http://www.animedetour.com/
Fanfiction Contest Entries
2012
Table of Contents
Vitals .......................................................................................................................... 4
Summary, Rules, Statistics, Awards
First Place .................................................................................................................. 5
“The Chronicle Search” by waterbringer
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya/Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Running into that new girl in the hallway was an accident. That's what Kyon chooses to believe, anyway.
Second Place ............................................................................................................. 16
“Listen to Her Speak” by Aldara-Nerita
Air
It takes one type of courage to make friends, a different one to protect them, and yet another to say goodbye.
Third Place ............................................................................................................... 29
“A Fragile Mind” by AvatarofBahamut
Deadman Wonderland
Minatsuki was abandoned by her mother in the midst of an earthquake as the greenhouse was falling to ruins.
Her hatred for her mother runs deep. But, who was her mother? What kind of person would reach for their
flowers and leave their daughter behind?
Judge's Choice .......................................................................................................... 33
“God is Laughing” by Paper Whale
Black Butler
The Grim Reaper, William T Spears, passes judgment on souls of Jack The Ripper's victims.
Judge's Choice .......................................................................................................... 36
“Down Beneath” by Taryn Thorstad
Ghost Hunt
Naru returned to England, the SPR team disbanded, and Mai moved on. When Mai takes on a haunting that
targets those with psychic abilities, she reaches out to her former co-workers to solve it, but this case makes it
quite clear that things will never be like they once were.
Judge's Choice .......................................................................................................... 46
“Memories in Ink” by Cassandra Olson
Hetalia: Axis Powers
Germany is stuck at Spain's house, bored out of his mind. He happens across an old journal that the Spaniard
had kept from his darker days in history, and is surprised by what he discovers within its pages.
Judge's Choice .......................................................................................................... 52
“Chasing Dreams” by Riina
Whisper of the Heart
Three years after meeting Seiji, Shizuku experiences writers' block when he leaves for Italy a second time to
become a luthier, this time for several months. Before Shizuku can write again, she needs to process her
emotions and come to terms with what it's like to really miss someone.
1
Other Entries (alphabetical by fandom, then author)
“The Hammer of Fate and the Lotus of Rebirth” by Elie Anna Capulet............................................................. 55
D. Gray-Man
A rumor starts to spread around the Black Order saying that Kanda likes Allen but it truth, Kanda likes Lavi.
Lavi puts Kanda to the test to see who started to the rumor. Later on Kanda "finds out" who started it or so he
believes and he goes back to find Lavi. Lavi then remembers that day when he start Kanda the first time, that he
made a bet with him. Kanda then finds Lavi and things get fun after that.
“Fondest Farewell” by Wonderstorm ….................................................................................................... 58
Dragonball Z
It's Vegeta's last day on Earth before his death at the hands of the androids. The time has come for Vegeta to
say goodbye to his family.
“The Boyfriend Guide” by Strands of Ivy and Sakura ….............................................................................. 62
Gakuen Alice
One day while waiting for Hotaru, the stumble on a unusual book. Inside reveals a bunch of rules for being a
boyfriend. The interesting part? Each one comes with a little story by Mr. Natsume.
“Emotions” by Xion .............................................................................................................................. 71
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
A look at the emotions and thought-process of the supposed emotionless, as their friendship breaks.
“Student-Teacher Bonding...Not” by Karen DuLay .................................................................................... 75
Naruto
Kakashi tells Sakura he will see her at the festival celebrating Konoha Village's founding. He enters them into a
relay, and in a completely anticlimactic turn of events...they win.
“Sacrifice and Saving a Friend” by Zarah Jade ......................................................................................... 80
Naruto Shippuden
"How could I ever be Hokage. I couldn't even save a friend. Isn't that right... Sasuke?" He drew a few shallow
breaths and fought to keep his eyes open for just a few more seconds. Sasuke and Naruto meet one day, and one
of them makes the ulitmate sacrifice to save a friend.
“Of Sadness and Compassion” by Izaya Orihara ....................................................................................... 83
Nora: The Last Chronicle of Devildom
Barik had just sacrificed himself in order to have the rest of them to get inside to stop the Resistance. As he lay
dying Nora does his best to save him but to no avail. For the first time he cries and surprisingly Kazuma is the
one to give him comfort. One thing leads to another and they end up kissing which leads Nora to realize that he
has feelings for him and later on he finds out that Kazuma feels the same.
“The Adventures of Mr. 2 Bon Kurei” by AquaGekko23 …........................................................................... 92
One Piece
A man who was supposed to be dead woke up with no memories on Drum Island and went on a quest to find his
identity.
“A Friend” by Diversao ........................................................................................................................ 101
Pokémon
What if Ash had been the first one to enter the Viridian City gym? Would he be able to win against the powerful
Giovanni? Ash soon finds out, and gets some unexpected help along the way.
“Bath Time!” by Whisperwill …............................................................................................................. 106
Pokémon
Set during the first season (Kanto). In more ways than one, Ash discovers that he bit off more than he can chew
when he resolves to give all his Pokemon a bath. He has to deal with Team Rocket, bad attitudes, and an excess
of odor.
2
“Love Him or Set Him Free” by chiagirl ….............................................................................................. 114
Tales of the Abyss
After Asch's death, Natalia is not really sure how she feels about Luke. After a comment about her just using him
as a substitue, she is forced to decide whether to marry Luke or let him go.
“Like Counting Sheep” by Jade ….......................................................................................................... 118
Zero Escape: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors
Fifteen-year-old Aoi Kurashiki hasn't told anyone yet (especially not Akane), but he hasn't been sleeping well as
of late. It's hard for him to admit it, even to himself, but there's a feeling of impending danger in his head and it's
growing difficult to ignore.
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Summary
The Anime Detour fanfiction contest is for full-length stories that are submitted and judged prior to the convention.
Winners are announced and prizes awarded at a special awards panel that takes place at Anime Detour.
Rules
1) All entries must be received in advance by March 3, 2012.
2) Each contestant is limited to one entry.
3) Your entry must be your own work. We will not accept stories with multiple authors.
4) Your entry must be a work of fanfiction based on a source that is Japanese in origin. Anime, manga, video game,
and live-action sources are all acceptable. Crossovers are acceptable if all the sources used are Japanese.
5) Your entry must not exceed a PG-13 rating. This means no excessive vulgar language, extreme violence, or explicit
sexual content.
6) Entries must be a minimum of 1000 words and a maximum of 7000 words in length.
7) Your entry must be written in English. Please keep non-English terms and phrases to a minimum.
8) Your entry must have been written within the past year.
9) Your entry must be a complete story that stands on its own.
10) Entries will be judged based on the original Japanese source. Stories that deviate vastly from the original work
(alternate universes, extreme character changes, etc) will be accepted but may be at a disadvantage.
11) Contestants must be registered for the upcoming convention.
2012 Statistics
Total Entries: 19
Judges: Arual-san, Brian, Di-Chan, Princess Sarah Em
2012 Awards
4
First Place
"The Chronicle Search"
by waterbringer
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya/Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Running into that new girl in the hallway was an accident. That's what Kyon chooses to believe, anyway.
I probably shouldn't have been trying to study for the test the next day by reading my textbook while walking
down the hallway. Truth was, I hadn't actually done any studying for it despite knowing about it for about a week now and
I was leaving the materials in my desk the whole time, so I had to somehow catch up. It seemed like such a shame to let all
of my lunch break to be spent on research, though. So instead I decided to try looking the material over during the
transportation phase of my day. It seemed like a good way to effectively use time that is normally wasted just moving
around.
At least that was my original idea. Despite how intellectual people look if they're walking while their nose is in a
book, it turns out they have no idea where they're going, which is detrimental to the whole process. In reality, they would
end up knocking into anyone unlucky enough to be in front of them (except Nagato, probably, but she doesn’t count). Kind
of like what happened to me just now, seeing how I walked smack into an underclassman and made us both drop what we
were carrying.
“I'm so sorry! I wasn't paying attention, and, oh, I'm so embarrassed...”
The girl shook light brown hair away from her face and was already picking up my dropped textbook off the
ground while apparently channeling Asahina in the cute, apologetic department. The blush spreading across her face only
added to the cuteness factor.
“No, it's my fault. I wasn't watching where I was going.” The really embarrassing part was that I had barely gotten
through the first few pages of the assignment before the inevitable collision. Leaning down, I reached to pick up what she
had dropped and stopped and starred for a moment. For some reason, she had been carrying a large, white stuffed animal
of some kind with long ears, one of which had an earring on it, stubby arms and closed eyes. If it was from a cartoon, it
wasn't one I recognized. Seemed odd for a high school student to have something like this in the middle of school, but if
the weirdest thing to happen in a day was running into a classmate who liked stuffed animals, then I could count myself
lucky.
“Here you go,” I said, handing over whatever it was. Looking grateful, the girl took it back, tucked it under an arm
and began to hold out my book to me.
“Hey, I was wondering. What grade are yo- AHH!” I was cut off by something - or someone - suddenly grabbing
the collar of my shirt and yanking it back. Somehow, Haruhi had managed to appear out of nowhere. It not like anyone
else did this kind of crap to me.
“Hey, Kyon! What are you doing wasting time? We've got club business to do today!”
Since when? I'm busy!
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Haruhi looked over at the girl, who looked especially nervous at seeing the show we were putting on. Maybe she
was a new student who wasn't yet desensitized to these antics.
Haruhi sniffed and began to drag me away. “Come on. We've got work to do!”
The girl just stood there, looking too stunned to do anything. Oh yeah, she's new.
I probably should have realized something was up. I mean, no one ever just accidentally runs into a beautiful girl,
apologizes and then goes on with their life. Usually the boy and girl begin a whirlwind romance, and then a rival shows up
and a good deal of comedy hijinks until the end of the school year before they make the relationship official. Of course,
that's just on television, but it's not as though my life makes any kind of sense. Judging it by the standards of
manufactured entertainment should mean that statistically it would have to be right occasionally. A stopped watch is right
twice a day and all that.
Somehow, I had found myself standing in the clubroom after-hours with the girl I had run into earlier that day,
but we weren't alone. Oh no, the room was just about filled to capacity withYou know what, I'm getting ahead of myself. Here's what happened.
After the fateful encounter in the hallway the day proceeded normally, despite my efforts to try finding the girl
again to get my book back. Though Haruhi had dragged me away claiming we had work to do, she ended up just having me
do busywork in the clubroom, almost as though she didn't actually have anything for me to do. Figures. After that, I went
to class, Haruhi kicked me around, I went to the SOS “meeting” to be bossed around some more, the day ended, and we all
left. You know, the usual.
Except right after Haruhi left, the rest, namely Koizumi, Asahina and Nagato, turned around and went right back
inside, with me naturally following behind. So the usual.
But once we got back to the clubroom, several people were already there. Two were adults I had never seen before.
One of them had black hair, red eyes and the kind of demeanor that screamed “I'm cooler than you will ever be and I don't
even know it” despite holding the plushie from earlier that day. The other was blond and for some reason grated on my
nerves despite not having said a word yet. Both were too tall for their own good. The other two people in the room were
teenagers, both of them in school uniforms, one of them a boy about my age and one of whom was the girl I'd run into
earlier.
Of course she's involved in some weirdness. There's no one normal in my life.
This also mark the point in time that the clubroom held more people than ever before, at least for as long as the
SOS had been around. So it was kinda cramped.
“Well, now that we are all here, should we get started? You're Kyon, correct?” Blondie asked with a smile on his
face. Yeah, I didn't like him.
“Whoa, hold it. What's going on now?” I waved an arm in the air. “Who are you guys?”
The man set his hand on his chest. “My name is Fai. The two over there-” he motioned toward the teenagers “- are
Syaoran and Sakura.”
The boy – Syaoran – inclined his head while Sakura smiled brightly and came forward, holding my textbook from
6
earlier out to me. “I'm sorry. I haven't been able to give this back to you all day. I hope you weren't inconvenienced...”
“It's fine. No harm done.” I grinned, taking it back. She was just so cute.
“And this one here-” Fai gestured toward the serious-looking adult. “-is Kuro-tan.”
“It's Kurogane, dammit! Quit it with the nicknames!”
Man, do I feel his pain. Fai didn't seem the least bit alarmed by the outburst or the fact that Kurogane looked like
he wanted to chuck him out the window. Must be normal for them. That's just sad.
“Don't forget about me!” The stuffed animal Kurogane was holding suddenly jumped out of his arms and flat out
bounced toward me before getting right in my face. If anyone asks, I did not scramble away in an undignified manner. Not
at all.
“W- what are you?! And why is the stuffed animal talking?!” Some distant part of my brain thought that was
impolite, but my conscious mind was too busy freaking out to care, though I did manage to catch it in my hands on
nothing but instinct.
“I'm not stuffed anything! I'm Mokona!”
“...and that's your name or your species?”
“Both! Mokona is Mokona!”
Of course you are.
“Well, now that that's out of the way, let's get down to business.” Koizumi cut in on my minor mental breakdown,
smiling like normal. Judging by everyone's lack of reaction to the stuffed animal turned magical girl mascot, everyone
knew but me. Typical.
“Wait, names are all well and good, but I still don't know what you all are doing here. Who are you all?”
Syaoran took the opportunity to step forward. “Basically, we're travelers. From a different country than this one
and we're looking for something that landed here. We only just arrived this morning. ”
“So, what, you all just came in from China or something?”
“What?”
“At six oh two this morning, an unknown object of compressed data and energy appeared within an eighty five
meter radius of our current location through a rip in transdimentional space.” Nagato's monotone echoed in the room.
“Approximately seven minutes after this event, a second rip event occurred by way of the entity known as 'Mokona
Modoki' deposited four humans within the designated radius.”
“Transdimentional...wait, you guys said country...”
“The language translation has .2% error rate. By definition, 'country' refers to a dimensional plane.”
I don't have a good feeling about where this is going. “So you're all from another dimension?”
Unfortunately, no one in the room responded in the negative. “Yes.” “That's it!” “Correct.” “Catching on, kid.”
“Well, actually most of us are from all different dimensions...”
I'm in a room full of sliders. Great. Just beautiful.
7
Sakura tilted her head. “What are sliders?”
“Sliders, travelers, whatever, you can't be here! Hang on, Haruhi hasn't tried to recruit you yet has she?” They
know about Haruhi, right? With any luck, she'll try to collect one of them, probably as a new new mysterious exchange
student.
Kurogane snorted. “You mean that girl half my size that we're supposed to avoid like the plague? Nope, haven't
seen her at all.” Fai and Syaoran shook their heads while Sakura looked at the ground.
“I'm sorry. I thought I could keep a low profile, but I was seen anyway.”
At my expression, Koizumi filled in the gaps. “I ran into them before anyone was the wiser. The Organization has
since become involved.”
That explained the uniforms that came from out of nowhere.
Syaoran set his hand on a still depressed Sakura's shoulder. “It's alright. It was an accident and nothing bad
happened. There's no harm done.”
Sakura immediately brightened. “Thanks.” As though just noticing how close they were to each other, their faces
turn red and they look away.
Crud. All the nice, not crazy girls are taken. Syaoran, you're a lucky man.
“Actually, that could have helped us.” Koizumi broke in. “If Haruhi is adverse to the idea of new club members or
any of you in particular, than the likelihood of any of you getting recruited drops dramatically.”
Hey, you don't have to be so on the nose about it.
“What exactly does happen if Haruhi does decide to kidnap of these guys to be in the club?”
“Two undesirable scenarios have a high chance of occurring.” Nagato interrupted. “One, the selected individual
would be unable to leave this dimension as long as Haruhi wishes them to remain. However, due to my inability to fully
examine the method of transportation, I cannot give an accurate reading as to how likely the scenario is.”
Hey, that's a good question. How did you guys get here anyway?
“That's me!” Mokona's hand-claw-whatever waved in the air. “I get everyone wherever we need to go. It's one my
super special talents!”
Figures. Wait, so Nagato can't figure you out? That's a neat trick.
“But I don't think Suzumiya can stop us from leaving if we really wanted to.” Mokona looked contemplative. As
much as he can, anyway, while looking like a toy. “She shouldn't be able to override my magic, but something bad would
happen if she tried.”
You're stronger than Haruhi? Somehow, I find that hard to believe. Still, the idea is kind of funny, while being
inherently terrifying.
“The other scenario,” Nagato talked as though no one interrupted. “Is that when they leave, Haruhi will take note
and pursue the event, same as any potentially abnormal situation.”
“So, what are you all waiting for?” I turned toward toward the new group. “You guys need to get out of here as
soon as you can. Nothing good is going to happen if you get entangled in all of this.”
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“The risks have been explained to us,” Syaoran replied. “But we can't leave yet. Not without the feather.”
A feather?
“The object is within the school grounds, but all attempts to track it to a more defined location have so far been
fruitless. The energy signature is well hidden and warped,” said Nagato.
“Mokona hasn't been able to sense it at all.” Mokona looked dejected.
“So I take it it would also be bad if Haruhi ran across this thing?”
Asahina frantically spoke up for the first time. “Yes! It's classified information while still being classified
information! And it's capable of creating a classified information!”
...we're not in another time loop, are we?
“Not yet. None of us have any way of telling what could happened if Haruhi does run across the feather. From the
accounts, it can be...unpredictable.” Koizumi said.
“Sakura and I tried to find it during the day since we could easily blend in.” Syaoran said. “But it got too
dangerous, so we had to wait until now when everyone was gone.”
...let me guess. We need to find a feather within the school so people from another dimension can leave before our
ever-so-predictable-yet-unpredictable leader does something crazy.
“It's also bad for anyone else to run across the feather if they don't know what they're doing.” Fai cut in.
Great. Just great. So, now we're going on a scavenger hunt at school in the dead of night, aren't we?
“Basically.”
Stop smiling like that. It gets on my nerves.
“Alright.” Koizumi clapped his hands together. “I say we split off into teams so that each has a cellphone with
them-” He raised his mobile. “-and someone who can fight if worse comes to worse. So, let’s pair off and get going.”
Who put you in charge?
Everyone else got the gist, though. A few murmurs bounce around the room while I mainly look on stupidly until
we came away with Asahina nervously beside Syaoran, Nagato standing next to Sakura, who was also holding the cream
puff, and Kurogane ignoring Koizumi as they walk out of the room. I'd try to ignore him too. But wait, that means...
“Lets start looking around downstairs then, shall we?”
...damn it.
Well, I'm ready to give up.
I probably should have reached this point earlier. Probably when Koizumi 2.0 told me that the feather could be
anywhere, and I do mean anywhere, such as in a desk, under the floorboards, in someone's locker or stuck in the
plumbing. One would think it would be out in the open, but apparently that would be cheating. And would make sense.
Not helping my mood was the conversation from earlier.
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“Don’t you guys have any way of tracking this kind of thing down? Why can’t we just use that?”
Fai hummed contemplatively. “Mokona is usually the one to find feathers on the worlds that we go to. But,” he
shrugged, “It has to be actively doing something for him to be able to sense it. If there was safe way to do that, we
would go for it but-“
“That’s exactly what we’re trying to avoid. Right.”
“From what I understand, Nagato is in the same position.”
Still, that was early in the evening, and there's nothing like the risk of an undefinable threat to keep you going on a
task.
And it did seem as though we had looked through most of the school. Ripped it apart, really. At some point,
Koizumi and Kurogane had dug through every bowl and square inch of fridge in the cafeteria, Nagato, Sakura and Mokona
had flipped through every book in the library, and Syaoran and Asahina had probably left the sports equipment a lot
cleaner than it was before. Fai and I somehow got designated with the task of rummaging in desks, which was mostly
carried out by him. As though it's not bad enough we're trespassing on school grounds; let's ignore the concept of privacy
as well. I'm the one who needs to keep associating with these people anyway.
Despite our efforts, though, the fact of the matter was that it was approaching five am, no one had found anything
out of the ordinary (for once), and Fai was humming. Incessantly. Of what I have no idea. Probably something from
another dimension, but no one likes to listen to someone else hum, no matter how otherworldly it may be.
“Nothing here either,” Fai said, smiling while closing yet another drawer to yet another teachers desk that we were
rooting through (oh, also no one likes people who can still be cheerful in the dead of night after accomplishing nothing for
several hours).
Seriously, he had yet to even show any frustration all night. Are you sure everything was explained to you? Did you
the exposition where the end of the world could take place, or did that just not come up in conversation?
Something must have shown on my face because Fai tilted his head at me. “Maybe we should pack it in for the
night. Try this again tomorrow.”
WHAT?! You want us to stop now?! After going through all of this, you want us to do it again tomorrow!?
Fai shrugged. “Pretty soon, people are going to start arriving for the school day, right?”
Not the point.
“Besides, wouldn't it be better to do this when we are all alert and not about to fall asleep on our feet?”
You look as chipper as ever!
Fai giggled. “You're sounding more and more like Kuro-pippi.”
...wow, that was bad. At least my stupid name is consistent.
As though on cue, my phone went off. It was Koizumi.
Man, was I tempted to ignore it. Alas, life and death scenarios. I answered.
“We're going to stop for now.”
10
Of course. I'm really not equipped to handle two of you right now, so I'm going to hang up now.
“Part of the problem is we're running out of places to look.”
Knew it. We're going to start causing all kinds of collateral damage by ripping up the floor next. I'm not a licensed
plumber, so someone else is going to have to do that part.
“We're not quite that desperate yet, but we are going to have to figure out a new approach as soon as possible. We
were hoping to keep this simple but, well...”
That's a silly idea. If something with easy, it wouldn't have anything to do with me.
“Let’s all met up at the clubroom and head out. If nothing changes, we'll try this again tomorrow.”
I'm not going to sleep for the rest of the week. Hanging up, Fai and I left the classroom, him still looking as awake
as ever. I wanted to punch him.
“Looks like Kuro-chan and I will be playing house again. That'll be fun!”
Wait, what?!
Fai chuckled. “Koizumi was nice enough to let us stay at an apartment close by. Since we knew where the feather
was, there wasn't any point in looking for it and it's only polite to keep borrowed space clean.”
I don't care what you say, you two practically act like you're married.
He looked surprised. I think. I wasn't thinking too clearly at this point. “You think so?”
How oblivious do you think I am?
“Hmm.” Fai got quiet, leaving me alone with my thoughts, such as they were. Thoughts like what I was going to do
with the last few hours before school began again.
First, head home and get a shower. I'll need a clean uniform, too. Then I could get a couple hours of sleep. Wait,
wasn't there something else I... oh yeah. I could be responsible and look over the notes for the test I'd been pushing off all
week. Not that it'll go well either way but with that last incident over the summer with the assignments thatI stopped.
It was a few seconds before Fai realized I wasn't walking next to him anymore and looked at me curiously.
A cold, horrible feeling of realization went through me.
I picked up my pace, almost breaking into a run as I hurry back to the room, ignoring Fai's yells behind me.
Screeching to a halt, I threw open the door and saw Asahina and Syaoran jump at my dramatic entrance.
“Kyon, what's wrong?” Asahina asked. So maybe I looked a little frazzled, but I had an absolutely justified reason
for it.
Without a word, I stalked over to the desk and picked up the textbook I'd left there the night before. Swallowing
once, I steeled myself and began flipping through the pages.
Lo and behold, nestled between the pages was a large, bright white feather covered in pink markings. I didn't need
to hear Asahina's gasp or Syaoran's exclamation.
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I fell to my knees in despair.
An entire night of searching and worrying, and Sakura or I had it the entire time.
No one in the room was yelling at me over it (and no one would consider raising their voice at someone as sweet as
her), though Kurogane had a few choice words that didn't translate properly. At least someone besides me is a grouch this
morning. We were all kind of at a loss, though.
“I don't get it.” Sakura was befuddled. Cutely so. “How did I forget to look there?”
Nagato took the book out of my hands and set it on the center of the desk next to the newly-liberated feather
before placing her palm over the cover and closing her eyes. Mokona hummed in the background while Nagato worked for
a few seconds before he let out an “Oh!”
Are either of you going to share with us?
Nagato's eyes opened. “The object was activated.”
Judging by everyone's reactions, no one was expecting that.
“But I had it all day. Mokona never noticed anything.” Sakura turned to the fuzz ball.
“The feather's power was used, but it was specifically directed to not being noticed. So even if we did think of its
hiding place, we forgot about it.” Mokona said.
It can do that?
“It can do a lot,” Kurogane grumbled.
But how? And why?
“I believe it was reacting to you,” Koizumi said.
What? What did I do? I'm supposed to be the normal one, right?
“Nothing. That's exactly it.”
Are you trying to say something?
Koizumi waved his hands at my scowl, trying to placate me. It wasn't working. “Let me ask. You were using this-”
he tapped the book's cover. “-to study for a test, correct?”
Well, yeah.
“Really?”
What kind of question is that?
“How long have you known about it? The test, I mean.”
...a while.
“And how much have you actually studied?” Fai broke in.
...a little. And stop helping!
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“You were just going to cram last night, weren't you?”
What did I just say?!
“Let me make sure I got this,” Kurogane groaned. “It, what, fed off of this kid's apathy?”
“That is correct,” Nagato said. “It reflected disposition of the book's owner toward it during the time the two
objects were bonded together.”
I'm sorry that I was more concerned with prevented untold disaster than studying for a test. I was going to study
eventually. Really.
...fine. I'll never put off studying for a test again.
“Still, it maybe it's best that it happened this way,” Syaoran said.
Why? We wasted all this time and effort, went through people's stuff, and risked blowing up the world. Again.
What's the upside?
“What would have happened if Kyon had cared about the test instead?”
After a moment of silence, Nagato said, “Cannot determine. Too many variables.”
Mokona nodded despite not having any neck I could see. “If it was active some other way, the feather could have
been doing anything or hurting anyone. Instead, all of that power was spent doing something harmless.”
...maybe I'll never study again instead.
Sighing, I reached over and picked up the feather from the table and held it out toward Sakura. “This is yours, riWhoa!”
She didn't get a chance to say anything before the feather suddenly started to glow and suddenly disappeared into
her body. After the light show was over, she floated for a moment and collapsed, leaving Syaoran to quickly catch her
before she hit her head.
I just stood there, not really sure if I should apologize or something. What do you say when you accidentally
magically knock out some guy's girlfriend?
“Ummm...”
“Thank you.”
I blinked at Syaoran who was smiling up at me. “What did I do?”
“You took care of a very important part of her and restored it to her. A lot of people haven't been have so kind. So,
thank you.”
Well, what do you say to that? “Oh. No problem. It was probably just coincidence anyway.”
“No.” Syaoran looked me in the eye. “There's only inevitability.”
That sounds like something off a fortune teller. I'm just going to keep pretending the coincidence theory. Helps me
sleep at night.
“Well, that's that.” Koizumi said, interrupting the moment. “We'd best get out of here before we're all caught. You
13
can stay at the safe house until you are ready move on.”
Kurogane silently allowed Syaoran to place Sakura on his back while Fai took Mokona and they all left with
Koizumi in the lead, each calling out a goodbye until Nagato, Asahina and I were all that was left. With the excitement
gone, Asahina collapsed into a chair while Nagato looked the same as ever. Pretty soon, she selected a book from the
shelves and began reading in her usual chair. Heavily, I sat down at the desk and starred at my textbook that had caused
all of my problems for the last day.
You know what, screw it. I leaned back for a nap. At least I don't have to deal with marching up the hill today.
Unsurprisingly, I didn’t do very well on the test. It’s a toss-up as to whether this was to the fact that I never had a
chance to study for it at all, or because I had been distracted by the barely-avoided new members of the club.
Or maybe it was because I fell asleep more than once in the middle of it. Something like that. Turns out power
napping isn't a good substitute for the real thing. This did not escape the notice of the great and powerful leader.
“Why're you so out of it?” Haruhi asked, frowning at me.
“Didn't sleep much.”
“How come?”
“Up all night.
“Why?”
“Looking for something.”
“Well, that was stupid.”
Tell me about it.
I tapped my pencil on the desk in front of me. “Hey, Haruhi?’
She looked over. “Yeah?”
“Have you ever thought about…”
“Hmm?”
“…never mind, it’s nothing.”
“Well, then don’t bring it up.”
Probably best to not give her any ideas for new members. We don’t need any more potential recruits dragged here.
“Kyon, you’re excused from club duties for the day.” Haruhi said out of nowhere.
Huh? Where’s this coming from?
“Don’t get used to it!” Haruhi yelled, immediately backtracking and pointing in my face. “It’s just you’ll be useless
to me today and we’re all be better off if you get rested up for tomorrow. You’ll be working twice as hard to make up for
this!” With that, she picked up her bag and left.
This is…weirdly considerate. For Haruhi at least. I’m not arguing though. Packing up, I left the classroom to head
14
home.
I didn’t get very far before I ran into Koizumi in the hallway. Not literally this time.
“Looks like the crisis was averted.” He looked far too cheerful and awake than was fair. “The group left a little
while ago. Sakura wanted me to tell you thank you and goodbye since she didn't have the chance to tell you herself.”
You don't have to remind me of that stunt.
“Anyway, as long as they don't have any business here, we probably won't be seeing them again.” Koizumi said.
Well, that good. Since this is the first time I've been let out of club duties, such as they are, I'm going to go home
and enjoy the reprieve. I walked past Koizumi and started down the hallway.
“It was a memory.” Koizumi looked over his shoulder, smiling.
What was?
“The feathers were Sakura's scattered memories. If you were curious.”
I didn't ask, but okay. That's good to know.
“Do you want the details?”
No. You can tell me all about it next week or something. I have a vacation to enjoy.
“Suit yourself.” Koizumi shrugged and walked away.
I wonder what's on TV at this time. Maybe there was a ballgame scheduled tonight that I could fall asleep
watching.
...how would memories turn into feathers, anyway?
15
Second Place
"Listen to Her Speak"
by Aldara-Nerita
Air
It takes one type of courage to make friends, a different one to protect them, and yet another to say goodbye.
“I count myself in nothing else so happy
as in a soul rememb'ring my good friends.”
- William Shakespeare
The air smelled of salt and foam as the wind swept up along the beach. The water lapped against the shoreline,
spraying the rocks and dashing sandpipers with mist that sparkled in the air. In the distance far beyond the horizon where
sight couldn't reach, the ocean seamlessly morphed into the azure sky. The yellow sun blazed brilliantly, warming the
sands and streets as the winds stirred the humidity gently. A few lonely clouds clustered high in the atmosphere, like puffs
of cotton glued against blue paper. And the sounds of the sea breathing against the earth were cut occasionally with the
caw of a gull swooping towards the waves.
This was her favorite place to be, and she came here regularly each day after school. The beach was separated from
the small town by a large wall of concrete, the seawall creating a barrier that protected the streets from salt and water
crashing up during storms. The wall lead into harbors and boarding docks for fishing boats, pontoons, and speed boats
that could often be seen pulling skiers behind them. On top of the wall, stairs led to the sands of the beach on one side, and
another set led to the streets behind the wall's protection. The wall itself was a walkway, wide enough to provide safe
passage for several people walking side by side. It was here that Misuzu enjoyed coming. It provided a great view of the
ocean and the sunsets that came each evening.
She walked along with the ocean to her right, her arms stretched out to either side to maintain balance. Her waist
long blonde hair, tied behind in a high-sitting ponytail, wipped backed and forth in the ocean breezes as she walked.
Staring down at her shoes, she carefully placed one foot directly in front of the other, balancing on an invisible line that
only she could see. Misuzu took her time, sometimes sticking out her tongue in her focus, to keep as straight as possible.
A sudden gust came up and raced along the concrete wall, causing her hair to whip around and cover her face.
With a cry of surprise, the girl's hands automatically came up to pull her hair away. However, with one foot already in
motion, her balance shifted too steeply to the left, and she wobbled dangerously.
Flapping her arms in a feeble attempt to stop herself, the girl felt her shoe slip along the boardwalk, and she
crashed down.
“Owe...” Misuzu mumbled as she picked herself up, brushing sand off her school uniform and attempting to
arrange the bangs from her eyes. As she looked up, something caught her attention on the beach. Usually the area was
empty of people, but a short ways away she noticed a figure sitting in the sands, hunched over as if looking at something
closely.
Curious, Misuzu picked herself up, and satisfied that she looked somewhat presentable, began to trot towards the
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nearest staircase. Hopping off the last step onto the beach, she approached more slowly as she realized the figure was a girl
about her age, maybe a tad younger, bending over a notepad as she scribbled something in writing.
Before she got too close, Misuzu called out to the girl sitting down.
“Hello!” she said. The girl didn't respond at all. The blonde cocked her head, waiting. Then cupping her mouth,
she shouted again, “Hello!”
Still, the girl didn't respond. Her thick black hair was pulled back into a braid which fell over her right shoulder
and obscured her expression as she wrote. She wore a bright rose colored blouse and black colored capris. She sat crosslegged on a blue towel, and a pair of sandals sat next to her.
Misuzu wondered why the girl ignored her. Was she that focused on her work? But before the blonde could make
a decision as to what to do next, a shrill caw from above caught her attention. The blonde gasped and looked up, finding a
large crow spiraling downward.
“Sky!” The blonde smiled as the crow descended, coming in to crash just a couple yards from the black haired
stranger. The girl blinked in surprise when she noticed the crow flipping sand in his flourish, paused in her writing, and
looked up towards him in astonishment. Then a small, open smile came to her lips as Sky regained his balance, stepping
back and forth. The girl continued to watch his quirky little dance as he hopped towards the blonde, and the black-haired
girl's eyes followed the bird until they came to rest upon Misuzu.
Misuzu placed her hand up towards her mouth shyly as the black-haired girl's eyes grew wider. But instead of
looking away in shame or dislike, the newcomer waved.
Misuzu eyed Sky curiously, watching the crow shift his feet on the warm sands, and then in a frantic flurry of
feathers, he took to the air with noticeable difficulty. Misuzu stepped forward with a desire to help, but the crow was
already above her by the time she made it to him. She watched the bird in his struggles, battling the air as he faltered up
and down. He eventually made it over the concrete seawall to the city on the other side.
Misuzu sighed, brushing her hair out of her eyes as she turned away and found the black-haired girl looking at her.
She wore a very concerned expression on her face, but offered a small smile in support. She then gestured towards the
sands next to her. Misuzu hesitated, but then decided to comply.
Resting on her heels, Misuzu turned to her new companion and smiled.
“Hi! My name's Misuzu. I saw you sitting here from up on the wall. What's your name?”
The girl watched Misuzu talk, and then the once cheerful glow in her eyes dimmed. She lowered her head and let
her hair droop down unnoticed. Misuzu cocked her head at the reaction. Had she said something wrong?
Eventually, the girl lifted her head up again and shook her head apologetically. Then, to Misuzu's amazement, she
brought her hands up and did a few quick motions. Her last one pointed toward her ear. Misuzu's head rolled to the side
even deeper, an audible “huh?” escaping her lips. The girl lifted her shoulders as she breathed in. She placed a finger to her
temple, contemplating.
Then she turned to her other side, and Misuzu noticed a backpack resting next to her. Reaching inside, the girl
muddled in it briefly and pulled out a small white board and a single, thick marker. Popping off the cap with her teeth, the
girl quickly scribbled onto the board. Misuzu watched with great intensity, but couldn't see what she was writing. When
the girl was finished, she turned the board to face Misuzu. On it was the message:
17
“I'm sorry, but I can't hear you. I'm deaf.”
“You're deaf?” Misuzu asked aloud, looking at the girl's brown eyes in surprise. The girl smiled again, pulling the
board back towards her to erase the message and write a new one. When she was finished, she turned the board again
back to Misuzu.
“Please, I can't understand when you speak. Do you mind writing it for me? My name is Ayame.”
Misuzu gasped, putting her hands over her mouth. Then she said, “Oh! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to make it hard
for you!” She waved her hands back and forth as she apologized. Ayame watched her complete her sentence, but then
simply shrugged afterward, tapping her ear as a reminder. She then handed the board to Misuzu.
“Oh!” the blonde said. She hastily wiped Ayame's message off and wrote her own. When she handed it back, it
said,
“I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! My name is Misuzu.” Ayame took the board back gently and wrote a response.
“No worries. It's nice to meet you, Misuzu. Are you from around here?”
Misuzu took the board and wrote her own.
“Yes, I live walking distance from the beach. I come here after school a lot. What were those things you did
earlier?”
“Oh, my hands? It was sign language. It's a way to talk without words. I had hoped you knew some, but it's
okay you don't. Not a lot of people do. That's why I carry this board around.”
Misuzu nodded in understanding when she read the last phrase, smiling at Ayame brightly. The other girl
returned the expression.
“That's a good idea!” Misuzu wrote. She giggled, and Ayame placed her hand near her chin as her shoulder's
bounced in silent laughter.
“Where are you from?” Misuzu asked next. Ayame took a minute to reply, cramming the board full.
“I'm visiting some extended family with my mother for this week. My mother is here for business. We recently
arrived, and I wanted to visit the ocean right away. I'd never seen it before; it's beautiful! I was just busy sitting and
writing when I spotted you.”
Ayame looked out at the ocean as Misuzu brought her gaze away from the white board.
“You write?” Misuzu asked aloud, but Ayame didn't notice as she looked over the water. After a second of silence,
Misuzu took the board gently from Ayame's hands. The deaf girl blinked in surprise as Misuzu took it and began to write
rapidly.
“Do you know the area, Ayame? Have you seen a lot of it?” When she was finished reading, Ayame shook her head
sadly.
“My mother is busy with work-related things. I assumed that I'd be walking around by myself.”
Misuzu nearly gasped as she read aloud, and then her brow came together in a frown.
“Well, that won't do,” she said to herself. Ayame looked at her confused, but before she could remind Misuzu that
she couldn't hear her, Misuzu wiped the white board clean and began to write furiously. When she was finished, the
18
blonde stood up and held the board out in one hand.
“I'll show you around town! Meet me here at this time tomorrow, okay? I'll give you a personal tour. Let's be
friends!”
Misuzu presented the board to Ayame proudly, eyes closed and a broad smile on her face. Ayame read the
message, then looked at Misuzu in shock. She took the board and smiled herself, gave a single nod, then moved her right
hand towards her chin. With a small sweep forward, she extended her hand out towards Misuzu.
Ayame grinned ever broader at the blonde's quizzical expression, and then using the board wrote:
“In English, that sign means 'thank-you.' I'm excited to see you tomorrow, Misuzu.”
The next day was just as beautiful as the last. The streets were rather calm and subdued as the afternoon sun
baked the cement sidewalks and cicadas chirped ceaselessly within the thick branches of the trees. Practically skipping
along the sidewalk was Misuzu, a purse slipped across her shoulders and hair swinging back and forth with her steps. Just
a bit behind her and to the side, the young man Yukito shuffled along as well, head pulled back as he gazed lazily to the
clouds above.
“You seem pretty excited,” he stated as Misuzu continued her rapid walking. The girl looked over her shoulder,
appearing confused.
“Well, of course I am! I get to see a friend again.”
“You're calling her a friend already? You said last night that you just met yesterday.”
“But I like her a lot. She's very nice. I'm sure she'll like you too!”
Yukito snorted, rubbing his nose with the cusp of his long sleeve.
“Whatever you say, Misuzu.”
As Misuzu approached the stairs that would take her up the wall to overlook the ocean, a cluster of voices became
audible. She paused to see if it was near her, but a quick glance around didn't reveal the source. She looked up the
staircase and realized the voices were coming from the other side.
Curious, she skipped up the stairs to see what was going on. When at the top, Misuzu noticed a group of middle
school boys yelling at someone sitting on the beach. The boys were several yards away from the person, nudging each
other roughly and cupping their hands to shout. The figure in front of them, just out of sight, didn't seem to respond.
Misuzu leaned to one side, trying to get a better view. Then she gasped, pulling her hands up to her cheeks.
The figure in the sand was Ayame. She was sitting almost identical to the way Misuzu has seen her yesterday. The
boys behind her were jeering at and taunting her. Then they would nudge each other in the arm, pointing and laughing at
their target.
“She can't hear us! I can't believe it!”
“Come on girl, turn around!”
“Stupid! Stupid!”
19
One boy stepped forward and kicked sand at her in a tease. The sand didn't quite reach Ayame, so nothing caused
her to turn around. She continued to stare at the ocean in a pleasant demeanor, shifting her weight to lean back on her
hands.
Misuzu felt her hands tense up suddenly. Turning, she whirled around at Yukito, who had just gotten to the top of
the stairs.
“Oh, Yukito, they're being terrible! We have to say something.”
Yukito eyed the young boys, pondering their behavior.
“They're just being boys.”
“That's an awful excuse!” Misuzu scolded. Yukito eyed her oddly.
“Why are you being so defensive all of the sudden? What do you plan on doing to stop them? It looks like your
friend is doing a good job ignoring them.” Misuzu bit her lip, pinching her skirt in her fingers as she thought quickly.
“It's not fair they're making fun of her. It's not her fault.” Yukito tilted his head, stepping forward.
“What do you mean by that...?”
“No, they could throw a rock or something at her! She might get hurt!” Without waiting for a response, Misuzu
whipped around to go trekking down the stairs onto the beach. She didn't see if Yukito followed, but instead ran up to the
boys. When they noticed her approaching, they stopped in their antics as the lone school girl walked up.
“What do you want?” one sneered, crossing his arms.
“Stop it, please,” Misuzu said, standing straight with her arms at her sides. The ocean blew her long hair towards
the city, her eyes sparkling in the sunlight. “That isn't right.”
“What do you care?” another one scoffed. “We're just having fun. Besides, she's obviously deaf-”
“That's not fair!” Misuzu yelled. The boys started, surprised at her sudden outburst. “Stop teasing her and leave
her be. It's very mean of you.” One boy shrugged his shoulders, shaking off the expression to be replaced with
determination.
“What of it? Maybe you're being mean to us. You should go away.”
The others looked at their friend, and then their own looks changed. They built up their own courage, starting to
walk towards Misuzu. The blonde inhaled shallowly, stepping backwards a couple times.
“You're being mean. We can tell on you and get you into so much trouble,” one boy warned. Misuzu gulped,
staring at the sand and seeing it swirl around her feet. Her vision went in and out of focus for a second, and then she
blinked, feeling tears building up.
No, I need to do something. I need to help her, she thought desperately. Looking back up, the boys had suddenly
frozen. Misuzu clenched her fists, feeling her nails begin to bite into her fingers, and she marched right up to them. The
boys' eyes drifted up to her, and then up and beyond, as if frightened of something looming from above.
“It's not right to pick on someone that can't do anything about it,” Misuzu said to them. “No, you need to be the
one to leave, and never treat someone so unkindly, especially if they have done nothing wrong to you.” Misuzu then closed
her eyes and, taking a deep breath and raising her fists up, she slammed them down towards her thighs and roared.
20
“GAOOOOO!”
The boys gasped in terror, and when spinning around lost their footing in the sands. Stumbling, they picked
themselves up and ran away, shouting at each other to go faster.
Misuzu opened her eyes in time to see them dash away, and she watched them go in fascination.
“Was I really that scary?” she said softly.
“Oh, you were terrifying.” She heard Yukito's voice from behind her, and she turned slightly to find him standing
directly behind her. He was considerably taller than her, and he stood so close she had to look straight up to see him. The
sun was behind him, casting a shadow against his face that made his features almost ghoulish with his bright eyes.
“Was I really?” she asked, almost sorry she had scared the boys. Yukito chuckled, resting a hand on top of her
head.
“No, Misuzu. You were very brave.”
Her eyes lit up, and he was momentarily captured in them, seeing her soul ignite with fire from his compliment.
He tore his gaze away, and he found himself being watched by the girl that he was supposed to meet.
Ayame had turned from her seated position, leaning on her right arm to stare at the two in wonder. Misuzu
noticed Yukito's fixed gaze, and she gasped when she remembered her friend waiting for her.
“Oh! Ayame!” Misuzu waved enthusiastically, and the black-haired girl returned the gesture. She stood up and
gathered her things, folding her towel neatly and placing it in a bag beside her. From what Yukito could tell, the girl hadn't
noticed the boys behind her at all. She then approached the two, her braid swaying as she walked.
Yukito eyed her with suspicion as she approached, and when Ayame got close enough she gave a brief bow to
greet, setting her bag down to pull out a small whiteboard and marker.
The young man look at Misuzu questioningly, but the girl didn’t appear concerned in the least. Ayame wrote
swiftly on the board and, turning it around, showed it to Yukito.
“Hello. You must be a friend of Misuzu. My name is Ayame, it’s nice to meet you.”
When Yukito looked towards Misuzu again, she just gestured towards Ayame with encouragement. Yukito
stammered, placing a hand behind his head.
“Um, it’s great to meet you too,” he said. “Call me Yukito.”
Ayame continued to watch him with a quiet smile, and Yukito felt himself shift with unease at her look. She sighed
and shook her head. Yukito lowered his hand, wondering what she was thinking, but Ayame simply erased the board and
wrote again.
“I’m sorry, but can you write it down for me? I can’t hear you when you speak.”
She then held the board out to Yukito, and he exhaled in astonishment as he realized exactly what was going on.
Now he understood what Misuzu had meant, and why Ayame had been so good at ignoring the boys. It was because she
never knew they were there in the first place.
With a grab, Yukito took the board and quickly re-wrote what he said earlier, adding an apology afterward about
his misunderstanding. When Ayame read it, she merely smiled, waving her hand back and forth as if it wasn’t a big deal in
21
the world at all.
“Are you looking forward to seeing the town?” Misuzu asked Ayame using the board. She nodded when she read
the message, doing a few gestures with her free hand. Afterward she wrote:
“That means: ‘I’m very excited.’”
The group then headed up towards the town and proceeded to walk through the streets. The sun was warm and
comfortable on their backs, and a few people were out in the town here and there. The birds chirped in the trees, the
cicadas having finally stopped their chorus. Yukito would turn and look up at the noises around him, noticing the cars
passing by, the people calling to one another, and the wind rustling the grass and leaves. Then he would look at Ayame,
speaking with Misuzu on occasion with her board to communicate. He found himself feeling strangely sympathetic. This
girl couldn’t hear any of the things he could. He had never really acknowledged the sounds before now.
It was odd, but although their communication took some time to go back and forth, the messages still managed to
get through. And Ayame had tons to talk about. She told the two about her older siblings, how hard her Mom works, and
how much she had been enjoying watching the ocean. She tried to describe how it felt to feel the wind but not hear it, and
she found it amusing that her descriptions made absolutely no sense to her two friends. But her smiles were endless, and
Yukito found them contagious. It confused him at times just how it happened, but she was incredibly happy.
Misuzu laughed a lot as well, and Yukito was reminded just how amazing that sound was.
“Wow, I'm getting thirsty!” Misuzu mentioned to Yukito, bringing him suddenly out of his daze. When he realized
the comment that had been made, he suddenly put his hands up in defense, spitting out at her.
“Gah! I don't want any of that terrible peach nectar!” Misuzu's excitement deflated like a balloon, and she pouted
like a small child at him.
“I don't think it's terrible.”
“Yeah, well it is,” Yukito replied, crossing his arms defiantly.
Misuzu pinched her skirt between her fingers, rolling the fabric back and forth as she stuttered.
“Well, we don't have to...”
Ayame watched the brief exchange between them, and then looking down the road, she perked up when she
spotted a particular shop. It had a large cover of white and red stripes hanging over the front. A couple of benches sat
before the windows at the front of the shop, but no one was occupying them. The sun was beginning to turn the horizon a
slight orange, and a small light hanging near the doorway alerted to passerby’s that the shop was open.
Misuzu followed Ayame's gesture to spot the shop, and then she turned around with renewed energy.
“Oh, that's the town's ice cream parlor! It's a very cute, little place that I went to all the time as a kid. I haven't
been there for a while, but it's...” she drifted off when Yukito waved his hand in front of her face.
“What?” she asked. He pointed towards Ayame, and Misuzu looked at her to see her smiling with her eyes closed,
shaking her head in amusement.
“Oh, I'm sorry Ayame. I keep forgetting.” Misuzu then just pointed at the shop, and then bringing her other hand
up towards her face, stuck out her tongue and pretended to lick an ice cream cone.
22
Ayame's lips peeled back in an awe-struck grin. She quickly wrote on her board with vigor, her braid jerking with
her hand movements.
“I LOVE ice cream! Can we go, please?”
Yukito chuckled as he read over Misuzu's shoulder.
“Sounds good to me.”
The trio went inside, each purchasing a small cone. Together, they sat on one of the wooden benches outside,
watching the sun sink behind the short houses and shops surrounding the area. Yukito leaned back, a single arm resting
on the bench, while the two girls sat close together, exchanging small bits of conversation on the white board.
Misuzu began to giggle intensely. Yukito lifted a brow.
“What's so amusing over there, you two?” he asked curiously before popping the last bit of his cone in his mouth.
“Oh nothing! Nothing!” Misuzu covered, falling into another fit of giggles.
“Oh come on,” Yukito prodded still chewing.
“Well, Ayame called your hair a 'nest fit for an owl', and I just find it really funny-”
Yukito began to choke, leaning abruptly over to cough heavily into his hand.
“She said what?” he gasped as Misuzu laughed again. Ayame placed her hand against her mouth too, her eyes
glittering.
“It's pretty much true!” Misuzu laughed. Yukito glared at her from his position, then pushed himself off his knees
to lean back with both his hands behind his head.
“Well, tell her that owls aren't my thing.”
Misuzu scribbled on her board, Ayame read it and then replied.
“She says, ‘Then how about a raven’?”
“Hey!” Yukito shouted back. “I'm not going to have any birds living in my hair!”
Both girls laughed, and Ayame showed the board to him.
“Fine. Have it your way.” She grinned from around the board, and Yukito could do nothing except sigh in reply.
“Hey, Misuzu,” Ayame then asked. “Do you have any big dreams or wishes at all?”
“Do...do I have a dream?” Misuzu asked aloud. Yukito opened an eye in interest, but otherwise didn't move.
“Yeah, like a goal you'd like to do someday or something you would wish for if you could.”
“Well...” Misuzu thought about it for a second, placing her pointer finger against her chin and looking up as she
mused. Eventually she wrote a message.
“What did you write?” Yukito asked.
“I said that I'd love to be able to visit places around the world. If I could fly, it'd be easy to!” she chuckled.
“'If you could fly'?” Yukito repeated.
23
“Yeah, but that only happens in my dreams, so that's not possible here. But I certainly can imagine it.” Yukito was
silent.
Ayame nodded with enthusiasm. She then wrote her own message.
“If I could wish for anything, I'd wish that I could listen to music. People have said it’s something truly
amazing.”
Yukito looked to Misuzu, her demeanor suddenly becoming shadowed in sorrow and sympathy. She gazed down
in her lap, her fingers resting on top of one another, brows coming together in thought.
Ayame wrote again.
“Sometimes I can feel the music inside me. You know, when speakers are up too loud, or a large drum is hit and
the entire floor shakes? It’s so enthralling, but I’ve read in stories how it's something that has to be experienced to be
fully appreciated. That would be my wish.”
Ayame looked up to Misuzu expectantly, but appeared surprised when she saw the girl next to her drooping her
head. With concern, Ayame looked to Yukito with an expression that clearly said: Did I do something wrong?
Yukito shook his head with a smile. He gently took the board from Ayame and wrote to her,
“No, you did nothing wrong. We just wish we could help, that’s all.”
Ayame nodded, understanding. She turned to Misuzu and placed a hand on her shoulder in comfort.
“Hey, I'm going to go back in for a second,” Misuzu suddenly stated as she stood up.
“Why?” Yukito asked.
“I'm going to bring something back for Mom,” she said. “She'll probably be wanting something sweet when she
gets home.” Misuzu’s previous darkness had completely vanished, hidden by the distraction of her new task.
Yukito grumbled as the blonde girl disappeared into the shop again. Ayame watched her go.
“Just don't get lost in there,” Yukito mumbled.
After a few seconds, Yukito felt a slight weight be put in his lap. Opening his eyes, he saw the white board resting
on his legs, a new message written on it.
“I've been having a lot of fun. Just so you know, I noticed the boys at the beach running away. I think I know
what was going on. I like Misuzu a lot, and you're very nice too. Thank-you for showing me around.”
Yukito took the board and wrote for her.
“Of course. Misuzu likes you too.”
“Does she always hide her sadness like that? Is she always so happy?”
Yukito paused, looking to Ayame questioningly. She peered back at him, her eyes shining with concern.
“No, not always,” he eventually wrote. He hesitantly added, “She has trouble making friends.”
“That's a shame. She's so nice. You obviously care about her very much. Is she important to you?”
Yukito stared at the board for a while, mouth open in surprise, then stared at the young highschooler next to him.
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She cocked her head, appearing suddenly saddened. She took the board back from Yukito and wrote another message.
“I'm sorry. Did I ask something wrong? You don't have to answer me.”
Yukito shook his head and took the board back.
“No, I just look out for her when her Mom can't. At the moment, she’s kind of taking care of me too.”
“I see. I’m glad to see she does have friends like you. I sometimes have trouble too. Maybe that’s why I like her so
much.” Ayame offered a warm smile at Yukito’s hesitant nod. Then she erased the message and added, “I can tell there’s
something very special about her. Maybe if I could hear her, I could figure it out. I suppose you’ll have to listen for me!”
“‘Listen for you…?’” Yukito quoted aloud, gazing at the words held between his fingers. Before he could reply, a
little bell jingled as the shop door opened again. Misuzu walked out, a small brown bag held in her arms.
“I’m back!” she announced. “Should we start heading home?”
“Yeah, it’s beginning to get late. Haruko may actually worry about us.” He then stood up, followed shortly by
Ayame. The three began on their way back in towards the city where Ayame would wait for her mother to pick her up, and
Yukito and Misuzu would continue back on towards the house for the evening.
“And she certainly won’t want her juice to be warm!” Misuzu exclaimed.
For the next few days, Misuzu had come home directly from school, sadly stating that Ayame had been busy
helping her mother out with tasks and chores. Misuzu had finally received a message, however, stating that Ayame had
some free time this particular afternoon. Misuzu was to meet her downtown, and Yukito was playing chaperone in tow as
the two walked along the sidewalk adjacent to small houses and narrow streets.
Yukito glanced around as the buildings passed. Something was different today, and he was having difficulty
figuring out exactly what it was. The sun was pretty much the same, the warmth and comfort from the ocean breeze
breathing in his face.
After a few minutes of silence, he realized that that was exactly what was different. When Misuzu wasn’t speaking
to him, the surrounding world was so quiet. No birds, no insects…just the wind empty of extra sounds within it. It was a
strange aura of the neighborhood that Yukito simply didn't like. Something was wrong.
Suddenly from around the corner, Yukito and Misuzu spotted a figure come dashing around on the sidewalk. It
was a girl about Misuzu's age, and behind her ran a little ball of fluff yipping at her heels.
“Kano!” Yukito started.
“And little Potato!” Misuzu added. The girl ran up to them, her short hair bouncing with her stride. When she got
close to them, she paused to place her hands on her knees, breathing heavily. The yellow ribbon that she wore tied around
her wrist was damp with sweat.
“Kano, what's wrong? Why are you running?”
“I'm...looking...for help...” she stammered between breaths. Tossing her head up, she looked at them desperately
and said, “There's been a terrible car accident just down the road. I've been running up and down these streets looking for
additional help.”
25
Misuzu gasped, covering her mouth with her hands in shock.
“Was anyone hurt?” Yukito asked. “Is there anything we can do?”
“I don't know,” Kano moaned, holding out her arms as Potato jumped into them. “I overheard people say, though,
that one of the cars had a young woman and teenager in it. The car that they were in had license plates from out of town.
The view is awful and the car is completely totaled-”
“What?!” Misuzu yelped. Yukito looked behind him to view her, and he noticed tears had begun to overflow onto
her cheeks.
“Misuzu, don't jump to conclusions,” he said reaching out for her. “We don't know yet if-”
“No! It can't be!” she shouted before he could stop her. And in a dash, she took off around him and down the road.
Kanno watched her go startled.
“Misuzu, wait!” Yukito took off after her, and as he ran he heard Kano's feet pounding the pavement behind him.
Although he was faster than Misuzu, she had gotten enough of a lead that he couldn't catch up to her before she
rounded a corner and vanished behind a building. When he came to that point and veered to his right, he had to quickly
stop to avoid running into her. She had halted to a stand, viewing in front of her a large intersection that had been cut off
by rescue vehicles, pedestrians, and wreckage. A small car lay crumbled against the light post, the street light having come
crashing to the ground and shattering into hundreds of pieces. Just adjacent to it stood a truck, the entire front having
been crumpled inward from the impact. Tall buildings crowding the intersection, lack of stoplights, and with it being set
on a hill...it set up a perfect possibility for a traffic accident.
Misuzu stood watching, her shoulders trembling. After a brief repose, Yukito dashed up to her, wheeling around to
come facing in front of her. Bending down, he placed both hands on her shoulders, forcing her to look at him. Her blue
eyes swam in tears, her cheeks glistening.
“Listen to me, Misuzu,” he breathed hard after his sprint. “I know you. I know what you're thinking. This isn't your
fault. Misuzu, pay attention to me!”
The girl stared emptily into his eyes. Finally, she spoke.
“It's happening again.” Yukito's breath caught, himself unsure how to respond. “Everyone I'm close to just ends up
going away.”
“That's not true-” he tried to say, but Misuzu shook her head.
“Mother hurts, and Ayame hurts. It's because of me.”
“That's ridiculous, Misuzu.” He saw Kano standing just a short distance away behind Misuzu, Potato in her arms.
She held very still, as if she was frightened of interrupting. “How can you say that?”
“It's not fair!” she abruptly cried, burying her face in her hands. “Yukito...are going away?”
The question was so sudden, the man was speechless. Misuzu peered from between her fingers at him, and her
shoulders began to shake violently.
“Are you going to leave me too, just like all the others?” After she spoke, her legs collapsed and she fell to her
knees with a sob. The drop surprised Yukito, and he fell with her until they faced each other on the ground. When he
26
regained his senses, he sighed deeply and pulled Misuzu into an embrace. She wept and wept, crying out in her misery. It
pained him to think that she was blaming herself, but anything he would say at the moment would never make it to her
ears. She would never hear him even if he shouted. But regardless, he tried.
“Of course not. I'm not going anywhere, Misuzu.”
Just a day later in the evening, the front door of the small house opened up to reveal Yukito walking in. He bent
down to remove his shoes, stopping to run his fingers through his hair restlessly. He did his best to remain quiet so as not
to disturb anyone.
But he wasn't the only one awake in the house.
“Did you find anything?”
Yukito looked up from his kneeling position to see Haruko standing before him, leaning against the wall with her
elbows in her hands. She appeared very tired, as if she had been up for days with worry.
“The hospital was not keen on letting me know the details, but I managed to get the gist out of them.” He sighed,
rubbing his temple between two fingers. “The mother appears stable. As for the young girl, she didn't survive that night.
They wouldn't tell me names, however, so I still don't know for sure.”
“Misuzu is convinced, though,” Haruko noted softly.
“Yeah, which gives me that awful feeling...that she's right.”
Haruko smiled gently, lowering her gaze to her bare feet.
“You need to let her know.”
“She's sleeping,” he stated. Haruko chuckled.
“I doubt it.” She shook her head, brushing some loose strands of hair behind her ear. “Just don't break her heart,
Yukito,” she continued as the man stepped up into the house. He hesitated beside her, frozen momentarily with her
comment.
Eventually he said to her, “It's already been shattered, Haruko. But...” he paused and nodded to her. “I'll mend
what I can.”
Yukito walked to Misuzu's room. His hand rested on the wall, waiting. Exhaling again, he quietly opened the panel
to let the hall light stream into the room.
The room itself was filled with soft and pleasant colors. Sentient plushie dinosaurs of all sizes stood guard along
the walls, casting protective shadows on the other helpless toys. The walls held pictures and drawings from throughout the
years. It stood as a sanctuary for a lost soul, seeking the happiness of childhood.
Against the far wall was the bed, placed underneath a wide window that opened into the outer world. Misuzu was
there, awake as Haruko had predicted. She was sitting on her knees, elbows resting on the window sill as she gazed
upward into the sky. The moon must have been quite large, because its rays cascaded through the window like rivers of
light, casting Misuzu's long, loose hair and pink pajamas into a shimmering hue.
She must have known he was there, so Yukito walked up through her room to sit on the bed beside her, taking a
27
moment to stare out at the sky like she did. The moon was so bright, it obscured the surrounding stars. One had to look at
the horizon to view any.
“I had a dream before you came,” she said after Yukito had sat down for a few moments.
“Really? Were you in the sky?” he asked somewhat worried. Misuzu looked at him then, but shook her head.
“No, and I wasn't alone this time. I was with another person. It was...Ayame.”
Yukito blinked, slightly startled. Misuzu returned her gaze out towards the moon, and her face glowed in its light.
“I saw her, but she was the one wings this time. Wings just like I would like to have, to see the whole world. And
she was very happy, Yukito.”
She looked down at her fingers, twiddling her thumbs.
“I guess I was happy for her, then. I remember saying that I felt sad, but she let me know it was okay.”
“You heard her speak?” Yukito asked. Misuzu shook her head slowly.
“No, but I understood. Then she said she had to go, but even though I'll miss her, I was so happy that she was
happy.”
Yukito held very still, watching a single tear drip down her cheek. It sparkled and glistened, and he found himself
lost gazing at her. He wanted to say something, anything, that would bring her comfort. And yet she was smiling, just like
she always did when faced with troubles and sadness.
“And you know what else, Yukito?” She glanced at him, and then returned her gaze up into the sky. “Her wings
were the most beautiful wings I've ever dreamed of...”
28
Third Place
"A Fragile Mind"
by AvatarofBahamut
Deadman Wonderland
Minatsuki was abandoned by her mother in the midst of an earthquake as the greenhouse was falling to ruins. Her
hatred for her mother runs deep. But, who was her mother? What kind of person would reach for their flowers and
leave their daughter behind?
The day of the great Tokyo earthquake, Minatsuki Takami was helping her mother with the plants in her
greenhouse. When the quake hit, the building was collapsing around them, and she was caught under rubble, reaching out
to her mother. But, her mother hands went right past her and instead grasped a pot of blooming primroses. A strange
smile stretched across her mother’s face, and without a word, she fled with the flowers in hand, leaving Minatsuki trapped
in the midst of disaster. It was only because of her brother that she survived.
It didn’t matter to her what the details were. Minatsuki never stopped to wonder what the cause or reason was
behind the events of that day. If she did dwell on any one thing, it was her hatred that was born on that day. It was like a
cancer; it had started with her mother and spread to everyone around her, including her father. Her brother was also the
object of her vilification, even though he saved her. Everyone was a liar and a shit that deserved to drown in their own
blood. That was how she saw it.
She was only a child that day, she actually knew little about her mother. Frankly, she didn’t care and would just as
soon curse it. However, there was in fact more to the story than she had seen and what her loathing would allow her to
remember. Perhaps it would have led her to greater understanding and pity. It would more than likely, though, if she had
bothered to search, give her one more reason to hate.
If she was curious enough, she would remember that her name resembled her mothers. When Mitsuki Takami
gave birth to her daughter, it was her father’s decision that the child name be as such. Her brother, Yoh, despite his young
age at the time, would be able to recall this. But, he knew that his sister would never ask about such a thing. If he told her,
she’d probably curse at him, want to strangle him, by no means would she ever want to believe him.
Perhaps it was not only that trait which mother resembled daughter and daughter took after mother. Mitsuki
herself was not an emotionally stable woman. It was not in the same violent, borderline psychotic manner of her
daughter. But an outside observer may see it as a different strain of a shared sickness: a fragile mind.
Mitsuki isolated herself from people as much as she could. For her, any stressful situation would send her
emotionally spiraling, acting insanely on blind impulse. She could not handle any of it, which is why her mother worked in
her greenhouse alone, sometimes not coming home until late at night when the family was asleep. It was an escape; any
tension it seemed could set her off.
And yet, up until that day, she had somehow managed to make it through life with only a few tragic mistakes.
Someone was always in the background of her life, watching the make sure her mind was kept intact as much as possible.
As a person handled a fragile glass statue, so the people in her life handled Mitsuki. First, it was her parents and her
siblings. Then, the duty passed to the husband her parents had arranged for her to marry.
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She had come to care for him and the family they created, in so far as she would let herself. But, eventually a glass
statue begins to chip and crack as time goes on. The stress of life is inevitable, and occasionally she would be pushed. Her
flaw would reveal itself.
Sometimes it was something small, like a late payment notice, or some small thing gone missing. In these cases
she would display panic, frantic running around and pawing at papers and objects and nervous laughter. On worse
occasions, it could escalate to throwing of object and yelling. But the worst symptoms, was how fast her vision would
narrow. All other issues were blocked out, like her pain was the only thing she could sense. In her bouts, she would often
ignore her husband and children.
But even then, none of them suspected that she would do what she did on that day. Nobody saw the earthquake
coming. So, it is no surprise that no one foresaw that it would completely shatter that mind that was kept as gently as hers
was. The shards would cut and stain the minds of her family, burrowing so deep that the wounds would never quite heal.
That day began with the rising of the sun. A warm breeze washed over the city and wrapped around the towing
skyscrapers like velvet robes. Mitsuki awoke early that morning to attend to her greenhouse. That year she was working
especially hard to grow her primroses, and was eager to see them blossom in splendor. She slipped out of bed and changed
into some simple clothes fit for gardening, looking around to make sure she did not rouse any of her family.
She grabbed her gear and a hat and made her way to the greenhouse. With swift efficiency, she went to work,
checking the flowers and watering them with the utmost care. Beads of sweat would form and trickle down her face from
the heat inside, but it didn’t bother her. Working hard to make her flowers grow kept her mind off of everything else.
There was no stress. There were no meltdowns. There was no frightened family or worried husband. There were only
primroses, violets, and dahlias that required her care.
The sun rose and a few hours past into the morning until it was just barely slipping into the afternoon. Mitsuki sat
down and opened a water bottle to quench her thirst. It had gotten warm sitting in the hot greenhouse for hours while the
ice that had been packed around it had melted seamlessly. The water from the ice dribbled down her hands and dripped
onto to her clothes. She sighed contentedly.
Then, she heard a small rap in the door, and looked to see her daughter waiting patiently outside with curious eyes.
Minatsuki had her brown hair tied back in her usual braid and was wearing a small, casual pair of shorts and a frilly top.
Mitsuki wondered what she was doing there, but was able to assure herself not to worry. Her daughter probably
wanted to know what she was doing. She was a child after all, she thought. She cared for her daughter, but with her fragile
mind still kept her distant somewhat. Still, she cautiously opened the door and let Minatsuki in and gave her a half of the
ham sandwich she had packed away for lunch. Minatsuki pulled on her mother’s pant leg, asking if she could help. Mitsuki
forgot herself and her tension for a moment and looked over at a row of primroses and a few rays of small empty plastic
pots sitting next to them.
She shook her head and told her it was ok if she put the empty pots away in the back room for her. Minatsuki took
a bite of her sandwich and started gathering up a tray of pots. She wolfed down the rest and tried her best to carefully
make her way to the back room. Her mom got back to work and started carefully checking the row of primroses and seeing
which ones needed the most water.
As the day went on, her mother seemed to relax more, as if for the first time in a while she wasn’t on edge.
Minatsuki continued to help, much to her mother’s appreciation. As midafternoon approached, the two of them started
30
checking the very last primroses together. Mitsuki even had a pleasant smile of her face when she saw her daughter
expressing such an interest in the small, delicate flowers.
She turned her back to turn on the garden hose when the first tremor hit. One of the larger pots fell down and
broke. Minastuki murmured worriedly and tried to pick up the pieces. Her mother turned off the hose and felt her heart
starting to race. Her hands began to feel shaky. Before she could react to it, the second tremor hit with greater force.
Within barely five minutes the earthquake was in full swing. The ground was shaking and the walls and ceiling of
the green house were beginning to crack. Mitsuki could feel her mind slipping and the anxiety and paranoia setting in. For
a split second she thought to grab her daughter and run. And then, one of the beams came crashing down over the plants,
burying them and Minatsuki along with them. Her mother had no time to act.
She found herself frantically running around, breathing heavily and her mind growing foggy. It was like she was
forgetting what was going on. It had never gotten this bad before. Within seconds, she forgot what she was doing. She saw
the beam and there was a single, large pot of Primroses. It was the pot nearest the entrance, and the one she had spent the
most effort in raising.
Somehow they survived. Something she had worked so hard on was still standing, despite everything collapsing
around her. A smile slapped across her face and she reached out to grab them. At least one thing wasn’t shattering to
pieces or getting squished. But, everything else was blocked out of her mind, including the little hands desperately
grabbing at her arms and the small voice crying out into the din.
Minatsuki clamored for her mother as she squirmed underneath the rubble. She smiled for a moment as her
mother’s hands reached in her direction. But the smile faded as those hands wrapped around the pot of primroses just in
front of her. Mitsuki held onto the pot tightly, with her manic smile wide across her face. Minatsuki started to whimper,
but it was as though she wasn’t heard at all. She couldn’t see her. The little girl cried out but it changed nothing. With a
sudden burst of laughter, her mother ran out the door.
Her mother had just left her to be crushed. She screamed out, but her scream was out of betrayal, of anger, and the
planting of a seed of resentment.
Mitsuki managed to make it a little ways from the green house, when she suddenly felt something tugging at her in
the back of her mind. At first she ignored it, but then it seemed the episode of mania was beginning to wear off. As if the
fog had just cleared, she realized her daughter was missing. She looked at the pot of primroses and felt a sudden repulsion
and disgust. In one of her most terrible fits, she narrowed to her focus to one thing, as she often did. But this time, it may
have cost somebody’s life.
There was a terrible feeling deep inside her. She cast aside the pot and it smashed upon the ground. Mitsuki had to
go back, she thought. Even if her daughter was long buried under the rubble, she couldn’t set aside what she had done.
She turned around and started dashing back, when she saw her son come up from behind her and run past her. She
wanted to call out to him. It was too dangerous for him to go in, that it was her job to go and get Minatsuki.
But, she never got the chance. For at that moment, a large mound of debris plummeted into her, squishing her
under its massive size. Her life was extinguished in an instant. She never had the chance to see that her daughter lived.
There was no chance to apologize or explain or to understand. There was only the regret for what had come before.
Minatsuki was in the greenhouse alone, still stuck watching everything shatter in all directions. She had stopped
crying when she heard her brother call out in the chaos and a small hand grabbed her arm. She was pulled out from
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underneath and met with the worried face of her brother. But, her expression had grown cold, unmoving. Her brother took
it for being stunned and assisted her out of the greenhouse.
The two of them managed to escape and with the exception of their mother, the whole family survived the ordeal
of the earthquake. Yoh and Minatsuki managed to make it back to their father, who seemed relieved that they were ok. He
asked them where their mother was. Yoh started to tear up and told him about seeing his mother killed by the flying mass
of debris.
Everything was silent for a moment. The father seemed shaken, and Yoh seemed on the verge of crying his eyes
out. But, Minatsuki’s expression seemed to take on a colder, icy tone. But, then a manic smile similar to her mother’s
appeared on her face. The father did not notice, but Yoh saw through his tears. He said nothing at the time. But, he knew
something was changing in his sister.
He would ask later. His sister related the story to him as she saw it, and then told him her mother deserved what
she got, perhaps something even worse. Yoh didn’t understand at first. But, he didn’t question her further. He himself
didn’t know what his mother was about to say to him before she died. He had no idea what was going through her mind.
Her fragile mind had shattered as the earthquake shattered the greenhouse. The wounds they left had torn into his sister,
and after she told him what had happened, it affected him, too. But, even with the scars that would color his world after, a
small part of sanity would remain with him. Perhaps that was how he differed from his sister, and part of what drove him
in the years to come.
It was just him, his sister, and his father.
After all of this had taken place, the cracks in Minatsuki’s mind began to form, stretching across her consciousness. Her
sense of betrayal blossomed into hated not only for her mother, but all of those around her. Her mother couldn’t be
trusted, nobody could be trusted. They all deserved to suffer in her mind. If only she could have been there to see her
mother pay. It would give her satisfaction beyond anything else. But, she had only her father and her brother and the
people that remained.
So, she began to deceive and manipulate. Her brother was led to believe that their father had begun abusing her,
but only Minatsuki knew the truth of this. She enjoyed seeing the suffering that played out as a result, she discovered. And
so, the deceit continued. Yoh retaliated against his father, and one day he walked into what he perceived to be his sister
stripped and about to be assaulted. He took a knife and tried to strike his father down.
As he stabbed him, strings of blood sprang forth from his body, and Yoh believed it was his doing. But, it was
Minatsuki, who had discovered a great and terrible power that had emerged within her blood after the earthquake. She
did not tell him of this, but still it was she who was arrested and sentenced to death row at Japan’s only private prison,
Deadman Wonderland.
He would later get himself arrested, just to try and get in so he could clear her name. But, this would not be the
case, for the truth was that it was by her hand that their father died. From the hands flowed blood that ran hot with hatred
and disdain for others, and a psychotic lust to see others suffer. Would it have made a difference if she had known the
whole story? If her mother had lived long enough to rescue her, would her mind be whole? Would she be without this
loathing that drives her now? Perhaps not. But what was before was largely forgotten, in ruins. All that was left was
animosity, darkness and a poisonous hate that infested every corner of her being.
And it all began with her mother, who left her behind, but imparted her sickness of a fragile mind.
32
Judge's Choice
God is Laughing
by Paper Whale
Black Butler
The Grim Reaper, William T Spears, passes judgment on souls of Jack The Ripper's victims.
There is really nothing subjective about judging the sins of departed souls. Complex, yes. There would be no need
for an extensive Grim Reaper training process otherwise, but all the classes on cinematic record analysis, memory
deconstruction, situational ethics ultimately boil down to mathematics. There are set numbers assigned to any actionadded for good deeds, subtracted for wrongdoings, multiplied by the scale, intent, the number of lives affected, all coming
to a final score that determines the soul's destination in the afterlife. The process rarely takes more than a few minutes.
William T Spears, an exemplary Reaper in the dispatch department, finds it distasteful that all collections logs are
printed with a reference graph of these numbers on the inside cover. The suggestion that a Reaper might even hesitate on
the job is nigh offensive. Anyone who has made it to the field should know these formulas more fluently than their native
tongue.
They must also possess a very particular constitution to work in collections. That's not to say that a few very odd
ducks aren't among their ranks, but the simple fact is that for reasons unseeable (as are the reasons behind most of His
works) the Lord saw fit to create their kind with a very human-like sense of empathy, quite contrary to the requirements of
collections work, which demands perfect neutrality, critical thought, and above all else, efficiency. Most Reapers do not
make it past their first years of collections school, breaking down at the sight of too much carnage, faltering in pity for the
suffering of the departed. Those types usually end up spending many happy years working in scythe construction or
accounting. As for the remaining few who make it to graduation, well...
It's only a matter of time.
In hindsight, Dispatch Agent Sutcliffe was assigned a few too many brutal inquisition cases a few years too soon
out of school, and never seemed quite right afterwards. If William had been in management then, he might have paid
closer attention to the signs of disturbance and prescribed psychiatric analysis and medical leave for his employee, back
before the madness became an indelible liability. Perhaps that might have prevented the department's current disgrace.
Hindsight, however is 20/20 (as the adage goes), and Reapers, in accordance with the Lord's ironic vision of
creation, are all of them quite literally myopic.
Still, they do a damned good job of hunting.
Wandering ghosts are generally difficult to locate, as the higher powers have no threads of fate tied to them, and
even demons can't be bothered to track them down. (A meal that's rotten and festering loses its appeal, even to the hounds
of Hell.) Now that the mystery of the Whitechapel murders has been solved, however, the department has been able to
quickly deduce the potential haunting locations of the victims' missing souls. Junior dispatch agent Alan Humphries is on
their trail, ordered to neutralise the chaotic poltergeists and gather what he can of their cinematic records. He should
return at any moment.
33
William likes Alan Humphries. He's perhaps the most promising new collector on the London team; quiet,
graceful, methodical, at the top of his graduating class. He sometimes takes slightly longer to complete assignments than
others, but he is thorough and follows regulation, and no one can fault him for that. Perhaps he will be the one to succeed
William's position in the future.
"These are all of them?" William asks, only as a formality, as the stack of reel cases appears on his desk. Alan is
the only agent whom he doesn't really need to worry about when it comes to ensuring that tasks are completed, but
decorum is William's foothold on sanity in a vocation where most end up burnt out or dead.
"All of them, sir," says Alan. Will doesn't look up from his current file.
"Very well then, I permit you to pass judgement on all of them."
There is a moment of hesitation that he doesn't even pay attention to until Alan speaks again, in a meek, uncertain
voice.
"It almost seems as if..." he says, and his fingers curl into a fist over his left breast pocket, "as if they've been
through Hell already."
Will looks up and notes the pallor, the slight tremble, the distant gaze accompanying Alan's uncharacteristic
diffidence.
"You look unwell," he says.
"Oh, I am fine, sir, really. Simply a bit exhausted from the chase."
"Take the night off, then. You've done a commendable job today."
"But the cinematic records-"
"I will judge them myself. It is nothing I cannot handle. I expect you rested and back to task in the morning."
Alan takes a deep breath, nods, and bows, his palm still lingering over his heart.
"Yes sir."
The signs are there, although it is too soon to tell: Agent Humphries shows evidence of softness, sympathy,
sentimentality, that could very well negate his otherwise flawless work ethic. William wonders how long he will really last;
if he'll overcome the hindrance of his emotions long enough to advance in the ranks. It's always difficult to predict;
destiny is funny that way.
There was once a legendary Reaper, since retired to funeral work in the human realm, who was said to have lost
his mind after his harvest of souls surpassed the count of one million. (The claim is unsubstantiated rumor, but likely
enough.) He resigned without warning, leaving only a note on garishly pink stationery:
'Over the years one may find that there is little difference between tragedy and comedy.'
Objectively, the cinematic records are as simple to calculate as any others. Subjectively, the visions presented are
so bleak and heartbreaking that Will is glad he didn't allow Alan to review them, lest they create inklings of yet another
like Sutcliffe. He works diligently, finalising each judgement with a notarized stamp and tucking it away neatly in a black
envelope.
'In the spirit of complete neutrality, a Reaper must always perform his or her duties with a grim visage. To
34
smile while on duty is outright forbidden.'
- That was the quote in the university's introductory text that had always perplexed Will. Not because he
disagreed, but because he couldn't see why it even needed to be said. Why anyone would even want to smile while carrying
out the solemn work of death was beyond his comprehension.
Even now he doesn't understand it, but it becomes more and more apparent, in the ubiquitous fanged grins of
Grell, and the resounding, infectious giggles of the man now simply called Undertaker, that it is only a matter of time
before he too will begin to fight back a perverse smirk at each little tragedy. Nobody lasts long in collections. Not without
permanent damage.
It is not his place to criticise the Lord Almighty, but it would have made more sense in the scheme of creation if
they had all been born with better eyesight and hearts and minds truly as 'grim' as implied by their name.
He can only assume that God is looking down on them and laughing.
35
Judge's Choice
Down Beneath
by Taryn Thorstad
Ghost Hunt
Naru returned to England, the SPR team disbanded, and Mai moved on. When Mai takes on a haunting that targets
those with psychic abilities, she reaches out to her former co-workers to solve it, but this case makes it quite clear that
things will never be like they once were.
April 3, 2012, Day 1:
3:15am
It was an ungodly hour when the calls went out, and such calls were completely unexpected on account of the fact
that the Shibuya Psychic Research group had been disbanded over five year prior. The team members had made vague
attempts to stay in touch, yet life seemed to get the better of their time, and the former coworkers and friends inevitably
drifted apart. Yet, on this particular morning, each and every call was answered.
Takigawa Houshou awoke to the sound of the first fifteen seconds of Stargazing by Bump of Chicken. The
repetitive melody was disconnected of any meaning for the first groggy moments of the man’s awakening, but it didn’t take
long before he quickly realized it was the sound of his ring tone for an incoming call. The former monk thought of hitting it
sleepily in order to shut it off, but he had enough cognitive energy to recall that was how he had broken his former two
phones. The second option was to let the caller stay on the line until satisfied that he was, indeed, still asleep, but a feeling
lingered that whoever was on the other end of the line was rather persistent. So, Takigawa took the third option and
reached for his phone, careful not to wake up Aya, his long-term-girlfriend, but no sooner than he had his phone in his
hand, he wished he’d never heard it.
Mai Taniyama the glowing screen said. The pang of guilt that followed the name was enough to make
Takigawa’s mind fully awake and aware, and for a moment he contemplated just sending her to voicemail. He wasn’t sure
what to say, or even what she was calling about. The last time she had called had been about two years ago. Or was it
three? No, it had to have been three. She had last called when his band had just broken out into mainstream fame, and had
invited him to her wedding. He liked to convince himself that he didn’t have enough time to go to the event, what with
touring and all, but in all honesty he just pushed it aside. They had been close, once, him and Mai. He didn’t even send her
a card.
As though it would make it up to her, he answered her call.
On the other side of the world in a rundown New York apartment, Ayako Matsuzaki was trying to deafen herself
with her pillow. Her track phone was screaming one of its hideous preloaded noises at her, and she knew exactly who was
on the other end. Well, not entirely exactly, but it was definitely one of her former coworkers. She remembered because
she had set that horrible tone to scare her away from answering. Five years it had been since she last had a decent
conversation with one of them, six if she didn’t count that awkward final year SPR was still up and running. She had been
young then, and happy. She had met a wealthy heir and fallen madly in love. She’d had the good life, shopping nonstop on
36
her weekdays and visiting foreign countries on her weekends. She had left her working life behind without a qualm about
it. Now look at her: dumped, broke, and in her thirties. The former priestess had moved to New York with the hope of
meeting a rich business man, or perhaps being hired by a chique boutique due to her fantastic fashion sense, but it never
happened. Instead she was a waitress, working forty hours a week, having a hard time making tips, and having an even
harder time making ends meet. She lived in a slum with an apartment that had a door with a broken lock.
It was conscience that made her cave in, for she refused to believe it was curiosity. She had hoped it was and
wasn’t Mai. Ayako hoped it was because she adored Mai. Every time the girl would use the warding spell the priestess
taught her, the woman felt a sense of pride in it. It was Mai that made SPR feel like a family, yet the priestess had blown
off her wedding for a weekend in Tahiti.
When she answered, it was with a pit of regret.
Back in Tokyo Japan, Masako Hara was unable to sleep. It was very unbecoming and not like her at all, but she
supposed she had over exerted herself to the point past exhaustion. She was getting married in a month, and there was
still so much to do. The event had been booked and the wedding kimono ordered, but the tabloids were a constant
nuisance. Being public figures, Masako and her fiancé were willing to do an interview for a reporter. They had specifically
said they were only going to do the one interview, yet every other journalist, gossip magazine, and fan had bombarded
them with questions. She had respect for them, in their own right. It was them who made famous people famous. They
were constantly overwhelming though. Masako just wanted a break.
The menu had been chosen and the right people had been invited. She had yet to hear back from the photographer
and the transportation service she’d hired. The tea cups they had ordered for the occasion had been destroyed in the mail,
so they had to resend their order and it was barely going to arrive before the wedding date. Both her and her fiancé’s
family members were to be coming in two weeks time, and Masako feared what they would think if they saw how
unorganized everything was at the moment.
She was so stressed that when her cell phone went off she didn’t think a moment about the time and answered it
as an escape from her troubled mind.
John had no cell phone, and was instead contacted through the land line of his church. He would have usually
been in bed by now, but the Australian was busy overlooking some possession cases he had been asked to intervene in.
Some of the files could easily be explained by over-controlling parents not wanting to accept that their child had ADHD or
bipolar disorder. There were a few, however, that had a high chance of being spirit possession. All of these cases belonged
to children.
When the phone went off, it startled the priest enough to make him let out a small gasp. He was tired, overworked,
and eye strained from reading so much. There were knots in his back that hurt something terrible, and if anything, he just
wanted to call it a night. However, John wouldn’t let the guilt of not answering a church phone while he was there get the
best of him, so he picked up the device and answered as kindly as he could.
April 4, 2012, Day 2: England
11:05pm
Kazuya Shibuya entered his office with a sour temper. His new assistant had forgotten to make tea, again, and
37
there were a few missed calls that he never would have heard about had Lin not been contacted as well. As of now, he still
didn’t trust the girl to handle any paper work, much less organize, and was ready and willing to fire her all together. It
wasn’t like he couldn’t find a replacement. Even though working at a psychic research and paranormal investigation center
wasn’t the most prestigious of careers, there was always someone willing to take a job when offered. Unfortunately, the girl
that took the job this time was horrendous at it. Had she had any latent psychic abilities of her own, or if she had simple
knowledge of them, he may have kept her to save himself the hassle of training in someone new. But she didn’t.
The young man would wait for Lin, of course, before firing the girl. This type of business always needed two people
to run it, and Lin was perfectly capable of being that second person. In fact, Kazuya was expecting the man at any moment,
which was why he wasn’t surprised to find the light to his office on.
The owner of SPR strode stoically over to his office, opened the door, and was about to inform Lin of the good
news of the assistant’s firing. Instead, he found a woman. She was relatively short, with hair down to her shoulder blades.
It took him a while to recognize her as Mai Taniyama, his former assistant when he was in still Japan. Her presence made
the man irritated, both at his assistant for letting her in without telling him, and at Mai for visiting him altogether. That
part of his life was done. She had no reason to be here.
“Hello, Naru,” she said politely, giving him a silent nod of welcome. It took a moment for Kazuya to switch over to
speaking Japanese. He had been speaking English for so long that it had become a habit to answer in that language over
any other.
“What are you doing here Mai?” he demanded briskly. He hadn’t been called Naru in a long time, and though it
was a friendly nickname to his former coworkers, it was an insult in and of itself. “Naru the Narcissist.” That’s where it
came from. He no longer wished to respond or acknowledge such a degrading comment.
Mai’s smile faded a little at his temperament, and gave out a small sigh. He assumed she was expecting some kind
of “I’m glad to see you” conversation. Kazuya was far too busy for that.
The woman’s eyes rolled over to the man’s desk, where a thick folder was left to wait. “I need your help Naru,” she
informed as her former boss walked over to the file and sifted through the paperwork. “I’m reassembling the team. Just
this once…”
Kazuya couldn’t help but be slightly surprised that Mai was here on business. Out of all the situations that would
bring her to England, he never thought it would be about that. “I’ll take a look at it. That’s all I’m promising. You can see
yourself out.”
He didn’t like surprises. The assistant was definitely fired for this.
April 5, 2012, Day 3: Japan, Kenzaki Residence
10: 23am
“I’m glad you all could make it,” Mai announced toward the group. Looking around she could identify each and
every one of them with no hassle. Of course, there were differences. The monk’s hair had gotten longer and was pulled
back into a braid instead of its usual ponytail. The priestess’s size was the same, but she looked much older and more tired
than ever before. The Australian priest had lost the childish roundness to his face and gained noticeable muscle in his
arms, but his eyes were still kind. Masako still looked doll-like, but her kimono was more decorative than she had ever
38
worn while working for SPR. Even Naru was different. He was still handsome and stoic, but there was a slightly crueler
appeal to his face, almost like he had a constant indifference to everything. The only one relatively the same was Lin.
“Naru has already received the case file,” Mai started, “so I will brief the rest of you on the situation.” If anyone
was surprised that she skipped the catching up sequence, no one said anything. Mai seemed much more professional than
she ever had, and it was easy to tell that she was no longer a high school student. “This house is 103 years old, and five
different families have lived here in that time, four of which had children, three of which had their children go missing. All
of the children to go missing were prepubescent. There have been reports that this house is haunted by the neighborhood
residences, and over the past twenty years, nine different organizations have investigated this house. Six of which were
ghost hunters with electronic devices that could gain no evidence of a haunting. Three of which were psychic investigator
groups. Out of the four psychics of said groups that have investigated this house, four have gone missing.”
“Forty years ago,” Kazuya continued in order to cut off any questions and gasps the others would have, “two
children were playing on the grounds of the house. Their family was visiting from out of town and didn’t know the history
of the house. The children were never found. Both were prepubescent.”
Ayako swallowed before she spoke, “You mean say you think this house is-”
“I mean to say,” Mai cut her off quickly, “that due to the evidence there is no doubt in my mind that this house is
taking any one with latent or manifested psychic abilities.”
April 7, 2012, Day 5:
9:01pm
“My name is Kazuya Shibuya,” said man said into the phone. “I understand that you investigated the Kenzaki
house a little over a month ago.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the voice snapped, quite defensively.
Kazuya felt his patience growing thin. He’d called every single group that had been involved with this case, and
each one had either given him the same answer or been disbanded years ago. For the first time in a long time, he let his
temper get the better of him. “Yes, you do. I’m currently investigating the house and your organization was in our case
file.”
“You’re in the house? Listen man, you need to get out of there. You’re in way over your head. It’s not for fun. It’s
real. It’s real!”
“Kazuya,” Lin called from his laptop, his voice hesitant.
“What happened,” the SPR leader prodded, ignoring his coworker altogether. He had finally started to get leeway
with the person on the phone. He wasn’t willing to let it go now.
The man on the other end hushed his voice to whisper, as though someone were listening. “We’re not supposed to
talk about it, but you need to know the house is evil. It ate her.”
“Ate who?” Kazuya prodded again, ready to write down the name and information given.
“The girl that hired us to help her investigate! We thought she was just a fanatic like we were. She was cute, that’s
39
all. We didn’t think she was serious. It wasn’t our fault, it was her or us!”
“Kazuya!” Lin called again, more firmly this time and with a louder voice. Again, he was ignored.
“You left her?” Kazuya questioned, hostile. The very thought of leaving a coworker behind on a job was despicable.
“She was already dead once the house wanted her.” The speaker replied, confirming Kazuya’s suspicions. “The
house moved. It moved. It’s not our fault. You can’t charge us with anything, alright?”
“Her name, can you tell me her name?”
“Look, I barely knew her. We’d met her for only a few days,” a sound more deadly than any threat came over the
phone line, and the ghost hunter quickly tried to remember. Takisato…no…Morihana…um…” and then he remembered.
“Mai. Her name was Mai Kirisato.”
“Naru!” Lin all but shouted, the first time he had used that nickname in ages. Kazuya was going to snap angrily at
his Chinese assistant, but the phone line was already dead. The ghost hunter had hung up long ago. “You need to look at
this.” Lin turned his laptop so that his boss could see the screen, determined enough to take any sort of punishment his
boss would give him for interrupting.
On the screen was an obituary from three years ago. It described a tragic car accident that had claimed the life of a
regional baseball player named Touya Kirisato. It said that Mr. Kirisato had been married only two days prior, and left a
widow previously known as Mai Taniyama, a relatively well known psychic.
“Where is Mai?” Naru breathed.
11:47pm
Masako and John walked down the corridor with only the light of their two flashlights to guide them. It was the
final stretch of the house that had not been covered by the female medium, and since there were no signs of a spirit
residing in the house so far, the chances of such were looking very grim. If there were no spirits, there were no leads, and
that left every one very vulnerable.
“Do you think the spirit is able to leave the house? It’s possible that it may have moved onto the grounds, like
where the children were missing from,” John suggested, his voice trying to hold back a yawn. His flashlight holding hand
was relatively shaky.
“It may be, but unless it is possessing someone, it would take an incredibly strong will in order for it to be able to
travel to multiple places. I am sure I would have felt something like that if that was the case.”
“I see,” John replied, slightly down hearted. Two days they had been looking for any trace of a spirit. Yet there had
been absolutely nothing. If he hadn’t known the back history, John would have thought it to be a normal house. The fact
that he was with Masako, making sure no one traveled around the house alone, was the only recollection of danger he was
given.
Masako stopped walking. “John, do you smell something?”
Her coworker sniffed the air and got the faintest of grimaces on his face. “I do. It’s a very foul scent. Like
40
something-” he had to stop himself while he resisted the urge to cry out. It was the unmistakable smell of something
decomposing. “Let’s find the source.”
Masako’s cell phone went off as John continued forward, cutting through the silent corridor with echoing
loudness. “This is Masako,” she answered, but before the person on the other end had time to reply, a sharp yelp came out
from the dark end of the hallway. “John!?” the medium called.
“Miss Hara, what’s happened?” Kazuya’s voice demanded.
“John? John!? Are you alright?” she called, ignoring the dark haired man for the first time in her life.
“I’m fine!” the Australian faintly called back. “I’ve tripped on a floorboard and lost my flashlight.”
The doll-like beauty was quickly able to light up his area with her flashlight, only to reveal that John had not
tripped on a floorboard, but rather a large hole in the ground, and coming from it was the unmistakable stench that had
wafted to them from the other end of the corridor.
“Naru, I think everyone should come down here.”
12:04am
One by one the members of SPR, except for Mai who had a tendency to disappear on multiple occasions
throughout the investigation, lowered themselves carefully down into the pit with the help of Lin and a secured rope. The
height was relatively great, about two stories, and could only be described as the abstract entrance to a long forgotten
cellar. The temperature was freezing, for it never met the warmth of day, and the stench was absolutely sickening. No
matter how strong their conviction, each member made sure to cover their noses as they searched the dark place with their
flashlights. And there, in the center of the vast room, was a skeletal body.
Naru and the monk were the first to step toward it, and upon closer inspection it was unmistakable that the old
bones had been set on fire.
“A purification ritual,” Takigawa deduced. “The body was covered in salt as well.” “This must have been the body
of the spirit that was attracting the psychics. The question is who cleansed it?” Kazuya inquired to himself.
The monk’s eyes narrowed and his stature became rigid. “Naru,” he called. It was quite obvious that there had
been no flesh on the skeleton for a long time. Which lead one to wonder, what was decomposing now? Ayako’s hysteric
scream was the answer, and the men quickly spun around in order to see the priestess scrambling backwards toward the
southernmost wall. Her eyes were dead set on the mass a few yards in front of her. When flashlights hit it, the result was a
gruesome discovery of the nature of decomposition. The body was filled with maggots and worms that had found their way
up through the dirt floor. It was bloated and discolored as the fluids swelled inside it. It was a woman, there was no
mistake about that, for the clothing was still recognizable and the hair was let down to her shoulder blades.
Naru was the first one to notice the cell phone next to the body. Its light was weak and a low battery notification
was showing, but its content was unmistakable. Displayed on the screen was the history of the phone’s last calls. They
were made to Masako Hara, John Brown, Ayako Matsuzaki, Takigawa Houshou, Lin Koujo, and Naru Shibuya. All of them
41
were incomplete.
John vomited off to his side, no longer trying to hold in his disgust. Ayako was still crying in her corner, her
hyperventilation louder than John’s regurgitation. Masako could feel her eyes start to swell with tears, but the shock was
too much to let them fall. As for the other men of the group, all they could do was go numb.
February 28, 2012
4:17pm
Mai couldn’t remember falling through the floor, but she knew the impact must have been great because she was
in agony and couldn’t remember why she was on the ground. She would have been in a panic, had this been the first time
she had fallen down on a case, but she had survived being dragged by a spirit into a well and this was much the same, she
presumed. Instead of panicking, she took the time to assess the damage the fall had given her. Her arms were scraped up
and her wrists sprained, but what concerned her most was the fact that her leg felt cold. At first she feared that whatever
spirit had dragged her down here still had a hold of her leg, but to her horror she found that it was red blood, not a
transparent hand, that engulfed her flesh.
She cried out, staring in shock at the deep gash that slid up her calf. The wood was splintered above her, and its
edge had gouged a deep trench into her muscle. She couldn’t move it even though she tried, and the only reason she knew
it was still attached was the fact that it hurt incredibly. The longer she was awake, the more she wanted to scream.
“Calm down, Mai,” she told herself. She would just have to wait for her teammates to come and get her. She wasn’t
sure how long she had been unconscious, but she would easily be able last ten or fifteen minutes while they went to go
fetch a ladder or something.
But no sooner had this thought crossed her mind, the sound of squealing tires filled her ears. She was confused at
first, for the sound was muffled by the ground around her, but the confusion turned to horror as she realized that the tires
were moving quickly away from her. She waited for them to return, counting the passing minutes on her cell phone’s clock,
but once an hour passed by she felt her heart sink as she realized they were never coming back for her.
They were her teammates, her coworkers, and they had abandoned her. Swallowing down a loathsome noise, she
decided to take matters into her own hands. She couldn’t call the police. The last time she needed them it took too long to
explain to them what had happened, and it took even longer trying to get them to believe her. She would need someone
that would believe her ghost story immediately.
Her fingers were numb with cold, and she found herself cursing under her breath as she tried to scroll through her
phone’s contacts. When she’d fallen she must’ve landed on it, for everything in it lagged when loading. At last she landed
on Ayako’s number, and quickly called it, hoping beyond hope that this time she’d pick up, but instead of ringing, she got a
dial tone and a quick notification that the call had failed.
“Of course it would,” she whimpered, “I’m underground.” She tried to move, to find good reception, but her leg
weighed her down immensely. Each time she shifted, the dirt of the floor would embed itself into the wound, and it stung
like nothing she’d felt before. Yet she was determined, and continued dialing for help.
John Brown: call failed.
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Lin Koujo: call failed.
Masako Hara: call failed.
Takigawa Houjou: call failed.
With each call she was moving to different points in the cellar, hoping to gain some sort of signal. She army
crawled with grit in her teeth and blood across her legs. Her battery was just charged last night, so she had time to get
help. As long as her phone worked, she had hope.
Naru Shibuya: call failed.
Mai felt the despair sink in as her last friend was denied her. How stupid she had been, thinking they would be
able to help in the first place. Lin and Naru were all the way in England, John was in Australia, Takigawa was probably in
Hokkaido right now, and who knew where Masako and Ayako were. It’s not like they would have picked up any way! And
that single though, that single revelation, made Mai burst into tears.
Five years she had reached out to them, wanting to stay in contact and remain friends. She thought they had felt
the same way, but only now did she see that she was the only one actually trying. It was a worse feeling for her than losing
her parents, for she could watch the separation from her friends happening and she could do nothing to stop the death.
She didn’t want to be alone! She didn’t want to die! The cold was going higher up her leg, and she feared she would
bleed to death. Her skirt ripped apart easy enough, and she bound it as best she could, but it still seemed to bleed at the
same rate as before.
“I’m scared,” she cried. “I’m so scared!”
No one was going to help her. No one was going to look for her. No one would even realize she was gone.
“Touya!” she bawled, “Why did you leave me? Why did you leave me alone too!?”
She tried to picture his face, the way he grinned at her, the way his eyebrow would twitch upward when he tried
not to laugh, the way his hair looked after he took off his baseball helmet, the way he was there for her when everyone else
left.
They were all so important, and they all left her. She had been so devastated when SPR had fallen apart, and so
reluctant to accept the way things were now, because she refused to believe it. No one knew how hurt Mai was at the
neglect they showed her, because no one was there to see how she struggled to find a time for her wedding that everyone
could make, or how she reserved the front row of the church for them during the ceremony, or how she spoke of her
former coworkers as her family during her vows. Not one of them had even met her fiancé, and not one of them had even
sent her a card. And then Touya died.
Her hand clenched the dirt into her hand as she tried to hold herself together. She had to think, and she had to
stay calm, because she could feel the presence of something else in the cellar with her. It had become attracted to the blood
coursing down her leg, and her thrashing about had only engaged its sinister nature.
“One…two…three…four…five…” she counted, knowing that the thing that dragged her down here was getting
closer. She needed to stay calm. Whatever this was had killed multiple psychics like herself, and there was no proof that
her defenses would be enough for it.
Its foot stepped down in front of her face, and at that exact moment she spun to her back, shouted the prayer the
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monk had taught her all those years ago, and finished with a shrill cry of “Rin! Pyo! Toh! Sha! Kai! Jin! Retsu! Zai! Zen!”
The nine wards pierced its being causing a shrill scream to come from its mouth. It stepped backward allowing her time to
scurry away from its range.
Bag, bag, where was her bag!? She was sure she had it with her when she was on her way over to this section of the
house. There! In the faint light the window in the hall above her supplied, she could make out shape of her duffel bag
caught on a broken floorboard above her. She couldn’t physically reach it, but if she could just…
Taking off her shoe from her good foot, she chucked it up toward the ceiling and nailed the floorboard, breaking it
clean and sending the bag falling toward her prison.
“Rin! Pyo! Toh! Sha! Kai! Jin! Retsu! Zai! Zen!” she chanted again, sending the warding spell toward the spirit to
make sure it gave her time to grab what she needed. It stumbled backward, but didn’t appear to be wounded. She didn’t
care. It gave her enough time to dig through her belongings to find her canister of salt and her lighter. She hated using this
method of purification, but she didn’t have time to do any of the other processes. Mai screamed out a binding spell, giving
her precious moments to douse the thing in salt, but when she tried to start the lighter she agonized to realize that it
wouldn’t ignite. She flicked it again and again, watching it spark and die, spark and die. The binding spell wore off, and the
creature roared angrily at the spiritualist, stomping toward her panicking figure with rage. “SOMEBODY HELP ME!” she
screamed.
The attack was painless and incredibly warm. It encased her completely and for once during that night she felt at
peace. It was only when she opened her eyes that she realized it wasn’t an attack at all, but a spirit of a separate nature
holding her in its arms.
Bewilderment filled her as she saw the creature writhing in flames. She knew for a fact that her lighter had not
worked, and somewhere, deep inside her, she felt that the flames had come from a divine power. Mai was confused, and
calm, and relived, and very scared, but when she looked at the spirit that kept her from the flames, she was overcome with
happiness.
It was Touya.
She couldn’t even speak his name, or cry out, or weep, all she could do was let the tears roll down her eyes as she
saw his kind face. He had come back for her. Her husband had saved her.
He held her in his arms for the remainder of her time in the cellar. She grew hungry, and thirsty, and cold, and
weak, but she had no fear or sadness, and simply lay on his lap until she died.
March 7, 2012
11:00am
Meiji Shrine
The wedding ceremony of Masako Hara and Gen Watanabe was both smooth and beautiful. The weather had been
perfect, the clothing impeccable, and the gathering inseparable.
To one side of the ceremony was the family of the young couple, each one beaming with praise in their own sort of
reserved fashion. To the other side of the ceremony was the grouping of Masako’s closest friends: Kazuya Shibuya, Lin
44
Koujo, John Brown, Ayako Matsuzaki, and Takigawa Houshou, who had brought his girlfriend Aya along in respect.
The friends and family watched the ceremony proceed and conclude, and wished them the best of luck and good
fortune in their new lives together.
Kazuya’s face was handsome next to his dark attire, and his features had lost their hint of cruelty. John was
smiling more than he had in months, and was pointing out the tiny details of the wedding to Ayako, who was sitting next
to him. The faintest of content smiles embraced Lin’s lips as he watched the closeness of the group return, and
unbeknownst to them all, Takigawa was holding Aya’s hand under the table, running his thumb across the diamond
engagement ring that graced her hand. The events of the past month had led him to make the most of the time he had, and
if anything, it was done as a gesture of respect to Mai.
Later that night, as the after party was coming to a close and everyone gave cheers over cups of rice wine, Masako
called for a moment of silence for their recently deceased friend and her fiancé. “Mai was a young woman at the heart of
life,” she spoke finally, “Whose will is unlike any we’ve ever seen.”
No other spirit, to anyone’s knowledge, had ever been able to travel to another continent through sheer will alone.
But Mai’s will had always been of that caliber. As an SPR member, she had always rushed into danger without a second
thought if it meant saving someone, be it spirit or living. As a human, Mai spent her after life making sure her friends
never drifted apart again. She had succeeded.
No one, no matter what the circumstances, would allow themselves to stay unconnected to each other again. They
were a family, in a loosely defined term that best described them, and would remain as such for their case work, for each
other, and for Mai.
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Judge's Choice
Memories in Ink
by Cassandra Olson
Hetalia: Axis Powers
Germany is stuck at Spain's house, bored out of his mind. He happens across an old journal that the Spaniard had kept
from his darker days in history, and is surprised by what he discovers within its pages.
1,000 Ways to Prepare Tomatoes . . . Gardening and its Healing Properties . . .
Germany sighed as he browsed the titles of each book, sliding a finger down their sides as he went. If he was going
to be stuck at Spain’s place, he would have liked to have something decent to read, but for such a large library, the
Spaniard’s choice of books had much to be desired. He should have expected Italy’s visit with his brother to go over the
time he had scheduled and brought his own book, but the thought never crossed his mind.
He picked a book at random, deciding that learning about The Joys of a Hike in the Woods was better than just
sitting there. Scowling, Germany tugged on the spine of the book in question, but he paused when he heard a distinct
THUNK as if something had fallen to the back of the shelf.
“What’s this?” the blonde murmured, pulling a leather-bound journal out of its hiding place. The cover looked old
and worn from much use, and as he flipped it open, Germany discovered that most of the pages were either torn out or
destroyed. Only the last few pages still remained intact, and they seemed to be covered with water marks that made the
heavily scrawled words near impossible to make out.
“My history no longer matters,” he read out loud. “Only the gravity of what I have done feels real right now, along
with the curse she promised me.”
Jackpot. It was obviously someone’s journal from war. A Spanish soldier who felt guilt for the people he killed
while serving his country, perhaps? Germany decided to read on, taking a seat with the diary at one of the many tables in
the library.
Had I known that the man who called out for Cortés on the Cuban docks was the Governor, Diego de Velásquez
himself, I would have forced our captain-general to return to shore. Velásquez knew that Cortés was insane. He knew
that the man would disobey orders and create an expedition of his own. I should have known better as well, but I was
just so happy to be on that ship, to extend my adventure away from my land for just a little while and travel to a new
world. I was so naïve.
I am the personification of Spain itself, yet I was not strong enough to stop this from happening.
“Spain?” Germany was surprised. He would have never guessed that the pages of this ratty journal would have
been written by a country. He suddenly became more interested in whatever secrets these written words had to offer.
Getting comfortable, he continued reading.
46
The journey was long but far from treacherous, and when we finally saw land, I rejoiced in the beauty of this new
world. Pyramids rose from the ground shaped like giant stone alters. Even Cortés had to admit that it was quite a sight,
staring in awe with his mouth open for just a moment before shaking his head and returning to the underbelly of the ship.
After somehow collecting a translator in Yucatan, we disembarked at a place they called “Potonchan”. The people
were an odd sort, dark-skinned and wearing the bare minimum of dress, but they seemed friendly enough, even offering
us food and a golden trinket. They spoke to Cortés for a while, but I could not understand their language, nor could I make
out the whispered words of our translator. I didn’t care. I was too busy pondering these odd people and their way of life. I
was fascinated, and I couldn’t force myself to stop and pay attention to what was really happening.
A battle soon broke out. I didn’t question what had happened. I only assumed that the Potonchan people had
spoken words of war and Cortés had retaliated. Frankly, the fight was exhilarating. I loved the action and the feel of the
guns in my hands. I remember a moment when the general paused to smile at me. I didn’t even notice the blood staining
his face and teeth. I just beamed back at him and continued the fight.
It wasn’t until I watched our ships burn from the shore that I began to question our leader’s sanity.
“What is the meaning of this, Cortés!” I called to him from the beach, looking on in horror as the masts of our
glorious vessels sank beneath the waves.
“This was a necessity, Antonio,” he answered calmly, using my human name. “There were those who wished to
betray us by stealing one of our ships and returning to Cuba. This was a preemptive action.”
“Why can we not return to Cuba?” I asked, finally realizing that something was not right. We had traveled further
than we were meant to, and I could tell that Cortés had not yet reached the destination he sought.
“We will not be welcome if we return now,” the general explained. “I have renounced the title that Governer
Velásquez had given me, and severed any ties with that man. We are no longer under his rule.”
I was shocked. When did this happen? How did I not notice what was going on around me? I was too busy
daydreaming and enjoying the path of battles that we etched into the land to care about the twisted agenda of our leader.
“Where will we go now?”
“We must reach the capital city of Tenochtitlán. Only there will we be able to conclude our conquest,” he spoke
with a passion that I have only seen in the midst of battle. It almost frightened me.
“Conquest?” I questioned.
“Yes! Our conquest! We may not be welcome now, but think of when we return after we have taken over!”
“I’m not comfortable with this. It is beyond our orders.”
Cortés sighed, wrapping a brotherly arm around my shoulders and speaking softly, as if to comfort me. “Antonio,
you are España incarnate. These men may be under my rule, but they are your conquistadors, your conquerors. We only
live to serve our country, to serve you. I only want what is best for Spain. You should, as well.”
I couldn’t argue. He was right. At least, that was what I felt at the time. That is why I nodded my head, and allowed
this madness to continue. I wish I had not been so weak-minded.
We continued on to Tenochtitlán, growing closer to the terror that would change my life forever.
47
There was no mistaking the grand city when we finally arrived. Temples and towers rose up to greet the sky.
Masses of people littered the streets in their strange dress. Many of the men walked the roads casually dressed in armor
with only their faces showing as if ready for war. Men and women alike wore golden necklaces, bracelets, and rings pierced
through their skin.
We were approached by a procession carrying a man of great importance held inside a litter draped with the finest
cloth I had ever seen and held on the shoulders of strong men. The one inside emerged and welcomed us with gifts of
golden necklaces that shone in the sunlight. I learned that his name was Montezuma II and that he was the Emperor if the
Aztecs. We were lead inside the city and allowed to stay.
In all honesty, I was happy. I wanted to know more about these people, and it appeared as if we would be staying
for at least a little while. All thoughts of conquering this city fell from my mind and were replaced by exploration. This city
made of gold and a brick was like paradise.
I do not remember how long I had been there before I met her. I just remember seeing her standing in a doorway.
Now, even though I did not understand their language, there are some things that are universal. A lovely woman with a
mischievous glimmer in her eye beckoning to me was one of those things.
I followed her into the room only to suddenly find myself pushed against the wall, a knife at my throat. I could
have simply pushed her aside, but when she began to speak, I paused.
“Why are you and your people still here? I beseech you, leave before this façade of friendship breaks apart.”
It was not so much the words she said, but the fact that I could understand them. There were three possible
scenarios that allowed this to happen. Either she knew enough Spanish to speak it fluently, I had suddenly been struck by
the ability to magically understand multiple tongues, or. . .
“Who are you?”
“My people know me by a different name, but you may call me Aztec.”
“Madre de dios,” I couldn’t help but whisper. She was like me, a personification of her glorious land, and she
approached me of all people, which meant. . .
“I know what you are, and I suppose you know what I am as well?” she spoke, cocking her head to the side and
removing the ornate blade from my neck. I nodded, taking the time to get a good look at her. While she was beautiful,
there was nothing about her that really made her stand out from the rest of her people. Then again, I didn’t stand out
much from my people either.
“I am a part of this land,” she continued, crossing her arms and watching me with a look of disdain. “I feel the
trees move and the ground shift. I hear the worries of my people, the Emperor included, and I want you to know that your
presence has caused nothing but unrest here.”
“What have we done to affect you in such a way?”
“Are you daft?” she scowled, twisting her pretty face into an expression of both annoyance and anger. “They think
that you are the return of the banished god, Quetzalcoatl. He swore that he would return and reclaim what was once his.
You are here. When the omens foretold the fall of this city, you appeared. What does that say to you? Of course my people
are scared. Your leader is mentally unstable and paranoid. I can see it in his eyes, the way they shift like the patterns of a
dragonfly. His only goal is devastation.”
48
“Cortés? But. . .” it was then that I actually understood. Cortés was crazy. He had mapped a path of destruction on
his way to this great city. He had told me that he planned to conquer Tenochtitlán, but to eradicate this golden capital
filled with so much beauty? It couldn’t be true.
Suddenly, my thoughts were interrupted by the sound of an ear-splitting scream. Aztec and I shared a quick look
before rushing outside and following the sounds of panic.
“No!” the personified empire cried, staring up at the steps of one of the towers. I was afraid to look. I knew what I
was going to see, but I wanted to remain ignorant of what I had allowed to happen. Still, I forced my eyes upward.
My captain-general stood at the top, surrounded by his fellow Spaniards, with a gun pointed directly at
Montezuma’s head. No one moved. The natives would not risk the life of their leader by jumping to his aid. Aztec stood
beside me, dark eyes widened in fear. I had to do something.
“Cortés! What do you think you’re doing?” I called out, loud enough for all to hear.
“Antonio, you of all people should understand what must be done! It’s for the good of Spain! You are España, you
will be the one who feels the glory of the fall of the great Aztec Empire!” he replied, a manic grin growing on his face.
Flecks of blood still stained his teeth from those he had killed.
“I’ve heard it all before, and I don’t care! We do not need to destroy this place!”
“If we do not act, they will destroy us!” he laughed, tightening his grip on Montezuma and digging the gun against
his skin. “He has been plotting to kill us all in our sleep. If we do not set an example for these people, it will be the end of
the Spanish conquest, and inevitably, the end of you!”
I did not know what to say. Could he be telling the truth? Killing their leader would not destroy the empire, would
it? I felt as if we were all on an insane chess board and I needed to make the next move. No matter what I do or which
piece I move, the ending would be disastrous. I never liked chess.
Defeated, I did nothing but hang my head.
“What are you doing?” I heard Aztec demand from beside me. I did not lift my gaze, even when I heard Cortés give
the command to his men to end the emperor’s life. I heard stones connect with flesh, instead on the shock of gunfire as I
had expected, but still I did not raise my head.
I felt the dark-skinned empire clutch at my arm as she fell to the ground in pain. Puzzled, I knelt beside her,
allowing her fingers to dig into my flesh as she reached out for anything tangible.
“What’s happening to you?” I questioned, searching her eyes for the answer.
“You fool,” she spat, blood dripping from the corners of her mouth. “The fall of the Aztec Empire begins with the
fall of our Emperor Montezuma II. You have doomed us all. You have ensured my death.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could manage any words, I heard the voice of the leader of the
conquistadors call out one simple order. I will never forget the way he said it, the hint of laughter in his voice. It will haunt
me forever.
“Kill them all!”
It was then that hell was released. The Spanish soldiers attacked, killing everyone in sight. Men, women, children.
None were safe from these murderous people lead by a madman.
49
Unsure of what else to do, I dragged Aztec away from the fray, holding her head in my lap and watching helplessly
as she writhed with the agony of her doomed kingdom. Her eyes focused on me, glazing over with pain every few seconds.
I didn’t know what to say. “I’m sorry,” seemed so inappropriate, yet it was all that my mouth would form. Once, twice,
three times, I repeated it until the tears in my eyes clogged my throat with sobs.
“I. . .” she tried to speak, but was caught by another bout of pain, more blood spilling from her mouth. “I blame
you, España,” she finally managed. I wished it weren’t so, but I understood why she did.
“I curse you and your damned country. May your life be filled with as much grief, pain, and sorrow as you have
inflicted upon my people and me on this day,” she murmured, holding back cries of anguish and grinding her nails against
my skin.
I felt her fade. It was slow, and torturous, but I held on to her still as she slipped away, disappearing into dust and
crumbling in my hands. My tears formed pools at my feet. They were eventually met by the blood that flowed ceaselessly
through the streets. The blood that might as well have been staining my own hands.
“Mein Gott,” Germany whispered, blue eyes wide as he flipped the page only to discover that what was left of the
journal had been destroyed by the wet splotches all over the page. Running a finger over one of those marks, he brought
the page to his nose, taking in a distinct scent of salt.
“Tears?”
“He couldn’t finish it without sobbing like a baby,” a familiar, thickly accented voice said from behind him.
“Brüder?” the German country questioned turning to find Prussia leaning against a bookshelf.
“I walked in on him tearing that book apart, ranting about how he needs to get his history out of his head,” the
albino man said, nodding his head at the journal in question. “After he wrote it all down, he passed out. Woke up feeling
pretty damn good about himself. He said it was because of the sunlight. He likes the sunlight.”
“But how could. . .” Germany began, pausing because he was unsure of how to phrase the question.
“How could happy-go-lucky-cheerful-as-hell Spain be hiding such a horrible past?” Prussia finished for him.
The blonde man just nodded.
“Simple. He doesn’t remember.”
“How do you forget something like this?”
The silver-haired ex-country pushed himself away from the shelf and reached for the journal, flipping through its
worn pages. “If something is bad enough, it’s easy to just forget.” He tossed the book back into its hiding place in the back
of the shelves.
“He still has nightmares about it though,” Prussia continued, as his brother just sat at the table, trying to wrap his
mind around it. “And he remembers when he’s drunk. France and I try to contain him when this happens. He gets pretty
damn scary. He blames everything that has ever gone wrong on that woman’s curse. All of the war and poverty. It’s
depressing to see him so damaged.”
“What is it like?” Germany suddenly spoke up.
50
“What’s what like?”
“Watching another country die,” he explained, lowering his voice and looking away from his older brother. “I
wasn’t there when Vati died, so I do not know.”
Prussia thought for a moment, a rare sad expression crossing his face before he placed a hand on his younger
brother’s shoulder. “It’s the worst thing you can ever imagine. Considering how Aztec died, I’m surprised that Spain has
any sanity left.”
Germany didn’t say another word. He just gazed out the window in thought. He didn’t notice when Prussia left,
nor did he notice when Spain walked in with Romano and Italy in tow until Italy planted himself in the German’s lap.
“Ve! Germany looks like he’s thinking too hard,” the innocent Italian smiled sweetly.
“Are you alright, mi amigo?” Spain’s cheerful voice echoed in the larger man’s head. After reading what he had, the
genuine smile that happily spread its way across the Spaniard’s face took Germany by surprise. He brushed the feeling off
quickly.
“Ja, I’m fine. Italy, are you ready to go?”
“Si!"
51
Judge's Choice
Chasing Dreams
by Riina
Whisper of the Heart
Three years after meeting Seiji, Shizuku experiences writers' block when he leaves for Italy a second time to become a
luthier, this time for several months. Before Shizuku can write again, she needs to process her emotions and come to
terms with what it's like to really miss someone.
Two days had passed since Seiji Amasawa’s departure to Italy. In the gray light of dawn, it was the first thought to
run through Shizuku Tsukushima’s waking mind. The drop in her heart, like a stone sinking in her chest, had left her alone
the hours she slept. Now melancholia engulfed her. This wasn’t like the first time, when Seiji’s trip had been for a matter of
weeks; not that it had been easy then, either. No, this time he was fulfilling his dream to become a luthier, to restore and
create the instrument he loved so well. A haunting strain of music danced through Shizuku’s head as she let her mind
dwell on Seiji, the skilled violinist, Seiji who was always smiling, always teasing. The melody was slow and deep like the
sea. Then the notes soared up in a burst of music, short, quick, breathless. A stream of sound, graceful and swift. Now
rushing, pouring like rain. Crashing to the earth, splashing in colorful droplets of melodious sound.
Shizuku sighed deeply, loudly, as if to interrupt her own stream of thought. Knowing she would sleep no more,
Shizuku rolled out of bed. Her sister had moved out a couple years before, and the room they’d shared was now Shizuku’s,
the loft replaced by a single bed. Other than that, not much had changed. Her writer’s desk was more cluttered nowadays.
She had started several novels, but lately she’d had trouble concentrating. Shizuku knew the stories she wished to tell, but
the ideas would not flow from her mind to her paper with the usual effortlessness. Many an hour had been spent with her
motionless pen poised over the blank sheets as she stared vacantly out the window.
The mirror in the bathroom was steamed-over from Shizuku’s quick shower. Shizuku dried her hair, which barely
hung to her chin in an older, more mature style; a change she’d made after junior high. She liked the calm but artistic look
it conveyed. With a comb she smoothed out the damp locks so they would dry neatly. The light material of her casual,
short-sleeved top moved in the breeze from her open bedroom window. She shivered. The sky outside was getting lighter.
It had been a morning like this, she remembered, when Seiji appeared on his bicycle below her window. He had stopped
and waited for her on the street below, as if summoned by her thoughts…Shizuku pushed the memory away. That was long
ago. He was in Italy now. He would not appear below her window this morning.
Now she remembered another scene from mere days previous. She had told Seiji how she wished she could go
with him to Italy, and he had brushed the tears from her cheek and smiled a small smile, shaking his head. “My dream is
coming true,” he’d said. “Now it’s your turn.”
‘My turn,’ she thought, seating herself at her desk and taking up a pen. Her eyes wandered to the open window
and rested on the horizon. She wondered what Seiji was doing right then, at that moment. Did he like Italy? Did Italy have
the same kind of sunrises? Had he helped his teacher fix any violins yet? Seiji had once described how he’d made his first
violin that sang. “It’s like creating a body for a voice that’s already there,” he explained, his eyes sparking with enthusiasm.
“Like creating the music, not just the song.” Was that was Shizuku did with her writing? The story was there; but where
52
were the words?
She thought of the days spent at the library, of the manifold adventures she had lived through another’s eyes. She
thought of Seiji watching her read, his eyes resting on her as she grew dimly aware of his gaze. Even though they had no
classes together, there was something reassuring about knowing he was in the same school building. It gave her a warm
feeling inside. Just a glance, a smile in the hallway, a shared gaze. They had begun to see each other increasingly often
outside of school throughout junior high. Seiji had shown Shizuku all his familiar haunts, and Shizuku had shown him
hers. Seiji would bring his violin, and Shizuku would read him something new that she had written.
Resignedly, Shizuku turned back to her blank paper. She couldn’t think, couldn’t concentrate. ‘I need something to
loosen up,’ she thought. ‘Something to help me relax…to just write.’ After a thoughtful pause, she pulled up an old, worn,
and carefully-crafted book: Whisper of the Heart. Maybe it was time for the Baron to have another adventure. Yes, if she
could just visit his world again for a little while…
Beneath the brim of his elegant top hat, the Baron gazed toward the sunrise over rolling, grassy hills.
His heart stirred with adventure, beating rapidly beneath his suit and jacket. His eyes flickered with
glee. The world was just a journey, a voyage of discovery waiting for him; yes, this was an adventure to
be shared. A half-hearted smile hung on his lips as his whiskers quivered with anticipation and regret.
There was no one by his side to partake in his findings of magic and whimsy, no one with whom he
could share mysteries and awe. Somehow the novelty of adventure seemed diminished. If only his
Duchess were by his side; he would take her hand, feel her excitement, gaze into her wide, smiling eyes.
No adventure, no promise of excitement, nothing could compare to standing next to her. That was where
he belonged. Not standing by himself before the prospect of yet another journey to be faced alone—
A tear fell over the word “somehow” and smeared the black, inky letters. An ache sprung up in Shizuku’s throat.
She squinched her eyes shut, gave her head a shake, and reached for the bag of wafers kept on her desk. She popped one
into her mouth and chewed it slowly, the loud, slow crunch filling her ears. Shizuku chewed twice and clenched her jaw,
grinding her teeth over pulverized bits of wafer. Her vision blurred; objects grew fuzzy, watery, and lost their shape
completely.
Shizuku realized she was holding her breath. She inhaled quickly, sharply, then shoved papers aside and flung her
arms around her face in a torrent of tears and sobs. ‘I can’t do it!’ she thought. ‘I can’t do this without you!’ The long
months seemed to stretch before her, an insurmountable length of time and distance. Her heart ached. She felt as though
it were being pulled from her chest.
Tears once tightly locked away now cascaded down her face. Her shoulders shook with sobs, the sobs held back
since Seiji left. Sorrow that would not be quelled washed over Shizuku. ‘Seiji,’ she thought, ‘I miss you so much…’
Minutes passed. The sobs and tears had begun to subside. Shizuku drew a few sharp, shuddering breaths, then
slowly lifted her face from her arms. She pressed her hands over her tear-stained cheeks. Her heart slowed to a steady,
pulsing beat. She swallowed, sniffed, sighed raggedly. Her chest felt hollow. Closing her eyes, she willed herself to calm
down.
‘I can do this,’ she thought. ‘If Seiji can, then so can I.’ Then she had another thought. What did Seiji feel? He had
always seemed so brave, so collected, like he always knew what he was doing. But that was at home in Japan, in their quiet
little suburb on Tama New Town. What was it like for him in Italy, so far from Tokyo? If he missed her as much as she
missed him— “Oh, Seiji…” she breathed. Why had she not thought of that? It had to be equally hard for him, if not more
53
so. Far from all his family and friends and everything familiar, alone with the weight of what he must accomplish. “You’re
so brave, Seiji,” Shizuku murmured. “Braver than I am.” She lifted her eyes to the horizon. The sky was bright with
morning, the mist had dissipated, and she knew what she had to do.
Shizuku pulled out a sheet of blank paper.
Dear Seiji,
she wrote. She paused for a moment, her pen pressed to her lips as she gathered her thoughts, and began:
The sky was golden as the sun broke through the last shadows of dawn. The city below glowed in its
rays. It was like a city of light, a magical land I had never seen before. Everything was quiet, as if all
living things held their breath in awe of the first sunrise. Only the wind breathed, tousling your hair as
you turned and looked at me. I felt like I was a bird in the sky, my heart soared so. But it was not the
wonder of the scene that enchanted me. It was standing with you on the hill overlooking the world,
knowing I was the one with whom you chose to share this secret…
The words came faster and faster. Shizuku’s pen flew over the page, line after line. When she reached the end, she
tore out a new page and continued the letter. With ease and sincerity, Shizuku poured her heart out over the pages. When
she reached the last line, she paused again, and carefully chose an ending to her long letter.
You don’t have to write back, Seiji, but I hope you do. I miss you at least as much as you miss me, but I
know each day that passes brings us closer to seeing each other again. I will see you in a few months. I
hope all your dreams are coming true.
Love,
-Shizuku
Her task completed, Shizuku carefully folded the letter and slipped in into an envelope she had addressed and
stamped. She knew the post would not be taken out until much later in the day. Even so, she could hardly bear to wait
another minute to send the letter on its way. But before she flew out the door, something caught Shizuku’s eye. It was the
story she had begun, the story of the Baron on another adventure. There he stood, waiting to take the first step in his
grand journey. Shizuku glanced over the paper, and knew there was one more thing she must do. Once more she settled
into her chair and wrote.
Yes, the Baron would face this journey by himself, but he would not be alone. He carried his Duchess in
his heart, and the light of her smile would give him the courage he needed on his adventure. Sweeping
his top hat from his head, the Baron bowed toward the horizon. “For you, my sweet Duchess!” he cried.
“I make this journey for you.”
54
"The Hammer of Fate and the Lotus of Rebirth"
by Elie Anna Capulet
D. Gray-Man
A rumor starts to spread around the Black Order saying that Kanda likes Allen but it truth, Kanda likes Lavi. Lavi puts
Kanda to the test to see who started to the rumor. Later on Kanda "finds out" who started it or so he believes and he goes
back to find Lavi. Lavi then remembers that day when he start Kanda the first time, that he made a bet with him. Kanda
then finds Lavi and things get fun after that.
I never thought the Lotus of the Black Order would actually show compassion but I guess you can't judge a book
by it's cover. "Lavi…." Was all people could hear throughout the Black Order Headquarters. Yu Kanda, one of the young
eighteen age old exorcists was walking down the dark candle lit chambers, until he reached the library. "Lavi Bookman…
where the hell are you?"
Lavi slowly tip toed away and hide behind a book shelve full of books, shivering in fear of why Yu Kanda would be
demanding to see him. Yu Kanda in a furious rage walked around the library with his hand, ready to draw his blade. If he
saw that hot red haired idiot. Lavi took a deep breathe and stood up. "Yes Kanda, what can I…" Before Lavi could finish Yu
Kanda's blade was at his throat. "Oh, well it's nice to see you to Kanda."
Lavi laughed a bit and then saw that Yu Kanda was meaning business. "Lavi, you little….little….little red haired
brat." Lavi looked straight into Yu Kanda's eyes. "What did I do?" Yu Kanda pushed him against a book case.
"The whole Order is mocking me because, of a rumor that started saying that, I'm in love with the short stack."
Lavi giggled a bit and then sighed. "Oh and you think I started it Kanda. That is a real good joke…." Before Lavi
could finish his sentence once again Yu Kanda moved his blade closer to Lavi's throat. "It's not a joke Lavi, I'm serious." Yu
Kanda had a glare that make any grown man, wet themselves. Lavi sighed and then shrugged his shoulders. "Okay Kanda,
how about this. Let's play a game." Lavi said in a childish tone of voice.
Yu Kanda rolled his eyes. "Lavi, you and your childish games. You really need to…." Lavi smirked as Yu Kanda
noticed that Lavi's pointer finger was on his soft pink lips. "There are the rules of the game, if you find out, I was one who
started the rumor. I'll let you do anything you want to me." Yu Kanda's left eye brow rose a bit. "Keep going
Bookman….I'm liking this game so far." Lavi giggled a bit. "And if you lose, you'll be my slave for a week."
Yu Kanda's eyes narrowed a bit as he heard what Lavi would want, if he lost the game. Yu Kanda looked at the
door to the Library and then sighed and glared back at Lavi. "I agree to the statements that have been make." Lavi smiled
as Yu Kanda and himself shook hands. As Yu Kanda broke the hand shake, he quickly turned around. His dark purple hair
twisted in such gracefully movements that it looked like it was dancing. Lavi kept smiling as Yu Kanda started to walk
away. Lavi being a smart ass shouted. "Good luck Kanda, you'll need it." Yu Kanda had put his hand on the door as he
quickly snapped his neck around to glare at Lavi with those deadly ghostly pale blue eyes. "I don't need luck. You on the
other hand might!" Yu Kanda said as he stormed out of the library, leaving Lavi alone. Who had a grim smirk across his
face.
Yu Kanda, who had stormed out of the library was now leaning against one of the walls that led to the library.
55
"Damn him. Every time I'm around him, I get this…this….this feeling of…." Yu Kanda then looked around the hall quickly
to see if anyone was coming and then under his breathe he whispered. "This feeling of love." Yu Kanda then stood up and
regained his composer, as Allen came whipping around the corner and bumping into Yu Kanda. "Hey watch where you're
going…short stack." Yu Kanda said pushing Allen off him and storming down the halls of the Black Orders Headquarters.
Allen was a bit surprised that Yu Kanda was in such a rush. Allen then started to think to himself. "I wonder why Kanda, is
so angry today."
Allen then took a minute to think about all the possible reasons why Yu Kanda could be angry. "I sure hope, no
one stole his soba noodles." Allen said shivering because a cold chill ran down his spine. Allen then heard a girly giggled
come from the corner behind him. Lenalee was giggling a bit and then sighed as she wiped away a few tears from all the
laughing she had been doing. "Allen you don't know anything do you?" Allen looked at Lenalee a bit confused. "What do
you mean Lenalee?"
Lenalee rolled her eyes. "He's in love Allen. Kanda loves someone and I…." Lenalee then spun around and put her
pointer finger on her lips and winked. "And I think I might know who it is." Lenalee then ran and garbed Allen's right
hand and pulled him down the halls with her.
Lavi was in the library helping the old man, like "normal" but he kept daydreaming about what had just happened.
"I don't need luck. You on the other hand might!", was the only thing that Lavi could hear running through his mind. Just
then Lavi felt something hit him in the head. "Lavi quit daydreaming and help me out with these books. That is your job
after all." Lavi took a deep breathe, to clear his mind and then picked up a stack of books and bowed. "Yes old man, I'm
sorry. I'll get right on it." Lavi shook his head as he quickly turned a corner and dropped all the books he was carrying.
Lavi then smirked as his hand went to hid forehead. "A forbidden love…" Lavi said under his breathe. "Just the kind of
relationship I like." Lavi said in a erie tone of voice as his fingers slowly ran down the side of his face. Not long after his
tongue was rolling around the tips of his fingers but only moments later he slowly insert his fingers into his mouth and
then took them out. The saliva from his tongue dragged across his finger tips from the tip of his tongue. "You will be mine
Kanda, one way or another."
Yu Kanda was near Komui's office, when he heard voices coming around the corner. Yu Kanda quickly turned
around another corner, hide within the shadows and started to listen in on their conversation. "Did you hear Master Cross
would be showing up today? That is really rare since that Allen kid showed up." The other finder was a bit shocked. "No, I
didn't know Master Cross would be showing up but, I know for a fact that he'll get a kick of the rumor that Lavi started."
The first finder's eyes widen as he saw a gleam of sliver go to his friend's throat. "What did you just say?" Yu Kanda said in
a strict tone of voice. Both finders took a deep breathe and smiled. "What do you mean Kanda? We didn't say anything."
Yu Kanda glared at them both with those deadly ghostly pale blue eyes of his. Both finders quickly looked down at the
ground and then slowly rose their heads hoping Yu Kanda was gone but, their efforts were in vein. The second finder
sighed and then looked at Yu Kanda. "Fine we'll tell you, just put your sharp pointy sword away." Yu Kanda rolled his eyes
and put his sword back into its sheath. "Okay both of you start spilling the beans." Yu Kanda said meaning business, like
normal. "Well Lavi was bored and he throughout it would be fun to start a rumor and see how far it went." The second
finder looked away.
"Lavi said it was like his own personally game of telephone." The finders smiled a bit until they saw Yu Kanda hit
the stone wall and break a few stones out of anger. "I knew it Lavi. Looks like your little game is over." Yu Kanda smirked
devilishly as he stormed down the dark lit chambers to the library once more and this time he mended business with the
little red haired idiot.
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Lavi leaned against a book case as he took a deep breathe. "Man, that old bat never lets me have break." Lavi
shook his head, then heard the doors to the library wing open and Lavi then shivered as the temperature in the library
dropped 30 degrees or so. "Lavi Bookman, come out, come out. Where ever you are." Lavi knew that voice all to well, it
was Yu Kanda and he didn't seem pleased.
Lavi smiled and then walked out from behind a corner. "Yes Kanda, what can I…." Yu Kanda before Lavi could
even say another word, had his blade to his throat. "It was you….You started the rumor. You wanted to play a game and
toy with me. Well Lavi, you messed with the wrong person." Lavi smirked and then started to clap his hands. "Good job
Kanda, you win. So I guess you can, do anything you want with me." Yu Kanda's left eye brow rose a bit and he smirked.
"Oh yes Lavi and I've been waiting so long to do this to you." Lavi took a deep breathe and closed his eyes, knowing Yu
Kanda would probably cut him to pieces. "Fine Kanda, do your….." Before Lavi finished his sentence he felt a pair of warm
soft lips on his. Lavi opened his eyes to see Yu Kanda kissing him passionately on the lips.
Lavi then turned a bit red, when he felt Yu Kanda slip his tongue into Lavi's mouth. Lavi was a bit shocked but he
felt like he was heaven.
Yu Kanda's tongue brushed against his and in moments their tonuges were intertwined. Minutes later Yu Kanda
broke the passionate lock of the kiss, he was sharing with Lavi and smirked. "This is out little secret. No one is to know
about this. You got me idiot?" A smile came across Lavi face as he tilted his head to the side a bit. "I understand you
completely Kanda." Lavi said as Yu Kanda stared into Lavi's deep emerald green pools. Yu Kanda sighed. "Good, now you
should…..Wait Lavi what are you doing." Lavi smirked. "I'm loosen up your buttons Kanda." Yu Kanda's eyes widen, as he
pushed Lavi away and quickly fasten his buttons back up. "No…
Lavi." Yu Kanda said glaring at Lavi. "But Kanda….." Was all the Black Order could hear before they heard the big
crash in the library.
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"Fondest Farewell"
by Wonderstorm
Dragonball Z
It's Vegeta's last day on Earth before his death at the hands of the androids. The time has come for Vegeta to say
goodbye to his family.
Trunks’s wailing voice was almost eclipsed by the blaring television. Bulma had turned on a news channel once
again. A young, female news reporter who was at the scene was relating the situation in a shaky voice.
“As you can see behind me, the west side of North City is in flames, and the fire is rapidly spreading. I don’t have
all the details right now, but we suspect that the two aliens are behind this newest attack.”
“They are not aliens! They’re androids!” Bulma shouted irritably at the television. Perhaps she thought that if she
shouted loudly enough, the young reporter would hear her and affirm her knowledge.
Though Vegeta would never tell her openly, he respected her brilliance. The androids had arrived almost two
months ago. From the moment that Bulma had seen their Red Ribbon insignia on television, she had known about their
origins. She had immediately conducted further research and discovered the identities of Android 17 and Android 18.
Bulma had passed on this information to many news stations, including the station that was currently airing. To Bulma’s
fury, this particular news station had declared the Capsule Corporation’s claims to be inconclusive and had dismissed
them. In Vegeta’s opinion, whether or not the androids were referred to as such was unimportant. But for Bulma, it was a
matter of pride; and pride was something Vegeta understood extremely well.
The phone rang, and Vegeta knew who would be on the other end before Bulma picked up the phone. The woman
had been calling Bulma at least once a week ever since Kakarrot’s death. He watched as Bulma lifted the phone to her ear,
bouncing a squalling Trunks on one hip and keeping her eyes on the television.
“Hey, Chi-Chi. How are things at home?” she asked.
“Hi, Bulma. It’s better today. Gohan has been so helpful. He’s such a good boy. Some days I wake up and things
are going well. And some days I wake up and . . .” Her voice dissolved into sobs. “I can’t believe he’s gone. It’s been over
a year—”
“One year, two months, sixteen days, and two hours. I really do miss him,” Bulma sighed.
Things had been very dull ever since a sudden heart disease had taken Kakarrot’s life. Vegeta no longer had a goal
to train toward, no longer had a warrior to surpass. Becoming a Super Saiyan did not thrill him as much anymore,
because he had never been able to see the look on Kakarrot’s face when he had achieved his new level of power.
With the arrival of the androids, Vegeta had a reason to resume his training. He wanted to fight them. He wanted
to feel his fist crushing the body of a sentient being. He wanted to feel his blood rushing through his body as he gave
himself over to the battle. He wanted to show Kakarrot, wherever that clown was, that he could wipe out powerful foes
just as well as Kakarrot could. He wanted to prove his overreaching superiority as the prince of the Saiyan race.
A particularly loud squeal from Trunks caused Vegeta to lose the last of his patience. He snatched the baby from
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Bulma’s arms.
“Stop your incessant crying, you little whelp!” he barked.
“Vegeta!” Bulma cried. “Chi-Chi, I’ll call you back,” she said in a rush. She tried to take Trunks from Vegeta, but
he turned his back to block her attempts. “Vegeta, he’s just a baby! Don’t hurt him!”
“Will you stop your babbling?”
“Give him to me. He wants his mama. I’ll make him stop crying.”
“You’ve done a fine job so far.” Vegeta raised his hand to silence Trunks’s cries.
“Vegeta, don’t!” Bulma shrieked.
“Shut up!”
Vegeta had planned to hit the boy, or knock him into an unconscious state. But his resolve softened when he
looked at the baby more closely. He was small and helpless, very different from a solid Saiyan baby. His Human half gave
him a fragile infant body. Vegeta laid his index finger on the boy’s lips. Trunks’s sobs turned to whines, and his whines
turned to whimpers. Taking Vegeta’s finger in his fist, Trunks opened his mouth and shoved the finger into it. To Vegeta’s
relief, Trunks stayed quiet as he sucked his finger. From underneath the ridiculous pointy-eared hat Trunks’s eyes
watched him trustfully. Although his blue eyes bespoke his Human heritage, it was his Saiyan heritage that made his eyes
shine with such wonderful intelligence. When Vegeta was sure that Trunks had calmed down, he eased his finger out of
his son’s mouth and passed him to Bulma.
Bulma received Trunks with a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Vegeta.” He watched her lift Trunks into the air and grin
at him. “Daddy’s in such a good mood today, isn’t he, Trunks? Yes, he is! Yes, he is!” she cooed. Trunks giggled happily
as Bulma swung him through the air.
Irritated by the sentimental display, Vegeta left the house. He paused long enough to call over his shoulder, “I’m
going to train!” Then he crossed the yard and entered the enhanced spaceship that Bulma’s father had built for him. After
programming the ship’s gravity level to two hundred times that of Earth’s, Vegeta stood on his hands and began to
repeatedly lift his own weight off the ground.
Pizza was one of the few things that made living on Earth worthwhile. There were so many different delicious
foods that could cover the top of the flat bread. Earth was an ugly dust ball compared to Planet Vegeta, but Earthlings
were brilliant in the art of food preparation. The only hindrance to Vegeta’s enjoyment of his pizza was that Trunks
decided to throw another crying fit during supper.
He glared at his upset son and the boy’s mother. Seeing his anger, Bulma made numerous silly faces at Trunks to
try to calm him. Then, for some reason, she turned toward Vegeta and smiled.
“Vegeta, why don’t you try? Your finger worked so well before.”
“I am not giving that sniveling brat my finger again! You’re smart enough. You figure something out!” Vegeta
grumbled.
Why was she still smiling, he wondered?
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“Trunks, did you hear that? Daddy thinks that Mommy is smart!” Her happy laughter enticed Trunks to laugh as
well. “Thank you, Vegeta. I knew I would get a compliment from you one of these days. I have too many wonderful traits
for you to hold back compliments for long.”
Vegeta snorted disdainfully. “Don’t get used to it. You’re so self-absorbed, you don’t need any compliments from
me.”
“Self-absorbed? That’s funny coming from a spoiled rotten prince who throws a fit whenever he can’t get what he
wants!” Bulma shot back.
“I do not throw fits!” Vegeta bellowed.
“You’re throwing one right now!”
Trunks’s loud sobs interrupted their yelling.
“Now look what you made him do!” Bulma accused him.
“Me? You’re the one who started it!”
“You called me self-absorbed!”
“That’s because you are!”
“I am not!”
“Yes, you are!”
Their squabbling continued through the evening news. Vegeta’s shouting match with Bulma was punctuated by a
bawling Trunks and the androids’ televised destruction. Only when Bulma put Trunks to bed were they forced to quiet
their voices and end their argument.
Late that night, with Bulma curled up next to him in the bed, Vegeta arose and slipped into his blue uniform and
form-fitting armor. Now was the time for him to fight the androids. He would not wake Bulma. If she found out where he
was going, she would call him crazy and try to dissuade him from leaving. She did not believe that he was strong enough
to destroy the androids, but she was wrong. He would dispose of them and enjoy the shock on her face when he returned.
He lingered by Trunks’s crib. Carefully, so that he would not wake his son, he reached down and ran one finger
through the thin tuft of hair on the boy’s forehead. Trunks would grow up to be a powerful Saiyan warrior. Vegeta waited
for the day when they would stand side by side as Super Saiyans.
Stepping toward the bed, he kneeled and stroked Bulma’s hair. She was loud-mouthed, petulant, stubborn . . . and
so beautiful. He kissed her forehead, her cheek, the corner of her open mouth, her other cheek, her neck. When she began
to stir, he stopped kissing her and pulled away. With otherworldly speed, Vegeta exited the bedroom quietly and stood
just outside the bedroom door.
“Vegeta?” Bulma mumbled sleepily.
He heard apprehension in her voice. Did she know what he was about to do? He fought the strange desire to
return to bed and soothe her fears. He refused to let her make a sentimental fool out of him.
Once he was outside, Vegeta summoned his energy and flew away from Capsule Corporation without looking back.
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He kept flying until he reached a secluded outcropping of rocks. There he landed to wait for dawn. Once morning came,
he would fight. To test the limits of his power and to protect his wife and son, he would wipe out the androids for good.
And if he should fail?
He laughed wryly. “Curse you, woman, for planting doubts in my head,” he muttered affectionately.
If he should fail, then he would never see his family again. But he had the satisfaction of knowing that he had
given them his fondest farewell.
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"The Boyfriend Guide"
by Strands of Ivy and Sakura
Gakuen Alice
One day while waiting for Hotaru, the stumble on a unusual book. Inside reveals a bunch of rules for being a boyfriend.
The interesting part? Each one comes with a little story by Mr. Natsume.
It was a warm spring day for the gang. The sky was a beautiful light blue; there wasn't a single cloud in the endless
sky. It was a perfect day to go to Central town. Natsume, Mikan, Ruka, Anna, Nonoko, Sumire, Koko, Yuu, and Mochu
though were stuck waiting for Hotaru under the Sakura tree.
"When is Hotaru gonna come so we can go to Central town?" Mochu whined.
"Couldn't Hotaru skip out on her inventions for one day?" Nonoko asked.
"You know we can't leave without her, or else!" Sumire said impatiently. Everyone, even Natsume, shuddered at
the thought.
Anna then noticed a book five feet away from the Sakura tree. She picked it up and waved everyone over. "Hey,
check this out!"
Nonoko took the book from Anna's hand and read the title, "The Boyfriend Guide."
Our brown haired heroine peered over Nonoko’s shoulders. Mikan asked, "Nonoko-chan, who's it by?"
"I'm not sure. It doesn't say on the cover; let me check the back." She turned it around and saw a picture of
Hotaru. Under the picture were the words Imai Inc.
"Since when does Hotaru write books?" Mikan asked. Her best friend was famous for her taste in blackmailing,
not literature.
"We're waiting for her anyway. Why not read it?" Ruka suggested. He actually wondered if Hotaru had a good
enough boyfriend that she even wrote a book about it, or if she even had a boyfriend! Yes, bunny boy had a crush on the
devious inventor.
Everyone except Natsume glanced at each other before nodding.
"I don't see what's so great about the book anyway," Natsume said.
"Shut up Natsume! I want to read it!" Mikan countered.
"I want to see how much that blackmailer knows about dating anyway!" Sumire said with a determined fire in her
eyes.
"Sorry, Nastume, majority wins," Koko reported while grinning.
"Then it's decided. Let's read it over at the Sakura tree," Mochu said. They all nodded and started walking over.
Everyone quickly chose a spot and sat down. Mikan, Natsume, and Ruka were sitting with their backs against the
trunk of the tree, while Anna and Nonoko chose to lie on their stomachs. Sumire and Yuu just chose to sit up. Koko and
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Mochu lay on their backs, faces looking straight up towards the bright, blue sky.
Mikan opened up the book and started reading.
The Boyfriend Guide
1) If she walks away from you
It was a normal day for me. I was lazily lying under the blooming Sakura tree. My arms were wrapped around my
year old girlfriend, Sakura Mikan. It's kind of ironic that her last name is Sakura and we're sitting under a Sakura tree, eh?
"Hey, Natsume! Can we go to the spring festival at Central town together?" Mikan asked, her eyes shining. It was
an annual thing in Alice Academy, which pretty much meant that it would be filled with noisy idiots.
I opened my eyes slightly and said, "Why do I have to go, too?"
Mikan pouted, "Because it's not fun going to a festival alone!"
I quickly threw on a smirk. "Isn't my hotness good enough for you, strawberries?” I teased. Then I gently lifted her
chin with my fingers. She had a confused face. After a few seconds, it finally dawned her, making her cheeks turn rose red.
Mikan was about to reply when that annoying bell ruined the moment. Her eyes widened, and she shot up like a
rocket.
"PERVERT!" Mikan shouted as she ran towards the school.
From a distance, I saw a boy waving to my Polka. She went over to him. At first she had a look of utter confusion,
then smiled and started walking with him and started "chatting".
My eyes narrowed. What is that punk doing with my Polka? Nobody, I repeat, NOBODY walks close to
Polka except me! Quickly I got up and started following her.
After a few minutes and me "accidently" shooting fire balls at that punk, Mikan finally turned around. She asked,
hands on her hips, "Natsume, why are you following me?" Now she notices?
I answered, "Because you're my girlfriend"
I glared at the idiot that tried to walk close to Polka. By then, he already started peeing in his pants while running
away from the flames.
"NATSUME!"
*Follow her*
2.) When she pushes you or hits you
I was sitting at my desk before the girly Narumi came in. My friends Koko, Anna, Nonoko, Sumire, Yuu, Mochu,
Hotaru, and my best friend Ruka were gathered around my desk.
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"Is Mikan-chan going to make it in time?" Yuu asked nervously. If there is a mother hen in our group, it's him.
"The idiot is going to be fine," Hotaru replied as she polished her Baka Gun V.20. How that blackmailer is my
friend is a mystery.
"How are you so sure Hotaru-chan?" Anna asked curiously.
"Window," Hotaru answered while giving us her usual emotionless face.
We all glanced out the window to see Mikan running towards the high school. Her long, slender legs ran so
delicately it looked as if my clumsy Polka was walking on water. I paused; did I really just think that?
After a few minutes of waiting, Polka finally barged into homeroom, breathless." Sorry I'm late!" she breathed. She
started walking towards us when she suddenly tripped, knocking me down with her.
After two whole minutes, she got up and rubbed her head. "Ow…" She glanced down and FINALLY noticed
someone, as in me, was under her. She shot up and guiltily said "I'm sorry, Nastume! Are you okay?"
I smirked as I sat up, “So its stripes today, eh?"
She once more gave me a confused look before realized what I meant. Mikan quickly jumped two feet away from
me, her face beet red as she shakily waved her index finger at me. "PERVERT! STOP LOOKING AT MY BRA AND PANTIE
PATTERENS!"
I leaned back on my chair and smirked, "I never said it as your bra or panty pattern, but thanks for telling
me, stripes."
Her face scrunched up in anger and embarrassment. She screeched, "NATSUME! YOU IDIOT!", then running
towards me, fists clenched tightly as she prepared to punch my guts out.
Just as she was an inch away from my face, I quickly grabbed her arm, pulled her toward me and wrapped my
arms securely around her. Mikan struggled at first, but eventually realized she could NEVER break free of my iron grip.
I gently whispered in her ear, my breathe dancing on her neck, "But you're my little Stripes, now and forever."
She quickly shivered before she relaxed into my arms. Mission accomplished.
Click.
"Smile for the camera"
I whipped my head towards the voice. It was Hotaru, a camera in her hand. Money signs could clearly be seen in
her eyes.
That blackmailer is going to die.
*Grab her and don't let go*
3.) When she brushes your hand
"Natsume! Over here!" Mikan said, waving her arms with excitement. It’s a miracle that she hasn’t injured anyone
yet.
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I quickly threw a silent sigh before walking over to the line. You heard me, line, for Mikan's favorite snack. Guess
what Polka's favorite snack is. It starts with an 'H' and ends with an 'N'. The point is though,
I had cracked.
Considering what had happened earlier this week though, I defiantly did NOT trust her alone for more than 2
minutes. If someone offered Mikan Howalon as long as she got in to the car, she would gladly go. That's only a small
extent of her utter stupidity.
I was practically half way there before Mikan got impatient and decided to drag me over there.
"Come on Natsume! If we don't hurry, it will run out!" Mikan said while she continued to drag me with her fierce
grip.
She made a sudden stop as we reached the end of the line. Mikan finally let go, allowing me to try to get some
feeling back into my arm. I stole a glance at the line. Damn it, it's at least a mile from the actual stand! It's going to take at
least an hour!
"Thank you so much!" the woman said before leaving.
Ya, you decide to leave after making me wait for another ten minutes. There is something called costumer
RESPECT! It was finally our turn but when we walked up, only to see the sold out sign innocently sitting on the stand.
Mikan stared at the sign for a few minutes, and then took a deep breath. She quickly drew her hands up in despair
"WHY, WORLD? WHY DID YOU SELL OUT! WHAT HAVE I DONE WRONG?" I stole another glance and noticed small
tears rimmed her eyes. Damn, no matter how stupid it seemed, she can still look like an angel. Crap! Not the stupid
hormones again!
"Oi, Polka. Calm down," I said.
"Bu-but I really, really, REALLY want some!" Mikan replied.
"I'm getting some lunch," I said, no longer interested of my girlfriend’s predicament. I stalked off in the opposite
direction, allowing the light spring breeze to cool me from the sun.
I was two meters away from her when she finally woke up from her trance. She ran to catch up and said,"
Natsume! Wait!"
Mikan slowed down as she came towards me. She placed her hands on my back for support as she struggled for
air." Sl-slow d-down!"
I cocked my head back to see Mikan trying to catch her breath. Her hands were now placed at her knees. Mikan's
face was slightly pink from the run, giving her a natural blush.
I pushed down the blush that was trying to appear on my cheeks. I put on a placid face, followed by a raised my
eyebrow," Well?"
"You could have waited!" Mikan said. She glared, her brown eyes lighting a spark in her iris.
"Then I would have to wait longer to eat," I replied.
Without warning, a faint male voice whistled past our ears. I curved around to see that punk waving at Mikan for
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the second time." Sakura-san!"
Mikan ran up to greet him. What is she doing? I gaudily walked up to him; sending a glare. I smiled silently as that
punk started sweating.
"Hey Mimasaka-kun!” Mikan said while giving him a small smile.
"Ya, hi Mi-ma-sa-ka," I said, punctuating every syllable. He better not try anything or he is going to meet a
very fiery end.
"I saw that you really wanted some Howalon. Seeing that it's sold out, would you like some of mine?" Mimasaka
asked.
Stalker!
Her eyes shined brightly," Thank you so much!" she went to grab some from that punk, her hand mistakenly
brushing against mine. I glanced up to see a glint in his eye. He was gently wetting his lips. My eyes quickly widened in
horror. HE IS GOING TO DIE!
"Natsume! What are you doing?" Mikan asked as I held on her hand tightly, dragging her as far away from that
creep as possible. Behind me, Mimasaka was out cold, scorch marks evident on his "rich boy" clothing.
"Stay away from him," I said, not bothering on looking back.
"Why? All he was doing was giving some Howalon!" Mikan said.
"He had a perverted glint in his eye," I replied.
"And you're the one to talk! You're just imagining it!" Mikan said.
My patience snapped" Oi! Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it isn't there!" I yelled. Subsequently I
muttered," I'm not going to let you get hurt."
I finally turned around after a long silence. The spring breeze was teasing my bangs. Mikan stood still, he hand at
last released from mine. Her bangs covered her eyes as she walked toward me. I tensed up, expecting a slap in the face.
Instead I was rewarded with a chaste kiss on the cheek. Mikan got on her toes once more, seeing as she had to get on her
toes to reach my cheek. She whispered in my ear, her breath now dancing on my neck," Thank you though, Natsume."
She looked up and smiled." Let's go eat," she said, her hand entwined with mine.
I cocked my head down, allowing my bangs to hide my present blush.
*Grab hers*
4.) When she is cold
"Achoo!" Mikan sneezed for the hundredth time since we left Anna's food stand.
By the time we exited the building, the sun had already set. Special lights were put up for the festival, designed to
look like fairy dust was sprinkled over the fairytale town. They glittered in an array of colors, making sure there were
almost absolutely no sights of darkness. Considering my bad mood though, it looked like an overrated unicorn threw up
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over the town.
"Moron! Why in fuck didn't you bring a jacket?" I said.
She let out a pout," Its spring. How am I supposed to know it would be cold?"
"There is something called a weather forecast," I stated. It should be easy to look it up since they allowed the great
internet at Alice Academy.
"They invented that already?" Mikan asked with shock.
My mouth mentally dropped. I guess my theory about her living in a giant pink and girly box was true. Who
woulda thunk? I decided just to let out a sigh of defeat. I slid my arms out of the warm sleeves of my jacket and threw it at
Mikan.
"Natsume! What are you doing? "Mikan asked.
"I'm giving it to you. I don't want a human popsicle for a girlfriend."
Mikan stared.
Oh god! I face palmed my forehead, “Would you just put on the jacket?"
*Hand her your jacket*
5.) If she won't talk to you first
I fumed my fingers against the wooden plate in which we call a desk. That damn Polka hasn't been talking to me
for weeks! If this was any other annoying female specimen, I wouldn't give a shit. This is Mikan Sakura though, and she
has serious mental problems. I swear there was something else too. Oh well, I'm not in the mood to search my memory for
it.
"Dang! Natsume-kun is mad! The room feels like the sauna!" I heard some idiot feverishly whisper. I glared, who
gave them fucking permission to call me by my first name? Also, I'm not some fragging overprotective boyfriend. I quickly
turned my head out the window once again and continued think about my girlfriend's unnatural silence. Even at lunch,
she wouldn't move her mouth, thus marking the most boring lunch in the history of the world. She didn't even flinch when
I called her Polka!
Finally, I just couldn't take it anymore as my fury exploded. I slammed my hands against the desk as I stood up,
making my class jump in fear. Che, weaklings.
"Come," I growled as I dragged her, A.K.A Mikan, out of the heated classroom. As soon as we left, a ripple of
gossip went through the classroom. I'll deal with that later.
Mikan continued to try to yank her hand away from mine as we made our way towards our Sakura tree, but she
continued to be silent. When we reached my sanctuary (not counting Mikan) I swung her in front of me and letting go of
her hand. She gently rubbed her left arm and glared at me with her chocolate brown eyes.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" I lashed out, knowing I had my dangerous glint in my blazing red eyes. Silence.
With that I lit a flame in my hand and backed Milan against the Sakura tree's trunk. I put the flame dangerously close to
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her face, even though I knew she could easily nullify it. I did not really care about hurting her, it was the fear I wanted,
"Talk."
I don't know if it was the fire being in her face too long or just the fact that she couldn't stand not talking anymore,
but she cracked. Milan spoke to me in a grudging voice, her eyes turned away from mine, "I wouldn't talk to you because I
was mad at you for burning down my laptop," she quickly broke into a grin at looked at me in the eye," And because of
this." She raised her voice while I was still in shock and yelled," NOW!"
Shit. "What the," I managed to say before I was hit blow after blow with water. It was fucking cold water too. I shot
my eyes open in fury after the attack was over, looking for my attackers. It seemed as if my "attackers" were none other
than my friends. Each one was hovering above me with an annoying grin on their face, even Ruka. Traitor. The weapons
varied from water hoses, buckets of water, water guns, and occasional water balloon. Hotaru continued snapping photos to
sell and for later blackmailing. They all hollered with joy," Happy April Fools!"
What the hell? Since when do we celebrate that? I looked up and glared, lingering on Koko and sending a trail of
hellish thoughts.
Koko started sweating in fear. "Shit, Run!" he said as he ran down toward the building, a trail of fearful followers
following him.
And hence resulted in the teacher's finding my attackers stranded on multiple trees the following week, even my
so called "innocent" girlfriend.
*Talk to her first*
6.) If she stares at your lips*
Mikan stared intently at me. She cocked her head to left, then the right. She got crawled across the cool grass
under the Sakura tree and resumed looking at my lips. Shit, she noticed.
She closed her eyes and brought in a small intake of air. When she finally opened her eyes, she fell down towards
the ground laughing. "Your-hahaha- wearing- hahaha- LIP GLOSS!" she said through fits of melodic laughing. Even when
laughing at me, she still sounds pretty. Damn you.
You're wondering how I ended up in this damn state. All of it started with me taking my nap. Then Imai runs up
and smears me with this damn girly contraction. Now I'm stuck with it for a whole week.
"Shut up," I muttered a dark shadow crossed my face, covering my eyes.
"Hahaha! Hotaru-chan even flavored it! Hahaha!" Mikan continued.
"SHUT UP," I said more insistently. Would she just shut her trap already?
" Hahaha! Natsume is a drag Queen!" the horrid words escaped her lips.
My eyes quickly flared in anger. WHAT THE HELL! I'm not sure if it was because of desperation or just because,
but I quickly pulled her towards me and kissed her. I could describe you the sensations of kissing someone yada yada
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yada. If you really want to know, go shove your lips in someone's face.
When we finally broke from the kiss, Mikan smiled and leaned her head against my chest. She probably could hear
my heart beating like a racehorse. "I love you," she whispered tenderly.
"Same," I simply replied. No long poetry or singing. I didn't need to because she already knew."
"I should call you Drag Queen more often."
"You wouldn't dare."
*Kiss her senseless*
Do the previous rules and you will have a successful relationship.
The gang stared at the book, a shocked look on all of their faces. All heads turned like robots towards out leading
couple, Mikan and Natsume. Mikan looked as if she was going to die from embarrassment while Natsume looked as if he
wanted to punch some one's guts out, namely a certain inventor with the name of Imai Hotaru.
Anna was the first to recover." Umm, what was that? Did you write that Natsume-kun?"
A look of murder crossed his face as he glared at everyone," Why the fuck would I write that?"
Everyone sweat dropped in fear. This is where our beautiful villain, Hotaru, enters the scene. "I see you found my
bestseller. You owe me ten rabbits each for reading that."
Mikan's eyes widened in fear," Other's have read this?"
"Naturally. Thanks to Koko and his mind reading, I have gained millions of profit, "Hotaru replied.
Everyone gulped in fear as the saw a dark aura pass Natsume. He looked at Koko, an evil glint in his eye. Then
lightning struck his features as he looked at Koko," You."
Koko let out a stream of tears as he started running away from Natsume's grasp. "Imai! YOU PROMISED YOU
WOULDN'T TELL!" And thus were the last words they heard from Koko.
For a few moments, no one spoke. Then the girls of the group, not counting poor Mikan of course, squealed in
happiness. They all spoke in chorus," Oh my gosh! That was so CUTE! Can I have a copy?"
The inventor replied in monotone," Twenty rabbits."
"Deal!" they all cried.
Once again, silence while the girls finished buying the book from Imai.
As soon as the girls returned, Ruka said offhandedly, "By the way, was Koko wearing the nullification stone?"
Everyone got nullification stones from Mikan years ago. The purpose at the time was to protect them from the enemies.
Now, most of them used it to block Koko from reading their minds and from Natsume's rampages.
Mochu replied," Nah, he left it at the dorms."
Suddenly everyone's eyes widened in realization. The same thought ran though everyone's heads. Yes, even
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Sumire. The thought was just one simple word: crap. Everyone realized what would happen to their poor friend Koko.
"I'll go grab the coffin."
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"Emotions"
by Xion
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
A look at the emotions and thought-process of the supposed emotionless, as their friendship breaks.
Confusion.
He couldn’t understand it. Why would she leave like this? Was it something he had said? Something he had did?
Was it the increasing tension between Axel and him that had driven her away? He didn’t understand; she had left without
a word. He hadn’t wanted her to leave, he felt isolated. Alone. He hadn’t felt that way since he had joined the Organization.
When he had joined, Axel had befriended him as he was being trained. And when Axel had left for Castle Oblivion, he had
become fast friends with her. Both keyblade bearers, both without memories from before they had came to the
Organization, both drawn to the other without knowing why. And when Axel had returned, the only survivor of his time in
the mysterious other castle, different then when he had left, the three of them had became a trio; to the point he had heard
Demyx and Luxord talking about how much the three of them were together.
Perhaps it wasn’t him, but Saix that had caused her to flee the Castle That Never Was. He had always been
sarcastic and rude to her. He had refused to call her by name, had flat-out called her a “thing” several times, both behind
her back and to her face. The memory of it was enough to make Roxas see red. She hadn’t deserved it; and neither of them
had deserved it when they were set-up against each other. If Axel had not intervened he would be dead right now, by her
hand, while she thought she was fighting a difficult heartless. It was no secret that Saix, somehow, hated her.
Maybe it was Axel that had made her run away. This was not the first time she had left… and the last time she had
gone, Axel had hit her in the back of the head and dragged her back against her will. Perhaps she had never been happy
here after that; maybe she had just been biding her time until she felt she could get away once more. Axel knew something
about them both, that was certain, but he refused to tell. Maybe she had gotten fed up with her supposed best friend not
telling her anything even though it was clear she was desperate for info.
Then again, that maybe just how he was feeling.
The other members were okay; Xaldin a little gruff, and Saix a complete jerk; but everyone else had seemed to
treat her as kindly as they treated him. There had been time to just listen to Demyx play his sitar; time to play poker with
Luxord (never a wise decision if you value your munny and/or clothing); days to have been teased by Xigbar. But most of
all there were still plenty of days the three of them, even if their relationship was strained, could have gone to the clock
tower in Twilight Town and enjoyed sea-salt ice cream together…
Roxas sighed and looked around his room one more time; plain carpet and walls, plain bed and dresser… with the
exception of the shells from when he had been in a coma. Shells she had brought and arranged on his bed next to him
every day he had been out of it, waiting for him to wake up even though she had been told he never would. They sat
arranged on the dresser in neat lines, before he swiped them into a small bag he had picked up last time he had been out
on a mission. He wasn’t sure where he would go, but he knew it was time to leave. He had to get his answers, whether or
not the Organization wanted him to know. Hiding the small bag in his coat, taking a deep breath and opening the door, he
put on what he hoped was a natural expression and made his way to Axel’s room.
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He had only been in the room once before, during that first week where he had been practically a zombie. Axel had
gone to his room to get something, and Roxas had followed him without a thought. He knew that right now Axel was
having a conversation with Saix, and hopefully wouldn’t be back to his room for awhile. There was nothing distinctive
about Axel’s room, it looked exactly like his own, except for the messed up bed and the open dresser drawers. Roxas
walked over and laid the envelope which contained his final gift to Axel; the stick that said “winner” on it. He had been
waiting until he had found one for each of them, but what was the point of waiting now? He may never see either of them
ever again.
For a couple of minutes, he just stood there, looking up at the giant yellow heart-shaped moon in the sky.
Kingdom Hearts, the heart of all worlds, that they had gathered countless hearts for, with the idea that they would be
given their hearts back by doing so… but now he wondered if that was even true, or if Xemnas had been just using them.
Sighing, he turned away and strode back to the door, taking one last look around his best friend’s room, and at the moon
he could still see through the window.
“Good-bye.” Roxas whispered to both, praying this was the right decision as he turned off the light and shut the
door.
Frustration.
Why? Why him? Why was he always stuck with the icky jobs no else wanted? She had left, it wasn’t the first time.
He had dragged her back last time, even though it had killed him to do it that way; he hadn’t wanted to hurt her, but she
had insisted on fighting, even as Roxas was begging both of them to stop. He had ended it quickly before someone got
seriously hurt. But this… this was going too far! Drag her back no matter what? If you can’t bring her back… destroy her!?
She was one of his best friends, how could he possibly do that!? Saix had cut him off when he protested his new
assignment, saying it wasn’t an option; he knew “it” best. “She’ll just keep running no matter how many times I bring her
back! What’s the point? We have a keyblade user, why can’t we just let her go?” He had said; only to be told that if that was
the case, he might as well just eliminate her since she knew their plans. He had fallen silent, reluctantly agreed to bring her
back, retreated and now paced the hall of the third floor; trying to figure out what had caused her to leave in the first place.
The dynamic between the three of them had changed since her first run-away attempt. At the time, he had just
been glad the Superior hadn’t ordered him to eliminate her as a traitor to the Organization. He had been given the order
with less reason, and had personally carried out the “punishments” to the perpetrators. Knocking her out had strained his
relationship with Roxas, who was unable to understand he had done what was for the best for them all: knock her out and
drag her back so she wouldn’t have to face someone else who would feel no remorse in beating her up or killing her. He
knew she would hate him for it, but it had been worth it to save her from broken limbs or death. What had surprised him
was that she understood, but Roxas hadn’t, and he still holds it against him. He doesn’t understand that to disregard
orders is like signing your own death warrant. And even if you don’t get killed, you would be turned into a lowly Dusk,
unable to think for yourself, following orders mindlessly even if it meant certain death… that was why they used the Dusks
in training, they would never run away and they attack to the very end. But Roxas refused to listen, and didn’t see as much
bad in the Organization as she had. She seemed to understand what happens around here, perhaps better then he knew.
Maybe that was why she had left.
Although, there was the time Saix had set her and Roxas against one another, determined one would kill the other
and that would be the end of it. He remembered asking where they were, and Saix explaining the mission he had sent
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them on, adding that he was certain “it” would be dead by now. He had rushed off, cursing Saix as he went, and arrived not
a moment too soon, she was ready to kill Roxas by the time he had gotten between them and stopped the fight.
She wasn’t his only problem either. He had Roxas to worry about as well, besides their strained friendship. He was
asking too many questions. About his past, about his future, about why he had the keyblade… yes, Axel did have some info
that would go far into helping Roxas figure it out, but he had been sworn to silence. And besides, if he told the kid about
Sora, he would just run off like she had… Wait; was it possible she had found out the truth about herself? Could that be
it…?
Figuring out that this was the most likely possibility, he had started to form a plan to convince her to come back
when a commotion from outside broke into his thoughts. He saw Saix fall to the ground outside at the main entrance, and
Roxas walking past him, keyblade in hand. Cursing to himself, he quickly used a portal to get ahead and wait for Roxas…
Sorrow.
How could she be feeling it? Not possible, she knew that, but as Xion looked from the mansion window she felt
teary eyed and depressed. She would die here; go back to Sora so he could wake up. She would make that sacrifice for the
greater good. Except… no, that’s wasn’t it. Besides it being ridiculously corny, the thought itself was a lie; she was doing
this for Roxas. They just weren’t meant to live in the same world. As long as they both existed, one would absorb the
other’s powers. When she had learned the horrifying truth of what she was, not even a nobody, just a puppet created in a
lab, she had gone and talked to Riku about it; he had became her friend in that short amount of time they had spent
together. She had wondered why he didn’t hate her; she was keeping his best friend from waking up from an almost yearlong sleep, and if she continued to live, he never would. He had shrugged when she had asked him about it and replied:
“You look sorta like Kairi and you act like Sora, how can I hate that?” He had told her that she was still her, even if she was
a puppet, and told her he had once know someone in a very similar situation. It wasn’t how she came to be, but what she
did with her life while she was here.
As good as the advice had been, and even though it had made her feel a bit better about her decision, she still
wished she had been able to talk to Axel and Roxas about it. There had been a few times when she had been about to, but
they always got interrupted and she lost her courage. Xion was certain that Axel knew what she was, and still he had been
her friend, and he probably would have given her good advice, but still, she hadn’t been able to say anything about it to
him. She wondered if they would be trying to figure out why she had left, without a word, and felt bad for any worry she
would be causing them.
She had left because she had known it to be the right thing to do. She needed to put a stop to her own borrowed
life before she ended up taking Roxas’s. She hoped he and Axel would get along better with her gone, though they were
both so stubborn she wouldn’t be surprised if they held on to whatever problems were between them now. She had wished
she could have told them about her, wished she could have told them where she was going and what she was going to do.
More than anything she wished she had been able to see them both one last time and say good-bye, but she knew they
would have tried to stop her, and now it was too late.
Xion sighed and went down to the kitchen to get herself a snack. She was able to see the clock tower from that
window and had wondered if they were sitting up there now, so close, having ice cream together… it brought up too many
now painful memories. Painful because she knew it would never happen again, the three of them just joking around up
there while they had sea salt ice cream, talking about their days and just relaxing with each other. Suddenly her vision
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blurred and she felt something warm go down her face. How was it she was crying? No one had forced her to come here, to
hand herself over to Riku, Namine, and the mad scientist in the basement. So she would suck it up until the preparations
were complete, and end this travesty of her fake life. She would no longer be a puppet for the Xemnas’s nefarious plans.
But regardless of her resolve, she felt more hot tears sliding down her cheeks, one after the other. And when Riku
found her half an hour later, she was sitting at the kitchen table with her head laying on her folded arms; crying for all she
had had and all she now had to give up; for her friends, the life she longed for, and for the person she wished she could
have been.
Xemnas listened to Saix’s report without much interest. He already knew that Roxas had just left the Organization
(after defeating his second in command) and that Axel had tried to dissuade him before he had. He already knew that the
Dusks were close to finding the run-away puppet. He knew that right now Demyx was stringing his sitar, that Xaldin,
Xigbar and Luxord was playing strip poker, and he knew that Saix has his own plans for the run-aways and the
pyrotechnic.
He also knew that he needed a keybearer for his plans. That without at least one of adequate strength and
competency, he could not hope for the completion of Kingdom Hearts. He knew that without Kingdom Hearts he wouldn’t
be able to rule all the worlds as he has planned. Regardless, he smiled to himself. He knew Axel would not fail in bringing
Xion back, and when he did he would re-program her, putting her back under his control. Vexen had made a crucial
mistake; he hadn’t destroyed the possibility of a personality, which had only grown as she experienced Sora’s memories,
letting her break from their command. He would program her to fight and absorb Roxas, gaining his power and assuring
that Sora would never re-awaken. She would kill him, therefore becoming Sora as he had been originally created her to do.
He sneered at their supposed “friendship”, what help was it now? She would fulfill her purpose whether she wanted to or
not.
Xemnas leaned back on his throne, closed his eyes, and waited for them to move and his plan to come together. He
felt no hate or compassion for the pawns in his game; felt no anxiety or worry that it would go wrong, or joy or confidence
that it would go right; felt no anticipation…
He felt nothing at all.
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"Student-Teacher Bonding...Not"
by Karen DuLay
Naruto
Kakashi tells Sakura he will see her at the festival celebrating Konoha Village's founding. He enters them into a relay,
and in a completely anticlimactic turn of events...they win.
The sun was shining brightly, filtering through the leaves of the forest on the outskirts of Konoha Village. Soft light
hit the forest floor, making everything it hit glow with reflected beauty. Birds chirped amongst the trees, their wings
occasionally fluttering as they hopped to another tree. A small dirt path wound through the trees, worn from years of
travel.
At the time, that path was being traversed by two people, a man and a young woman. The man’s white hair was
swept up, and he wore his ninja headband askew so that it covered his left eye. Beside him, the young woman—really more
of a girl, but with an air of such confidence that it would be hard to call her anything less than a woman—hummed as she
walked, occasionally pushing a stray strand of pink hair out of her face. Their silence was companionable, the sort of
silence you only have when you know someone well enough that you don’t need words to enjoy their company.
It wasn’t long before they were at the end of the forest, in a clear space before the walls of Konoha Village. The
path joined a well-maintained road that led to a gate into the village, with a notice board right inside the gate. As the two
walked through the gate, the man glanced to one side and stopped. His companion walked a few more steps before
realizing he wasn’t walking with her anymore, then stopped and looked back.
“Kakashi-sensei?” she called, frowning in puzzlement. “Are you all right?” He didn’t answer her, but pulled one of
the papers from the notice board. “Is something wrong?” the girl tried again.
“Did you know there’s a festival tonight?” Kakashi asked, completely ignoring his companion’s questions.
“What?” The young woman frowned. “Of course I do. I told you about it before we went out to train this morning.
You didn’t pay any attention then. Why are you asking me about it now?”
“There was a flyer for it on the board, and it just caught my eye,” Kakashi shrugged. “Are you going?”
“Yes, of course I am,” his companion sighed. “It’s the anniversary of the village’s founding. Why wouldn’t I go?
There’s going to be a lot of festival food, games, other people I know…” she trailed off. “Come to think of it, I didn’t see you
at last year’s festival, and I was looking all over for you with Naruto and Sasuke. Don’t you go to festivals?”
“Not for a long time, no,” Kakashi studied the paper in his hand. “Hmm…” he glanced up. “Why don’t I go with
you this time, Sakura?”
“What? Go…with me?” Sakura started in surprise. “Umm…actually, I was going to go with Ino, we’ve attended the
festival together every year since we were kids…”
“Oh, but this will be a great way to build our trust as a student and teacher!” Kakashi folded up the flyer and stuck
it in one of his vest’s many pockets. It was hard for those who didn’t know him well to read his expressions, thanks to the
face mask covering his nose and mouth, but Sakura knew her sensei well enough to tell when he was smiling.
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Sakura was also a bit unnerved that he was bringing up the festival at all. Now that she thought about it, she was
having trouble visualizing him at a festival. Kakashi-sensei in traditional clothing…actually, Kakashi-sensei in anything
other than his usual ninja outfit was hard to think of.
That aside, however. “Um, Kakashi-sensei…we rarely work together as student and teacher anymore,” Sakura
pointed out. “Tsunade-sama usually trains me these days. We only trained together today because you wanted to see how
my evasive skills have been improving.”
“That’s all right,” Kakashi assured her. “Technically, I’m still your teacher. Don’t the other teams spend time with
their teachers outside of class? Like Guy and Lee, for example.”
“Well, yes, but that’s not really what I—”
“Great! I’ll see you there!” Kakashi walked past the dumbfounded Sakura, and disappeared down the street. She
stared into the space where he’d been, brain still trying to comprehend what had happened.
“Wh…what?”
The festival was lively, filled with ninja and ordinary citizens alike. Everyone was in yukata, the lighter version of
traditional kimonos, which was the norm outfit for festivals. Several of the men had opted for more formal wear, with
jackets over their haoris.
Sakura Haruno, genin of Konoha Village and student of both Kakashi Hatake and the Hokage Tsunade, albeit
more the latter’s student than the former’s these days, tugged at her yukata to take out a wrinkle. Despite it being late
summer, she’d opted to wear a yukata with a cherry blossom pattern, which was normally worn in the spring. It went
better with her pink hair, after all. Her geta straps chafed her feet, green cords on pink wood—truth be told, most of her
clothing was red, pink, or green. Those colors just suited her best.
“Sakura-chan!” Ino waved a hand in front of her face. Sakura blinked, and looked up to see her friend/rival
holding a takoyaki out. “Quick, take it before Choji steals this one too.”
“Oh…yeah,” Sakura accepted the treat and took a small bite. Ino leaned against a post next to Sakura, munching
on her own takoyaki. Across the aisle between vendors, Shikamaru and Choji were attempting to throw rings onto wooden
blocks to win prizes…an all-you-can-eat buffet pass in Choji’s case.
The two girls were silent for a while, until Ino spoke up. “You thinking about something?” She asked as she raised
her takoyaki to her mouth for another bite.
“Um…sorta,” Sakura confessed. “Kakashi-sensei told me earlier that he’d meet up with me at the festival, but he’s
not here yet. I know he’s usually late, but it seemed sort of odd that he’d want to meet me here in the first place. Honestly,
can you imagine Kakashi-sensei at a festival?”
“Him? No way!” Ino frowned. “So why’d he wanna meet you?” Her eyes widened as a though occurred to her.
“Don’t tell me…he’s going to confess to you?”
“What?!” Sakura yelped, flinching away. “He’s over ten years older than me! That’d be so…so…eww!”
“But what if?” Ino argued, crossing her arms. “You two have known each other for a little while now, and gone on
missions together. It’s natural for close bonds to develop between teammates. Take Neji and Tenten, for instance…I hear
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they barely spoke to each other before being assigned to the same team, and now they spend off-hours together a lot with
Guy-sensei and Lee-kun.”
“Well, that’s true, but romantic feelings are a completely different story. That’s much rarer,” Sakura insisted. She
looked down at her takoyaki, eyes half-closing as the image of a black-haired boy came to mind. “Besides…I’m already…”
Ino realized she might have entered dangerous territory, and took a quick bite of her takoyaki to cover the
awkward moment and give her time to think of something else. She chewed slowly, trying to think of a good change of
topic.
“Well…maybe he’s just lonely?” she suggested.
“Huh? Lonely?” Sakura looked over at Ino in surprise. “Kakashi-sensei can get lonely?”
“He does live alone, and besides Guy-sensei I’m not sure he has any friends,” Ino shrugged. “Other than being
polite to everybody, Kakashi-sensei doesn’t interact with many people. You and the rest of your team are the only ones he’s
ever spent time with on a regular basis, and with Naruto and Sasuke go—um, with only you left in the village, I don’t think
he does much but train by himself these days.”
“I suppose…” Sakura looked down again. She really hadn’t seen Kakashi much since Naruto left the village with
that perverted sage Jiraiya. Tsunade kept Sakura so busy…
“You suppose what?” A head dropped into the empty space between Ino and Sakura.
“GYAAAH!” Ino and Sakura flinched away. Kakashi gave another mask-covered smile and looked sideways at
Sakura.
“What do you suppose, Sakura?” Kakashi asked again.
“N-n-n-nothing, Sensei!” Sakura recovered quickly. “Ino and I were just having a little girl talk. It’s not that
important.”
“Really? If you say so,” Kakashi gave Ino a nod in greeting. “So, how have you enjoyed the festival so far?”
“The festival? It’s been fun! Did you just get here?” Sakura glanced at Kakashi’s outfit. He’d donned a plain gray
men’s kimono and a black jacket, with his mask still present on his face. Where most of the attending ninjas—including
Ino and Sakura—had taken their headbands off for the festival, Kakashi had kept his on to cover his left eye.
“Yes, I did just get here. They were advertising for a relay race near the entrance, and I got distracted,” Kakashi
looked at the takoyaki in Sakura’s hand. “By the way, I signed us up for it.”
“For…what?” Sakura followed his gaze to the festival food in her hand. “For takoyaki…?”
“No, the relay,” Kakashi stated matter-of-factly. “I thought it might be fun. You only need two people to
participate, and as ninjas we shouldn’t have a problem.”
“You signed me up for a relay without even asking me?!” Sakura felt her shock at Kakashi’s sudden appearance
start to give way to anger.
“It looked like it would be fun,” Kakashi was unperturbed, despite the clear anger in his student’s voice. “Just
think of it as a mission. There’s even a cash prize for first place, and a gift basket. Wouldn’t you like to win something?”
“Umm…” Ino scurried over to whisper in Sakura’s ear. “He’s asking you to run a race with him…a race for two
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people,” she hissed low enough that not even Kakashi could hear, covering her mouth with one hand so he couldn’t read
her lips. “Two people. What’s that make you think of?” Sakura felt her face grow hot. “I assume the blush means you get
it!”
“Umm…” Sakura pressed her pointer fingers together nervously. “I…uh…”
“It starts in five minutes, by the way,” Kakashi added. Sakura narrowed her eyes. and resisted the urge to growl.
Sakura stood at the starting point beside Kakashi, glaring down at her geta. It seemed that one condition of the
race was that everyone wore their festival clothing, both to make it harder to run and to give a more historic feel. Anyone
would have admitted it was more for the former than the latter.
“Now, just remember, I’ll make a circuit of the festival grounds, hand you the baton, and you’ll make a circuit of
the festival grounds,” Kakashi reminded Sakura. “Most of the other participants are ninjas, and using jutsus aren’t against
the rules. You’ll have to be careful when it’s your turn not to get delayed by one of the others’ attacks.”
“I got it, sensei, I got it,” Sakura kept her eyes resolutely away from her teacher’s face. She hated to admit it, even
to herself, but ever since Ino had put the idea in her head that Kakashi might have some sort of romantic feelings for her…
it wasn’t like Sakura would return them if he did, of course. No, she was in love with Sasuke still, despite all he had done.
But it was surprisingly awkward to look at someone who you suspected might like you.
“Competitors, get ready!” the race judge shouted.
“That’s my cue,” Kakashi went to line up with the other first-leg racers. He twirled the baton in his hand as he
went—well, baton was what they were calling it officially for the race, but it was technically a kunai. The edges had been
dulled, the point rounded to prevent any of the competitors from harming each other, but it was still a kunai.
The starting gun was fired, and off the racers went. Sakura waited at the starting line, following her fellow secondleg competitors’ example and getting ready to run the moment her partner appeared with the kunai-baton.
“Good luck, Sakura!” Shizune called. Her and Tsunade had entered the race for the cash prize, which would
probably go to paying off Tsunade’s residual gambling debts.
“You too!” Sakura replied. Something boomed halfway around the festival.
“Guy-sensei is sure taking his time…” Lee muttered at the far end of the lineup.
“Wait, I see someone!” one of the ordinary people competing in the race—a woman, who’d entered with her
boyfriend—pointed to the stretch behind the starting line. “It’s that guy with the white hair!”
“Huh?” Sakura glanced back. “Kakashi-sensei!”
“Sakura! Get ready!” Kakashi shouted. Something slammed into the ground just in front of him, and he made an
impressive leap to avoid it. Sakura gasped as he landed neatly on the ground, despite his geta, and held her hand out
behind her so she could start running the moment he reached her.
A heavy metal weight fell into her hand, and she was off. If walking in geta was hard, running in them was
murder…but thanks to Kakashi she had the lead…
“Hiya!”
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Sakura barely managed to dodge in time to avoid Tenten’s attack. A line of shuriken hit the ground beside her, one
only just missing the hem of Sakura’s yukata.
“What the hell?!” Sakura yelped, craning her head around to see what Tenten was doing. The other girl was ten
feet behind Sakura and gaining fast, already pulling out more shuriken to throw.
“Sorry, but that first-place prize is going to Neji and me!” Tenten shouted and pulled her arm back.
“No!” Lee appeared and grabbed Tenten’s arm. “Sorry, but I can’t let you interfere with Sakura-chan!” Sakura
smiled despite the situation—Lee still wasn’t over that crush he had on her. Which, considering the circumstances, was
pretty helpful…
Sakura focused on running as Lee and Tenten started to scuffle. She ran past the halfway mark, and gripped the
baton-kunai tightly in her hand. One of the civilian first-leg runners saw her pass by, and stumbled in the gust of wind left
by her passing.
“Stupid ninjas…I knew we shouldn’t have signed up…” he muttered.
Sakura felt her geta strap loosen unexpectedly, and fell forwards as it broke. “What?! Now?!” she cried, catching
herself on her knees. “Stupid sandal! I’m supposed to wear you! Oh, please, please be repairable…” Her fingers explored
the damage, and she groaned. The faint light from the festival didn’t help much, but she could tell that the strap had
completely ripped out in front. There wasn’t enough of the strap left for her to tie together, and she had no replacements…
Well, fine. Sakura slipped her other geta off and stowed it in her sleeve. She could explain it to the people running
the race when she finished. Besides, going barefoot would be much easier.
In a completely undramatic turn of events, Sakura finished the race without a hitch. Kakashi had outrun everyone
else, and Tenten and Lee’s fight had blocked the way for the other competitors, so Sakura was mostly fine. The judge
decided it was all right that she went barefoot after her geta broke, and she got first place.
The interesting part actually happened when her and Kakashi started to go through the gift basket…
“Oh my goodness! The flyer was right!” Kakashi pulled out a stack of books. “They DO have the Icha Icha series
first editions…!” He opened the cover of the top book. “They ARE signed by the author!”
“Wait…what?” Gears started to turn in Sakura’s head, and it wasn’t long until she had come up with an answer.
“You…you only came to the festival…and entered the race…to win a bunch of stupid books?!”
“Not just books!” Kakashi’s eyes were nearly shining. “Icha Icha!”
WHUMP.
“Idiot…” Sakura muttered as she stomped away, and Kakashi dove into the river after the books.
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"Sacrifice and Saving a Friend"
by Zarah Jade
Naruto Shippuden
"How could I ever be Hokage. I couldn't even save a friend. Isn't that right... Sasuke?" He drew a few shallow breaths
and fought to keep his eyes open for just a few more seconds. Sasuke and Naruto meet one day, and one of them makes
the ulitmate sacrifice to save a friend.
“Did you even stop to think about how that makes me feel Sasuke? That your revenge and pointless vendetta
always come before me? That Itachi was more important than me?” Naruto sucked in a shaky breath. “How can you just
now be saying it’s over!?”
“Naruto, I—“Sasuke began. He hated seeing the blonde so hurt, and he resented that he was the one to make him
feel that way.
“No! Just shut your damn mouth and listen to me for once.” Naruto cut the brunette off. “It’s been over for a long
time, Uchiha. You leaving to go to Orochimaru was a pretty good sign that I’d never come first in your book. I mean, fuck
Sasuke! It was Orochimaru of all people. You chose the creepy snake bastard who bit you in the middle of the woods over
me!” Naruto wiped at his traitorously stinging eyes. “I’m a shinobi of Konoha. A tool of the Village Hidden in the Leaves.
I have orders to kill you on sight. Get out of here. I’m giving you a head start. Next time we meet, you won’t be walking
away.”
“Hn. You think you could kill me. How cute, Naru-chan,” Sasuke sneered. “You’re right though, you are just a
tool. A worthless one at that.” Why did he insist on hurting Naruto? Maybe it was because the pain in his chest he felt
when he saw the blonde’s eyes went misty from the harsh words he said gave him the only hint of feeling he had had in a
long time. “Maybe I should save them some trouble and help them discard their broken tool.” The missing-nin walked
forward and fisted his hand into blonde shaggy hair.
Naruto couldn’t move. He couldn’t breathe. Sasuke was so close and his mind was screaming Konoha’s orders at
him and the kunai in his hand. While his heart… well, he didn’t exactly know. He fell to his knees, causing the hand on his
head to tear out chunks of his hair. The Konoha ninja clutched his aching chest, dropping his kunai in the process, and
azure eyes met Sasuke’s Sharingan ones. The world went fuzzy and soon he found himself unconscious at the criminal’s
feet.
Sasuke watched as Naruto hyperventilated and lost consciousness, falling face first into the slush. He carefully
picked up the small blonde and gently rested him against a tree. The idiot hadn’t thought to wear a cloak and was already
shivering, teeth chattering. Sasuke reached around the blonde’s head and removed the cold metal hitai-ate. He looked at
the thing with disgust before picking up Naruto’s discarded kunai and slashing it across the offending metal symbol.
Carefully, he leaned Naruto forward and tied his wrists tightly together then attached the bound hands to the tree trunk
with the kunai. When he finished with that he took out a spool of thin wire and began wrapping it around the tree and the
unconscious ninja. Once the raven was satisfied that the blonde wouldn’t be able to free himself, he grabbed an extra roll
of bandages and gagged the Leaf ninja, careful to make sure he wouldn’t choke. The raven tied the gag behind Naruto’s
head a little tighter than necessary, pulling some golden strands out in the process.
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Standing, he slowly removed his cloak, leaving him in only his black sleeveless shirt, revealing red bloodstained
bandages that had otherwise been hidden. Working quickly, he covered the Konoha-nin with his cloak and clasped it
tightly behind his neck to keep him warm.
As he stood the blood soaking through his bandages dripped onto the unconscious body below him. Violent
coughs tore through his body as he coughed up blood. It splattered just above the blonde silky locks and some misted
down to land on Naruto’s face.
Once the coughing subsided, Sasuke sent a bolt of his Chidori Nagashi through a nearby tree, causing it to start on
fire. ‘There. Now they should be able to find him,’ the missing-nin thought. Clutching his abdomen he slowly made his way
through the forest. He stopped to catch his breath, blood now running freely as if the bandages weren’t even there, when
he heard voices just ahead of him.
He stumbled his way toward the two men, coldness and blood loss making his movements clumsy. ‘How
convenient. Both the men I need to kill in one place.’ The raven smirked, the next second his eyes were glowing Sharingan
red with bloodlust.
Ahead, Kabuto and the man who called himself Madara were making a deal. Sasuke knew what the bargaining
chips were, him and Naruto. Perhaps because his mind was hazy from blood loss or because he had been around Naruto
too much, he ran into the clearing no plan in mind.
“I won’t let either of you lay your filthy hands on Naruto,” he growled. The two men turned to look at the bloodsoaked youth. Kabuto’s face, or what was left of it, broke into a scaly smirk. Sasuke didn’t hesitate to use his Amaterasu to
wipe the bastard’s face off the Earth. Why should he care? He was dying anyway and he needed to finish this quickly. The
raven heard Madara laugh sadistically as he watched his business partner burn to death, writhing in Sasuke’s hellfire.
The young missing-nin felt more of his precious lifeblood run down from his left eye. He could no longer find the
strength to stand and he fell to his knees in the mud created by his blood. ‘No. I…need to finish this… I need to protect
Naruto. They… they can’t get their slimy hands on Naruto.’ It was getting difficult to even form a coherent thought.
A sharp pain registered behind Sasuke’s ribs and he looked up to see Madara standing over him. “You’re in the
way, Sasuke,” he sneered as he twisted the kunai embedded in the raven’s chest. Sasuke tried to draw a breath but found
he couldn’t. This was really it. His last chance.
Mustering the little strength he still could, he focused all his chakra into one last attack, gasping “Chidori
Nagashi.” Madara was caught by surprise and didn’t have time to react as his insides were boiled from the electricity
coursing through his body and he slowly died.
As Madara’s body fell to the ground smoking, Sasuke’s vision swam and he fell forward into the bloody mud. He
drew a few shallow breaths and fought to keep his eyes open for just a few more seconds.
“Sasuke!” They dying ninja imagined he could hear Naruto calling his name. He pictured a blur of gold and
orange entering his failing vision. The raven imagined callused tan hands turning him over… No. He wasn’t imagining it.
The blonde really was there holding his trembling body.
“N-Naru…” The boy rasped as Naruto held his head in an orange clad lap.
“Shh, Sasuke. You’re hurt. Just concentrate on staying alive,” the worried blonde whispered, afraid if he spoke too
loud he might break Sasuke’s fragile concentration on life. He looked to where Sakura, Sai and Kakashi stood, just
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watching the scene unfold.
“Sakura!” He screamed at his teammate, “Help him! Sakura!” The pinkette just turned her face away and Naruto’s
agonized scream pierced the air.
“N-Na… y-you’re… s-safe…” Sasuke gasped as his eyes slid closed. With his final exhale he breathed, “I’m glad.”
Naruto screamed himself hoarse, pounding on the still chest. He screamed for the injustice of it all. When he had
screamed himself to exhaustion, Sai picked him up and cradled the fragile boy to his chest.
“Sasuke,” the blonde whimpered and curled himself into his teammate’s chest.
Without another word or glance toward the three corpses in the clearing, Team 7 made their way back to Konoha.
Sasuke’s body, along with Kabuto and Madara’s, was left to rot deep in the forest, where no one would stumble across
them. Out of sight and out of mind. No one would remember the three traitors of Konoha. Their deeds and the name
Uchiha were wiped from the history books forever. Konoha forgot the burden the clan had placed on the village, all but
their blonde haired, blue eyed Rokudaime Hokage.
“How could I ever be Hokage? I couldn’t even save a friend. Isn’t that right…Sasuke?”
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"Of Sadness and Compassion"
by Izaya Orihara
Nora: The Last Chronicle of Devildom
Barik had just sacrificed himself in order to have the rest of them to get inside to stop the Resistance. As he lay dying
Nora does his best to save him but to no avail. For the first time he cries and surprisingly Kazuma is the one to give him
comfort. One thing leads to another and they end up kissing which leads Nora to realize that he has feelings for him and
later on he finds out that Kazuma feels the same.
Chapter 1
“Kain, wait!! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” Nora shouted. There was no way in hell Kain was going to
do what Nora thought he was up to. Shaking Rivan off, Nora ran to catch up to Kain to stop this foolishness once and for
all. Just as he reached him another figure zoomed past them and attacked the force field that surrounded headquarters.
“Barik!” Nora shouted. The barrier was destroyed but everyone was in a state of shock as they looked down at
Bariks’ broken and bloody body. Nora knelt down beside Barik and, holding back his emotions the best he could, asked
with a shaky voice: “Why would you risk your life?” Straining to speak, Barik did his best to reply. “You… ask why? You did
the same thing…to help Bajee. You say you don’t know, but you do…really.” Pulling in a much needed breath, Barik was
quiet for a moment before he began to speak. “It’s because...we’re all on the same team. Even you are…our comrade.”
To say Nora was shocked would be an understatement. If he knew what the word meant he would say he was
flabbergasted. For as long as he could remember he refused to listen to anyone in the Dark Liege army when they tried to
tell him what to do and more times than none he would get scolded for his actions. He would sometimes overhear some of
what the officers would say about him so he always assumed that he was nothing but a nuisance. But to be called a
comrade? No, never. “You know, sometimes I really want to kick your ass!” Nora yelled, lifting Bariks head up. “I can’t
stand you!! You don’t have permission to die on me!”
“I can’t… stand you… either. I can’t stand you…with all my heart. That’s why…I’ve always tried to protect…you.”
And with that, lieutenant- general Barik passed away. Content with how he lived his life and at peace with the knowledge
that Nora would defeat Fall and save the demon world. “Bar…Barik?” Hey… why are you quiet all of a sudden? Say
something…Hey! I know you can hear me! Hey! Put me down with fancy words I’m too stupid to get! Tell me I’m a fool!
Say it! Say…Say something stupid!! You idiot!” as Nora rambled on, everyone watched in silence as tears fell from Nora’s
eyes and land on the lieutenants body. After two failed attempts at healing magic, Nora laid his head down on Barik’s
chest. They let Nora just lay there for a while but they had to move and soon. Who knows what kind of havoc is happening
on the inside. “Kazuma we have to prepare Barik’s body but we can’t do that with Sir Nora clutching to it…to him.” Melfia
whispered to him. With a nod, Kazuma walked over and knelt down beside Nora and gently placed a hand on his back.
“Hey stray, you need to let him go now. They need to lay his body to rest.” Nora felt Kazuma take his hand and Nora let
Kazuma pull him away from Barik’s body and lead him away.
‘Why did this happen? How could he have let this happen? He was the Cerberus. Only he was supposed to die!
That is, if you really believe in that sort of crap.’ Nora was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t bother to realize that
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Kazuma was trying to get his attention until Kazuma grabbed his shoulders. “Nora!”
“What? What do you want?”
“Nothing, it’s just…you have blood on your face.” Kazuma said softly. Nora hesitantly raised his hand and brushed
his fingertips along his cheek. When he pulled them away there was indeed blood on them. Panicking slightly, Nora
started to violently wipe away the blood on his face with little effect. “Nora, stop! Stop it Nora, you’ll hurt yourself! Nora!”
Kazuma quickly grabbed Nora’s hands and held them tightly in one of his own. Who knew that Nora had such small
wrists? “I want it off, let me go. I have to get it off!” Nora muttered, straining against Kazuma’s hold. “I can take care of
that. Now I’m going to have to let your hands go but you have to promise me that you won’t freak out again, okay?” Nora
only nodded his agreement. Slowly Kazuma released Nora’s hands and began to dig through his pockets. With a
triumphant ‘Aha!’, Kazuma pulled out a small ,square package and proceeded to tear it open. “Is that…a wet nap?” Nora
asked with a chuckle. “Yeah. My mom used to make me carry some whenever I left the house. She used to say that you
never knew when you’d get into a sticky situation. I guess I just got used to carrying them with me that I never realized
that I had them on me.” Gently grasping Nora’s chin, he tilted Nora’s face up so that he could see exactly where all the
blood was.
“You don’t have to do that, you know.” Nora said as Kazuma started to wipe away the blood. “I know. But it’s not
like you can exactly see what you’re doing so I’m fine helping you out. No big deal.” Kazuma said going from Nora’s cheek
to where the blood had matted Nora’s hair together in chunks. “You know, just because Barik died right before my eyes
don’t mean you have to act like you give a damn and take care of me. It’s not like I’m… heartbroken or anything.” Nora bit
his bottom lip to keep it from quivering as tears once again fell from his eyes. Kazuma let out a heavy sigh. Who knew that
under that tough exterior there laid such a sensitive boy? He certainly was finding out a lot of new things today. “It’s not
like I loved him or anything. I hated him. I still hate him. How could he do something like this? Did he even think what
would happen afterwards? Did he even consider how we would feel? Damn it!” Nora brushed away Kazuma’s hand as
more tears ran down his cheeks. “Nora-,”
“Just give me a minute! Please!” Unsure of what to do, Kazuma stood silently watching as Nora brushed away his
tears and straighten out his hair. “I, um, I’m not really sure what to do in a situation like this. So if you could give me a
heads up here…” Kazuma stated, rubbing the back of his neck in discomfort.
Finally brushing away the last of his tears, Nora wrapped his arms around himself before addressing Kazuma.
“Th-there is, um, one thing you could do for me. I, um, saw this on TV once.”
“What is it?”
“Now you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, but there was this girl and she was crying and then this guy
she knew wrapped his arms around her and it seemed like it really calmed her down. But then she slapped the guy for
some reason and he said he was sorry and gave her a kiss and she seemed really happy.”
“So…you want me to slap you and then apologize with a kiss?” Kazuma said, arms dangling at his sides, slightly
confused. “No you big dummy. You claim to be a genius but sometimes I wonder. Geez.” Suddenly, Nora was pressed
against Kazuma, his arms wrapped tightly around Kazuma’s waist. “Nora, what are you doing?”
“Just wrap your arms around me and pretend that you like me just a tiny bit.” Still slightly confused by Nora’s
actions, Kazuma slowly wrapped his arms around Nora. He wrapped one arm around the small of Nora’s back while the
other he gently placed on the back of Nora’s head, lightly messaging his scalp. “I’m sorry if I get your shirt all snotty.” Nora
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said as yet more tears began to fall. God, what was up with him today? He hadn’t cried this much in years, not since he was
a kid. “It’s okay. This shirt is already covered in dirt and pond slim. A little snot isn’t going to ruin it.” Nora slid his eyes
closed as Kazuma’s fingers continued to message his head. Surprisingly, that motion combined with the steady beating of
Kazuma’s heart was calming his frayed nerves and soothing his aching heart. “Feeling better?” Kazuma’s deep baritone
voice that strictly belonged to him cut through the calming fog that surrounded Nora’s brain. “Yeah, much. Thank you.”
Nora lifted his head up from Kazuma’s chest but he didn’t leave Kazuma’s warm embrace.
If you asked him later on what the hell was going through his mind at that moment, Kazuma couldn’t tell you.
Acting on a pure impulse, Kazuma leaned in and lightly placed his lips on Nora’s own in a gentle kiss meant only to supply
comfort but felt like it meant so much more.
Realizing his mistake almost immediately, Kazuma pulled back a fraction and waited for Nora’s reaction. What
happened next once again left Kazuma shocked. Instead of reacting violently like he knew Nora would, he reconnected
their lips in a more passionate kiss. Fighting back a moan, Kazuma wrapped his arms tighter around Nora as he felt Nora
wrap his arms around Kazuma’s neck. The height difference only making it a little bit difficult but with Kazuma’s strong
arms he was able to lift Nora off the ground to make up the difference. “Uh-um, excuse me.” A small voice spoke up
behind them, interrupting their private moment. Nora was the first to pull away from their kiss, albeit reluctantly. “What
is it, Ronay?” Nora asked breathlessly, his lips red from the fierce kiss.
Blushing brightly, Ronay looked down at her feet before speaking. “I ‘m sorry to interrupt but we’re ready to burn
his body now.”
“What?!” Almost knocking her down, Nora ran out of Kazuma’s arms just as Melfia set Barik’s body ablaze. “No!
stop it! Damn it, let me go Rivan!” Nora’s struggles were in vain for with only the slightest of ease Rivan was able to hold
Nora back with one arm. He only released Nora once the fire had burned out and the last of Barik’s ashes had blown away.
“Sir Nora, these were Barik’s dog tags. He would want you to have them.” Rivan said handing them over. “Why are
you guys so damn stoic? Don’t you feel anything? It was so sudden! He shouldn’t have died!” Nora shouted.
“As soldiers, we’ve been through this too many times. We’ve already seen the deaths of many brave comrades.
Even now soldiers are fighting…maybe dying…to defend our world. We are the armed forces. We go on because someone
has to. To protect what matters, we have to take losses.” Rivan said an ache in his heart for the loss of one of his closest
friends.
“Then what’s the point in having friends? If they just die on you I’m not sure I want any. That goes for any
relationship.” Nora snuck a glance back at Kazuma. “No matter how much I would enjoy it.” He could see the brief flash of
pain that crossed Kazuma’s face before being replaced with his usual indifferent expression. But this one looked colder,
more distant than normal. “We should probably get going. We can’t let Barik’s sacrifice be in vain.” Nora said, walking
past Rivan and the others. Only pausing by Kazuma long enough to hear Kazuma say he’ll see him later after everyone
made it safely inside and secured the towers. Sticking around long enough to watch Kazuma and his team disappear into
Anemosu tower, he snuck one final peak to the spot where Barik took his last breath before he turned and followed his
team into Aqua tower, hating that once again his heart was aching, only this time with a different kind of pain.
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Chapter 2
The battle is over. Fall, the leader of the resistance, has been defeated and everything has returned to a sense of
normalcy. Well, almost normal. “Has anyone seen the stray dog? Killie, do you know where he is?” Kazuma asked, but she
only shook her head and continued to sweep the cafeteria floor. Since there was so much damage throughout the city the
dark liege army was severely understaffed so everyone had to do their part in any way they could. “Ronay, do you know
where the stray went?”
“Sorry Kazuma. I haven’t seen him since we got back.”
“I think I saw Sir Nora walking towards the meditation room.”
“Thanks. Waving to the officer whose name Kazuma never bothered to learn, he quickly headed out of the room.
Now, how did he and Melfia get there? Walking down the surprisingly empty hallway, Kazuma paused at the bottom of the
stairway for a second before deciding to continue on down the hall to a set of double doors that led outside. Walking onto
the familiar overhang, Kazuma stood quietly for a moment and stared at Nora’s back. Resting his back against the wall,
Kazuma got comfortable while he listened to Nora’s soft chatter.
“Can you believe that they’re actually going to give me my own room? No more nights sleeping outside in the grass
for me. Ole ugly was planning on giving me your room, Barik, but I told her that I wouldn’t be able to sleep peacefully if I
stayed there. It’s not like your room is terrible, it’s really nice. She let me take a look around in case I would change my
mind. But it’s your room; it will always be your room. So I took the room next to it. Eh, if things had turned out differently
we could have been neighbors.” Kazuma was about to interrupt when the conversation turned personal. And it involved
him.
“I don’t know if you took notice or even saw it, but….I know the others saw. It was out in the open and it wasn’t
like we would have much time for privacy so…he kissed me. And I enjoyed it…a little too much.” Nora sat at the edge of the
overhang, his feet dangling over the side. It was a little chilly out, which wasn’t all that strange considering the weather
had become completely unpredictable ever since the battle with Fall had ended, so Nora wore a black long-sleeve shirt
complemented with blue skinny jeans and matching blue converse high tops.
But even with the black scarf around his neck, Kazuma saw a shiver run down his spine. “Believe it or not, that was
my first kiss. I just don’t know why he did it. I mean, I used to wonder often what it would be like to kiss him but that was
because I sort of…liked him. Hell, I might even love him. But that’s a story for another day.” Drawing his knees to his
chest, Nora looked towards the sky. “I’ll never tell him though. I wouldn’t want him to hate me any more than he already
does. It would only make it awkward and it’s crazy to even think that he would love me back”
“And why is that crazy?” Nora gasped and quickly spun around to stare at Kazuma who had walked closer to hear
Nora better. Some unnamed emotion was welling up inside him. It wasn’t exactly anger, even though Nora’s dismissal of
his emotions did make him mad. “Kazuma! How long have you been standing there?” Nora asked scrambling to his feet.
“Long enough to know that you love me.”
“I never said I loved you.”
“Sounded that way to me.” Kazuma looked relaxed in his dark blue blazer, maroon shirt, and jeans that hung just a
bit too low on his hips. Along with his signature black boots Kazuma looked absolutely gorgeous. But even with the relaxed
pose Nora knew Kazuma was tense. He could see it in the way Kazuma’s shoulders were parallel to the ground and in the
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way he clenched and unclenched his jaw. “Obviously you have a hearing problem.”
“Have my feelings been that unclear to you?”
“What are you talking about now?”
“You said that I couldn’t love you because all I felt for you was hate. Did you even consider that I didn’t feel that
way anymore? What about when I called you my friend, did you think I hated you then? What about when I sacrificed my
life for you? I wouldn’t have done that for someone I couldn’t stand.”
With every word Kazuma moved closer until he stood mere inches from Nora, he was so close that in order to
maintain eye contact Nora had to tilt his head up. God how he hated that Kazuma came back so tall. With his boisterous
attitude and self-confidence, Nora more than made up for his lack of height. But lately around Kazuma he was feeling
extremely small.
It thrilled him.
“Why in the world could you think that I don’t love you?”
“Because before Barik’s death you haven’t shown me a shred of kindness. Since the day we met you have called me
a stray dog and had treated me as such. Even after you came back you didn’t change. Yes, you were able to help out in
battles so I wouldn’t have to do all the work but did you say even one nice thing to me? No!” As Nora spoke his breathing
started to come in short rapid succession. What was it about this man that got his pulse racing so fast? “So what? Am I
supposed to believe that those two months that you were away training with Melfia you were re-evaluating your feelings
towards me and the moment we were back together you realized that you were in love with me? Please, that’s just,”
“Yes.” Kazuma’s bold confession left Nora speechless for a moment, but for only a moment. “Like hell you do. If
you really thought that a guy like you would have let me know right away.” At Kazuma’s confused expression, Nora
explained. “You are confident in everything you do, so confident in fact that you say exactly how you feel and do whatever
you want with the knowledge that people let you because you are right and everyone knows it.
“I’m so confident that I do what I please…”
“Exactly.”
“Good.” Nora had absolutely no reaction time as Kazuma wrapped his arms around him, one around Nora’s waist
while the other gently cradled the nape of Nora’s neck to meld their faces together in a searing kiss.
All the pent up frustration inside him melted away as he felt Kazuma’s tongue slide past his slightly parted lips and
room inside his mouth, tasting him. ‘So this is a French kiss,huh?’ Nora thought. Those French humans had the right idea.
Nora couldn’t hold back a moan as he felt Kazuma’s hand slide down to grip his derrière. Sooner than Nora would have
liked, Kazuma pulled away. His knees felt so weak that Nora would have fallen down if Kazuma hadn’t still held him in his
warm embrace.
“Where…did you learn…to kiss like that?” Nora asked between breaths.
“I take it you enjoyed it?”
“Uh-huh.”
Leaning forward, Kazuma lightly skimmed over Nora’s lips before placing a kiss to the side of Nora’s mouth.
Somehow as Kazuma worked his fingers into Nora’s hair, the tie that held his locks in place came undone and now his
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silky tresses hung loosely, framing his beautiful face. Beautiful? It was strange to consider him that but the word
described Nora perfectly.
“You’re completely beautiful Nora.” Kazuma whispered in Nora’s ear. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t get my hopes up. I know you’ll be leaving soon and it would be too cruel to make me want something I can’t
have.”
“And that would be?” Kazuma asked, pulling back to look at Nora’s face.
“You. I want you more than anything.”
“Even becoming the strongest?”
“If I was to become the strongest it would be to keep you by my side. But that’s silly because no one can keep you.
If you wanted to leave you would despite of what others would do to stop you”
“Yet here I am. In the demon world, standing here on a ledge with you in my arms, with absolutely no plans on
leaving.” Nora was quiet, thinking, while he idly ran his fingers over Kazuma’s face in a loving caress. “But why are you
here? Don’t you have a family you haven’t seen for a while? I’m sure they’re worried about you.”
“I’ll give them a call every now and then to check in and see how everything’s going. It’s not like they saw me every
day when I was home.”
“But won’t you miss your friends? I can’t leave the demon world because there’s still so much to be done before I
take over and it wouldn’t be fair to you to have to give them up.”
“I wouldn’t be. Hirasaka works for Saleo so I’ll be seeing her a lot and then I can always just visit the others when I
have some free time.”
“But what about,” Kazuma silenced Nora’s protests with a kiss.
“Nora, I’ve already figured everything out. I’ll get a job here in the demon world, nothing too serious, just
something so that I won’t be too much of a burden to everyone.”
“You could never be a burden, everyone here adores you. Even if they won’t admit it.”
“But you will?” Kazuma asked with a raise of his eyebrow.
Blushing faintly, Nora avoided Kazuma’s question with a question of his own. “So ,where will you stay?”
“I was thinking of staying with you in that new room of yours.”
“But you’ve seen what the rooms look like when you helped Rivan to his room, so where would you-oh.” Feeling
his face heating up even more, Nora tried to back away but Kazuma was having none of that.
“Whoa, where’s the fire?” Kazuma teased. He knew that Nora would react to his implied comment but that didn’t
mean he wanted to let him go.
“How could you suggest…how could you even think that we would share a bed? That’s something couples do! We
haven’t even been on a date.”
“Would you want to?”
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“Share my bed with? N-no, I mean yes. I mean eventually when the time was right and we were both ready, I,”
“I meant go on a date with me.”
“Oh.”
“Don’t get me wrong. I would enjoy sharing my bed with you that way, but I’m kind of old fashioned. I prefer to
court a potential lover, woo them with my charm and manly physique.” Nora scoffed and playfully swatted Kazuma’s
chest.
“Then once they warmed up to me and started to enjoy my company I would shower them with gifts just so I could
see them smile. Then once we were madly in love I would ask for their hand and then, and only then, would we share our
bodies together.”
“Sounds…wonderful.”
“I like to think so.”
“So where would you go from here?” Nora asked.
“Well since I’m already in love with you and you’re in love with me I would normally ask for your hand in marriage
but since this is new to both of us I would settle for a date.”
“Hmmmm…a date huh? I could live with that. But I don’t want one of those cheesy first dates. It has to be unique
and not at all cliché.”
“I think I can do that, but you have to do something for me first.”
“Oh? And what is that?”
“Admit that you love me.” Kazuma watched in slight amusement as Nora’s eyes grew wider.
“I can’t just say it because you told me to. I mean you haven’t even said it and I refuse to be the first one to.”
“Alright if that’s the case, I have no problem going first. Nora my dear,” Kazuma took Nora’s hands and sank to his
knees in front of him. “I love you more than anything in this world or the human one. It would give my heart absolute joy
to know that you feel the same.”
Nora became misty eyed at Kazuma’s sweet words and he could barely get the words out. “Oh, Kazuma. I do, I
really do. I mean I love you. I… love you, Mr. Magari.” Nora said crouching down in front of him and cradling Kazuma’s
face in his hands before kissing him.
Smiling on the inside, Kazuma wrapped his arms around Nora’s waist and pulled him against his chest. When they
finally broke away, they were both breathing heavily.
“I will never get tired of kissing you.” Nora said laying his head on Kazuma’s shoulder.
“That’s good because I plan on kissing you a lot.” Kazuma couldn’t help but smile as he heard Nora’s soft laughter
ring through his ears. God he loves him so much.
“You always have a plan don’t you?”
“Always.”
Nora chuckled and huddled closer to Kazuma as a remarkably strong wind blew causing them both to shiver.
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“Let’s go inside. It’s getting a bit too cold out here.” Kazuma said helping Nora to his feet.
“I agree.”
They started walking back towards the door when Nora suddenly stopped. “I almost forgot something.” Nora
unwrapped himself from Kazuma and walked over to a small cement block. “Good-bye Barik. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Nora
said, re-arranging the flowers he had placed there earlier.
“Is that a grave marker?” Kazuma asked, walking over and crouching down beside Nora to get a better look.
“Yeah. Since we couldn’t actually bury him and seeing how this is where he died, it just seemed appropriate that he
should have something here so people can come and visit him.”
“‘Here lies Bari, A beloved soldier and a cherished friend.’ ” Kazuma read out loud.
“Did you make this?”
“Yeah. I might not be that good at magic but I am pretty good with my hands. Do you think it’s okay? I mean, I
didn’t really know what to put on it so I just sort of put down what I was feeling at the time.”
“I think it’s perfect.” Kazuma said, pulling Nora into his arms again after they stood up.
“Do you think that if Barik was still around he would approve of us?” Nora asked staring off into space as Kazuma
nuzzled his neck. Placing a kiss to the side of Nora’s throat, Kazuma took another glance at Barik’s headstone. “I think he
would.” Smiling, Nora wrapped his arms around Kazuma’s neck.
“May I kiss you again?” Nora asked.
“Of course, you never have to ask.” Giving him a smile, Kazuma leaned forward and captured Nora’s mouth with
his own.
As they lost themselves in their kiss, it went un-noticed by them that someone was watching them. Silently
standing behind the double doors, the Dark Liege smiled before turning around and walking to her office. Seeing those
two crazy kids finally together reminded her of her and Deigree.
Deigree was such a wonderful boy, so very dear to her heart. They became close, her and Deigree. So close in fact
that she thought he could be the one. But they both knew that his time was coming to an end and he didn’t want the pain
that his passing would bring to her to be any more painful than it would already be. But that didn’t stop them from being
close or stealing kisses on starry moonlight nights. Remembering their time together brought a pang to her heart, but she
didn’t regret it.
Stepping into her office, she took the time to straighten out a picture on the wall of her and Deigree before sitting
behind her desk. Leaning back in her chair, the Dark Liege closed her eyes and began to relax. Nora was nothing like her
Deigree and in many ways that was a good thing. With Nora’s ambitious attitude and Kazuma’s drive, they were able to
find a way to save the human and demon world without having the Cerberus die to give his powers to the chosen one in
order to create the new Dark Liege. Now with Fall’s power coursing through Nora’s veins, he will be able to keep the
worlds in balance and at the same he can live out his life.
He may be young and without a doubt he will make mistakes but with Kazuma by his side she was sure everything
will be alright. Those two had been through such sad times but they have each other now so they would be okay. Who
knows, they might even start a family of their own. Nora always wanted a family of his own and from what she has seen of
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Kazuma, he was compassionate and strict, every bit the perfect father figure for their kids. So it was a very high possibility.
She was certain that she read somewhere that at one point in time the Cerberus was able to bear children but she
highly doubted that that was true. The Dark Liege couldn’t help but giggle at the thought of Nora being the over protective
motherly type. But whether or not they decide to have kids she believed they would be happy together, she was absolutely
sure of it.
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"The Adventures of Mr. 2 Bon Kurei"
by AquaGekko23
One Piece
A man who was supposed to be dead woke up with no memories on Drum Island and went on a quest to find his
identity.
He didn’t know where he was, or even who he was. He opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings only to be
even more confused. He was in a bed and there was no one else in the room but he saw glass vials and bottles scattered
around. He tried to sit up and noticed that he was almost completely wrapped in bandages and that it was extremely
painful and difficult to move. When he tried to get up he almost cried out the pain was so great and then he blacked out.
When he next woke up there was a woman at the table with all the glass. He watched as she mixed a concoction
together and gave a small gasp when there was a puff of smoke.
“So finally awake is he?” the woman asked turning around and reveling that she was not nearly as young as she
had looked from the back. He took in her gray hair, wrinkles, large nose and midriff revealing top. He must have made a
strange face because the woman broke out into a witch like cackle causing her naval ring to shake. “Never seen a 139 year
old doctor before?”
The man started to respond when he burst out coughing and his eyes widened when he saw blood.
“I wouldn’t talk,” The purple leather clad woman said with a cackle, “I also wouldn’t move for another, oh I’d say
about three months. Now don’t look like that, you should be glad that you’re alive at all.”
“Who are you?” the man coughed out.
“Depends who you ask, some would call me the witch doctor,” this caused her to cackle, “But you can call me
Doctorine. Now do you want to know the secret of my youth?”
“Sorry,” he tried to stand up only to be hit hard on the head by the doctor’s fist.
When he came to again the old woman was gone and a man in a medical robe and mask.
“Don’t sit up,” the man said “and drink this.” He handed him a vial of orange liquid and gestured that he should
drink it. The patient suffered down the medicine before drifting off to sleep.
He woke up periodically and every time there was doctor in the room with something to do but he still had no idea
who he was. He moved very little as to avoid the excruciating pain that caused him to black out whenever he did anything
to extraneous. It was four months before he was allowed to get out of the bed, it would have been earlier but he’d tried
once but Doctorine had attacked one of his legs causing the injury on his right leg to worsen.
Once he got up it was physical therapy for the next six months. Doctorine was the head doctor at the palace they
were keeping him in so he couldn’t avoid her and her violent tendencies; she liked to hit him whenever he slipped up and
called her old or did something that she thought he shouldn’t be doing. Though they did a lot of work on helping him be
able to walk they ignored his memory problem. No one would tell him anything about him or his condition, he didn’t even
know how he had ended up on this island.
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He learned that he was a bit different from the average patient by the doctor’s gossip. Even though he had serious
physical injuries and was poisoned so severely that an elephant would have died he had somehow survived. No one knew
how he had sustained the injuries but they did know that he was lucky to be recovering, he had a strong will and that was
why he was alive. He had apparently been muscular upon arrival but his strength had deteriorated after he went for
months without so much as standing and then months more not allowed more exercise than short walks. It was seven
months after he first arrived that he could finally start exercising like he longed to and he immediately began to practice
ballet, he didn’t know why but that was what appealed to him. He seemed to take well to it and his balance was superb but
it took months for his strength to return to the point that he could practice as much as he wished, but if he overexerted
himself Doctorine always seemed to be there ready to knock him out.
They had given him extra clothes to wear, he was in the royal palace/national hospital and they had supplies to
spare, but he felt uncomfortable in the pants, shirt, and jacket they provided him. Finally he asked to see the clothing
stores himself to pick out what he wished and they complied with his request. He entered the room filled with articles of
clothing and sifted through the pieces until he had put together an outfit that made him smile.
There were shocked expressions when he emerged from the store room and one very distinct “Heeheeheeheehee”
cackle from the witch doctor. He looked down at his blue button down shirt with the gold pattern, the blue striped, very
round, breeches, and the light pink coat. Sure his legs weren’t calves weren’t shaved but surely it didn’t look that bad.
“Un, deux, trois,” he called spinning in a perfect pirouette; he assumed that if he gave them a show they would
appreciate the functioning of his outfit. At the end of his dance, when he did his own newly developed bow, a face popped
into his mind and he heard a collective gasp of the people around him. He looked down and his skin had become darker
and when he looked up he saw a strange reflection in the glass on the wall. His nose had grown longer and he was shorter.
His skin had become a milky brown and his hair curled in many different directions. He couldn’t take it, he burst out
laughing at the sheer silliness of his appearance during the process hitting his face with his left hand and feeling his body
change again. When he looked in the mirror again he saw his old face back and suddenly realized what was missing.
“Do you have makeup anywhere?”
It was over a year since he had come to Drum Island and he still had few clues as to his identity. He had almost
fully recovered from his injuries and he could now move freely. He found out that he had been discovered in a marine ship
with no crew and in a tattered prison uniform. The only other clue he had to his identity was the devil fruit power he had
discovered of being able to transform himself into people who he had touched with his right hand, but that didn’t help him
realize who he was. He knew he had to leave the island to uncover his life but he was reluctant to leave everything he knew.
Finally, when he had been there for almost a year and a half, Doctorine thrust him on the marine ship with supplies and
forced him out of the harbor.
He inspected the ship and was surprised to find that instead of a wheel there was a flat black surface. He put his
hand by the screen and felt something give way causing the surface to light up. He fell backwards in surprise as a voice
rang out.
“Welcome to Dr. Vegapunk’s navigation system, where would you like to go?”
He looked at the screen and saw two sections on it, one was Islands and the other was advanced search. He poked
the picture above the word island and a map appeared showing his location and all the islands near where he was. He
poked the one that looked the closest and a summary appeared. The island was called Alabasta and the name was familiar
to him so he hit the sail to button and the ship began to move on its own.
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It was a few days before he reached the island and his first sight upon arriving was a dugong like creature with a
turtle shell. He anchored the ship and jumped down only to be immediately assaulted by a horde of the strange animals.
They were strong fighters but they didn’t compare to the new style of fighting he had developed over the past year. He had
to defeat all of them before he could do anything but once he had won the battle he had a small army of disciples. He tried
to teach them ballet moves but it was almost impossible as they had tails instead of legs. He stayed with them for a while,
he had bonded to the simple but friendly creatures, but after a few days he knew that he had to continue on his quest. He
left all the supplies he could with what he had dubbed the kung fu dugongs keeping only what they wouldn’t eat for
himself. The witch doctor had taken what she wanted from the marine ship as her payment for his treatment but she had
left half of the money for his quest so he knew he could buy more supplies, anyway friends were more important than
anything else to him.
He was in a desert country, it was hot and arid but he had known as much from the bio that the ship had provided.
He had read every detail that the ship had on this island trying to figure out why he recognized the name but the only thing
that seemed familiar at all was the picture of the royal family. He didn’t remember ever meeting them but their faces
seemed familiar somehow. He decided just to wander around the island to see if there was anything that would trigger his
memory. He sailed up the coast until he found a city. He anchored in the harbor and danced off the ship, attracting the
attention of some bystanders but no one truly cared about the flamboyant man in their midst.
He leaped around the streets before stopping at an abandoned casino, it looked familiar. He wanted to go inside
but the door was barred and it was set to be demolished, there were also guards posted at the door. He then had a brilliant
idea. When he saw the guards from the next shift approach he pulled one into an alleyway, copied his face, knocked him
out, and stole his uniform. He walked up to the other guards and nodded to them as he walked past trying to find a side
entrance.
“Where are you going?” One of the guards called as he started to walk away.
“Checking the perimeter, just in case,” he was so glad that his power changed his voice too.
“Ah, just report back to us if you find anything.” The black haired ballet dancer in disguise nodded in response
before making his way across the bridge that they were guarding and around the building. He had some problems getting
around the giant gold crocodile hands that were part of the casino but once he immediately found a side door probably
used by the kitchen staff. It was locked but he had great leg strength and it only took one kick to bust the door open and
reveal the dusty kitchen. He entered the room glad that he had a flash light in his uniform because the electric lights
weren’t really working. He looked around the entire main part of the building, from the dinning area to the casino, and
found nothing that gave him any idea at all as to who he was or why he recognized this building. He was about to give up
when he discovered a hidden stairway behind a panel in the wall that had started to decay. He descended the stairs and
ended up in a wrecked basement. There was water damage everywhere and it probably would be filled with water still if
the lake surrounding it hadn’t dried up. He decided to see if the ship had anything to say about this casino when he got
back to it but first he needed to finish looking around.
He couldn’t get down to the floor because the stairs had been destroyed but he did see the wreck of a blue cage and
some wood splinters. He wished he could get down there but he knew that if he did he wouldn’t be able to get back up. He
frowned then realized that the other guards would be getting suspicious about his absence by now and he had to get back
to where they were. Running back to the kitchen he skirted out the side door and walked across the bridge over to the
guards on duty before noticing the man he had knocked unconscious standing in his underwear. The amnesiac’s eyes
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widened and he ran to where he had stored his clothes, grabbed them and hustled back to his ship, he had to leave. He
changed his face back to normal only when he was sure he was out of sight from land then went to go program a new
course. He chose a random island; he just wanted to get away from Alabasta before he was caught, and research the
casino.
He discovered that the casino had been run by a man named Crocodile but he had been arrested for treason and
put in prison, after that no one had used the building. The name Crocodile seemed familiar so he pressed it on the screen
and it brought him to a page about that man. Apparently he was a Shichibukai, a pirate who worked for the government,
but had betrayed them, though it didn’t say how. The ballet dancer nodded then looked at the picture of this treacherous
gambler and felt a shock; he knew that face and a name popped into his head when he saw it, Mr. 0. He didn’t know what
the name meant but he was so excited to have his second memory that he began to dance. Suddenly he felt the ship rumble
around him and it shot straight up in the air.
He couldn’t help it, he screamed like a little girl, he had no idea why the ship was flying and he felt like he was
going to die. When it finally stopped he was sailing on the clouds toward a gate with a giant sign that said “New Heavens
Gate”. So the flying really had killed him, he felt tears streaming down his cheeks as he thought of how he would never get
to know who he was not. He struggled to stand up and when he finally did he was greeted by the sight of a short shriveled
old woman.
“Is this heaven?” he asked her.
“Please pay the entrance fee at the new discounted price of 6.99 billion extol.” She responded.
“I don’t have any extol, can I still pass?”
“I’m just a gatekeeper I won’t stop you from going on,” she replied without changing her expression.
“Thank you!” the man responded with a smile as he pushed the ship forward onto the cloud roadway, glad that he
could get into heaven even without paying. When he got to the top he noticed that everything was made of clouds and that
it looked like a war had happened semi-recently. He wondered about this, he had thought that there wouldn’t be wars in
heaven but he had never met anyone who had been there before. He sailed past the first two areas and didn’t stop until he
saw a large piece of land with giant trees growing out of it. There seemed to be a lot of people on this piece of land and he
supposed that one of them could tell him about where he was. He dropped the anchor, though he didn’t know if it would
do much good, and got off the ship. He was instantly met by a tribal looking girl talking with a woman who had two balls
of hair standing above her head.
“Oh! Are you from the blue sea?” The woman asked in a soft voice.
“Oui! Are you an angel?” the pink coated man replied enthusiastically, happy that he had met an angel so quickly.
“Oh no,” she laughed, “I’m Conis, I live here on Skypia, oh and this is Aisa.”
“Hi!” the little girl called happily.
“Where am I?” the man asked.
“You’re on the white sea and right now we are on god’s island!” the girl named Aisa said excitedly. “My tribe, the
Shandians, and the sky people both live here!” She smiled brightly after she finished.
“Aisa, why don’t you go tell God and Wiper that we have a new guest from the blue sea,” Conis said sweetly, “I’ll
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see what he needs.”
“Okay Conis!”
“So how did you get here?”
“I was sailing along and suddenly my ship was blown into the sky,” the nameless man replied animatedly.
“Oh so you came up on the knock up stream? Don’t worry we can get you back down easily.”
“So I’m not dead?” he heard her peals of laughter at this.
“Goodness no, this is just an island in the sky, you’re perfectly alive.” He sighed in relief, he now could figure out
who he was though he did have to admit that it would have been pretty cool to be in heaven. “Once Aisa comes back we can
get you a sky octopus to get back down to the blue sea. Come let’s go see god.” God turned out to be a thin old man who
was tending to a pumpkin patch.
“Now who’s this?” he asked when the pair reached him.
“Didn’t Aisa tell you? This man is from the blue sea,” Conis said slightly confused.
“And I suppose he wants to get home?”
“Yes, I thought we could give him a sky octopus.”
“Quite right,” god replied as he set down his watering can and entered his small house. He returned a short time
later holding a small octopus. “Here you go,” he said as he handed it to the amnesiac.
“What do I do with this?” he replied, he couldn’t think of how an octopus was supposed to help him get back to the
ocean.
“Just sail to cloud end and the octopus will do the rest.”
“Okay,” he said skeptically, he still couldn’t believe that they weren’t just joking with him.
“But you have to see the island before you go!” Conis said as he started to go back to his ship, “it’s beautiful.” The
man agreed and was soon on a tour of the giant floating island. He saw the ruins of an ancient civilization and newer cities
made by both the Shandians and the sky islanders. Conis told him the history of the island and how it had been blown up
into the sky 400 years ago by the knock up stream but recently had been taken over by a man named Enel who had power
over lightning. A pirate crew had been up there around a year and a half ago and defeated him allowing the two cultures to
make peace and live in harmony, sharing the giant piece of earth. The man was fascinated by the history but he was even
more enthralled by the dials that Conis showed him. They could do everything from recording sounds to powering their
small ships called wavers. Conis gave a few dials to take with him to the blue sea before she brought him to her home to eat
a good meal before he left. He had a great time with her father, who apologized for everything even if it wasn’t his fault.
The next morning, after a nice breakfast, he was ready to go back to the ocean; he wanted to resume the quest for
his identity. He said goodbye to Conis and her father before heading to his ship and sailing to cloud end. When he got
there he saw a sudden cut off of the clouds, it really was a cloud end. He assumed that he would safe; why else would Conis
have given him dials? But that still didn’t stop him from screaming at the top of his lungs when the clouds gave out and the
ship fell straight down. He realized what the octopus could do when it acted like a parachute and slowed his descent to the
ocean. Even though he was slowed down that didn’t stop him from lurching when the ship hit the water, luckily marine
ships were sturdy or else the ship would have broken apart. He wasn’t sure what damage had been done so he went to the
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steering device and hit ship repair on the advanced search menu. A few islands popped up but water 7 was by far the
closest so he hit the go to button and sat back watching the ship do the work.
The island looked like a giant fountain but as long as somewhere on there was a shipwright who could inspect his
ship it could look like volcano for all he cared. He anchored his ship in a harbor then got off to wander the streets. There
was a waterway down the middle of the streets filled with water dragon like creatures. He kinda wanted to ride one but he
had to get his ship checked out before he wasted money on anything else. He somehow ended up at dock 1 where the
Galley-La Company was located and met a person with slicked back blond hair and a cigar who was using ropes to control
some logs.
“Excuse me!” he yelled trying to be heard over the loud pounding.
“Can I help you?” A voice came from behind him causing him to turn around just in time to see a tall man push a
piece of his hair that was sticking up into his head though it just popped up on the other side of his head causing the black
haired dancer to stifle a laugh.
“Ah, could you possibly check my ship out?”
“No problem, we will send someone there right away.”
“Thank you, it’s the marine ship in harbor 3” he smiled as the man walked away then went to sit down out of the
way of the shipwrights while they checked out his ship. It wasn’t long until the man he had talked to before came back with
the report.
“Your ship is fine, the marine ships are sturdy and it has sea stone on the bottom, it’s the newest model of marine
ship I’ve ever seen though.”
“How much would it cost to paint over it?” He didn’t want to have to deal with pirates who thought he was a
marine by accident.
“Hundred Beli or so, I’d think.” That was a reasonable price so he agreed to it and then went to go pick out paint. A
week later when they had finished the paintjob he was ready to sail out on his ship newly dubbed the Okama Legend. It
had been painted a soft pink with swans flying, it actually matched his refurbished jacked, he had added swans to the
shoulders. He didn’t mess with the interior though, no one would be seeing it besides him so it didn’t really matter and it
would have been expensive and time consuming to redo the entire inside of the ship. After he had paid the ship builders he
went back to the location device on the ship and looked for his next destination. It looked like there was only one island
forward from where he was but when he clicked on it an information box popped up telling him he had to stop at the
Sabody Archipelago first. He didn’t really know what we going on so he clicked the okay button and the ship headed
toward the islands made out of trees.
It was three days after he had set out when he was woken up from his sleep by the sound of the boat hitting
something. It was early morning according to the clocks but the ship was submerged in a deep fog and the map said he was
in the Flourine triangle but there were no islands around. He went outside to see what the ship had hit and noticed a giant
wooden thing. He anchored the ship so he could go exploring and got on to what seemed like and island with a castle in
the middle. It was spooky and he realized that there were no noises to speak of, no humans or even animals seemed to be
around. He kept wandering around and suddenly he found himself in a graveyard; that was spookier than he could stand
and he ran towards the castle as fast as he could mange. When he neared the courtyard he began to gag from the terrible
smell, he couldn’t figure out what it was from until he saw all of the decomposing corpses that were littered on the ground.
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His eyes widened in fear and hightailed it back to his ship as fast as he possibly could.
When he got on his ship he pulled up the anchor and left that forsaken island with as much speed as he could
muster. To calm himself down he practiced his ballet moves and made up a new dance that he dubbed ‘the Okama way’.
He was so busy with his dance that he spent the entire day choreographing to the point that it was almost a ballet complete
with plot and characters. The sun was setting and he was out of the fog when he finally returned to the interior of the ship
to make a meal out of what was left over from the supplies he had. He realized that he had to restock the ship soon or he
would be out of food and he checked to see how much longer it would be before he reached the next island and was glad to
see it was only a day and a half away.
The next day was spent practicing his ballet; he was convinced that it would be a hit and that he would become a
star once he revealed it to the general public. He was in the middle of the final battle between the okamas and their
inhibitions when he reached the archipelago and he heard applause from some people who were by the shoreline. He
finished his dance before taking a bow then going on to the island to find someone to coat his ship so he could go to
Fishman Island.
He wandered around for a while, the ship had said that you had to get your ship coated to get down to Fishman
Island but it didn’t really give any more detail than that. He got a bit lost and ended up at a place called Shaky’s Rip-Off
Bar. The name made him laugh so he went inside. There was a woman with a black bob and a cigarette behind the counter
and an old man with glasses and a newspaper in the corner but other than those two the place was empty.
“Welcome to Shaky’s Rip-Off Bar, how can we rip you off today?” The woman asked making the amnesiac pause
for a moment in surprise which in turn caused the man in the corner to start laughing.
“And you wonder why you don’t get customers anymore,” he said before folding up his paper and picking up a
beer.
“Sorry to bother you but can you tell me where I can find someone to coat my ship?” the ballet dancer asked once
the surprise had worn off.
“Actually Old Silver over there coats ships when he’s not gambling or in jail,” the woman with the spider shirt
answered.
“That’s harsh Shaky,” the man responded with a feigned hurt expression, “but she’s right I do coat ships.”
“Uhh,” a man who was constantly in jail wasn’t really his idea of the best coater; the ship had said that you could
die if the job wasn’t done properly…
“Oh don’t worry,” the woman said reading his expression, “he may be a gambler but he’s the best coater in these
parts.”
“Aww you’re making me blush,” the man responded before turning to the okama in the doorway, “I don’t cut
corners on coating, peoples lives depend on it after all.”
“Well you two talk details I’m gonna go check on Hachi,” the woman said with a glance at the clock, “he’s probably
hungry by now.” The man waved halfheartedly before asking to be shown the ship. He barely acknowledged the paint
design and just told the amnesiac that it would take him three days, he needed to move the ship, and that it would cost
him 300 Beli. The okama agreed and gave the old man his money before wandering around to buy new supplies. He spent
the next three days dancing around the islands and buying whatever he felt he needed for him journey. Finally he returned
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to his ship only to find it coated in a bubble, apparently that would protect him from the water pressure when he went to
Fishman Island. He had his supplies and the ship was coated, he was ready to venture out. He turned on the GPS and hit
the go to Fishman Island button then watched as the ship descended into the depths of the ocean.
He looked at the fish that were swimming around the ship and appreciated how the ship could steer itself because
he knew that he would never have been able to get to the island by himself, the route was far too complicated. When he
finally reached the bottom of the ocean he saw a false light that radiated over the bubbled in island. He couldn’t believe
how pretty the island looked half submerged in the water and hurried to the entrance. He got in without a hitch as they
were used to travelers and they were protected by the pirate Big Mom.
Once he was inside he looked at all the different people that were around. There were some humans but mostly
there were fishmen and mermaids, of course both of them came in both genders. He saw the most beautiful women he had
ever seen but he also noticed that there was some animosity between the humans and merfolk. He didn’t really understand
it but after he had been purposely avoided by some and shoved by others he figured he should get out of there as fast as
possible to avoid conflict as much as possible. He went to a café and a few shops but other than that he didn’t dawdle and
hurried to leave the island, it didn’t seem like it would be safe to stay for long.
He was only able to be there for a day before leaving to go back to the surface in the new world but he didn’t know
where to go next. He hit advanced search on the location contraption and when it asked for a key word he typed in Okama,
it was the only thing he could think of, but he was surprised when he actually got a result. He pressed the island that
showed up and waited as the ship did its work.
It took almost a month for him to reach the island. He ran out of supplies about three days before he was supposed
to arrive and was forced to fish for food though he was basically unaffected by the conditions as he forgot physical
discomforts when he danced.
When he finally arrived at Momoiro Island he was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of pink. The entire Island
was a pink heart shaped cliff with a rainbow around it and he saw men in dresses running along the beach, he felt like he
belonged. He got off the Okama Legend and was soon surrounded by the island’s inhabitants who were always glad to see
new people as they were fairly rare. They soon decided to bring him to their leader and spent the entire way telling him
tales of the island. When they arrived at the palace they brought him in to see the Emperor telling him that he had already
learned of his arrival.
“Enter,” a familiar voice rang when they knocked on the door causing the ballet dancing okama to pause. He knew
he had heard that voice before but he wasn’t sure where. He entered slowly, maybe his past would finally be revealed to
him.
“Bon-Boy?!” a large man in what looked sort of like a fuchsia one piece swim suit with the chest cut out yelled as
he entered the room.
“You know who I am!” he spun over to him in perfect spins excited to meet someone who knew his past.
“Of course I know you! I thought you were dead. But your now Hee-Haw!”
“Why would I be dead?”
“You stayed to fight Magellen to allow the rest of us to escape Hee-Haw. Don’t you remember Bon-Boy? You
wanted to help Straw-Boy.” This triggered a face, one of a smiling boy with a straw hat.
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“I don’t have any memories.”
“Well it’s better than being dead Hee-Haw.” He then turned toward the other people in the room, “Prepare a feast
for our new member and the return of our sisters who helped Sanji Hee-Haw!”
The okama all rushed to comply with the orders leaving their new member alone and confused in the throne room.
The Emperor knew who he was and he had gained another memory. Suddenly he saw a newspaper laying discarded in the
corner of the room. He walked over and picked it. He began sobbing, as he saw the smiling face of Straw-chan on the cover
and the headline that he had returned after two years. He was alive.
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"A Friend"
by Diversao
Pokémon
What if Ash had been the first one to enter the Viridian City gym? Would he be able to win against the powerful
Giovanni? Ash soon finds out, and gets some unexpected help along the way.
“Come on, Pikachu, we’re going to get an Earth Badge!”“ Ash shouted, running toward the Viridian City gym.
“Ash! Wait up!” Misty shouted.
Ash ran up to the doors of the gym. He stopped, but not because of Misty. Ash turned to Pikachu. “Well, Pikachu,
this is it! It’s not going to be easy, but with you I know I can’t lose!” Ash said, grabbing Pikachu’s hands and smiling.
Suddenly, Ash heard a very recognizable voice.
“Still playing with your cute little Poke-pals, Ash?”
“Gary? What are you doing here?” Ash asked.
“I might ask you the same question. You see, Ash, they only let the best Pokémon trainers battle here,” Gary
replied.
Ash felt his blood boil. “Well, I’m going to battle anyway, and I’m going to win!” Ash said, running up to the battle
doors. “I request a battle with the leader of this gym!” Ash shouted at the guards. Their spears then lifted to let him pass.
“Whatever, you’ll still lose,” Gary said, smirking.
“Yeah, that’s what you say. Come on, Pikachu, let’s win this!” Ash shouted, running through the doors of the gym.
“Come on, Brock, let’s go with Ash.” Misty replied, pulling Brock away from Gary’s cheerleading squad. Suddenly,
to both Misty and Brock’s surprise, the guards put their spears in an X formation, prohibiting both of them from entering.
“Hey! What’s wrong with us going with him?” Misty shouted, trying to push her way through.
“Only one Pokémon trainer is allowed in this gym at a time!” the guards shouted, their spears glistening
menacingly. Misty seemed down, but Brock was very upbeat.
“Hey, girls! Can I get some numbers?” Brock shouted, as Misty once again dragged him backwards.
“Where are Brock and Misty?” Ash said aloud. He looked around for the door that he had came through, but
suddenly realized that everything around looked the same. Ash started as he heard a voice come from the top of the gym.
“So, you want to battle for the Earth Badge?”
“Yeah, and I intend to win!” Ash shouted.
“Very well then.” The voice paused, then continued. “A three on three Pokémon battle, no time limit. Begin.”
Ash immediately threw a Poké Ball into the air. “Go Bulbasaur!” he shouted. Just as his Poké Ball opened, Ash
saw another Poké Ball fly into the air from where his opponent was sitting. After about three seconds, it burst open to
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reveal an Onix. “Okay, Bulbasaur! Use Quick Attack, but be careful!” Ash shouted, watching his opponent.
“Onix, stand your ground,” the leader replied coolly. Ash watched his Pokémon hit the Onix. The opponent
Pokémon stumbled backward, but aside from that, looked untouched. “Now, Onix, use Rock Throw,” the leader said.
Then, before Ash could even think about a counterattack, the opponent ran forward and slammed into Bulbasaur with its
body, sending Ash’s Pokémon flying backwards.
“Bulbasaur!” Ash shouted, running up to his Pokémon. He took one glance at Bulbasaur, realizing that he was
unconscious. Quickly returning him, he sent out another Pokémon, this one being Squirtle. “Now, Squirtle, use Hydro
Pump!” Ash shouted, watching his Pokémon retract and send waves of powerful water soar toward the Onix. The
opponent roared as it was thrown backwards, crashing into an opposing wall. The leader quickly returned the fainted
Pokémon, and with another swift movement sent out a Golem.
“Okay, Squirtle, this should be easy! Use Water Gun!” Ash said, watching his Pokémon open its mouth and let
stream of water fly toward his opponent.
“Golem, use Rollout, followed by Rock Throw,” the leader commanded. Golem easily evaded the attack and sent
Squirtle flying backwards with one of his own.
“Squirtle!” Ash shouted, running to his Pokémon and helping him up. “Now, use Skull Bash!” Ash said. His
Pokémon ran forward and jumped into the air, using gravity to soar toward the Golem. The Water Pokémon collided with
Golem, not hurting the Pokémon much at all.
“Golem, use Magnitude!” the leader yelled. Ash watched as the opponent put its arms out in front of it.
Squirtle just stood there, not knowing what to do. The Golem jumped using gravity in the same way Squirtle had.
The Rock Pokémon landed on the ground hard, causing Squirtle and Ash stumble and fall over. “Now, use Tackle!” the
leader shouted. Ash watched as the giant rock Pokémon soared toward Squirtle and hit home, causing Ash’s Pokémon to
fly backwards.
“Squirtle!” Ash shouted again, running up to his Pokémon. Seeing that it was knocked-out, he quickly returned
Squirtle then turned to Pikachu. “You up for a battle?” Ash asked, grinning.
“Pika!” Pikachu shouted happily, running into the battle arena.
“Now, Pikachu, use Thunder!” Ash said, watching as his Pokémon sent out its most powerful attack. Electricity
soared toward his opponent and engulf him. The electricity stopped, and both Ash and Pikachu gasped when Golem
immediately opened its eyes, looking unharmed. “Hey, what happened?”
“Do you really think that electricity would harm a Rock Pokémon?” the leader laughed. “You are more of a fool
than I thought. Now, Golem, use Tackle!” Ash watched as his opponent soared toward his Pokémon and sent it flying
backward.
“Pikachu, are you all right?” Ash shouted.
“Pika pi pi.” Pikachu replied, getting back up slowly.
“All right! Now use Quick Attack!” Ash shouted,
Pikachu ran toward Golem, hitting the Rock Pokémon head-on. Despite the attack, it didn’t seem to do much
damage.
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“Golem, lets finish this. Use Fissure!” the leader shouted.
Ash watched as his opponent jumped up then came back down, with much more force than before. Suddenly, the
ground beneath the Golem cracked in half. Ash watched in horror as the attack went almost as fast as electricity toward
his beloved Pokémon.
“Pikachu, look out!” Ash shouted. The ground beneath his Pokémon cracked in half, making Pikachu drop like a
stone into the earth.
Ash stood there dumbfounded, needing a few seconds to register what had just happened. “Pikachu!” Ash
screamed. He fumbled with a Poké Ball, but it was too late. Pikachu had disappeared into never-ending blackness.
Ash ran up to the fissure, but before he could even get ten yards from it the ground started shaking again. He
looked to see Golem using what seemed like an Earthquake attack. To Ash’s horror, he saw the Fissure slowly close up,
and reduce to a small crack running from either side of the gym.
“Well, looks like three of your Pokémon are knocked out. You lose.” the gym leader laughed, returning his
Pokémon.
“How am I supposed to get Pikachu back?” Ash said.
“You will have to figure that out yourself, little boy. You underestimated your opponent, and there is always a
danger in that. This is your punishment.”
“That’s illegal!” Ash shouted.
“Show me the rule book,” the gym leader said.
Ash faltered. “I don’t have one. But it’s still not fair! Your never supposed to get rid of the opposing trainer’s
Pokémon! Your just supposed to knock them out!”
“There are different rules in this gym, kid. You’re on your own.”
The lights above the gym dimmed very quickly, and when Ash looked up a second later, the gym leader was gone.
Ash released five of his Pokémon, commanding them all to do the exact same thing. “See if you can get the crack
in the gym open! Pikachu fell down it.”
His Pokémon pushed themselves to the limit, but none of them could even budge the floor. Ash frowned. I
wonder if Brock’s Onix could open the fissure, Ash thought. He turned around, seeing two people. “What are you both
doing here?”
The brown-haired kid frowned. “Your Pokémon are so weak that you’re having them attack the ground?”
Ash ignored the question. He turned to the second person. “A.J., why are you here?”
“I wanted to battle at this gym, but I couldn’t get in, so I sneaked in through the back. Where’s Pikachu?”
“Yeah, where is that runt of yours?” Gary said.
“He’s in that crack in the ground,” Ash said.
“You’re kidding!” A.J. said. “How did that happen?”
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“The leader of the gym had his Golem use Fissure,” Ash said. “Pikachu fell into the crack. The gym leader had
Golem use Earthquake to close the fissure so I couldn’t get down to Pikachu.”
“That’s weird,” A.J. said. “Maybe Sandshrew can help.” A.J. released Sandshrew, and commanded that the
Pokémon dig in the fissure to open it up. A small hole was made by Sandshrew, but beside that nothing else happened.
“Here,” Gary said. “Try this.” A Poké Ball exploded, revealing a Nidoking as soon as the Pokémon materialized.
“Nidoking, use your Strength to open that crack in the ground.”
The Drill Pokémon nodded. He bent over and put his claws in the crack. After about a minute, the fissure was
open wide enough to let the three trainers through.
“Let’s go!” Ash said, getting ready to jump into the darkness.
Gary stopped him. “You got a death wish? You have no idea if that fissure is only twenty feet deep or two
hundred! A Pokémon wouldn’t get hurt that much by falling, but it could seriously hurt a human.”
“Got a better idea?” Ash said.
“Don’t you have a flying Pokémon?” Gary said.
“Yeah, but—”
“But what? Let the Pokémon out!” Gary said.
“He doesn’t have to if he doesn’t want to,” A.J. said.
“I don’t have a flying Pokémon. Do you, A.J.?” Gary said.
“I do have a Beedrill, but only I can ride him.”
“Why don’t I just send Pidgeotto down into the fissure, and see if he can find Pikachu and bring him back to us?”
“You can try, but I don’t think Pidgeotto can see very well in the dark,” Gary said.
“Pidgeotto, go find Pikachu!” Ash said.
His Pokémon nodded, flying into the darkness.
“Have either of you seen Brock and Misty?” Ash said.
“They were outside,” A.J. said. “The guards won’t let them in, though.”
Pidgeotto came flying out of the fissure, a unconscious Pikachu on his back.
“Pikachu, are you okay?” Ash said.
“Your mouse’s fine,” Gary said.
“Hey, Sandshrew, how about you use a few Digs on the walls and damage this place a bit?”
“Why are you damaging this gym?” Ash said.
“If the gym leader tried to get rid of your Pokémon, this is what he deserves,” A.J. said.
Ash nodded, and a few seconds later the three of them left, the gym behind them looking like a slice of Swiss
cheese. “Hey, Brock, hey Misty,” Ash said as the three of them walked out of the gym.
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“How did you two get in there? We couldn’t go in!” Misty said.
“We took a back way in,” A.J. said.
“Did you get your Earthbadge?” Brock said, having just been pulled away from Gary’s cheerleaders by Misty.
“Nope. And I think that I’m going to get my eighth badge at a different gym. I’m never coming back to this gym
ever again.”
“Why’s that?” Brock asked.
“Well, you see, it all started when I went into the gym. . .”
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"Bath Time!"
by Whisperwill
Pokémon
Set during the first season (Kanto). In more ways than one, Ash discovers that he bit off more than he can chew when
he resolves to give all his Pokemon a bath. He has to deal with Team Rocket, bad attitudes, and an excess of odor.
As battles go, this one had ended pretty well. Considering that he and his friends had been surrounded by
umpteen wild Grimers and ten or so Muks, Ash felt that the three of them had commanded their Pokémon brilliantly.
Onix, Geodude, Vulpix, Zubat, Staryu, Starmie, and Horsea had really outdone themselves. And as for his own Pokémon—
Pikachu, Charmander, Squirtle, Pidgeotto, and Bulbasaur—well, they had been just great. They always were.
The trouble was, when the battle was over, Ash and his friends were left with a whole lot of stink. Misty clapped a
hand over her mouth and nose as they were walking away from the Grimer colony.
“Eeew, Ash, what’s that smell?” she asked, her voice muffled by her fingers. “It’s like the Muks are still right next
to us!”
Ash shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe we have to get farther away.”
But after they had walked until the Grimers’ beloved cesspool was a mere patch in the distance behind them, it
was clear that they weren’t leaving the stink behind.
“I think it’s your Pokémon!” Misty accused Ash, pointing her finger at him with one hand still clamped firmly over
her mouth.
“My Pokémon?” Ash bristled. “I think it’s yours!”
“There’s an easy way to settle this,” Brock reasoned, placing himself between his two arguing comrades. “Let’s just
find out where the smell is coming from.”
“Right!” Misty and Ash said together, throwing every Poké Ball they had in a frenzy of movement. Brock let out
his Pokémon, too, and when the three trainers ran a sniffing check, all of them came up clean—except the five that
belonged to Ash.
“I knew it!” Misty exclaimed in triumph. Ash glared at her while returning all his Pokémon to their balls except
Pikachu.
“Well, my Pokémon battled the hardest, that’s why,” he declared, stubbornly refusing to come out second-best in
their argument. Misty bared her teeth at him in an Arbok-fanged scowl, and they might have started bellowing at one
another all over again if Brock hadn’t stepped in to ask,
“Well, Ash, what are you going to do about it?”
“Yeah, we can’t walk in the middle of this stink all day!” Misty chimed in. “It’ll make my hair curl!”
“I know just what I’m going to do,” Ash said to Brock, ignoring Misty. He pulled out a big metal washtub and
carried it over his head to a stream through the trees. “I’m going to give them all a bath.”
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He filled the tub to brimming and staggered with it back to Brock, who helped him start a fire and suspend the
basin over it to warm. When the water had heated to a pleasant temperature, Ash heaved it away from the flames and
plunked it down.
“Now, come on out—Squirtle!” He threw his Poké Ball and released the turtle Pokémon. Squirtle’s bright-eyed
smile got even bigger when Ash announced, “Come on, Squirtle, you’re taking a bath.” Squirtle plunged into the water
eagerly and floated on his back. While Ash got out a brush and began scrubbing his Pokémon’s belly, Squirtle lay squirting
water lazily from his mouth. Ash scrubbed him all over, and Squirtle enjoyed every minute of it. In fact, he looked
disappointed when Ash told him that he had to get out to give the next Pokémon a turn.
“It’s okay, Squirtle—see, look over there, there’s a stream. You can swim in it as much as you want,” Ash promised
him. Squirtle brightened, jumped out of the tub, raced to the stream, and jumped in. Ash grinned fondly after him, then
pulled out another Poké Ball and shouted, “Charmander, go!” And out came Charmander. “It’s time to give you a bath,
Charmander,” Ash announced. The Fire Pokémon cringed away from the sight of the water-filled basin.
“Charman!” he protested timidly.
“I know you don’t like getting wet, Charmander, but you need to have a bath,” Ash explained. “And I promise,
your tail flame won’t get wet.” He stroked Charmander’s head and gently murmured, “It’ll be okay.”
With Ash’s reassurances, the Fire Pokémon submitted to a bath, or rather a sponge bath. He stood tensely on the
grass while Ash rubbed soap all over his orange skin. Ash was very cautious as he rinsed his Pokémon, trickling water over
him with the greatest care and holding Charmander’s tail well out of the way.
When he was done, Ash lifted Charmander onto a sun-warmed boulder to dry. “There you go, Charmander.” The
orange Pokémon curled up, contented, as Ash unhooked a third Poké Ball from his belt and threw it. “I choose you—
Pidgeotto!” His Pokémon appeared in a blaze of white light. “Pidgeotto, bath time!” Ash said. At these words, the bird
Pokémon’s eyes widened in alarm, and he flapped his wings in a rush to get away. He would have escaped, too, if Ash
hadn’t acted quickly and made an impressive leap to catch him before he got out of reach. Ash caught Pidgeotto around
the middle and was almost lifted off his feet as his Pokémon’s wings beat harder than ever. “C’mon, Pidgeotto,” Ash
grunted, stumbling over to the basin with difficulty, his arms still stretched fully upward. With a considerable amount of
panting and effort, he managed to force his Pokémon into the bathwater. Brock, Misty, and Pikachu sat watching with
interest as Ash worked soapy lather into Pidgeotto’s feathers. It was not at all easy to do: every couple of seconds,
Pidgeotto made a fantastic struggle to get free, splashing water all over himself and Ash in the process. Every time, Ash
would grit his teeth and pin the Pokémon down and continue lathering. When Pidgeotto was covered in soap, Ash began
rinsing him down. Water seemed to go everywhere at once, and when Ash was finished, Pidgeotto flew off with a spray of
droplets and a furious screech.
Ash sat down for a moment with his tongue lolling out, simply taking a breather. But before long he was on his
feet again, lugging the mostly-empty tub to the stream to refill it and rehang it over the fire. Then he took it off the heat
and set it down some distance away.
“Bulbasaur, go!” he gasped out, throwing his fourth Poké Ball, and his Pokémon emerged. Bulbasaur didn’t look
too happy when Ash told him that he was going to be given a bath, but the Grass Pokémon was too dignified to put up a
struggle as Pidgeotto had. He stood staidly in the washtub and merely gave a “Bulbaaa” of irritation while he was encased
in suds and deluged in water. After Ash hoisted him out, he went to lie on the grass near Charmander and sunbathe.
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Ash sat back on his heels and called his final Pokémon. “Pikachu! Your turn now.”
Pikachu sat bolt upright in dismay. “Pikaa!” he protested, shaking his head wildly.
Ash grinned crookedly. “Sorry, Pikachu. You need a bath just as much as everyone else—maybe more.” But now
Pikachu’s uneasy grimace had turned into a stubborn frown. He shook his head so adamantly that his ears flapped. Ash
got up and came toward him. “Come on, Pikachu, it’s not so bad,” he said comfortingly as he reached out to pick the little
rodent Pokémon up. Pikachu darted just out of reach at the last second.
“Pikaa!” he repeated. Apparently Pikachu thought baths were much worse than his trainer was making them out
to be. Ash followed him again.
“Pikachu. . .” he called with evident annoyance. Pikachu scurried once more out of reach. Ash came at him more
quickly, but Pikachu only sped up. Soon they were racing around the clearing while Brock, Misty, Pidgeotto, Bulbasaur,
Charmander, and Squirtle looked on. At one point, Ash seemed to have won when he made a dive for Pikachu and
managed to catch his Pokémon by the tail. Pikachu gave a cry of alarm and used his Thunderbolt attack, causing Ash to go
rigid and release his hold.
“All right, if that’s the way you want to play it,” he said darkly to his Pokémon, spinning around and walking back
to the basin. Pikachu seemed to think he’d escaped Ash’s clutches, but the next moment, Ash was racing toward him
wearing a pair of rubber gloves. The Electric Pokémon squeaked and tore off in the opposite direction with Ash hard on
his heels. Ash threw himself onto his stomach and caught Pikachu around the waist. His Pokémon shouted a plea of
“Pika!” and used his Thunderbolt again, but the electricity couldn’t penetrate through the gloves. Ash gave a satisfied
chuckle and carried Pikachu to the washtub, where he dumped him into the water.
“You can’t use your electric attacks now, Pikachu,” he pointed out somewhat smugly. “You’re all wet.” Pikachu
glared at him and leaped remarkably high into the air. Ash caught him by the scruff and returned him to the water, where
he began scrubbing his Pokémon in earnest. Pikachu kept up an angry stream of Pokémon language the whole time, but it
didn’t do him a bit of good. With all Ash’s rubbing, Pikachu quickly seemed to turn into a ball of suds. After washing his
Pokémon, Ash rinsed him with a veritable mini-waterfall, causing Pikachu’s yellow fur to be slicked flat and cling to his
little body. Finally, Ash released his firm hold on the Electric Pokémon, and Pikachu sprang free of the washtub and ran a
safe distance away even while shaking the water off himself. His glare proved that he had yet to forgive his trainer. Ash,
for his part, stretched out on his back to rest. He had gotten at least as wet as—and far more tired than—any of his
Pokémon.
But his respite was not to be, for at that moment a dramatic shout came from the stream.
“Prepare for trouble!”
Ash lifted his head wearily to see Jessie and James of Team Rocket paddling a crude raft upstream at top speed.
Their Meowth sat between them, urging them to row faster but sparing no energy to help.
“Make it double!” James panted from where he sat hunched over the raft’s side.
“You mean that you’re bent double and having trouble?” Misty commented sarcastically.
Either Team Rocket failed to hear her, or they were just ignoring her, for they continued on without a pause.
“To protect the world from devastation!” Jessie proclaimed, striking a glamorous pose.
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“To unite all peoples within our nation,” James joined in with a masculine pose of his own. But now that the
dynamic duo had abandoned their oars, the raft was swept downstream before they could get any further. Jessie and
James blinked with confusion as the current pulled them out of earshot of Ash and his friends. But just as Ash was hoping
that he wouldn’t have to deal with the two villains today, they came back into view, paddling harder than ever.
“To denounce . . . the evils . . . of truth and love!” Jessie shouted between gasps of exertion.
“To extend—our reach—to the stars a-bove!” James yelled, panting, if that were possible, more heavily than Jessie.
“Jessie!” Jessie screeched with less than her usual flair.
“James!” James bellowed with a marked decrease in his typical charisma.
“Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!” Jessie declared.
“Surrender now, or prepare to fight!” James finished.
“Meowth—that’s right!” Meowth added. But Team Rocket didn’t look very formidable at this point. They had now
produced poles, and all three of them had shoved the poles into the sandy bottom of the stream in an attempt to keep their
raft stationary. Add this to the fact that they were all red-faced and gasping for breath, and they didn’t seem remotely
threatening.
“Could you guys come back some other time?” Ash asked hopefully, laying his head back down. “I’m really tired
right now.”
“Oh, what a shame,” Jessie said in a voice heavy with sarcasm. James, on the other hand, took the opposite
reaction.
“Okay, we’ll just come back tomorrow,” he offered obligingly.
“James!” Jessie screamed at him furiously. In a whirl of movement, she grabbed James by the arm and Meowth
by the nape of his neck. The next Ash saw, the three of them had zipped inexplicably to shore. “We’re not going anywhere,
twerp—not till we get that Pikachu,” Jessie said menacingly. In his current vein of behaving in direct contrast to Jessie,
James zoomed over and scooped up Pikachu with a bright smile all over his face.
“Oooh, what a perfectly well-groomed and squeaky clean Pikachu!” he gushed. “Its fur is positively radiant, with a
bright yellow hue that shines . . .” But whatever he had been about to say was swallowed up in a surge of thunder as
Pikachu let loose with his electricity. James fell to the ground without changing position, as though he were made of
stone. Pikachu hopped free as Ash leapt to his feet.
“You’re not getting your hands on Pikachu!” he shouted angrily. “Charmander, Pidgeotto, Squirtle, Bulbasaur—
go!” Bulbasaur ran to Pikachu’s side, and Charmander jumped down from his rock to join them. Squirtle scrambled out
of the stream and ran over, while Pidgeotto fluttered down from above, where he had been perching sullenly in a tree.
Ash’s Pokémon were still generally displeased with him, but they knew it was serious now.
“Go, Arbok—Likitung!” Jessie retorted, throwing her two Poké Balls. Then she roared in James’s face, “Quit lying
down on the job, James!” James quickly revived himself and threw his Poké Balls, too.
“Weezing, Victreebel, go!” he cried. Over the confusion which resulted as Victreebel attempted to swallow James’s
head, Jessie turned to Meowth.
“Five on five makes it even—now get out there, Meowth,” she ordered him.
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“You won’t catch me out dere!” Meowth shot back. “Not for nuttin’, nohow!” He folded his paws over his chest
petulantly. The force of Jessie’s next gale nearly blew him off his feet.
“Get out there and fight!” Meowth hastily skittered forward to stand next to Arbok, Likitung, and Weezing, while
James managed to extricate himself from Victreebel at long last.
Brock suddenly appeared on the sidelines in a Pokémon official’s uniform. “Battle begin!” he announced, waving a
genuine Pokémon League flag. And all ten Pokémon rushed forward.
“Victreebel, Vine Whip!” James commanded, while at the same time, Jessie yelled,
“Arbok, Poison Sting!”
“Bulbasaur, use your Vine Whip, too!” Ash countered. The two Vine Whips clashed together and wrapped around
one another. Victreebel and Bulbasaur pushed one another with their Vines, but Bulbasaur was shoved slowly back.
Meanwhile, Squirtle got hit with the Poison Sting mid-shell, and fell backwards with a groan.
“Charmander, use your Flamethrower!” Ash called out. “Hang in there, Squirtle—I know you can do it! Push as
hard as you can, Bulbasaur, that’s it! Pidgeotto, Gust! Pikachu, use your Thunder!” Squirtle struggled to his feet, and
Charmander shot his Flamethrower toward Weezing, who managed to tilt himself aside. Bulbasaur was still being pushed
back, but struggled mightily to resist. Pidgeotto used Gust to send Meowth careening backwards, and Pikachu’s Thunder
Wave made a solid hit on Arbok.
“Weezing, Sludge Attack, now!” James barked. Weezing, still hurtling toward Charmander, shot quick bursts of
sludge from his mouth. It looked as if Charmander was about to get peppered with them, but at the last second, Ash raced
out and hefted the Fire Pokémon out of harm’s way.
“I just washed these Pokémon!” he yelled indignantly. “And you’re not gonna get them dirty again!” Charmander
seemed a little disappointed at not being allowed to battle without help, but James was beginning to smile an evil smile.
“You mean, don’t use attacks like Sludge?” he asked. “Or Poison Gas? Or Smog?”
“Yeah!” Ash replied a little defiantly.
“Then you’ve come to the wrong place,” James cried with a cackle. “Victreebel, Weezing, do your worst!” he
commanded, pointing straight at Ash and his cluster of Pokémon. Ash could only wave his hands frantically and shout,
“That’s not fair!”
“You should know by now that Team Rocket always plays dirty!” Jessie said with a smirk. “Get in there, Arbok
and Likitung—and don’t think you can sneak off, you sneak!” she added to Meowth, who was in the process of tiptoeing
behind a bush. Meowth flinched and shot her his best Cheshire-cat grin before leaping into the fray. All five of Team
Rocket’s Pokémon barreled toward Ash and his five Pokémon. Ash made a superb fool of himself by scurrying around
trying to keep his Pokémon from getting dirty. Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Pidgeotto, and Charmander, on the other
hand, were fighting at their best—and that without any help from their trainer. Even amidst all the confusion of a five-onfive Pokémon battle, it was obvious that Ash’s Pokémon were gaining the upper hand. Squirtle had Weezing pinned
against a tree with the unrelenting force of his Water Gun. Charmander and Pikachu advanced steadily, using their
Flamethrower and Thunder Wave to drive Victreebel and Arbok back. Pidgeotto and Bulbasaur kept their opponents
hopping: every time Bulbasaur sent Likitung and Meowth running from his Razor Leaves, Pidgeotto herded the two
Rocket Pokémon back toward Bulbasaur with punishing blows from his Wing Attack.
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Pikachu glanced sideways at Charmander and nodded his head. At the same time, Bulbasaur looked up to catch
Pidgeotto’s eye, and Pidgeotto passed the silent look on to Squirtle from overhead. The five of them began to concentrate
their efforts on driving Team Rocket’s Pokémon together. Soon, Arbok, Likitung, Weezing, Victreebel, and Meowth were
in a huddle, enclosed on all sides by Ash’s Pokémon. Then Charmander, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Pidgeotto, and Pikachu lined
up side by side and used their most forceful attacks at the same time. Thunderbolt, Water Gun, Razor Leaf,
Flamethrower, and Gust all slammed into the Rocket Pokémon, throwing them against Jessie and James and throwing the
Team Rocket trainers and their Pokémon right back onto their homemade raft. Ash’s Pokémon raced as one to the
stream, where they repeated their attacks and sent Team Rocket whisking downstream faster than a Ponyta could run.
“Why can’t Team R ever get some R and R?” James was heard to complain as they vanished from view. Their last
screech floated back on the breeze: “We’re rafting off again!”
Ash was standing back under the trees, staring at his Pokémon in surprise. “What just happened?” he muttered to
himself.
“Your Pokémon beat Team Rocket while you were running around like an idiot!” Misty informed him irritably.
“That was the worst battling I’ve ever seen, Ash! Even Psyduck can do better than you!”
“But my Pokémon were great!” cheered Ash, who obviously had only caught the first part of what Misty had said.
“You guys were amazing!” He raced over to his Pokémon, but to his surprise, they edged away from him. Misty
enlightened him as to why they were keeping their distance when she raged,
“And to top it all off, you smell like a Muk on a hot day!” Ash plucked at his collar and gave himself an uncertain
sniff.
“She’s right, Ash,” Brock confirmed. “Guess you’re the only one who got dirty in this battle.” The five Pokémon
gave a collective start at Brock’s words. Ash started to get a bit uneasy at the looks his Pokémon were giving him. Pikachu
had a wicked grin on his face, while Squirtle wore a smile that Ash hadn’t seen him wear since his Squirtle Squad days.
“Uh . . . why are you all looking at me like that?” he asked nervously. Long Vines shot out from Bulbasaur’s bulb
and wrapped around Ash’s torso, pinning his arms to his sides. “Hey! What are you doing?” His indignant cry went
totally unacknowledged as the five Pokémon burst into activity. Pidgeotto swooped down to nip his beak around the brim
of Ash’s cap and carry the prized hat off. Squirtle filled the washbasin all over again with water from his mouth.
Charmander blasted flames at the tub’s base. Bulbasaur walked over to them in a leisurely fashion, carrying Ash high in
the air with his Vine Whip attack. Pikachu was scurrying around gathering up the bar of soap and the scrub brush, which
had both been dropped in the confusion of the Pokémon battle.
“Put . . . me . . . down!” Ash grunted out while struggling to free himself from the Vine Whips. He was temporarily
taken aback when Bulbasaur set him on the ground and partially retracted his two Vines.
“Bulba! Bul!” Bulbasaur laughed while poking Ash with his Vine Whips.
“Pika! Pi!” Pikachu joined in, butting Ash lightly with his head. Squirtle and Charmander crowded closer and
pushed against his legs.
“This—isn’t funny!” Ash blustered as Pidgeotto flapped down to hover right next to his head and brush his wings
against Ash’s face. The other four of them hemmed him in from the ground. Like Team Rocket before him, Ash was
discovering that it was next to impossible to stand up against five Pokémon at once. When they had driven him so close to
the basin that he couldn’t go any farther backward without tripping into it, he threw up his hands and let out a roar of
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frustration.
“Okay! I get it! You win!” He yanked his vest off and tossed it aside, then began to pull his T-shirt over his head.
Nearby, Misty started to blush.
“Ash!” she scolded him. “There’s a lady present!” Immediately Brock was at her side, peering in all directions
with his hand shading his eyes.
“Where? Where?” he asked hopefully. Whereupon Misty, of course, smacked him in the head and knocked him
flat.
“Well, the lady doesn’t have to look.” The sarcastic emphasis Ash placed on the second word caused Misty to
storm off in a huff. Meanwhile, the trainer from Pallet Town, having already slipped out of his jeans, was hopping around
on one foot to get his shoe and sock off. He did the same with the other foot, and was finally down to nothing but his
boxers.
“Do your worst,” he muttered glumly. The five Pokémon were only too happy to do so. Bulbasaur encircled Ash’s
waist with his Vine Whips, lifted him up, and set him down in the water. Squirtle hosed him down with his Water Gun.
Pikachu went gung-ho with the soap, rubbing it over Ash’s hair for such a long time that the bar was eventually decreased
to half of its original size. Squirtle took the brush and scrubbed Ash’s stomach the same way Ash had done to him earlier.
“Hey, easy on the head!” Ash complained as Pikachu began washing his hair. “I only have one!”
The five Pokémon took great pleasure in bathing their trainer as thoroughly as he had bathed them. Bulbasaur
lifted and turned Ash this way or that with his Vines so that Squirtle and Pikachu could scrub and rub nearly every
conceivable inch of their trainer between them. Then Squirtle drenched Ash with his Water Gun again to leave a very
irritable Pokémon trainer standing dripping on the grass.
“Saur Bulba-saur!” called Bulbasaur. He hoisted Ash high up into the air. Pidgeotto gave an answering cry and
left his tree branch, where he had been solemnly guarding Ash’s hat. The Flying Pokémon flapped down and released a
powerful Gust from his wings. Bulbasaur’s Vines snapped taut, and Ash jerked around at the end of the Vine Whips like a
windsock. It was quite an effective way to blow-dry him, but when the wind ceased, it left Ash woozy.
“Hey, Ash, I did your laundry!” Brock called to him. Ash was busy stumbling in circles. When his head finally
cleared, he ambled over and fingered his vest wonderingly. It was as clean as it had ever been; all the spatters of Sludge
were gone.
“How did you dry it so fast?” he wanted to know. Brock, with his hand over his chin and his leg propped on a log
in the picture of macho, would only respond with,
“Trade secret.”
“Hey, that’s really neat. Thanks, Brock,” Ash said. He redressed and shouted to Misty, “Hey, Misty!” The redhaired gym leader poked her head out from behind a tree with her palm over her eyes.
“Is it safe?” she asked, hesitant.
“Sure it’s safe!” Ash laughed. Pidgeotto flew down to him with his hat, which Ash took from him and pulled over
his head. The official Pokémon League cap made him feel empowered whenever he put it on. It filled him with the sense
that he could do anything—that he could fulfill all his dreams, no matter what the cost. He balled his hands into fists and
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grinned.
“C’mon everybody! I’ve got Pokémon to catch, battles to win, badges to earn!” he shouted. His Pokémon rallied
around him eagerly, and Misty seemed happy too now that she didn’t have to run from any odors. But then Brock had to
ruin the spirit of things when he came up carrying the washbasin.
“Hey, Ash, where do you want me to put this?” he asked. The question, though well-meant, sent Ash racing off in
the other direction with his arms shielding his head.
“Aaaah! Get that thing away from me! I don’t ever want to see it again!”
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"Love Him or Set Him Free"
by chiagirl
Tales of the Abyss
After Asch's death, Natalia is not really sure how she feels about Luke. After a comment about her just using him as a
substitue, she is forced to decide whether to marry Luke or let him go.
Natalia strolled aimlessly through the castle, contemplating all that had happened recently. It was not so long ago
that she and her friends had rid the world of the Score; it was almost hard to readjust to normal life after the fact. If you
could still call life normal. The Score had been a huge part of everyone's day to day occurrences; it still shocked her
sometimes to think that it was now gone. But that wasn't the only thing that had changed. They had found out Luke was a
replica, she was herself adopted in a sense, Guy was actually a noble, and Asch was now dead.
She still couldn't quite believe that last fact.
When they had finally defeated Van, both Luke and Asch had failed to show up for a significant length of time. She
hoped against hope that they would come back, but eventually she had to accept the fact that they had indeed died back on
Eldrant. It had been hard to accept, but if finding out she was Largo's daughter had taught her anything, it was that you
couldn't dwell on the past.
Which was why she continued trying to convince Tear and Guy that Luke was dead.
It was why she was so shocked when Luke had actually shown up.
But it still failed to prevent her from hoping that if Luke had shown up, Asch would eventually show up too.
He didn't. And what was worse was that she was the only one who seemed to care.
To be fair though it wasn't like the others had actually known Asch. Well, other then Guy, but he was never exactly
on friendly terms with him. And Luke did miss Asch horribly, even if he liked to pretend it didn't bother him much
anymore.
But Asch's death wasn't as cruel to anyone as it had been to her. Because she was supposed to marry him. And now
he was dead. She didn't even know if she could marry Luke anymore because of Tear. Everyone else had gotten their
happy ending except for her and it just wasn't fair!
She banged her fist against the cool stone of the castle, which turned out to be a very bad idea as her hand began to
throb. She probably would have started crying if she hadn't heard a voice behind her.
"Natalia!"
Luke came running over to her, checking her hand to be sure she didn't have any major injuries. When he seemed
satisfied that there weren't any, he turned his gaze to her. "Are you alright? What's the matter?"
Rather than spill her guts, she avoided him with another question. "What are you doing here? You usually don't
come to the castle much."
"Oh it's…" he looked down at his hand, and she noticed he was holding a piece of paper. "Maybe now's not a good
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time…"
"It's as good a time as any. Let me see." She took the sheet from him and began to read.
Greetings from Daath,
As I'm sure you're aware, the recent corruption and subsequent removal of several members of the order of
Lorelei has left many positions vacant and in need of people to fill them. Specifically, you will know we no longer have
any God Generals, a Commandant, or a Fon Master. I have been asked to fill the roll of Grand Maestro, and I hope to do
so significantly better than my predecessor. I am writing to ask you if you would be interested in filling the position of
one of the God Generals. I ask that you let me know of your decision, and if you decline suggest someone else you believe
suitable.
Sincerely,
Grand Maestro Trithem
"…so I was going to ask Uncle if I could go, because it's not really like I'm doing much here and…what's the
matter?"
He must have finally seen the expression on her face, because she did not like this idea. It was like her worst
nightmare all over again. He was going to leave and become a God General just like Asch. He would forget about her and
fail to write or visit just like Asch. And then he'd go on some mission and die just like…
"Natalia, for Lorelei's sake what's the problem!"
"You didn't even ask me!" she screamed. "You didn't even think about it! Did it ever occur to you that maybe I'd
like to have a say in this! That maybe I don't want you to go! We're supposed to be engaged and…"
"You were engaged to Asch, Natalia," he said quietly "Not me."
"I don't see how that..."
"Because I'm not Asch!" he exploded. "I can't be like him, I'm tired of trying, and I don't…"
"But you're going to run off and play God General just like he did," she said coldly.
That was probably the worst thing she could have said at that point, because he tore the letter up and threw it into
the air like confetti. "Fine. I won't go. Excuse me for trying to have a life." And with that, he marched away.
"Luke wait I…" but he either didn't hear her or didn't care because a few moments later she heard him slam the
door to his manor quite loudly. It was pretty impressive that she could hear it, even though she had run to the exit of the
castle. She wondered what the manor guards were thinking. Actually, the castle guards were looking at her like they didn't
know what to be thinking.
She made a small choking noise, and fled towards the safety of her bedroom. On the way she passed the scraps of
the letter that Luke had torn up. She briefly though of ordering them burned, he couldn't become a God General if he
didn't have that letter, but it was short lived. Trithem would send him another one when he didn't hear anything back, or
Luke would ask for another one, or something would happen to make the effort pointless. The only way to be sure he
didn't go was to talk to her father.
She gathered the remnants and went to seek him out. When she found him, she showed him the pieces of the
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letter, and explained what had happened.
"Is that the only reason you didn't want him to go, Natalia? Because he didn't think to ask you first?"
"No…it's just…we finally got him back. I'd given up believing he was alive, but then he finally came back. And now
he's going to go away again, and I'm going to lose him. Maybe forever like with Asch…"
Her father gave one of his sighs which meant he was either going to ask her a difficult question or tell her
something she wouldn't want to hear. "During your argument you brought up your engagement, did you not?"
"Yes…it's the most important reason why he should have asked…"
"Natalia, if Asch was still here, would you have married him or Luke?"
The question was so abrupt that it took her a while to realize what he had actually asked. Even then, she found it
hard to answer.
"I…I don't know. Which ever one you wanted me to? Probably Asch since Luke and Tear…"
Oh. She kept forgetting that Luke now had someone he liked besides her, even though she had given him a sort of
silent permission to after they realized who Asch was. When she brought up their engagement, Luke probably felt like she
was trapping him, controlling him even. You weren't good enough to marry when Asch was here, but now that he's not…
"Natalia, you need to decide how you really feel about Luke. And you need to be honest about it. If you're using
him as nothing more than a substitute for Asch, he's going to know and it's going to create a rift between you. I don't want
you to feel as though you have to marry him just because of an arrangement made when you were young. Your happiness
is more important to me than that. If you don't love him, let him go and wait until you can find someone who will make
you happy."
It hurt to hear that, as true as it was. She had been substituting him for Asch when she made that comment, and
that wasn't fair to him. Although it made her happy to know her father cared more about her happiness than an
engagement, the thought of breaking it off terrified her. All her life, she had known she was going to marry Luke (or Asch)
and that was that. There was no uncertainty about it, no question if she loved him. But now she had to think about it, and
the terrifying answer was, she didn't even know if she loved him or not. And it might not matter even if she did.
When she went back to her room later that night, she decided that she was going to let Luke go to Daath and be a
God General if it would make him happy. It wasn't fair of her to cage him here like this, he had complained about it
enough when he was younger. Besides, Anise would be there to look out for him, and maybe Tear…
That last thought hurt. If she let him go, she was pretty much forfeiting him over to Tear. Of course, there was
always the chance Tear would stay at Yulia City; Legretta and Mohs were gone now after all.
It didn't comfort her very much. But she was still going to let him go anyway. She decided she would apologize to
him sometime tomorrow afternoon, after he had calmed down a bit. She didn't want Luke to leave thinking she was mad at
him.
Sometime the next day, when she was debating whether to talk to Luke now or wait a little longer, he beat her to it
by coming to the castle and approaching her first.
"Natalia, I'm sorry I…I shouldn't have said that. I didn't mean it. You were right, I was just trying to be like Asch
again, even though I said I wouldn't, and it was a stupid idea and I'm…"
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"It's…I'm the one who should be apologizing. I know how much you hated being cooped up in the manor when you
were younger, yet I tried to do it to you myself. I'm sorry. It's your life and you should be able to live it the way you want to.
Go to Daath. Be a God General. I just want you to be happy. Just make sure Anise dosen't try to take any of your money."
He smiled a bit at her joke, and she couldn't help but smile back. "Are you sure you're okay with me going? I
mean..."
"It's fine. And Father already okayed it, so you're all set."
"Thanks," he said and gave her such a heartfelt hug that she was stunned for a few seconds. She hadn't realized it
had meant that much to him. "Hey, I have an idea. Why don't you come with me? I know Anise will be happy to see you,
and this way if there's anything else they want to know about I can ask you first."
She couldn't help but laugh a little at his attempt to make up with her, he was so sincere about it that it was
touching. "You don't have to ask me first. You're of age now so you can do what you want. I'd still appreciate it if you'd let
me know though. And I think I will go. It will be nice to see Anise and Florian again."
"Oh yeah, I forgot about him. But you're right, it'll be nice to see them again. So when do we leave?"
"Um, a week? That should give us time to pack and work out any last minute details."
"Great," he said and hugged her again. "Thanks a bunch Natalia. I'll send you lots and lots of letters, although I
can't promise they won't be boring."
"I wouldn't mind if they were," she said returning the embrace. Seeing Luke so happy gave her a warm feeling
inside, and she couldn't help but feel that she had made the right decision.
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"Like Counting Sheep"
by Jade
Zero Escape: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors
Fifteen-year-old Aoi Kurashiki hasn't told anyone yet (especially not Akane), but he hasn't been sleeping well as of late.
It's hard for him to admit it, even to himself, but there's a feeling of impending danger in his head and it's growing
difficult to ignore.
He thinks it’s a normal day (just like any other), but when Akane asks him if she can stay after with Junpei (or
“Jumpy,” as she’s come to call him), Aoi almost says no, she can’t.
Normally, he’d let her do what she wants as long as she’s back before dark. But today, he’s had a feeling, almost as
if someone was watching them, ever since he took Akane to the doctor for a high fever and they (the men in white lab
coats) had made the two siblings participate in this ridiculous experiment.
The Ganzfeld Experiment, or something like that. Aoi couldn’t remember the exact name. All he could remember
was being separated from Akane (you're not going to hurt her, are you!?) and being told to spontaneously become a
psychic (but people couldn't just do that, could they?). Even though that’s all the boy can remember of the men in white
coats, he hasn’t forgotten the sense of impending danger, nor the dry feeling in the back of his throat.
But back to “Jumpy,” there’s something about the boy that gives Aoi a sick feeling in his stomach, he thinks it’s
because he’s a boy and he’s spending time with his precious sister and it seems like he’s good for her because she smiles a
lot more these days.
Maybe it’s because he’s doing something that Aoi can’t. Maybe Aoi wishes that he could be the one who could
make Akane smile like that, or maybe it's just because whenever he sees Junpei's face (it's almost always scraped or
bruised; did the little boy have no sense of elegance or personal appearance? Couldn't he even clean up for Akane? No, it
was even one of the things that endeared "Jumpy" to Akane, and Aoi thinks he might vomit), he wants to punch the
younger boy in the gut.
But he also wants to thank Junpei from the bottom of his heart, although he's not quite sure why and the idea of
bowing his head to Junpei kind of makes him want to vomit again and Aoi resolves to put Junpei out of his and Akane's
life.
But Akane finally wins him over; it’s the last day of the term and she wants to say goodbye to Junpei properly
because after this year, they'll be going to different schools (thank goodness). Aoi tells her to be careful (he always does,
and he always means it, but today he is especially worried), and heads home by himself.
He takes the well-known main roads for as long as he can, although he changes his route frequently. Yet somehow,
as he arrives at the small apartment they’ve moved into, he feels as if there’s still a shadowy figure just seconds behind
him.
He rushes into the house and slams the door behind him, and he feels his heart rapidly beating.
Calm down, he tells himself, you’re just being paranoid, he tells himself. It’s silly to get this worked up over just a
feeling, he repeats.
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He looks out the window and it’s nearly sundown, and he wonders where Akane is. Maybe she beat him home,
with all of the detours he took? No, her shoes were nowhere to be seen. She must have still been with Junpei.
(The thought still makes him angry, but right now he’s worried about his sister, her fever only just went down a
few days ago and he still can’t shake the feeling that something terribly wrong is happening.)
When the door opens for the first time that night, it is already dark. Aoi knows because he neglected to turn the
light on (besides, it saved electricity), and he sits in the middle of their living room, wondering where Akane was,
wondering if she was okay.
“Aoi?”
Her voice startles him, (that’s right, she had a key, too), and he jumps up and spins on one heel to face her. She’s
standing in the entryway and locking the door, and when she turns back to Aoi and kicks off her shoes, she’s proudly
holding something in her hand.
“Look! Look at what Jumpy gave me!” She waves the small doll around, although her grip on it is tight and the
expression on her face is ecstatic. (Almost like Junpei was the second Santa Claus.) Aoi looks at the doll and there’s
something about it that makes him think of Junpei.
Aoi can feel the anger and resentment building, but he shrugs it off (he’s been on edge all day today, shouldn’t he
get to relax, too?) and smiles at Akane.
“What’d he give you?”
“He says it’s a, uh, good luck doll! Its name is June! Jumpy said that as long as I hold onto it, we’ll meet again
someday!”
“…Huh,” Aoi says, cocking his head and grinning as he walks over to pat Akane’s head. “Then you’d better keep it
close to you, yeah? Keep June safe.”
Akane nods happily and gently places the doll in her pocket.
There is a knock on the door, and Akane begins to skip towards it to open it.
“Wait—!” Aoi shouts without thinking, and Akane pauses, her hand already on the doorknob. “D…don’t open it,
Akane,” he says slowly, his eyes wild. She turns to face him, and her expression turns from a troubled curiosity to a wideeyed, horrified look in a split second.
“Aoi, the window!” she screeches (maybe she’s noticed, too — maybe she felt the people following her, too),
pointing at the window.
Before Aoi can turn to look at the window, he hears a clunk, and the sound of gas leaking (kind of like how it
sounded when he left the gas valves open), and he sees a rolling can out of the corner of his eye. As he spins on his heel,
even before he can register the appearance of the assailants, he realizes that his vision is blurring and he feels himself
falling.
One of the assailants grabs him before he collides with the ground, and, hefting the fifteen-year old over his
shoulder like a sack of potatoes, the tall man walks towards the door and picks up Akane in the same fashion.
“...no,” Aoi says weakly, and even the small act of resistance is a tremendous effort for the drugged boy,
“...don’t...touch...her...”
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And then his eyes close and it is dark, and what was left of Aoi Kurashiki's consciousness sinks into a sea of terror.
(Nine children, placed into burlap bags and shipped out to the middle of the Pacific Ocean.)
Akane? Akane, where are you? Are you safe?
He thinks he can hear her voice, and he is reassured -- his sister must be close by.
But when the boy opens his eyes, he is alone -- horribly alone, and he hears the sound of an explosion and the
sound of metal crunching (it is sickening and squealing), and he looks ahead of him to see a metal door with a large red ‘4’
emblazoned on it.
End of entries for the 2012 Anime Detour fanfiction contest.
This file is the property of Anime Twin Cities, Inc.
All writings contained herein are property of their respective authors.
http://www.animedetour.com/
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