The voice that was calling out to me, was spinning belief

So that I won't lose it

Shinjite tsumugu ore o yobu koe

Keshite nakusanai you ni

After breakfast my mother shooed us out of the house so quickly I barely had time to grab my purse before she shut and locked, locked, the door behind us. I stood out there int the hall next to Takeru for about a minute, staring at the door with a bemused look.

"A date, eh..." he muttered, stuffing his hands into his pockets and turning towards me.

My cheeks turned a bright red as I looked away from him. "She's going to be really pushy about calling it that, so let's just let it be." I turned and headed for the entrance, the sea god trailing behind me.

We stepped out into the morning sun, having to squint from how bright it was. People walked past us at a leisurly pace, chatting on the phone or to friends, others just enjoying the start of a new day. I pulling in a deep breath, happy to finally not have to worry about school for a nice long time.

"Neh, where should we go first?" I asked, turning and smiling at Takeru.

"Hm...why don't you show me around the city? I've never been anywhere except the school and your place." He looked around, expressing intrest in his surroundings. With a giggle I grabbed his hand and tugged him down the street, heading for the heart of the city.

As we passed by certain buildings I pointed them out and talked about them, holding his hand tightly so as to not be seperated by the crowd on the sidewalks. He didn't seem to mind, walking beside me and asking the occasional question as we went, a comfortable feeling between us. It was shaping up to be a very, very good day.

From inside the Light Pool a shadow stirred. The rippling of the surface stilled, and as light filled the small space a figure appeared, robes fluttering some in the breeze. They stepped onto the lip of the pool and looked around, golden eyes looking over the pictures painted to the walls.

"..."

Turning towards the entrance, the figure slipped through the opening and up towards the surface, a brief flash of light surrounding them before they climbed out into the sun, intent on hunting down the one that had driven them into this world.

"This is the arcade and karaoke place," I said, coming to a stop in front of the building with a grin. Takeru peered inside the windows, eyeing the flashing lights with caution.

"What exactly does one do in an arcade and karaoke place?"

"Want to go in and see?" I asked him, taking a step towards the door. He hesitated for a second before allowing me to pull him inside, eyes widening some at the flashing lights and strange sounds echoing all around.

I tugged him over to an air hockey machine, figuring it would be a good a place as any to start. Inserting what was needed and handing him a mallet and placed the puck down. "Now, the goal of this is to knock the puck into your opponent's goal. First to a certain amount of points wins."

"Easy enough," he said, putting his mallet down and readying himself.

I hit the puck easily towards him, letting him get a feel for it. He hit hit back easily, and as we went along the pace picked up, both of our eyes trained on the white blur that the puck had become, bashing it into each other's goals a few times, and I even knocked it into my own goal accidentally at one point. Takeru laughed and gloated when he scored a goal, and I in turn teased him for letting me get a few goals in on him and saying that he was going easy on me.

In the end though, he got the last goal in and beat me soundly by about three points. I put the mallet down and stretched my fingers to loosen them, giggling. "See? Arcade's are fun!"

"What's that over there?" he asked, pointing to where a pair of racing games were. Two had motorcycle shaped seats, while the others were car racers.

"Racing games. Want to try them too?"

A nod later we walked over. I put in the coins and sat down in a chair, hitting the two-player button and showing him how to work the controls before selecting a track and a car for myself. As the race started I directed him on the gas and brake pedals at our feet, and soon enough he'd gotten the hang of it. We laughed as we tried to shove each other off the road and edge ahead of each other and the other racers, just having fun competing with the other.

The game ended as we both ended up falling off a cliff and the time running out before we respawned, to which I pouted. "Awh, I didn't kick your butt."

"Hey, I was kicking your butt if I recall," Takeru countered, and I lightly punched him in the arm.

"C'mon, let's check out some other games."

The next few games down the line didn't interest us that much, but when I approached the dancing game located in the far back, I couldn't help but put a hop in my step. "Now these are worth the play!"

"What do you do?" the blunette asked, putting a hand on the back rail and watching the songs playing on the screen.

"You dance in time with the music, matching your steps to the arrows on the screen. It's really fun to do." I hopped up onto one of the machines and pointed at the other one. "C'mon, I'll help you out."

Looking unsure for the first time, he did as he was told, watching me as I inserted the coins and started the game, picking a normal difficulty for me and easy for him. I intended to play more than just a few songs, so I had time to let him learn while I brushed up on my moves.

I selected a familiar song to me and hit start, taking position. As the arrows appeared I started stepping on the correct arrows, watching out of the corner of my eye as Takeru danced as well, taking a minute to get used to where he needed to step. The song was short, and I grinned when I saw I'd gotten a 'B' on it. I looked over and was surprised to see him have a 'B' as well on easy. "Not bad for the first song. Want to try another one?"

"Sure, this is pretty fun." A cocky smirk was on his face, and I raised an eyebrow.

"Is that a challenge I see in those eyes, sea monkey?"

"Perhaps. Easy is too easy already."

"Well then, how about after this turn is used up, we have a little wager?"

"Oh?" His amber eyes watched me, oozing confidence.

"Winner gets to make the loser sing in front of the crowd during the public singing hour they have here on the karaoke level."

"Deal. I chose the songs, though."

"Fine by me." I hit the next song and started it, eager to get to our little competition.

Our practice songs over, we got serious. Our shoes were off, and we actually did stretches to make sure that we were both ready. A few strangers had noticed us and were milling around, muttering and even putting bets on who would win. We'd already been pressed to tell of our bet, and now they were very interested in who would prevail.

"Okay, what should we put it on? Normal or hard?"

"Hard, make it a challenge," Takeru said, stepping up onto his platform.

"Says the one who just finished with easy mode," I teased, putting in the credits and hitting versus. "Go ahead and pick."

Nodding, the god shuffled through the songs till one came on that had a fast paced beat and good lyrics. He hit start, and we prepared ourselves for one hell of a workout.

The arrows came in a fierce flurry, and I stamped my feet as fast as I could, not even bothering to look over at Takeru for fear of slipping up and loosing any progress. My breath quickly sped up ad I started to sweat as well, not used to moving at such a quick tempo so suddenly.

Thankfully the song was over fast, and we both stopped when it was done, panting for breath and watching the screen. The numbers calculated for a few seconds before showing that he had managed to pull ahead by a mere five hundred points. The people around us whooped and laughed, some who bet on me scowling but not taking it too seriously.

"Good job, Takeru-kun. But it's just getting started!" I laughed, letting him pick the next song. He Landed on one that I sort of knew, and I steadied myself as he hit start.

I focused on the beat of the song for this one, feet flying to the arrows as fast as they could. My heart was pounding in my ears and my head started to spin a little, but I didn't care as I laughed from the fun of it all.

This song was a little longer, and by the end of it we were both pretty tired. He looked less tired than I was, being used to working out. The numbers whirled on the screen before revealing that I had pulled ahead this time, two thousand points difference.

"Last song," I gasped, hands on my knees. A nice crowd coming in for public karaoke hour had gathered at this point to watch us, and someone was kind enough to pass me an unopened bottle of water. I thanked them and gulped down half of it before offering it to Takeru. He shook his head at the offer, and I put the bottle down to prepare for the final round.

Takeru scrolled through the songs carefully, clearly wanting to make this one count as a tie-breaker. He pasued on a certain song, and my eyes widened as I recognized the tune. I didn't know the beat and the lyrics, but the music itself seemed familiar. He hesitated, then slammed the start button, taking his place as I followed suit.

I took a deep breath and focused on the screen in front of me, letting all other distractions flow out of my mind. As the first keys played and the arrows started to fly, I just let my body flow with the music, dancing to the beat as I panted for breath, heart thumping louder and heavier the more I moved.

The song was short and simple, thankfully, and as I stamped out the last few arrows I felt my body try to give out. I stumbled as the numbers rolled, leaning back on the rail behind me. "Holy cow..."

"You alright, jellyfish?" Takeru asked, sounding as tired as I felt.

"Yeah...not used to such a workout," I admitted, shaking my head and looking at the screen as the score appeared.

"...No way." I looked at my screen, then his, and then back. "No way it's that close."

The god looked equally shocked, his amber eyes staring at the meager difference between the winner and loser.

Fifty-seven points difference. One mis-step, one little error was all it had taken. My mouth dropped open in shock.

"H-how in the world did I win?" I asked, looking at him.

He shrugged, and the crowd busted out into cheers and applause. Blushing in embarrassment, I picked up the bottle and put my shoes back on, stepping down from the platform as Takeru did the same. He reached over and ruffled my hair a little, smirking. "Congrats, jellyfish. I get to sing in front of a hundred strangers."

"You'll be fine," I giggled, elbowing him in the stomach lightly. The people around us congradulated me and poked a bit of fun at Takeru for loosing to a girl, but he shrugged it off as they all directed us to where the public karaoke would be, in a different part of the building. We were able to use the tiem to get there to recover ourselves a bit, and I flashed him a small smile when I saw him looking at me. He smirked back as we all filed into the room, the crowd pushing him to the stage.

"You lost the bet, now you have to sing!" another guy called out, and the crowd laughed and cheered. The staff looked confused but didn't protest, letting Takeru stand up on the stage awkwardly.

"What the heck am I supposed to do?" he asked, looking down at me.

"Find a song and sing it. It doesn't matter if you're good or not, you just need to sing one song!" I smiled up at him happily.

Shaking his head, he turned to the selection screen and scrolled through the songs there, wondering what in the world he would choose. He finally paused on a song and hit it, someone offering the mic to him. He cleared his throat a few times to prepare as the first few notes of the song played. His amber eyes watched the screen closely as the lyrics began to appear, and he started to sing.

His deep voice surprised me as he sang in tune with the song, my eyes widening at just how good he sounded. My ears perked slightly as I listened, my heart flip-flopping oddly in my chest.

"Araburu kodou gekijou ni makase

Sakamaku kimochi nosete

Mune o tsukisasu ikutsumo no itami wa

Ayamachi dake nokoshite iku"

The crowd cheered some as he continued on, the blunette getting into the song more as he kept going. I swayed some with the music, smiling up at him.

"Yosete wa kaesu tsumi sae

Hitorijanai to uketome tokasu

Konna ni mo konna ni mo

Massugu na me o ore wa shiranai"

Takeru smiled back down at me as I caught his eye, starting to dance a little to the tune of the song. The crowd encouraged him on, some of them dancing themselves while others watched the god like he was heaven sent. The chorus of the song came up, and he threw his voice out whole-heartedly.

"Kizutsuke tabun mamotte yaru ze

Tsuyoku kazasu hitofuri ni

Tada omae dake aishinuku

Chikai kizande inochi hatete mo!"

Golden eyes looked up to the figure on stage, a thoughtful look in them as the boy reached down and pulled up the white haired girl he was with, much to her surprise. The crowd cheered in excitement, demanding the girl to try to dance along with the song. She started to blush and refuse, brushing the front of her cute purple dress off before deciding to give it a shot.

The figure watched as the couple continued to entertain the crowd, getting more and more into is as the song went along and approached it's crescendo. The blunette singer grabbed the girl's hand and twirled her around before pulling her in close at the slower part of the song, looking into her eyes as he sang the words sincerely, like it was only her he meant them for.

"Sono namida kawaku made tsutaete tsudzukeru

Nando demo nando demo Aishiteiru ze"

Her mouth dropped open and her blush increased tenfold, and she covered her face while the crowd whistled and encouraged the two. The song continued, and the boy released her to finish it off, the girl going back to dancing, though obviously more than a bit unbalanced.

The song faded and the couple bowed low, the crowd applauding loudly. Some shouted for an encore, but the two declined and hopped off the stage, the boy grabbing the girl's hand and guiding her through the crowd.

The figure moved then, eyes solely on the two as he stepped into their line of sight. The boy stopped and stared, his amber eyes widening in shock as the girl looked on in confusion.

"Takeru-kun, what's wrong?" I asked, my heart still going a million miles an hour from what had happened on the stage. I looked at the person who was standing in front of us, not sure if I should be wary or not.

He was a bit taller than Takeru, with long purple hair and emotionless golden eyes accenting a very handsome face. He wore a black long-sleeve shirt with yellow borders as an accent, and grey pants that rolled up to his mid-calf. He emitted a very mysterious aura, and I found myself stepping closer to my god.

"Totsuka Takeru," the boy said, his voice calm and without emotion. "This is where you've been the past few days."

I looked back and forth between the two, utterly lost and confused. The hand wrapped around mine squeezed tightly, and Takeru swallowed nervously, giving off an awkward grin.

"H-hey, brother."

My eyes practically bugged out of my head, staring at the young man before me.

Did he just say brother?!

Busted!

Next chapter, the grilling of a god and human girl begins~

I've reached 500+ views as well! Thank you all for the support and reads!