eyes sparkled with silent amusement at the black-haired girl, and a small smile played at the corner of his lips. A red fur-trimmed cloak was draped around his shoulders. In fact, he was dressed so much like a medieval prince or something that Miku was surprised to not see a crown atop his head.
"O-ok, I believe y-you…" She finally got over her initial shock, and cocked her head, staring at the person with narrowed eyes, "… Are you Charice's long lost brother or something?" They did have the exact same violet hue in their eyes, after all…
"Charice?" Miku saw something flash in his eyes, but it was gone before she could work out what it was. "… I am sorry, but I do not know who you are talking about."
"Ah, don't worry then. Anyway, who are you?"
"I have told you: I am a person."
"Alright then, what's your name?" Miku smirked, knowing that he would have to give her the answer she desired most.
"… I am not obliged to tell you."
"… Dammit!" Miku scowled, pretending that she was burning two giant holes into the person with her eyes like that alien did in that alien movie she watched recently.
"But I shall tell you because you obviously want to know badly. My name is Halkias, Leonidas Halkias." Leonidas bowed as he said his name, his cloak swishing slightly. Miku stared at him blankly,
"… I'm confused. Is your name Halkias or Leonidas?"
"It is both… Leonidas is my first name… Halkias is my second…"
"Then why did you say Halkias first?! Dude, seriously! You don't make any sense, yeah!" Miku snorted, "Anyway, are you a friend of Team Spiritual Magic?"
"No."
"Then why're you here?"
"What was it you said earlier…? Ah yes, because I want to be here."
"… Damn you."
/=+=/
Mitsuki walked down into the foyer, sighing deeply. Already she could hear the alien-obsessed girl talking to herself...
I always knew she was going to lose it someday... Today must be that day.
After scribbling down the directions to the stadium (it was only a 10 minute walk away, thank goodness - Mitsuki didn't think she'd be able to get very far in the sub-zero temperature outside), she made her way towards the cloakroom, where her coat was kept.
But as she passed the lounge/living room/sitting room/whatever it was, she noticed something moving in the darkness through the slightly ajar door. Startled, Mitsuki quickly walked backwards, and peeked through the tiny crack. She screamed not a second later.
There was an electric blue eye staring right back at her through the crack.
"Boo."
/=+=/
Just as Miku was about to attempt to punch the annoying, regal-looking, purple-haired 17 year-old (or at least, she guessed he was around that age), a sudden, shrill scream pierced the air.
Mitsuki! Miku immediately thought, spinning around to face the stairs. It came from down there, so it must've been Mitsuki… The Lynx user began to worry about her teammate. After all, who would take her place if she were to die? Nobody wanted to be the sub, so…
"Ah. That must be Alois finally making his appearance." Leonidas said, breaking the silence that had followed the scream. A pale hand covered his mouth, almost certainly hiding a smirk of sorts.
"Alois?! Who the hell is Alois?!" Miku snapped, glaring at the lavender-haired teenager.
"You do not need to know."
"Um, yes I do! If this 'Alois' is hurting my friend, I'm going to have to destroy him!" She punched a fist into her other hand, imagining that she was punching some bad guy's face in.
"Alois is not one to hurt people. Scare them out of their wits… perhaps so." Before the girl could retort, he changed the subject. "You are the infamous Miku Layosa from Team Rock Lightning Storm." It wasn't a question; it was a statement.
Seeming happy to be recognised, Miku instantly perked up,
"Yep, that's me! So famous that everybody who is anybody knows who I am!" She grinned happily.
"… You do know that 'infamous' is not a good thing, right?"
"… Huh?"
Leonidas - for once - actually had to stop himself from facepalming. Of course, one of his status would not do such a lowly thing, and would not ever be able to live if they did.
/=+=/
Breathing heavily, Mitsuki scrambled backwards until her back was pressed right against the wall. She had fallen onto her rear as she screamed, and was sure that her heart had temporarily stopped out of pure terror.
A dark chuckle came from behind the door, but the eye was no longer there…
The door slowly swung inwards… but there was no-one there. If Mitsuki was terrified before, she was absolutely petrified now. Still, she somehow managed to muster up the courage to speak,
"Wh-who are y-you?" Although the girl had expected her voice to come out as nothing more than a whisper - if anything at all - she was surprised to find that it came out as her normal voice, besides the stuttering. But then again, this was Mitsuki. Her usual voice wasn't that loud, and stuttering was pretty much mandatory in situations like this.
Another dark chuckle followed her question, but there was no answer.
"I-I said, wh-who are y-you? A-and what do y-you w-want?"
"You want to know who I am? I… am your worst nightmare." The voice that came drifting out of the shadows held that same dark tone heard in the chuckles, but was, in a way, melodic. There was something almost… calming about it, despite its dark tone.
"I-I agree… Y-you are…" Mitsuki decided against lying, instead deciding that it would probably be safer to just tell the truth.
"… Hm. You're interesting." Out of the darkness of the room, a figure began to slowly take shape. Footsteps could be heard coming closer towards Mitsuki, which only added to the scariness of the whole scene. "You're the first one ever to speak the truth after I've said something like that. Everyone else lies and claims that I am not… I can tell when they're lying. Ah, but their terror! It's so amusing to watch them try to act all brave and tough when really they're nothing of the sorts… But you…" Suddenly, a pair of those electric blue eyes materialised in the darkness. "You… I like you. You're different…" More footsteps. "… Very different."
/=+=/
Alois smirked slightly, watching the brown-haired girl in front of him as her golden-brown eyes widened in shock and her mouth dropped open after he left the shadows. Practically everybody who saw him did that… He still found those faces amusing, but truth be told, that expression was just getting old. Yes, he knew he was undeniably sexy, and he loved knowing that if he ordered it everybody would drop dead as soon as the words left his oh-so-perfect lips, but the blond was bored of it all. Anybody who saw him wanted to be friends with him – or at least, he hadn't found many people who didn't want to be his friend at first sight. He wanted to find someone different. He wanted to find someone who wouldn't just want to be friends with him because of his looks; someone who would like him for his personality (Of course, everybody had to love his looks. So his looks as well.). As soon as Alois had seen this brown-haired, brown-eyed girl, he had known she would act differently… and she did live up to his expectations, until the second she'd actually seen him. Then she became just like everyone else…
And besides, Alois wasn't really as sadistic as he made himself seen. He had to admit, it was fun to watch people get frightened out of their minds, only to fall in love with him once they saw him, but that wasn't the point! It was simply a means of amusement. Nothing more; nothing less.
"(In other words, you are a sadist.)"
"… Huh? Did I just hear someone say something?" The blond stared up at the ceiling, certain that the voice had come from up there. "... Nah, must've been my imagination." Shrugging, he turned back to face the girl, who was doing nothing more than gawping at him. "What? Stop looking at me as if I'm a psycho. I'm too sexy to be a psycho." A sexy person couldn't be psycho. Or at least, that was Alois's theory (which was most likely totally wrong).
"U-Uh…"
"Alright. I should get down to business, or else adelfós, as he so much loves me to call him, will be after me."
/=+=/
The blond boy slipped a hand into a pocket, and began rummaging about in it, muttering irritably to himself.
Now that Mitsuki's fear had died down, she examined the boy. He couldn't be much older than Alex, who was 14, but most certainly wasn't older than Dashan. Under a long, purple frock coat, he wore a forest green vest, and under that was a simple, white button-up shirt. Atop his head sat a lopsided, miniature black and purple top hat, which sprouted bat wings… for some strange reason. Around his neck was a black ribbon tied in a bow. Although this all seemed… ridiculously overdone… Mitsuki had yet to get to the most outrageous part of his outfit… He wore brown shorts… No really, he did! But they weren't like the combat shorts Grant from Team Web-Spinners wore, nor like the jean-shorts that their very own Charice wore. No, these were real, short shorts. Like, they brought a new meaning to the word 'shorts'. And above all that (or technically, below all that), he wore black stockings that came almost right up to his shorts, leaving only a sliver of pale skin showing. To top it all off, brown high heel boots with deep purple laces fit snugly around his slim legs, all the way up to his knees.
Mitsuki had to admit, it did actually suit him. Whether it would suit anyone else…
"Aha! There it is!"
And he speaks with an accent… But what accent it is… I don't know. All I can tell is he certainly isn't from Tibet. Then something struck Mitsuki. How did he get in here? None of Team SM mentioned any other guests… Is he even meant to be here?!
Just before the girl could open her mouth to voice her question, the blond held up a bey. Its purple face bolt seemed extremely familiar…
"Mitsuki Malicsi! I, Alois Trancy, challenge you to a Beyblade battle!" He appeared to be reading her name off of a piece of paper he had pulled out with his bey.
"Alois! You are not called Alois Trancy. Your name is Alois Halkias. I do not care how much you love that ridiculous cartoon-" A voice called from up the stairs, but was cut off by Alois growling,
"It's not a cartoon! It's an anime, adelfós! If you ever call it a cartoon again, I will brutally murder you with a rusty spoon! I'll tell you now, you do not want to be killed via rusty spoon. SO NEVER INSULT BLACK BUTLER OR ANY ANIME IN FRONT OF ME AGAIN!" Alois yelled, turning to scowl towards the sound of the voice.
… He's just like Charice… Mitsuki thought to herself, sweatdropping.
"Alright then. I do not care how much you love that ridiculous anime, but even I can only go so far. I allow you to wear your bizarre cosplay clothes - or whatever it is they are called – in public. That is a real gift in itself; you have no idea how much torment I go through every time I am seen with you while you wear that outfit! Dressing up as your favourite character is far enough! I will not allow you to disgrace the Halkias name any further by even forsaking your proper name in exchange for a fictional character's name! It is only pure chance that your first name is the same as this person's, and that you happen to look like him. Please, understand that, Alois." Mitsuki stared at Alois while he was lectured by whoever this person was - probably a relative or something. His face stayed impassive for the majority of the time, but the girl did catch his eye twitching every now and again.
"Fine, fine. Leave me alone now! You mind your own business, yeah!" Alois stuck his tongue out childishly at the stairs, and Mitsuki was shocked to see some sort of pentagram on his tongue. The blond seemed to notice her gazing at the shape, as he explained it to her. "Alois Trancy has one. It seals the contract he made with the demon, Claude Faustus." Although Mitsuki didn't actually understand what he was talking about, she nodded her head and acted as if she understood every word he said.
"Cool…"
"Anyway, thanks to my annoying adelfós up there…" Alois glared at the ceiling, as if he could somehow glare at whoever was upstairs through it, "we'll need to start from the beginning again." For some strange reason, Alois shoved his bey back in his pocket, and slipped back into the shadows of the lounge until only his blue eyes shone in the darkness. He chuckled evilly. "You want to know who I am? I… am your worst nightmare…"
Mitsuki sighed exasperatedly. It was going to be a long, long day indeed.
UGH I'M SO TIRED I'VE BEEN WORKING ON THIS NON-STOP FOR DAYS LIVING SOLELY ON CHOCOLATE POCKY AND WATER AND AWESOME MUSIC. OH WELL. I feel proud of this chapter… I like it. Whether anybody else does… Haha, I hope you guys do. ^w^
Truth be told, Leonidas and Alois weren't supposed to even exist… then they appeared. Haha, this is what happens when you don't plan. Random characters appear, and before you know it, the plot takes a huge twist that even the author doesn't expect. XD
So… Once again, I'm sorry for the gigantic wait for this chapter. And I know you guys are dying for Raven vs. Charice, but… *awkward laugh* Anyway, I should be able to update faster now. I've got my inspiration back (and wrestled down tons of homework), so YAAAAAY!
I hope I made this chapter good enough that it makes up for the long update time… ^-^'
And what language are the numbers in this time? ^w^
QUESTION ÉNAS! Why was Miku talking to a skull?
QUESTION DYO (and tría) ! Just who are Leonidas and Alois? And what do they have to do with everything?
RANDOM QUESTION! … Does anyone actually watch Black Butler…?
QUESTION TÉSSERA! … Who hates me for prolonging the battles? Just tell the truth… Really, I wish I didn't have to, but… Leonidas and Alois are important in the lead up to the grand finale…
QUESTION PÉNTE! What will happen between Charice and Nile? And just what does Alois have to do with it all?
THOSE WHO REVIEW SHALL GET TONS AND TONS OF POCKY. And feel free to send me death-threats if I'm not updating fast enough. I could do with some extra… um… motivation. XD