She lay in bed for a while longer,
trying to recall exactly what had happened in Ratoshi’s backyard the night
before and how she’d ended up between the sheets of her own bed. Nothing came to mind. With a loud yawn, she extended her arms above
her head in a deep stretch and eventually got up. After showering and putting on a button down
and a pair of denim shorts, she stood in front of the mirror and teased her
hair, reshaping her customary faux hawk and side bangs. Her mind continued to
draw a blank where the night before was concerned, no matter how hard she tried
to remember. Her eyes were tinged gray,
reflecting the confusion and the dash of fear that were mixing in the pit of
her stomach.
Just as
Serenity finished playing with her hair, there was a knock on the door. “It’s open,” she said, wondering who had
decided to pay her a visit. With a sigh
of relief, she noticed in the mirror that the gray in her eyes was beginning to
fade to white.
Turning from the mirror, she smiled as
Mitsuru Yoshimara crossed the threshold.
They hugged, and Serenity stepped back to appraise Mitsuru’s outfit,
hoping to learn something from her impeccable sense of style. Today, she wore a colorful, knee-length dress
that accentuated her curvaceous figure and wedge heels that seemed to lengthen
her already long legs; her light denim jacket gave a casual touch to the
ensemble. Her long purple hair was pulled
back into an up-do, drawing attention to her expertly made up face and
prominent blue eyes.
“Suru, you
make me feel like I need a makeover,” Serenity whined.
Mitsuru
smiled warmly. “A little retail therapy
will take care of that soon enough. I
propose that we go shopping together today.
But first…” She reached into her purse and took out a brown paper bag,
handing it to Serenity. Inside were a pastry
and a small bottle of juice. “I brought
you some breakfast.”
Mitsuru sat
and watched as Serenity ate, giggling at her attempts to keep up conversation
around bites of cheese danish. “So, I
heard you had a bit of a rough night last night,” she began.
Serenity fingered the barcode stamped
on the back of her neck for a moment. “Part
of the night is a blur, actually. The
last thing I remember is sparring with Kurama.”
Her hand slid around to where the pendant still hung on its chain. “I was in the backyard with him and
Ratoshi. But I woke up here. The space in between is completely blank.”
Mitsuru nodded calmly. “That’s because you were unconscious.” She regarded Serenity’s genuine look of
surprise and watched the faint gray hue appear in her irises. “I happened to see Ratoshi and Rumichi before
they flew you back home, and they told me that you’d fainted after beating
Kurama in a sword fight. Ratoshi said
something about a lot of Spirit energy coming from you and the sword you were
holding in the moments leading up to your collapse.”
Serenity took a couple of sips of juice
while she silently pondered what Mitsuru had just told her. After a few seconds, Mitsuru spoke
again. “Ratoshi also mentioned that
there was something strange about your demeanor later in the sparring session.”
“Oh?
Can you define ‘strange’?” asked
Serenity. A splash of brown joined the
light gray in her eyes, an indication of her increasing curiosity.
“I’m not quite sure. I think she said you seemed…fiercer…than usual.”
Serenity finished the last bite of her
pastry, drained the remainder of the juice, and stood up, brushing crumbs off
her clothes. “That’s interesting. I guess I got caught up in the moment. Our contest did get pretty heated. In any case, I never thought I could actually
beat Kurama, especially with a weapon I’d never practiced with.”
Mitsuru got up and threw the paper bag
and juice bottle away. “Beginner’s luck,
maybe? Or perhaps you’re just naturally
talented with a sword. Who can
say?” She shrugged as she held the door
open for her friend. “In any case, enough
thinking about the past. Let’s focus on
the here and now, and the money we’re going to blow in the near future. Come on, I’ll drive us to the mall.”
A couple of hours later, Serenity sat with Mitsuru in a crowded
food court. Shopping bags of various
sizes were piled at their feet. Mitsuru
had finished her lunch and was now fidgeting in her chair, anxious to get up
from the table and back into some more stores; across from her, Serenity calmly
sipped lemonade.
“Sorry,
Suru…I needed the break. I never knew
shopping could take so much out of a person,” said Serenity.
“Beauty is
a sacrifice, dear.” Mitsuru replied with
a wink. She started gathering their
purchases. “When I’m through with us
we’ll need a wheelbarrow for all this stuff.
Shall we continue taking the mall by storm?”
Serenity
nodded, pushing her chair backward.
Before she could rise from her seat, a
pair of hands covered her eyes from behind.
She squirmed, kicked, and tried to pull the foreign hands from her
face.
While Serenity struggled to free
herself, she heard the scrape of Mitsuru’s chair against the floor. “Would you like me to burn him alive?” she
heard Mitsuru ask. Serenity felt the
surrounding air increase in temperature and knew that Mitsuru was preparing to
change into her wolf demon form or set the intruder on fire if the need
presented itself.
Suddenly, the
man removed his hands from Serenity’s face with a loud sigh. When he spoke, his voice had a hint of
laughter in it. “Ren, I was only messing
with you. You and your BFF over there
are no fun at all.”
Serenity stood
up and turned to face the newcomer, heart still pounding in her chest. No one had called her Ren since she was eight
years old; only people in the tight inner circle of her childhood even knew of
the nickname.
She stared intensely at the man
towering over her, trying to figure out who he was—or perhaps who he had been. He wore basketball shorts and an athletic
shirt that showed off his tan, well-muscled body. A detailed lion head had been tattooed on his
left bicep. The gleam in his hazel eyes
matched the mischievous smirk on his face.
His steely purple hair was bound in thick dreadlocks that reached the
small of his back. It was this final
detail that allowed Serenity to identify him.
“Oh my
gosh…MANE?” The blue and gold in
Serenity’s eyes betrayed her feelings as she hugged the man. Serenity broke free from the embrace and
looked back at Mitsuru, who was scowling at the man. Just as she was beginning to facilitate
introductions, Mane stepped forward.
“I’ll take
care of this myself, Ren,” he said. “My
name’s Kaze. Kaze Tategami. My friends call me Mane on account of this
stuff growing out of my head.” He picked
up one tight, heavy rope of hair between his thumb and forefinger before
offering Mitsuru his hand. She stared at
his outstretched hand for a moment without blinking, and then shook it,
allowing her eyes to wander upward to Mane’s face. “Mitsuru Yoshimara. I’ll forgo the ‘nice to meet you’ that you’re
probably expecting; I was honestly a few seconds shy of burning you to a
crisp,” she retorted.
“I
apologize for scaring you, but there was never anything to worry about.” His mischievous grin widened. “Besides, I don’t bite…unless it’s absolutely
necessary.” Mitsuru tried to keep a
serious expression, but eventually her frown faded; Serenity was pretty sure
she saw the beginnings of a grin on her face.
Before Mane
could work any more of his seemingly potent magic with her friend, Serenity
stepped in to change the subject. “Mane,
is your brother here with you?”
Mane
pointed past Serenity. “Amake’s coming
to join us now. He and I were using the
virtual reality game in the arcade to spar, and I beat him pretty badly; he was
probably off licking his wounds somewhere for a while.”
“I heard that,
Kaze,” said a soft voice from somewhere behind Serenity. Her eyes widened as she turned around. The man who stood in front of her beamed in
response. He looked much like his older
brother, except that he had a smaller build, his body was less tan, and his hair
barely came past his ears; his smile lacked the roguish edge that Mane’s had,
but it was not devoid of its own captivating charms.
Serenity
allowed herself to be pulled into yet another embrace. “Who would’ve thought we’d run into you,
after all this time?” Amake muttered, his smile an afterthought on his lips. Dropping his voice even lower so Mane and
Mitsuru couldn’t hear him, he added, “Actually, I’m quite upset with you.”
Serenity pulled out of Amake’s arms slightly
and searched his face for any sign of anger.
But his features were calm, and his smile still had not completely faded. “Upset…?
Why?” she whispered in his ear. “What
did I do?”
“We can
discuss that another time. Perhaps
tonight, if you don’t mind me paying a visit.”
Serenity
nodded. After a brief pause, Amake
released her. When they turned to face
the others, Mitsuru commented on their long, dramatic hug. Mane chuckled at Mitsuru’s wisecrack while Serenity
and Amake glared at both of them in turn.
A few minutes later, Mane, Mitsuru,
Amake, and Serenity left the food court and strolled around the mall together,
talking and laughing as if they all had been close friends for ages.
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