Me: Don't anyone forget, these one-shots are AU which means, if I so chose, I can change the arrangement of people on the team for the Riders.

Bahamut: Which means the dying may live and the living may already be dead.

Me: ... Wow, Bahamut... just... wow...

Bahamut: Yeah, that was kind of depressing wasn't it?

Me: Kind of? I don't think Eeyore could be more depressing than that!

DISCLAIMERS: Don't own what's not my own.

The OtherSide

By Corvus no Genmu the Prince of Slumberland

"Battle for Hearts"

The calm, the peace, and tranquility…

"PERVERTED MALE!"

"PSYCHOTIC BITCH!"

How quick it was to disappear so early in the morning…

Eiji suppressed a groan and rose from his futon with a frown on his face. 'You'd think those two would try and AVOID these conflicts but, noooo. They have to go out and search for them… pair of idiots…'

Eiji preformed his morning rituals of getting dressed and giving a moment of silence to the altar at his dresser where pictures of the deceased rested in their frames. The K-Zectors of those that fell were locked and hidden in a safety-deposit box which was located in the one place no one would think to look, and he wasn't talking anytime soon.

He sighed once more and thought of how much Morisato would have loved it here… shortly before remembering how homicidally insane a few of the girls here are. Shaking his head with a sad smile on his face, Eiji exited his room and nearl bumped into a running Waka who, by the look on his face, was chasing something. The mad giggling down the hall gave a pretty good clue to the Martial Arts master.

"Wonder what Su took this time…" he sighed. "She's really got to stop pushing Waka's buttons before she does something she'll end up regretting."

--

Mitsune was not known (in)famously as the Kitsune without a good reason. Her skills at tricks and words were renowed for their duplicity and forked-tongued-ness. She was counting on this skills as she slowly opened the door and closed it shut behind her and making her way into the darkness. Her eyes, normally lidded to the point of not looking open at all, were wide as she strategically searched the room for any sign of her precious—

"They're not in here, Lady Mitsune. You can add another day to your sentence."

In her mind, Kitsune used several colorful words to describe her predicament. "Why, Sugah, I have no idea what you're talking about, I just came by to wish ya a good morning is all!"

"I'm sure," smiled Shiro as he sat up, his eyes now opened. "Which explains the 'Mission Impossible' t-shirt you're wearing."

'Drat! I knew I should have worn something else!' But what could she wear? Nothing she wore or did ever seemed to entice Shiro into an embarrassing situation and the fact that he was studying to be a monk didn't help her any in terms of Naru and Motoko. She left in a huff, making sure to keep the shirt pulled down enough to keep her derriere from view. She might have given him a free show when she was drunk, but not when she was sober!

Oh, and her anger had nothing to do with the fact that Shiro did not seem interested in her at all.

Most certainly not.

Shiro sighed and shook his head, wondering again why he bothered to keep his emotions under control. 'Because she's showing me Kitsune, not Mitsune.' His conscience reminded him. Another sigh. 'Good deeds aside, I'm getting tired of cold showers…'

--

J.D. was not one to deny warmth even before he received his K-Zector. He'd never hesitate in proclaiming his love for high temperatures and would often agree that perhaps he did have cold-blood in his veins. Eitherway, his love for the sun and its pleasant rays was matched only by two things. A certain room in the apartments and the current resider of said room who had (secretly) invited him for a sleepover.

Groaning in pleasure both from the tropical temperature of the room along with several old kinks now long gone out of his spine, J.D. slowly opened his eyes and gasped in shock. With her arms and legs wrapped tightly around him and her button shirt wide-open was the very person who lived and cultivated this internal jungle.

Koalla Su.

For the first time since he had arrived here in this alternate Japan, far from America and without the aid of his fellow Patriots, J.D. truly and completely felt that he was gonna die. Oh no, Su wouldn't hurt him, not willingly anyway, but she did sometimes let her mouth runaway with her and J.D. knew that somehow, someway, Motoko would here of this.

"Mmmm… Jaydee smell nice… like 'nanas…" Koalla rubbed her face more into his neck, tickling him slightly and making him giggle at the sensation.

'Meh, today might just be a good day to die…'

--

"Shinobu…" Waka groused. 'Mustn't curse, mustn't curse, mustn't curse…' "Didn't we talk about you making us all breakfast on your own already?"

The shy young girl, blushed and nodded, running a finger along the handle of her frying pan. "I just… I thought that you'd like to sleep in for a day, Sempai… I heard you complaining to Eiji-san of your troubles sleeping…"

'Shit on a shingle…' Waka internally winced. 'I didn't want her to hear that, damn it!'

"Shinobu… chan… I appreciate that, really I do, but I made a promise didn't I? That I'd help you make breakfast and dinner so you'd have more time for your schoolwork and studies, right?" He smiled and again, Waka wondered what she saw in him that her acting like, like a schoolgirl with a crush.

He honestly didn't know and if he wasn't afraid of asking her, Waka would have but the girl would likely have died via embarrassment if he did. He sighed and patted her head and smiled. 'And that'd be a damn shame too…'

--

Takuya wondered what deity he had managed to piss off and whether or not he could take said deity on and kick some ass for this horrible fate that had befallen him. Bad enough that he had to live without excessive use of his powers, which he pretty much ignored but still got in trouble whenever he was caught, but he was forced to live in what was once a hotel turned girl's dorm which turned into apartments with the damn girls still living there!

He could stand Shinobu, girl cooked like a master and like the saying went, 'a way to a man's heart is through his stomach'. That and, for whatever reason, she had a crush on his young protégé. Koalla was tolerable since she liked that gaijin brat J.D. and the bitch and sought them out more frequently whenever she was bored. Kitsune learned to leave him alone after their first introduction and he never bothered with her if he could help it. Mutsumi was alright, like Shinobu, but the gaijin bitch-brat, Sara, was a pain-in-the-ass if ever there was one! Takuya had no qualms with taking her over the knee and giving her what she deserved and with the blackmail material he had on her, curtesy of the klutz Keitaro and the Queen Bitch, she had nothing on him.

The Queen Bitch, if one couldn't immediately tell, was Naru Narusegawa who did not make a good first impression on Takuya, or the other Riders for that matter. Worse than Mitsune's in Takuya's opinion and considering Takuya's opinion on women that acted like Mitsune, that was really something. He did not appreciate being called a pervert and being punched in the face and Takuya retaliated in the way he liked best.

He knocked her out in one hit and ended up knocking out a tooth.

He still kept it as a trophy in his room.

Since then, there was a… strained relationship between the Riders and the girl that bordered on open aggression with her being the aggressor. Only Shiro never struck her back whenever she tried to hit them and accuse them of something they didn't do only because the Bitch, and all the other girls, agreed that Shiro, being a monk-in-training, would never do any of those things. Takuya honestly thought that Keitaro was some sort of masochist to actually have fallen in love with the psycho but that wasn't his problem so Takuya could care less.

Now the Bitch, oh she was another story entirely. Being a master of the sword, Takuya had been willing to give her a slight, like a hair's width, of doubt and offer her a hand of… not exactly friendship but non-hostility on his part but Motoko ruined it the moment she called him and his friends perverts as well. He'd take that from the hypocritic Queen Bitch but from her? Oh hell no. What made matters worse was, whenever they dueled, Takuya never once drew his sword and was still able to not only beat her, but incorporate her attacks to his family's style. Since then, he'd never find a moment to practice without Motoko being there and challenging him and pissing him off at the same time.

Somehow, he had ended up running into Motoko's sister, Tsuruko, and had escorted her back to Hinatasou. She kept looking to his family-sword but she hadn't asked or said a word about it or him and only asked him if he had a kinship with most birds since her own had, for whatever reason, gained a liking to him and was resting on his shoulder. He didn't want it there and Takuya had tried to shake it off but let it drop when the bird merely moved to his other shoulder and back again with every attempt.

So here he was now surrounded by the residents of Hinatasou, watching in no small amusement as Motoko was apparently having a freak-out with her sister's sudden appearance. He had frowned slightly upon hearing of the deal made between the sisters that Motoko would be the one to take over the family legacy and the school. He'd deny any feelings of attachment and would say that he'd miss the challenges and nothing more about it, but that would turn to be neither here nor there as Motoko frantically waved him over, calling him by his first name.

Confused, and somewhat concerned as she had never once called him by his first name, Takuya did so and nearly shot through the roof with shock when she wrapped her arms around his right arm in a way that he refused to like. Her eyes tightly clenched shut as she steeled herself for what she was about to do, Motoko yelled out the one idea she had to get herself out of this situation.

"Urm, e-excuse me, Oneesan, but… but he… he… He and I… are secretly engaged to be married!"

…

"WHAT?!"

To this day, no one could tell whose yell was the loudest though many could not deny that Takuya was in the top three.

To Be Continued...

A/N Inspiration: I'm gonna give to y'all straight. I just wanted to play with the idea of Takuya, god of misogyny, would interact, or in most cases react, to being in a dorm filled with women. I figured, alone, he'd probably go on a rampage so I threw in a few of the other Riders and for those confused as to who, or what, J.D. is… Well, he's another Rider, this time from the Americas. You'll meet him soon enough.

Next Reflection...

"Demons Within"