Let's start from the beginning, shall we? Actually, this whole mess actually began this morning. The weather hadn't changed in the least; the sun gazing down at the peaceful citizens of the No-Names. However, it was a certain Gift Game that caused all this and the story embarks now.
A fierce battle cry was let out as our fellow blonde punched a gator-monster square in the snout. It was predictable to say that there was a loud, deafening crack added to the attack, courtesy of the beast's now-broken nasal. In return, it let out a wail of its own; a shriek of pain and anger.
"Oh, come on! You can't possibly be crying over something like that?! I'm just getting warmed up!" Izayoi said from across the battlefield, eyes glinting with a strong will to fight.
"Izayoi, stop it!" Black Rabbit shouted from the sidelines, in between You and Asuka. "You shouldn't even be fighting him in the first place! We should be heading to a different Gift Game!"
Izayoi looked back at the blue-haired rabbit. "Don't worry about it. Already seeing as how this guy can't even take one of my weak punches, I'm sure this will be done before you know it. I promise."
"But-!" Black Rabbit began, but was instantly cut off as Izayoi thrust up into the air thanks to his powerful legs.
The gator-monster was still caressing his wound when he took note of the sky high teen. Letting out an intimidating growl, the humanoid-gator quickly dived into a nearby lake, just as Izayoi's tennis shoes touched the ground, a huge crater sure to leave a mark for people to indicate he had been there.
Izayoi began to laugh with a villainous smirk. "Oh ho, so you want to play in the water, huh?" And exclaiming that remark, he tore off his school jacket, hearing the one button he had used to keep it closed around his chest rip off, revealing his plain yellow shirt underneath.
"I-Izayoi!" Black Rabbit gasped, witnessing his jacket fall to the ground and soon his shoes and socks following before finally diving in after the beast the mother-of-all splashes. "Izayoi, stop this!"
Izayoi was already underwater by the time Black Rabbit had sounded her whine. His purple eyes glanced from one side of the lake to the other, a little surprised at how clear it was compared to lakes from his old world, where most were murky and dirty. He only saw a couple fish swim past him, but nothing more. It almost confused him that he didn't see the twenty foot gator anywhere.
But he still felt a presence.
A presence nearby.
Glaring behind him, Izayoi waited a couple more seconds until the first gator came swimming out. Once it was close, Izayoi punched the gator in the side of its skull, bubbles erupting from the creature's mouth as it was shot down back to the bottom.
But he wasn't finished.
He felt more than one presence.
This gator was playing dirty.
Before he could think, the problematic child was ambushed by a good ten twenty foot tall humanoid gators, claws and teeth bared to feel the victory of blood on their scaly hands. Izayoi was being wrapped by their long tails in order for him to stay still, and for a moment, he thought he smelled something gross blow in his face-probably the gators' fishy breaths breathing down his neck.
He was beginning to show a little struggle; a little strain. And before you question on how someone as strong as Izayoi would be threatened by the likes of these reptiles, I'll tell you this now.
Izayoi wasn't struggling due to the amount of gators-no. It was due to him being under the water longer than he anticipated. But he wouldn't let a little water and a couple alligator freaks from stopping him on completing this game.
And so, with a shove of his forearms, Izayoi was immediately released from the clutches of the humanoid reptilians; all being pushed in every direction, resulting in their bodies slamming to the lake floor, mushrooms of sand bursting up from their unconscious carcasses.
Izayoi was still a little unsure of his predicament, wondering if he had truly finished the last of the gators, feeling that someone or something was keeping him company until it could strike when the boy was caught off guard.
He wanted to swim as fast as his legs could push, but already feeling his lungs start to burn due to lack of oxygen, Izayoi took a risk and swam back up to the lake's surface, his silvery headphones the first to break.
Swallowing in mouthfuls of air, Izayoi looked up and saw his comrades gazing down at him with eyes of wonder. Had he defeated his target? Did he win the Gift Game for his community?
Izayoi could only give his casual smirk, raising a thumbs-up from out of the water, showing his team that the victory belonged to him, resulting in wide-spread smiles across each and every girl's face.
But his triumph only lasted for a second as Izayoi felt a sudden becoming, the presence growing stronger and stronger. Then just when he was about to turn around and examine what it was, he felt a force clamp on his ankle, swiftly being pulled under the water's surface as he locked eyes with his former enemy, seeing the blood begin to steadily seep from the gator's nostrils, his snout unnaturally crooked to one side.
Fortunately, once swallowing a bit of lake water that had gushed into his mouth after being suddenly pulled under, Izayoi smiled his dastardly smile that clearly said that he wasn't going to lose to a stupid gator-monster.
And with that, Izayoi easily tapped away the gator's hold on him and with a shift of his body, rapidly kicked the gator square in between his red eyes, his body hurtling down to the dusty floor, a giant crater instantly born from the force.
Scanning the body of water right away to make sure that there was no one else there to challenge him, Izayoi took his time and swam back up to the surface, only to see the girls' scurry toward them, all three of them surprisingly wearing a look of pure worry.
"What happened?" Asuka asked.
"Did you win, Boy?" You questioned.
"Are you alright, Izayoi?" Black Rabbit queried.
Standing up and beginning to wring out the lake water from his yellow hair, Izayoi nonchalantly said, "Duh; I won. And I'm fine."
He heard Black Rabbit let out a giant sigh of relief, a hand over her left breast as if to ensure it that it could breathe again. "Thank goodness."
"Yeah; but really, do you have to pick a fight with every guy that looks at you crossly?" Asuka asked, sounding a little exasperated.
Izayoi shrugged with a playful grin. "Why not? After all, for a creature that was talking big bad about our community, he sure was weak; weaker than you, Black Rabbit."
Black Rabbit nodded with a sympathetic smile. "Yes, yes. That's goo-," she stopped mid-sentence once officially listening to the boy's words. "Now, wait a minute!" Black Rabbit scolded, ensuing another round of laughter from Izayoi as the girl began to whip out her paper fan. How dare he!
Asuka and You were watching their team member be hit multiple times in the face by Black Rabbit's paper fan which truth be told, really had no effect on them whatsoever when You saw a scroll appear in front of them, announcing Izayoi's victory and presenting them with his reward. "What did the boy win?" You asked, curiously.
Pausing her enraged slapping, Black Rabbit reached up to grab the Geass scroll. "Let's see . . . Izayoi won a . . . eh? A pearl?" And like magic, replacing the piece of paper in Black Rabbit's palm was a head-sized pearl.
"A pearl?" Izayoi, Asuka, and You all questioned simultaneously, clearly confused of the prize. What could a pearl do other than sparkle underneath the sun?
"I guess it's no surprise since you challenged a member of the Atlantis Community to a Gift Game," Black Rabbit explained to the trio.
It was a safe bet to say that Izayoi was still a little peeved of his gift. "But why a pearl? What does a pearl do that could possibly help us?"
"Well, throughout Little Garden, there are various different pearls, all with their own special ability," Black Rabbit proclaimed. "Some can tell the future and others can teleport. But from the looks of this one . . ." the bunny girl was thoroughly looking over the pearl, looking at every inch of the sphere. "Hmm . . . that's odd."
"What?" Asuka wondered aloud. "Something wrong with it?"
"Well, no, not technically, but it doesn't seem like I can decipher this pearl's power. Very strange," Black Rabbit concluded, cupping her chin with her hand in thought.
Hearing the comments of the rabbit, Izayoi merely sighed. "Whatever. I'll get a better gift for us at the next Gift Game," he said, toes sliding into his cotton socks.
"Oh, no! You fought the last Gift Game! Dean and I are playing in this one!" Asuka raged, placing a hand on her chest. Merun, the little fairy, nodded in agreement, clearly happy that she would get to be with Asuka in another Gift Game.
You was silent when she let out in her emotionless tone, "I think it's my turn to play. After all, I need to redeem myself from last time." You thought back to her Gift Game with Ayesha and Jack from the Will O' Wisp Community. They were tough and she was still awaiting the day where she would be strong enough to take them on for a rematch. Until then, all she could do was train.
"True," Asuka admitted, but didn't give up as she continued on to say, "But I still think Dean and I need our share of fun."
"G-Guys, please don't argue," Black Rabbit shyly said from the sidelines with a nervous smile.
Shoving his socked feet in his shoes, Izayoi graciously smiled and said, "Black Rabbit's right. No need to fight over a petty Gift Game. We're all friends here."
Asuka and You both looked at Izayoi with a look of distraught and a little of bewilderment, never really hearing him say such considerate words. But even so, they paid no mind and only smiled back at the boy as his words were taken into consideration, realizing that what they were doing was wrong.
"Besides, that last Game was boring; I call dibs on this one," Izayoi claimed with a vicious smirk, teeth glinting under the sun's rays.
In response to Izayoi's sudden remark, both girls gasped and furiously screamed, "No way!" To which, Izayoi only laughed at the girls' reactions.
"Now, now. Let's not get hasty. We'd better go now. We mustn't be late," Black Rabbit said, putting a hand on You's back and pushing it away from her almost as if she were shooing them away.
"Fine. But this isn't over. Black Rabbit will decide when we get there," Asuka declared, stamping away from the lake. With You close on her heels, the brunette nodded her head in agreement, Mikeneko grinning peacefully on her shoulder.
Black Rabbit could only sigh with exasperation as she too, walked after her fellow teammates, the giant pearl resting in her aristocratic hands.
Izayoi was smirking, watching the girls walk ahead of him. Did they not yet realize just who exactly he was? He always got what he wanted. And it was pretty obvious that he wasn't going to lose to a fight like this. If the Gift Game interested him in the least, it was clear that he was going to be the main participant of the battle. No doubt about it.
Lamenting in this subject, Izayoi reached down for his navy blue school jacket, which had gotten a little wet due to his splashing from the lake. However, slipping his arms through the sleeve holds of his coat, Izayoi felt a small tingle in the center of his face. And before he could say a word, he sneezed, catching it in the crook of his elbow.
Raising a finger up to his nose, he instantly sniffed away any other tickles that would result in another fit, and looked up to the sky. Was someone talking about him? Back in his old world, he had heard of the myth of when sneezing, that usually meant that someone, somewhere was talking good or bad things about you. Izayoi hoped that it wasn't the latter so he wouldn't have to beat another guy up.
"Izayoi! Hurry up!" Asuka yelled from deep within the forest.
"Coming!" Izayoi yelled back, and dropping his hands to his pockets, walked away from the lake and to his awaiting teammates.