Author's notes:
Well, nothing much to say here. The remaining OCs will be revealed in the next chapter, Memories: Past, Present, Future.
Disclaimer: I do not own IE or its characters or the OCs that are featured. I just own my OCs and the plot as well as some special mechanics.
Chapter 5: Eyes part 2
Hoshiri had dragged Shanto to the changing rooms when he finally struggled free. 'What's the big idea?' He snapped at her. 'Well, giving people privacy in those situations is known as common courtesy. I thought you didn't know that so I dragged you here.' She replied scowling at him.
'Wow, you really connected with me in the hour we've been in the same team.' Shanto said sarcastically. 'Sorry, but you're not the type people can connect with.' She replied acidly.
'Then leave me alone, will you?' He huffed. 'Gladly! Just try to behave and cooperate.' Hoshiri said turning away.
'Err... I'd like too say something.' Natasha said quietly. 'What now? Are you going to tell me off too?' Shanto said aggressively.
Helen was about to snap at Shanto too, but surprisingly, Addie stopped her and shook his head. 'She has this under control.'
'Actually, no I wasn't.' Natasha replied calmly. 'I was just saying that were in the same team, and also we're classmates, so we shouldn't fight like this. We all probably got the wrong impression of you because of your fight with Helen and Addie. I hope you'll forget the past and we'll be able to be friends.' She said smiling sweetly and stretched out her hand as a friendly gesture.
Shanto looked really unsure and suspiciously eyed Natasha's outstretched hand.
'We're all friends here, you know.' Sugar said, trying to egg him on a bit.
'Come on Aranthe-san, there's no need to be a lone wolf.' Natasha said brightly.
If any thing surprised him, it was the way she talked to him. He was pretty used to being spoken to in a disdainful way, as though he was some kind of nuisance to people. But Natasha was speaking to him kindly, almost respectfully...
'No thanks, I'm not the kind who needs friends.' He said dismissively and he turned away. Natasha's hand slumped to the side.
'Good luck living in society then.' Setsu scoffed at him with an eye roll. But, surprisingly he ignored this and left with his stuff. 'Odd, I thought he was gonna explode at you too.' Yukie said with her eyebrows raised at Setsu.
'It's the old Hikari Natasha Effect.' Addie said cheerfully. 'I bet the jerk was confused why she wasn't yelling at him.'
'It's not over, is it?' Setsuna asked Natasha. 'It never is.' She replied with a smile. 'I'll get through to him yet.'
'Bless him; he's earned himself a stalker.' Setsuna said shaking her head.
'A guardian angel is more like it.' Helen said packing her bag. 'One he doesn't deserve.'
'Come on Nell-chan, give him a chance.' Natasha said frowning. 'It'll be good for the team.' She added.
Natasha knew (and so did the team) that she had struck gold. Helen would never jeopardize the team's chances of winning the FF.
'Fine, but only for the team. If he leaves the team for some reason, I'm declaring a vendetta against him.' Helen said grumpily.
'Wow, the guy was able to get on Helen's last nerves in a day. That must be an all time record.' Yukie said jokingly. Most of the team snickered at the remark. (Helen says she'll declare a vendetta against someone at least once a week.)
Yukie was feeling quite cheerful. The situation improved in the best way. She was leaving with the rest of the team, right behind Natasha and Helen. She took a deep breath with her eyes closed and was about to call them when...
'AAARGH!' She shrieked with pain and covered her eyes with her hands.
'What's the matter?' Everyone asked her as the quickly crowded around her.
She just squeaked with pain and wiped her eyes that were watering. 'Let me see.' Sugar said urgently (she was the one in charge of first-aid).
Yukie removed her hands and looked at them. Her eyes had turned pink and were watering much.
'I think something went into her eyes.' Sugar said worriedly. She led her to the washroom to rinse out her eyes.
Yukie didn't object, but inwardly thinking something else. She didn't have something in her eye. As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw a giant flash of light that nearly blinded her.
Meanwhile...
'Adonis Heart, I need a word with you.' Natsumi said bossily when everyone was leaving.
'Yeah?' He said timidly. 'You're screwed Addie...' He thought inwardly. 'Don't 'Yeah' me Heart.' She snapped at him crossing her arms. 'I speak for the chairman when I say that you are failing extravagantly as a captain. It was your duty to break up the feud but you only made things worse. As captain it was your responsibility to tell them to either settle their differences or leave their personal life out of the soccer field and concentrate. Either take action or leave authority, just because you're the playmaker doesn't make you irreplaceable and if you keep on your abysmal performance you will be stripped of your captaincy or place in the team...' She kept on her tirade for a good ten minutes before leaving Addie in a bad mood.
'The chairman sure has a lot to say to me even though he never actually comes to see the team play.' He muttered sourly to himself.
Shanto was going home with his hands in his pockets. He was really sulky and was ruminating something deeply. 'Is that Hikari girl for real? No one's that much of a Cindy-sunshine. I know she's up to something.' He thought to himself.
But his train of thought got interrupted when a bark was heard from behind him. The little wolf cub was scurrying towards him. 'Really, you're a tenacious little thing, aren't you?' He said quietly as it started to wag its tail rapidly while looking up at him with the puppy dog face.
Shanto sighed. That same dog or wolf or whatever was following him around for six solid years...
'Fine... You can come...' He said. Well, the little guy was really the only one genuinely interested to be in his company, so why not? (And for some odd reason he was feeling happier than usual.)
The wolf cub yelped happily and gave a cute roll. Shanto smiled a bit, despite himself.
'Really Zoey-neesan, you should use some eyeliner, it'll do wonders for your looks!' A girl with blonde hair and silver eyes said to her sister who had silver hair and gold eyes while walking on the sidewalk.
'For the last FREAKIN TIME, I'm not interested in using eyeliner, lipstick, blusher, eye shadow, or anything that I have to put on my face, or make my hair, or wear a skirt Claira!' She said loudly and started rubbing her temples as though she was fighting a headache. (Some people looked alarmed at the sudden outburst.)
'First of all,' Claira started calmly (she was pretty used to her sister's yelling) 'you're already wearing a skirt.' She said pointing at her uniform. 'Doesn't count.' She said. To be honest, it did take a lot of persuasion to get her into the school uniform in the first place.
'Secondly,' She continued, 'how will you get Gouenji to notice you if you don't pretty yourself up?'
'You're changing the subject!' She spluttered going beet red. Claira just giggled.
'And I told you to never speak of this outside our bedroom.' She snapped.
'Okay, okay...' Claira replied rolling her eyes.
They finally reached their home, and were about to enter when Gouenji came to them, totally out of the blue. 'Hi!' Claira greeted cheerfully. 'Hey!' Zoey said too, with a small hint of embarrassment. (She didn't like him seeing her in her school uniform.)
'Hi.' Gouenji said. 'I was wondering, could you two come with me for a bit?' He said without hesitation.
'Both of us?' Claira said in a confused voice. (It was only Zoey who knew him well since she wasn't in the soccer team.)
'Yeah.' He said a bit mysteriously. 'Okay.' Zoey said, a bit confused of the suddenness. 'Where to?'
'The riverside, we're having a team meeting.' Gouenji replied.
'Then why do you need Claira?' Zoey inquired. 'Err... The girls are deciding our new team jersey, so they wanted her opinion as well.' He replied.
'Really? Sweet! Your old jersey was soooo overrated.' She said with a glint in her eyes. Zoey facepalmed.
'Where is everybody?' Zoey asked seeing the field empty. 'Gouenji?' Claira asked unsurely, Gouenji wasn't the kind to play pranks.
But both the twins got shocked at the look on his face... It was the cruel kind of look that a hunter would get after successfully cornering his prey... It sent chills up their spines...
Suddenly they heard someone say, 'W'ssil ess'eh!'
It was obviously in a foreign tongue, but both of them somehow understood each word... "Plain of thoughts."
The people around them disappeared, leaving them with only Gouenji. But he wasn't Gouenji, because he started to change. He became as tall as an average adult, his face was wiped clean off and became smooth, his clothes also dissolved into his body, which became white, and soon only a white faceless, hairless humanoid was standing in front of them.
Claira shrieked as Zoey moved in front of her. 'Damn! It was a trap.' She thought to herself, cursing her stupidity. But who could ever expect something this odd to happen out of the blue?
'No need to shriek girl.' A sinister looking man wearing a grey coat and black fedora said walking towards them slowly. 'Who are you?' Zoey asked aggressively.
'My my, sassy, aren't we?' He said with sickening relish in his voice. 'I'm telling you, leave us alone, or you'll face the consequences!' Zoey said warningly.
The man gave a mad cackle, the kind that would make even a man's skin crawl. He quickly tried to grab the twins, but Zoey was too quick for him and punched him in the gut.
He fell to his knees while holding his stomach; the wind was knocked out of him. The white humanoid acted quickly and turned into a large serpent and blocked the twins as they tried to escape.
'You two could've come with me so easily, but I guess we have to do this the hard way...' He said getting up. 'You should be so glad my orders are to bring you alive... So don't worry, you'll both be alive, barely...' He added with a sick grin.
He lifted his hand and pointed his finger towards them and said in the same tongue, 'Agony!'
A shot of black static zoomed towards them. They both braced themselves for what was coming next...
But suddenly something like a giant bird jumped in front of them with a loud squawk. It blocked the spell and Zoey was able to get a good look at it.
It was a larger than life peacock with shiny metallic feathers and a tail that had large mirrors in each tail feather where the eye shaped design usually is.
A woman with black hair in a large bun and bangs framing her face, azure eyes and peachy skin came to the side of the peacock. The large serpent tried to attack her but she placed her palm in front of it and it slammed to the wall opposite to it by an invisible force.
She reached in front of the twins and asked them, 'Are you two both alright?'
'Yeah...' Claira replied faintly. She nodded curtly and turned to face the man who was looking at her with deep loathing.
'Why are you interfering? This has nothing to do with you!' He told her angrily.
'It does concern me if you're bothering innocent people.' She replied coldly.
The man roared with anger and said, 'Agony!' again. But the peacock squawked again and one of its mirror-like tail feathers vanished and reappeared in front of all of them, almost five times its previous size and the black static disappeared in it.
A few more of the feathers vanished and materialized around him and they released the static. But the man stopped them by raising protective pillars of rock by yelling, 'Earth's Embrace!'
The pillars surrounding him retracted after blocking his own spell. But the feathers were still floating around him in a circle. 'You know you can't beat me, so give up.' She said coolly.
'Never!' He yelled back. 'Fine then.' she said curtly. She calmly muttered something and said the last part in a normal voice, 'Quicksilver Flood.'
A torrent of molten metal gushed out of nowhere and tried to envelop him, but he jump out of the way and reared up to cast another spell. But she then said calmly, 'Metal Madness.'
The wave of metal gushed towards him again and this time when he was about to jump out of the way, it formed spires and chains and blades that flew towards him. He was completely caught off guard and was trapped in the shiny shackles.
The woman raised her and an elegant hand mirror appeared in her palm. She directed it towards the man and he was sucked into it, without a trace. The molten silver also vanished.
The woman came to the girls and nodded at the peacock. It opened its beak, but a male human voice came out which said 'Passage of Reflections'
Another mirror appeared beneath them and they were sucked into its depths.
They reappeared near the twins' home and the woman turned away without a word. 'Wait!' Zoey and Claira both said in union. But she didn't turn around. The peacock came in front of them instead and spread its tail feathers, which glowed a sinister red.
They almost looked like demonic eyes... The twins slowly slumped to the ground, unconscious.
'Hey, Nats-chan!' Addie called Natasha from a distance.
Natasha turned around smiling at him. He ran to her side and panted lightly. 'Addie, your house's not this way.' Natasha said, stating the obvious.
'I know,' Addie said looking at her. 'I'm going to pick up Koichi-kun from practice.'
'That's really sweet Addie, but I'll manage, thanks.' She replied sweetly. 'You already have enough to handle, and it's almost time to check Hajime-san's medicines. I insist I'll go!' He said stubbornly.
Natasha just beamed at him. 'Thanks!' She said hugging him. 'Hey, your brothers are my brothers, we're family, remember?' He said with a lopsided grin.
Hikari turned to go home, but Addie stopped her by grabbing her hand. 'You know that you don't have to face everything alone.' He said seriously.
Hikari turned to face him. 'But, I do...' She said lightly. 'But why? Do you think we'll get annoyed or think of you as a burden?' He asked, aghast.
'No. It's because it makes Hikari Natasha who she is.' She said with a touch of sadness in her voice. She turned to leave.
'But it didn't make our Nats-chan who she was...' He said.
Natasha paused for a bit and looked at the ground. 'Bye, Addie...' She said after a few moments.
END
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