Well, it was hardly a promise, but I decided to update this today anyway.
Happy 17th birthday, . I am a little late, considering it's in the last 6 hours of the day, but what the heck! Have a great rest of the day and I hope you get lots of prezzies.
In any case, I hope this continuation pleases you.
Enjoy...
"Nee, Keima-kun," Tenri said tentitively, "can I ask you a question?"
Keima hmmed in reply. It was a good thing they were in the car on the way home, or both of their quiet voices wouldn't have been audible at all.
"Before... on the Ferris wheel... what were you going to say?" Tenri was impressed at herself for not stuttering at all, given thatshe could already feel her cheeks glowing pink at the memory. The car was dark, save for the passing street lights which shone in at intervals.
Teri still was a bit in shock... She'd frickin' kissed Keima Katsuragi, the boy she'd been in love with for fourteen years now. True, that wasn't her first kiss with him, but the last time it had happened, she'd hyperventilated and gone into shock for long enough that the whole experience was very clouded in her mind.
She smiled... This time, that wouldn't be the situation. That would be the one and only time she'd do something so daring. Besides, it wasn't like he felt the same way, so that was enough selfishness from her.
"On the Ferris wheel..." Keima paused for a second, trying to remember what he had been planning before she'd shut him up...
"Oh, yeah..." Keima sighed, "I just wanted to tell you that it wasn't anything you did... That I don't like you like that... I'm the one who's wrong here..."
Tenri smiled lightly. She had been expecting something like that.
"I don't blame you, Keima-kun... If anything, I may have been too selfish to expect anything from this..." Tenri muttered, half to herself. Keima's grip on the steering wheel tightened.
She's not selfish... She's never been selfish... But Keima felt if he worded that out, it wouldn't do any good anyway. If anything, she deserved a clear reason why he couldn't date her...
"I am really sorry…" Keima said, his teeth slightly gritted in annoyance, though targeted more at himself than her, "I like someone else… That's why I can't be with you…"
"Alright…" Tenri half smiled, "will you tell her?"
"Someday…" Keima nodded slowly.
"That's good… I'd prefer you were to be happy with her than be unhappy with me…" Tenri said confidently, but she could feel a lump forming in her throat. As much as her heart agreed with those words, it was logical for her to feel sad…
Be happy… she wanted to say, but she knew her voice would be croaky and betray her.
Keima himself felt a rush of affection toward Tenri… Even though she had perfectly good reason to hate him or curse him, she just silently sat by his side, wishing him well.
"I hope you find someone too…" Keima smiled at her, missing the fact that her eyes were slightly wet, "someone who's actually worthy of your S-Rank personality?"
"S-s-Rank?"
"Like in games… the well thought-out and most beautiful characters get that… It's the highest ranking I could give to anyone."
I was a good thing Keima wasn't looking at her, because Tenri turned pink at the compliment. The knot in her throat loosened significantly.
Tenri did understand that Keima did rub against some people, but she could not be happier that her first love was this game-loving oddball. She edged herself back into her seat slightly, sitting on her hands.
"Keima-kun…" Tenri had a big smile on her face, which alarmed Keima a bit, "can you tell me more about this girl you like?" Keima blushed slightly and diverted his attention to the road.
"She's… rude… and obnoxiously loud… especially when she used to talk to Eri about her magazines…" his eyes flitted to the side, where Tenri was sitting and watching him. Clearly, this was going to be a monologue so he continued.
"Umm… yeah… she's the kind of person who'd be mean most of the time… to me, at least… but when she was nice, it always surprised me… She made a band and taught herself how to play guitar… I think she was helping the rest of them learn the rest of them learn their instruments… Err… she used to go watch all 'hotties' from the soccer club after school… and that one time…"
Tenri was content with watching Keima talk. Maybe because Keima really didn't talk that much before… They were both fairly silent people, considering how much of the day was just spent in comfortable silence…
Though for Tenri, there was something she liked that Keima wouldn't even notice… as he spoke, his eyes twinkled and shone in the darkness of the car… He really was fond of that girl, wasn't he? Though by that description, it was the same girl he had mentioned in his letter…
She shrugged, leaning back into her plush seat and listening to the voice she'd dearly missed in the last four years. Besides, it was a little nice that neither of them had really moved on in those years…
The next morning, Chihiro was pacing outside Café Grandpa, still arguing within herself about what she'd say…
She'd been pretty lucky to hightail it from the Ferris wheel compartment before Keima or his companion left, but the image that she'd seen before was still burned into her retinas and she thought of it way more than was normal…
Should she just pretend she saw nothing? After all, she wasn't supposed to have seen it, right? It would just be like nothing had happened.
Chihiro slammed her head on the fence separating the Katsuragi households with the neighbours, before groaning loudly in anger…
Nothing had happened! There was literally nothing wrong with Keima having a girlfriend! Then why did it aggravate Chihiro so much!?
For a second, she stopped agonising, while her brain was trying to tell her something…
'Could it be… I'm jealous?'
That thought did little other than aggravating her more, and sending her head, once again, into the wooden fence.
"Gaaaaah!" She yelled, trying to clear her head of that insane and completely irrational thought! Like Hell she still had feelings for him!?
No… it had to be that she just wanted to not be single too… Just to share an pure and innocent kiss with some guy…
Yeah! How dare he move on without her!
As her sanity points rose and her anger fell, she felt deeply ashamed of herself… She had no right to think badly of him when she was just unable to get over herself… and Keima and that girl made such a cute couple…
Chihiro scoffed inaudibly… that, she could be jealous of. That girl was so pretty, with her long open hair with the braids coming in together… She could almost see her now…
As her eyes focussed and the quiet thumping of the oncoming headache made itself known to her, she realised she actually could see the girl in the next house, her face peering out of the closed window.
As soon as they made eye contact, the girl quickly pulled her head out of view… Chihiro groaned again… So that girl was literally 'the-girl-next-door'… how adorable is that?!
In any case, Chihiro wanted to be friends with Keima, right? Maybe she could just test the waters and find out more about his new girlfriend… She reached for the door handle.
But maybe she should just leave it alone… she wasn't really supposed to know about it, was she? Her hand retracted back, as once again, her thoughts went into that horrible loop.
No! Chihiro took a deep breath and focussed her attention on the gold door handle that her palm was still resting on. There was no point of overthinking this, was there?
If that topic came up, she'd ask… else, she'd shut up and listen to whatever else Keima brought up…
And, as all normal customers did, she pushed the door open, a rush of nostalgia hitting her as the smell of coffee and cake rushed past her. It had been a while since she'd last been here, huh?
"Chihiro-saaaaan!" a voice called, before the owner came running, bowling her with a tackle hug. Chihiro, though surprised, managed to catch herself before she fell back.
"Hi, Ellie…" Chihiro said happily, "it's been a while…"
"I'm always so busy at the academy… Still, at least we get to send emails once in a while… Yesterday's one was really funny…"
Chihiro, who had been pretty wound up outside, felt herself relax. Eri did have one of those relaxing presences.
"I know, hey?" the normal girl nodded, "whenever I feel down, it makes me feel better…"
Eri's eyes narrowed… She was talking about that picture of her brother sleeping, right? Luckily, Chihiro caught the look.
"Yeah… no matter how bad it gets, I still won't look like your loser brother…" Chihiro was a bit relieved when Eri's eyes cleared, even if it meant having to insult Keima… Somehow, it felt petty to call him a loser when he scored a date before her…
"Nii-sama did look lame in this picture, didn't he? Even this picture got a laugh from Tenri-san yesterday…"
Chihiro perked up at the mention of the time.
"Is she that girl from next door?" she asked, her curiosity barely disguised in her voice.
"Umm… yeah… Do you know her, Chihiro-san?" It took Chihiro quite a bit of self-control to not scoff. Not that she knew her, but she'd been thinking about the other girl way too much.
"Not really… I just saw her through the window when I was outside… So her name is Tenri…"
"Yeah, Tenri Ayukawa…" Eri looked around, as if she just remembered that the two of them were standing in the middle of the Café, "actually, maybe we should sit down somewhere… Can I get you anything?"
"Oh, just some water for now… and can I have some aspirin as well?" Chihiro replied. Eri just wondered how Chihiro knew that little tidbit about the shop having some medicine. However, she complied, and by the time she returned, Chihiro was comfortable at a booth. She placed the tray in front of her, where the ice tinkled against its glass confines.
"Thanks…" the guest replied, after taking a sip and swallowing the pill, "where's your brother now?"
"He was up late gaming, so I think he's asleep…" Chihiro's sigh of relief was inaudible, luckily.
"Great… so how are things at the Academy?" Eri's eyes lit up, as expected.
"Three more months till I graduate… After that, I can finally start on the field work…" Eri grinned and pulled out a book from nowhere, "Look at these new firetrucks they have at Narusawa station! If I'm lucky, I'll get to ride them!"
For the next couple of minutes, Chihiro let Eri fangirl about her hobby turned into a career. She was actually happy that Eri found a career so suited to her, and it saved her from having to talk about her significantly boring classes.
Chihiro kept glancing to the door coming from house, from which a certain Otamega still had to make his appearance. However, in that looking around, she noticed someone was outside the window outside.
"Is that your neighbour?" Chihiro asked, even though it did appear so. Eri glanced up as well.
"Yes… I wonder if she needs anything?"
"You can call her here if you want…" Chihiro said in a deadpan voice, which didn't betray her interest in the idea. She was a little excited to meet the neighbour*cough*girlfriend*cough.
Eri caught the meek girl's eyes and motioned her in. Tenri hesitated before letting herself in. She quietly walked by their booth and bowed her head.
"Sorry, Eri-chan… and to your guest too…"
"No sweat…" Chihiro grinned, "Do you want to sit here for a bit?" she patted the seat on her side. Tenri graciously sat down, because as nervous as she was, she had no clue how to reject an invitation like that.
Maybe it was for the best though… she wasn't having much luck identifying the girl through the window.
"Chihiro," the normal girl introduced herself cheerfully, confirming Tenri's suspicions. She was the one Keima had been talking about.
"I'm T-tenri… I live next door…" the unlucky childhood friend replied.
"It's nice to meet you, Tenri-san… do you come here often?"
"Likewise… I sometimes come to say hi to Eri-chan, but I'm not a regular here…" Chihiro smirked.
"So I guess you must know Ellie's older brother too," the emphasis seemed to go over Tenri's head.
"Yeah, the three of us are childhood friends."
"We wanted to hang out with Nii-sama, but he's been living elsewhere until recently…"
Chihiro's eyes widened. That was news to her.
"Where's Katsuragi been?" she asked.
"He just moved back recently… Though he moved around the time he transferred schools…" Eri tried to look casual in saying that, but she failed.
"Ohh…"
At the moment, all three of them were familiar with different parts of the story from four years ago, so none of them wanted to volunteer anything… The table fell into awkward silence. Despite being the quietest one, Tenri was the one who broke it…
"Umm… Chihiro-san, was it?" Chihiro nodded, "I saw your live concert before… You were really good…"
Chihiro would usually be glowing in that compliment, but considering the silence, she had to clarify first.
"The one from third year or second year?"
"S-second year…" Chihiro's eyes narrowed… So Tenri would have seen that embarrassing display of emotions at the end… That's a kinda bad first impression to make.
As Chihiro was trying to avoid the girl in the next seat's eyes, she noticed her face actually seemed familiar… she'd seen her during her concert, actually.
"Y-y-you were on the r-rafters, weren't you?" Chihiro stumbled out, causing the other girl to turn red too.
The tense atmosphere cracked at the first acknowledgement of what happened at that time. Or maybe, it actually got worse… Eri looked around like a chipmunk on coffee, while Tenri's eyes opened as wide as saucepans.
"N-no, it wasn't me…" she waved her hands. Why did this have to be the time Diana wasn't listening?
"Yeah it was… you had bows in your hair, but I remember that face…" Eri stood up suddenly, making a dash to the door that connected to the house. That put Tenri in a worse position, and Chihiro was now completely suspicious. She didn't know Eri had to do with any of this before. Still, before Eri returned, Chihiro did have an important question.
"Do you have one of those Goddess beings inside you?"
Before Tenri could reply, Eri returned, her brother, who was still in pyjamas, but was definitely fully awake, was leading the way.
"What the hell, Katsuragi?!" Chihiro burst out.
"What do I tell her, Keima-kun?!" Tenri asked hysterically. Keima grabbed both girls and dragged them into the house. As soon as they were past the doorway, Chihiro roughly pulled her hand free.
"Why do you real girls insist on pulling these annoying flags so early in the morning?"
"Why are you not even properly awake at noon?" Chihiro retorted back, "now am I going to get any explanation or not?"
"Yeah… just… go to Eri's room… and neither of you say a word until I get there… I'm going to watch this flag properly…" Keima rubbed his temples. Eri was already waiting on the stairs so the two girls followed.
Chihiro was pretty amazed, after she got over the first shock… That meant Keima, the nerdiest dweeb from high school, actually scored with a magical being… What are the odds of that?
In Eri's room, which Chihiro realised she actually had been in once, was a square table. The three of them took each side, but it was still awkward. Chihiro was watching Eri now, wondering what her part of the story was, and Tenri had her eyes closed, trying to communicate with Diana. The Goddess must have been asleep, considering her head was only filled with her thoughts.
"Aaah… Awawa… Chihiro-san… can you stop staring?" Chihiro sighed, falling back onto her hands, her head way up in the sky. There was no point in making her uncomfortable if they couldn't even talk about it.
"Think you could bring us some juice or something?" Eri gladly unfolded herself from her sitting position and scrambled to the door. Once the door closed, Chihiro's eyes fell on Tenri, who was pressing the surface of the desk with her thumb, for some odd reason.
"Can I ask what you're doing?" Chihiro asked politely. Tenri blushed and quickly pulled her hand off the table…
Chihiro smiled… Tenri really did seem sweet. She was a bit quiet, but she could only imagine that Keima would like that about her. Besides, she was the girl-next-door and his childhood friend to boot. She was a match made in heaven…
"So… you knew Katsuragi as a kid, huh? What was he like?"
Tenri smiled. That kind of topic would be safe, probably.
"In class, he'd never stop playing games. He'd always have his nose in one… he also used to keep his backpack around his front so it would be easier to balance his console…"
Tenri smiled fondly. Chihiro could tell that whatever she was seeing made her really happy.
"It sounds like he's barely changed from then… in high school, he used to do all those stuff…"
But now… not so much… he's assimilated into the normal people a lot more now.
"No… Keima-kun has changed," Tenri piped out loudly, as if Chihiro had insulted her, "he was stubborn and brave before, but there was no way he would have been able to save the world before!"
"Yeah…" Chihiro mused, "that might have been right…"
Keima was lucky… With all the qualities that Chihiro had already linked with Tenri, it was obvious that Tenri liked Keima greatly a well. It wasn't just by appearance that Tenri and Keima were a good couple.
"If the world has been saved already, do you think anything could happen again?" Chihiro asked.
"I haven't gotten the details from Haqua-san… but it seems that within Hell, they've managed to arrest those who were responsible already… I doubt anything will start up while we're still alive…"
Chihiro nodded, suddenly wondering why anything of the past even mattered now. Maybe she was better off not knowing the whole story…
In fact, she should probably go now… it was her presence that was putting Tenri and Eri off anyway. She stood up with her purse.
"If that is the case, maybe it's better that I don't pry…" she gave Tenri a warm smile, "good luck with Katsuragi… he may be a bit difficult, but he is a good guy. You guys will be great together…"
For a second, Chihiro felt an awful twinge in her chest, like someone was flicking her heart hard with her nails. She wasn't sure why, but she was certain that stepping out of the room now would change everything.
As she turned around, Keima was standing by the door, a tray in his hand and a scowl on his face.
"Sit back down…" he ordered. Chihiro considered rebelling, but both his face and tone scared her a little bit. She went back to where she was sitting.
"Katsuragi… you don't have to tell me what happened before. It doesn't matter anymore," Chihiro muttered, trying not to sound as sad as she actually felt. It didn't really work, considering the look of concern Tenri sent her way. However, it didn't seem like Keima picked it up.
"Tough!" he barked, sitting down as well, "I need your help with something, and you need to be on the same page…"
"Help?" Chihiro asked, glancing up at him, where he was watching her with a slight smile on his face.
"Yeah… you offered it before, didn't you?"
Suddenly, that moment returned back into Chihiro's mind, where she and Keima were talking by the stairs in Miyako's house. She was going to help, which confused him… What could she even do?
As it turned out, trash talking the guy you like in front of your friend who also likes him is the perfect way to wreck a love triangle, and that had been something Keima had been glad for.
"I did…" Chihiro sighed, pushing herself back on her palms again, "Fine… what do you need help with?"
"I need to make up with all the Goddess Hosts…" he replied simply. Chihiro was well-versed with the real, so it was probably be better to ask for her assistance.
"Well, ya made up with one already… I doubt you need help…"
"Tenri is the most forgiving of all the girls… by no means can I expect any easier route of reconciliation, so that is why I could use your help…"
"Here's an idea… how about you go say sorry to them!" Keima barely reacted to her passive aggression that was only getting more aggressive.
"That is the plan… just; it will take more than a sorry to fix some of the things I have done. That is where you come in…"
Chihiro sighed.
"Fine, I'll help… just… spare me the details…"
Tenri smiled. Not that she really knew what the purpose of this meeting was, but at least it was going somewhere.
"Can I ask her something, Keima-kun?" Keima nodded, "Chihiro-san… did you really see all of us that day you were performing?"
Chihiro nodded at the roof.
"What did you see exactly?" Keima intruded. He hadn't been there at the time, so it was more to get himself to speed as well.
"Feathers…" Chihiro murmured, "Ayumi, Yui and Kanon-chan had grown wings… Then there were three other girls watching from the rafters, and they were glowing , even though the lights weren't shining on them… they were the Goddesses, weren't they?"
"They were…" Keima agreed. What were the Goddesses thinking? Or rather, the Goddesses could make themselves invisible to people who weren't affiliated to either Heaven or Hell. Why did Chihiro see them then?
"In any case, that saves me from an explanation… so you know Kanon, Yui and Ayumi all have a Goddess…"
"She recognised Diana as well," Tenri added. Keima was a little impressed at how Chihiro had been able to piece it all.
"Yeah… Though Yui claimed ignorance when I asked, and I haven't asked Kanon-chan… I just stopped thinking too much about it…"
"Then you don't have to anymore… There are six Goddesses of which you've now met four…" Keima replied.
"Fine… so I get to hear about the other two now, right?"
"Yes… their names are Tsukiyo and Shiori, and they studied in our grade…"
By this point, Chihiro couldn't even pretend to care about those names. Something had sapped out all her energy, and this conversation was boring her more. Even her mostly relaxed posture was starting to droop onto the table…
"Fine… so we need to get those girls to forgive you… Do you even know where all those girls are?" Chihiro asked, taking a glass of juice for herself, so maybe the sugar could give her some energy.
"No…" Keima replied sheepishly, "before, it was easier to find them in their clubs or usual hangouts, but in four years, they wouldn't be there anymore…" Chihiro scoffed.
"I guess that's your first mission then… in any case, I can tell you where Ayumi is? I have the most contact with her…"
"That would be great… Could you give me an address?"
"Give me some paper…"
When Chihiro had a pen and paper on her hand, she scrawled some addresses and pushed it to him.
"Three addresses?"
"Home, work and alternative home…" Chihiro replied dully, "she's more likely to be at the first address at night and the third during the evening…"
Keima was only half listening, as he was watching Tenri programme them into her phone's GPS.
"I see Ayumi's motion parameters are still ridiculously high…" Keima said in a deadpan tone, earning a laugh from Tenri and a smile from Chihiro, "though can I ask why she has two addresses?"
"You may not…" Chihiro replied. It wasn't really in her place to say. Keima shrugged.
"Anyway, this is a great help… I can get down into this right away…" Tenri nodded as well, pulling out some more paper for Keima, "so can you think of any strategies that would be effective with Ayumi?"
"Nope…" Chihiro replied stubbornly, "if you want to apologize, you need to use your head too…"
"But you know her-" Chihiro, felt a sudden burst of anger, which had her sitting up stick straight.
"I do know her better…" the normal girl replied with narrowed eyes, "but this isn't my battle… It's yours, so you better think up something good…"
"I will, but…"
"BUT WHAT!? It isn't that difficult coming up with an apology for someone as straightforward as Ayumi!" Chihiro stood up, her eyes burning, "If you need so much help, why don't you ask your girlfriend instead of me!?"
Keima's face scrunched slightly in confusion.
"Yeah, I know that you're dating Tenri-san! She seems willing to help you and she understands girls… Why can't she help with your strategy meetings, or whatever!?"
"Tenri is just my friend…" Keima replied, his eyes not letting up. Somehow, this was not looking good to him.
"Sure you are…" she replied sarcastically, "Coz friends always go to the amusement parks on dates…"
Tenri and Keima glanced at each other with looks of dread on their face. That was certainly guilt.
"That was just once," Tenri stood up, too surprised to actually stutter, "We weren't going to do that again…"
"Why should I believe that!?" Chihiro snapped.
"Because Keima-kun doesn't like me like that!" the quieter girl said, her eyes tearing up again, like they had last night. Chihiro noticed straight away.
"You… rejected her…" Chihiro asked darkly, her fringe cast a shadow so dark that her eyes weren't visible. Keima gulped.
"Keima-kun likes someone else…" Tenri added, hoping that it would maybe help with the situation. The shadow on Chihiro's face cleared, but the look in her eyes was so frighteningly dead that Keima wished he hadn't seen it.
"Taking someone on a date then rejecting them… Trust Otamega to do that…" she said in a scarily even voice which didn't even quiver, "I hope your other girl is worth it, because Tenri was one hell of a catch…"
And without saying another word, Chihiro walked out, ignoring Eri, who had been eavesdropping by the door. When Chihiro had passed, Eri leapt into her room.
From her vantage point, she saw Tenri watching Keima, faint tracks of wet tears on her face. Keima had his head on the desk, so only God knew what his face was like.
For the first time in a long time, Reality slapped Keima in the face, and it hurt like a bitch. What the hell was he even doing?
And, the good mood is over... This is why I hate love triangles.
Sorry, this was honestly supposed to be more cheerful, but Chihiro seeing that kiss last time really was a bad development. Even though it was only really discussed at the end, you can see it was hanging over the room like a dark cloud for most of the time before.
On the plus side, Tenri and Chihiro meet... On the minus side, it goes in the worst case possible. Keima had made a bad choice by accepting Tenri's invitation before.
I am sorry, but once again, I am going back to study, so I wouldn't be surprised if my next update is mid November. Sorry I left it off at such a point.
In any case, I'll address reviews next time. I'm gonna go study now, so bye.