Chapter Five: My Guardian, My Enemy
"Bad time to be a bit late, huh boss?"
Ayane's head slumped loosely into her palm as Izumi laid out the
obvious to her. It was Monday afternoon, the day after those horribly
failed peace talks. The whole thing had completely been wasted, and
everything Ayane had been hoping for in the past three months was
tossed aside like nothing. The two Spring Breeze Assassin girls were
sitting around a table outside Sendou-rin Ramen shop, talking over
their current situation. Or rather, Izumi was scolding Ayane playfully
while the SBA leader proceeded to lick her wounds. Rinako was angry
with her. That was the last thing she needed.
"That's right." Ayane said reticently. "I wanted to work on this for
three months and then blow it all away on a whim."
Izumi smiled. "Hey, it's okay, Ayane. We can always try again; we just
need to have our heads around the situation better next time. And, we
need to buy you a watch I think."
"Oh ha, ha. You crack me up, Izumi. So how did the talks get ruined?
Who said what?"
Izumi recalled yesterday's fiasco. "It was all going fine at first,
even though you didn't show up, me and Ikatsuji were handling
everything without you, then Konoko had to run off her mouth about you
not being there. Then a CBL girl said something, some of our girls got
defensive about it, then boom, slobber knocker city."
Ayane growled under her breath. "Konoko... I have really got to do
something about that girl... her misconduct bothers me... maybe I
should have her removed from the SBA..."
"I wouldn't do that now. It might look bad. I'll deal with Konoko, you
just make sure we get these talks up and running again."
"Considering the situation," Ayane began. "It might be some time before
we can get started again. I think we need to give both gangs a chance
to cool off for a while."
Then, Izumi thought of something. "Hey... now that I think about it...
why were you late? Was it so important that you had to miss the talks?"
"... A friend of mine was being hassled by the Hotsuma Boys. I met up
with her and asked her if she wanted me to sort these guys out, which I
will do soon enough. Anyway, on my way back, four members of the same
gang surrounded me and as you can guess, I had to deal with it. Believe
me, my intention was always to get there on time."
Izumi nodded in acceptance. "I gotcha. This wasn't your fault I
suppose. So... the Hotsuma Boys, eh? Aren't they from Tokyo Central?
What are they doing in this side of town?"
"I do not know." Ayane said in earnest. "Which is why I need you to dig
up some dirt about them for me, Izumi. Find out more about them, and
their leader, a Ryuko Hitsujiko."
Izumi thought for a short while. "Hitsujiko...? Strange, that name
doesn't ring a bell. And I know most of the gangs in Tokyo like the
back of my hand... well, whatever, I'll look into her for ya."
"Thanks, Izumi."
Ayane then let herself think about this situation. It would be some
time before a second attempt at the peace talks would be possible. That
left the Hotsuma Boys and Konoko. Both had to be taken care of, but for
the moment it would be inconvenient to try. The most important thing to
Ayane right now was Rinako. She had to get the younger girl talking to
her again. She seemed pretty mad yesterday, though Ayane had not seen
Rinako since then.
But that was about to change.
Just across the road from Sendou-rin Ramen shop, was the Cross Blade
Lancer leader, Rinako, walking alongside her sister Minato. Ayane
couldn't believe her good fortune. At least they could be open here
since they weren't at school. The Spring Breeze Assassin stood from her
chair, quickly saying something to Izumi then walking over to the
Ikatsuji sisters.
Minato and Rinako walked along, unaware that Ayane was approaching
them. Since the failure of the talks yesterday had put Rinako in a sour
mood, Minato decided to take her out to Shinjuku to relax a little.
Rinako was a little unwilling, she was supposed to by training Rei at
this point (though she had yet to tell anyone about this training she
had been doing). However, she made her apologies to Rei, who quite
understood, and Rinako set off with Minato for a ‘fun' day out. The two
Ikatsuji girls had done a bit of shopping, hung around in a few stores,
and seen a few new things. Rinako wasn't much of the shopping type, but
she did enjoy spending time with Minato.
"I think that blouse will look really good on me, Rinako." The younger
girl commented. "I know Natsumi will like it when she gets back from
Osaka."
Rinako just nodded along, half-heartedly. "Yup."
"Hey!" Minato observed someone coming towards them. "It's Ayane."
{What?} Rinako thought. Sure enough, it was. With a bashful and
apologetic frown on her face, the young woman looked to Rinako with
pleading eyes. Though she was standing firm, Rinako had to admit; those
big golden eyes of her girlfriend's still turned her legs to jelly.
Minato tried to open up some conversation between the two as the first
few minutes started to roll by. "Hey, Ayane. Things going... okay with
you?"
"Y-Yes..." Ayane stammered. "Fine, thank you." Then her attentions
turned back to Rinako. "Can we please talk, Rinako?"
The girl in question shut her eyes hastily, pouting like a child.
"Minato. Please tell Miss Yosukube that I'm not talking to her. And
tell her that if she regrets that then she should have thought about
this *before* she missed the peace talks."
Minato just shrugged. "Okay. Ayane, Rinako says that she's not-"
"I heard her." Ayane filled in. "Rinako, I can explain why I was not
there, If you will just let me-"
Rinako grabbed her sister by the arm walking in the opposite direction.
"C'mon, Minato. Let's go."
Ayane just watched the two walk off into the crowds along the road.
Then Izumi suddenly walked up to the quiet girl. "Didn't go well, huh?"
"God, Rinako can act so childishly some times." Ayane complained,
crossing her arms. "I swear, loving her is a blessing and a curse at
the same time."
Just down the road, now well out of earshot, were the two Ikatsuji
sisters. Minato turned to Rinako. "Are you really that angry with her,
Rinako?"
"Heck no." Rinako meant that. "I know Ayane better than anyone else.
She wouldn't have missed the meeting yesterday unless it was really
important. I just wanna make her think about it a little more. The more
sorry she is, the more she'll do to make it up to me... heh, heh,
heh..."
Minato sighed out loud, ruffling her long blonde hair. She would have
never believed that her sister could be so sneaky. "Geez, Rinako. What
is she, your girlfriend or your sex toy?"
**********
"So this is Tomeishuu High..."
Keitarou Kusako and Yuji Nijuurou both stood and marvelled at the
massive grounds of Tomeishuu High, standing before the front gates.
Keitarou never really seen this school before, and so he was quite
astounded by its late 1800's design. It was quite a rare sight for a
Japanese school, very different from the technological modernity of
Tengoku Aijin School. While Keitarou continued to stare around and
about the school, Yuji inspected the inner courtyard. It would be hard
to get any attention from the SBA and CBL unless they could get in
there.
"You shouldn't forget why we're here, Keitarou." Yuji began. "We have
to deliver this letter of challenge to the leader of the Cross Blade
Lancers, Rinako Ikatsuji."
Keitarou just waved Yuji off. "Yeah, yeah, yeah... I gotcha. I'm just a
little distracted today. Don't mind me."
And so he didn't. Yuji turned around to see if there was anyone else
around that could possibly supply the message to Rinako. "Hmm..."
Yuji mused as he saw a group of around 5 girls, walking down the street
in his direction. They were wearing Tomeishuu High uniforms, though
they seemed pretty ordinary.
"I think..." The dark haired man started. "That those girls may be able
to help us out. What do you think, Keitarou?"
Again, the TDR leader was distracted. He snapped back into focus in
just the right time to stop Yuji from worrying about him. "Huh? Oh,
right. Yeah, yeah that sounds about right."
The TDR's second in command sighed. "I will take care of this. In the
meantime, why don't you try to gain a little focus? If memory serves,
this was *your* idea."
With a little hesitation (Yuji was never really... comfortable around
women in his life) the young man strolled over to the troop of giggling
girls to see if he could get one of them to introduce him to Rinako or
something. Though it didn't turn out that way...
"Hello, there." Yuji said as he walked to the girls. "Can any of you
help me with something? I am look for a certain woman, named Rinako
Ikatsuji, and I was wondering if-"
"Wow..." One of the younger girls in the group (15) let her eyes bug
out as she took in Yuji's delicate, pretty-boy features. "You're so
cute..."
Yuji was incredulous. "Huh?"
Then, one of the older girls (18) stepped in front, once again
devouring Yuji with her eyes. "Forget about that kid, sorry about her.
But... do you have a girlfriend?"
"W-Well..." Yuji turned red as cheery as all of the girls eyed him
over. "...N-No... but I do not... I mean... I... I..."
One of the most abrasive girls in the group (17) peered around Yuji's
subtle body as his eyes fell nervously to looking at the ground. "Ooh!
You're shy! I like that in a guy! Wanna take me out?"
Keitarou stood disbelieving before this site. Yuji was never all that
enthusiastic about women, but he attracted more attention than any
other guy at Tengoku Aijin. Yuji was quite literally an aphrodisiac for
the fairer sex. But then, just as Keitarou was beginning to lose his
distraction, the reason behind it appeared behind him.
"...K-Keitarou...? Why are you here?"
The young man looked back. He knew that voice. "Hey there, Rei. So
what, don't I get a hug or something?"
Rei smiled shyly and wrapped her arms around the taller Keitarou. The
Kusako-boy followed in turn and pulled Rei close to him. To be honest,
that was one of the major reasons for coming to Tomeishuu High today.
Rei had enrolled here a short while back, but he had never gotten a
chance to see how she was settling in. Now was the perfect time to
catch up with what Rei had been doing with herself.
"You doing okay here?" Keitarou questioned quickly, pulling back from
Rei enough to see her face. "I'm sorry I haven't been around to check
up on you. I promised Uncle Onuma that I'd watch over you while we
studied in Tokyo."
Rei's amethyst eyes looked downwards. "Daddy shouldn't worry about me.
I'm fine here. I'm not a little girl anymore..."
"Tokyo's a big city, Rei." Keitarou reasoned. "A lot of dangerous
people do their dealings here. Somebody's gotta watch out for you.
Uncle Onuma would kill me if something happened to you, anyways."
Rei looked over to Yuji, a few metres away, out of earshot. "I think
you should be more worried about that friend of yours."
Keitarou smiled as a haze of giggles, flirtation and teen-girl lust
surrounded the bashful Yuji. "Don't you worry about Yuji, Rei. He's
Japan's no.1 chick magnet. This kinda thing happens to him all the
time. So what's new with you?"
"Well..." Rei drifted. How was she going to tell Keitarou about her
newest endevour? "...I've... got a few things going on right now..."
"...Like?" The taller man prodded.
Yet still, Rei continued to waft in her words. "Um... well..."
"Wait..." Then Keitarou started to jump to conclusions. "Have you got a
boyfriend or something?"
"What? Keita-"
The TDR leader cut Rei off. "Are you telling me you've got a boyfriend?
And I'm just learning about this now? Who is he? He better be a nice
guy, Rei, I swear! And if you think I'm being hard, you should just
count yourself lucky that Uncle wasn't here, otherwise he'd have blown
his-"
"Keitarou!" Rei yelled privately. "I'm not dating anyone."
"Oh, I see." Keitarou scratched the back of his head nervously as he
realized that he might have overacted at tad. "I guess I'm starting to
act like an annoying big brother, huh?"
"Yes, you are." Rei said seriously.
The blonde haired boy coughed into his fist. "Well, what do you expect?
You're my cousin, Rei. I gotta watch out for you. You know this school
has a reputation for teaching some of the strongest female fighters in
Tokyo, right? I even came here to challenge that girl... Rinako
Ikatsuji."
Rei gasped. "You're here to *fight* Ikatsuji-sensei?" Oops...
Keitarou's eyebrow rose. "Ikatsuji-sensei...? What the heck does that
mean? Do you have something you want to tell me?"
"Keitarou..." Rei pulled out of Keitarou's hug and stepped back
unhurriedly. "I didn't want you to find this out... because I knew you
wouldn't like it... but I'm training to... be a martial artist."
"What?!" Keitarou yelled, attracting attention from other people across
the street. "What do you mean, training? Don't you know how dangerous
this stuff is?"
"You do it..."
"That's because Uncle Onuma has been teaching me Minami-oh style since
I was a kid! You can't seriously want to do this, can you?"
"Well, why not?" Rei argued. "It's what I want to do..."
Keitarou sighed. "I'll tell you why not, Rei. Because it's unsafe. You
have no idea how much risk you put yourself in when you become a
martial artist in Tokyo. This isn't a game."
Rei looked away again. Keitarou got the impression that his words
weren't getting through to her. But instead of yelling and making
himself the Badguy here, the blue-eyed boy held Rei by the arms gently
and kneeled down a little to look at his cousin eye-to-eye.
"Rei..." Keitarou's smooth, yet strong voice held genuine depth. "I
don't want to upset you. You're my family and I love you. And it's just
for that reason that you can't get involved in martial arts. You could
get hurt, and I wouldn't want that."
"..." Rei still said nothing.
"Look... I'm gonna go help out Yuji. Since I can't stay long, I need to
leave soon. We can talk about this another day, okay?"
Rei managed to respond, but did not look up. "...Okay."
Keitarou lightly nudged Rei on the cheek, smiling a little. The young
Rei just watched Keitarou walk off towards the troupe of girls hanging
around a reluctant Yuji. It was hard to believe, but Rei was not
shocked by Keitarou's reaction to her will to train. Keitarou Kusako
was very protective of his family and friends, especially Rei and Yuji.
Plus, the whole reason her father Onuma (overbearing and completely
paranoid, as most fathers are) allowed Rei to study in Tokyo was
because his nephew Keitarou was already there at the time. Nobody in
Rei's family, not even her mother, believed that she could protect
herself.
That was the ultimate secret behind Rei's will to train. Though she
commanded respect and envy because of her astounding beauty, people
continually treated Rei as though she were a helpless waif. Rei wanted
to show the world that she was able to stand on her own two feet. And
the only way she could see to do that was to defeat Keitarou.
Keitarou Kusako was the greatest student of the Minami-oh dojo.
Minami-oh style had been passed down the Tsukuji family for many, many
years. Since Onuma Tsukuji had only a daughter (he saw women as unfit
to carry on the Minami-oh style) he taught his nephew, Keitarou that
fighting art, making him Onuma's successor. By no length was Rei
jealous of Keitarou for this, but she did feel offended. By defeating
her cousin, Keitarou, Rei would not only prove to her father that a
woman could be as strong as any man, but also she would prove that she
could stand on her own two feet.
By now, Keitarou was backing up an embarrassed and red-coloured Yuji,
managing to get in-between him and the girls.
"Now, now ladies," Keitarou began. "No need to gang up on lil' Yuji
here. Especially since he's got a girlfriend oversees!"
Yuji blinked. "What are you talking ab-"
Keitarou quickly covered Yuji's mouth with his hand. "That's right,
girls! Yuji is taken! And his girlfriend told me to make sure that he
didn't go near any of the woman in Tokyo! So make my job easier and
vamoose."
Then, much to Yuji's relief, the pack of girls scattered and strolled
back into school, showing their ID's to the guardians at the front
gate. Yuji straightened out his collar that had some how gotten
ruffled.
"You took certainly took your time, Keitarou." Yuji said annoyed.
Keitarou helped Yuji straighten himself out. "Yeah, sorry about that.
Just had a teeny bit of a shock. But I don't understand why you didn't
just ask one of those girls out. Some of them were pretty cute after
all. And you've never really had a girlfriend before either. You might
miss your chance at happiness."
Yuji remained externally still as Keitarou roughly smoothed out his
collar. Though he was really rough around the edges, Keitarou was such
a good friend. He possessed such a strong magnetism that it was almost
unnatural. Yuji counted himself lucky to have him as a friend. It was
always so very hard for the dark haired Yuji, in many more ways than
one. "...I just... that's not what I am looking for right now."
"Oh yeah, right! Like you don't have a secret crush! No one can go
through their lives without falling for someone. I bet you've got a
special someone in your heart right now." Soon as Keitarou finished his
job; he patted Yuji on the shoulder and began to walk off sparing only
a wave to a silenced Rei.
Yuji let out a sad smile. "...I... guess so..."
**********
Midnight.
Or a time close to it. Rinako sighed privately to herself as she
flicked through the magazines she had bought on her shopping trip with
Minato. After coming back home a short while ago, Rinako crashed on her
bed and relaxed a bit. Though Rinako doubted that shopping would really
make her feel better, it actually did in the end. Her head was clear
and she was less worried about the failure of the peace talks. Of
course Rinako was still angry that they didn't work out, but there was
no point in worrying about it now. They could always try again. If
there was one positive aspect to Rinako's relationship with Ayane that
stood out more than others, it had to be the fact that Rinako was a
much happier person. Ever since she and Ayane had gotten back together,
life just felt easier for Rinako. She didn't take things so seriously
anymore.
{Hmm...} Rinako continued to flick through her magazine. {I wonder if I
should go check up on Rei... to see if she's keeping up with the
strength training...}
Just then, a knock came at the door. {At this hour?} Rinako thought
irritably. {It's probably Mishizu...}
When a second knock came, Rinako slid off the bed and walked over to
the door. Mishizu did have a habit of telling Rinako things at the
worst possible time. What couldn't wait until morning? With a tired
sigh, Rinako opened the door. But Ayane greeted her.
"Rinako..." The older girl began. "May I speak with you now? Please?"
The Ikatsuji girl tried hard to keep her grinning humour under control
as an apologetic Ayane stood before her. "...I guess so."
"I am so sorry I missed the meeting. I was well on my way, and I had
every intention of coming there to make the agreement between both
gangs, but these idiots got in the way and-"
Ayane said no more. How could she, when Rinako's lips pressed
passionately against her own? After releasing a sharp, throaty gasp or
surprise, the ashen-haired girl let herself go and wrapped her arms
around Rinako's lithe form. And for a few moments, that was all the two
did. Kissing fervently, whilst holding each other tight. Then,
reluctantly, Rinako broke free of the kiss. Yet still clinging to Ayane
securely.
"What was that for?" Ayane said, catching a little breath.
Rinako just smiled at her love. "I'm not mad at you. Sure I was a
little angry at first, but I trust you. I know you wouldn't have missed
it unless you really had to."
"...I see."
Before she knew what she was doing, the elder Ikatsuji sister was
playing with a strand of Ayane's soft white hair, while gazing into her
bright eyes. "Besides... how could I resist those gorgeous golden eyes
of yours? So how come you missed it then?"
Ayane's smile fell. "I was attacked by a few men." Ayane then decided
to re-word that when she saw that distressed look on Rinako's face.
"But I came out of it perfectly fine, I am not injured or anything."
Rinako was thankful for that, but she was still angry. "So who was it?
Tengoku Aijin? Natsuki Kaze High? Or just a bunch of punks?"
"They were sent by the Hotsuma Boys." Ayane stated. "The main gang of
Tokyo Central."
Rinako thought about that. "Tokyo Central? But that's way across town.
What the heck are they doing over here?"
Ayane did know that. "A friend of mine was being bullied by them. I
went to visit her, and I told her that I would handle them, but I
suppose that we were..."
Rinako filled in the blanks. "...Followed."
"Yes." The Yosukube girl said. "I cannot be sure, but I have a feeling
that we have not seen the last of the Hotsuma Boys. Still, if the men
they sent after me are any measure of their strength, then we should
not be worried at all."
Rinako's eyes narrowed out. "Don't be so sure... you know as well as I
do that a gang never sends out its best hitters when delivering a
message. I don't know who their leader is, but I think they were trying
to send you a message... probably, to stay out of their business."
"Your point being?" Ayane questioned sarcastically. "I'm still going to
put a stop to those thugs. They can't get away with that."
Rinako just grinned. "Well, ordering the SBA to help you defeat them is
not possible right now, so that can wait. In the mean time, I need a
favour from you."
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