By the way, both Rurouni Kenshin and the characters of Polgara and Beldaran don't belong to me. Rurouni Kenshin was written by and belongs to Watsuki Nobuhiro, while Polgara and Beldaran are the creations of David Eddings (even though I did change their characters a bit) I guess that ends the legality stuff =D
Chapter 4: The Meeting of Two Worlds
"Two worlds, one family, trust your heart, let fate decide to guide those lives we see…"
- Two Worlds, Phil Collins
Beldaran scanned the crowded university quad, searching for anyone with red hair. “You’d think a guy with flaming-colored hair and violet eyes would be easy to find in a Japanese university,” she muttered. It seemed that these days everyone had dyed hair and wore contacts. “Now what am I going to do?” she asked herself.
“Do about what, Usagi-chan?” asked a voice from behind her. Beldaran started and turned around to find another young girl in a university uniform standing behind her. Waist-length dark hair pulled into a hasty braid framed a pixie-ish face, which was wearing a bright smile that seemed to shine from behind bright blue eyes.
“Hi Aya-cha!” Beldaran grinned back. It seemed uncanny, but she had met a certain number of interesting people during her short jaunt on Earth, and Ayame Nakamura just happened to be one of them. Drawn to the other girl’s cheerfulness and almost childlike enthusiasm for life, Beldaran had found herself enjoying Ayame’s company immensely during her first few weeks as a human. It also gave her something to think about besides missions and demons.
“You really need to stop talking out loud to yourself, you know,” announced Ayame in a cheerful voice. “You never know who might be listening. Anyway, I’ve been looking for you! I’ve got a couple of people who I want to introduce you to!” Without waiting for a response, she grabbed Beldaran’s hand and headed for the gym which was located a short walk away. As the two girls stepped inside, they were met by a great rush of hot air. It seemed that no matter where you go, the common requirement for all athletic facilities was stuffiness.
Ayame continued to drag Beldaran across the wrestling room, not stopping until she reached the far corner where a tall young man stood stretching. He wore a white judo gi and pants, complete with a brown belt tied in a neat knot around his waste. Noticing Ayame’s approach, he waved and called out a greeting.
“What are you doing here, weasel girl? Not busy chasing after that idiot Tsuyoshi today? I’m still wondering how the poor guy survives with you trailing after him like a puppy dog.” Though his voice was rough and insulting, there was a twinkle in his eyes as he teased the small girl in front of him.
“Shove it, Sho-chan. And don’t call Tsuyoshi an idiot! Hmmpphh… Anyway, I didn’t come here just to argue. I want you to meet my new friend. She just moved here a week ago from America!” Ayame turned to pull Beldaran forward as she made the introductions. “Shohei Tomikuza, meet Usagi Takana.”
Beldaran smiled dryly as she extended a hand, while Shohei grinned back lopsidedly as he took it and gave a vigorous shake. “Well, well, well, it seems your taste in friends is improving Ayame.” He winked at Beldaran slyly, his eyes taking on a mischeivous glint.
“Don’t even think about it, Sho. That premed student you’ve had your eyes on won’t like it if you start flirting with my friend.” Turning back to Beldaran, Ayame smiled. “Don’t mind him, he just likes to be a dork.”
“Hey, who you calling a dork, you freakish weasel girl?”
“DON”T CALL ME WEASEL GIRL, YOU STUPID ROOSTER HEAD….”
The noise continued to escalate as Beldaran stood watching the two shout each other down. Well, thought Beldaran, if humans don’t make much sense at least they’re amusing.
“You two, calm down. We’re going to get kicked out of the gym of you carry on like that.” The noise abruptly stopped as the three people turned to face a young man with bright red hair and violet eyes. Beldaran noticed that he had a silly smile on his face and wore the same judo outfit as Shohei, but with a belt that was black instead of brown.
“That definitely has to be Kenshin,” she thought silently, inwardly jumping for joy. “It took long enough!”
“Hey Kenji!” Ayame’s voice interrupted Beldaran’s thinking. “This is my new friend Usagi. Usagi, this is Kenji Komiyama, the captain of our kendo club.”
“Nice to meet you,” murmured Kenji politely. He smiled, and Beldaran found herself wondering how a man could look so pretty and yet masculine at the same time.
“Just look at that,” complained Shohei. “Why the hell does Kenji get all the girls? Damn, it must be that hair…”
“Well it certainly looks a lot better than yours,” shot back Ayame. As the two continued to argue, both unwilling to back down, Kenji and Beldaran glanced at each other and shook their heads in reluctant amusement.
“Are they always like this?” asked Beldaran.
“Oh, those two fight all time,” Kenji replied with a slight wave of his hand. “It’s like a hobby to them. But you have to admit that it’s a lot of fun to watch.”
The two shared another laugh and continued to talk, getting to know each other. After almost a quarter-hour of bickering, Ayame and Shohei finally grew weary of shouting and the gym once again became less noisy.
“So do you guys have practice today?” Ayame looked at the two young men expectantly.
“Yeah,” replied Shohei, “we have a judo competition coming up in a few weeks. But practice will be over in a while, so if you wanna grab some lunch after this we can swing by the Akabeko and get some food.”
“Oh, what a great idea!” exclaimed Ayame excitedly. “I can invite Tsuyoshi to come with us.”
Shohei rolled his eyes and groaned, while Kenji just smiled.
“Okay, it’s settled. We’ll meet you after practice outside
the gym. I’m going to find Tsuyoshi and let him know about our plans,
so have fun at practice you two!” Ayame quickly took Beldaran’s
hand, pulling her across the gym. With her other free hand she turned to
give the two young men a last cheerful wave before rushing towards the large
gym doors.
Chapter 5: A Common Destiny: Angel and Immortal Unite!
"Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me?"
– Do You Hear the People Sing, Les Miserables
Beldaran sat on a bench, staring at her book silently. She still had a few hours to wait until dinner time, and for some reason she found herself extremely hungry. Another human characteristic that I’ve got to deal with, she told herself in irritation. Ayame had run off to find Tsuyoshi, and not wanting to be nuisance, Beldaran had kindly offered to meet her outside the gym for dinner later that evening. She smiled to herself as she thought of Ayame’s innocent crush on the serious dark haired young man who spoke very little and smiled even less. Though Sanjou Tsuyoshi could seem quite cold, there was strength and loyalty in his character that could not be dismissed lightly.
Allowing her mind to wander, Beldaran leaned her chin on her hand and absently watched the crowds of students walk by. Smiling inwardly, the young angel amused herself silently as she observed the large crowd of students rushing around the quad. Suddenly, a certain passing figure captured her attention. A tingling sensation ran down Beldaran’s spine as her eyes settled upon a young girl who was headed towards the library.
“No,” she thought to herself, mentally shaking her head. “I’m just imagining things! It can’t be…” But despite her inner protests she stood up and tossed her books into her bag, hurrying across the quad to the library.
The young girl in question swung her book bag nonchalantly as she rounded the corner of the library building. Stopping to lean against the wall, she dropped her books on the ground and crossed her arms expectantly. A few seconds later Beldaran came rushing around the corner and stopped dead, staring at the other girl in complete shock.
“What in the world took you so long? I’ve been waiting to talk to you for ages,” the girl admonished Beldaran with an exaggerated wave of her hand.
“It is you! And I thought I was going insane,” muttered Beldaran in annoyance. “It’s been a long time, hasn’t it Polgara?” Beldaran continued to stare at the other girl in disbelief, taking in the familiar features of her friend. Straight dark hair fell loosely past her shoulders, pulled back from her face by a simple headband. Laughing brown eyes gleamed in amusement as her lips turned up into a bright smile. She was also very short, the top of her head reaching only up to Beldaran’s shoulders.
“Oh,” replied Polgara offhandedly, “it hasn’t been that long. I’m sure you were busy training and stuff. After all, what’s a few millenia to people like us right?” She grinned irreverantly, making a face.
“So what are you doing here,” asked Beldaran curiously. “I’m sure it wasn’t just to pay me a simple little visit.” Polgara’s face suddenly grew serious as the bright cheery grin faded from her face.
“This whole Kenshin or Kenji business of course. I’m sure you know that there’s a demon running loose around earth, throwing the world into chaos. The Master sent me down here to check it out. You know, the usual protocol.”
“So the Immortals are getting involved.”
“We really had no choice. Since Kenji is, after all, human, the Council decided to allow Heaven’s interference. But your job is to watch over Kenji and protect him until we can find out what the demon wants with him. We’ve learned that the demon has specifically targeted Kenji, though I have no idea why. For this reason, it seems that Kenji will be the only one capable of destroying it; the only problem is figuring out when and how he’s going to accomplish that.” Polgara sighed, shaking her head.
“So looks like we’ll both be here a while, won’t we?” asked Beldaran musingly.
“What an understatement. I’ll bet it’s a very long while. But, we definitely can make the most of it!”
“And how do you plan to do that?”
“For starters, I’m starving! I seriously need some good food…Chinese would be nice. You don’t think they’d have calzones in Japan, would they?” Polgara asked hopefully, a wistful expression on her face. “Maybe it would have been better if Kenji had been born an Italian this time around.”
Beldaran burst out laughing. “Don’t tell me you’ve still got a hankering for those calzones! You haven’t changed a bit, Pol.”
“You can call me Akane. Akane Takimi.”
Chapter 6: Enter the Players
"Every spell and gesture tells you who’s the best, you’re playing with the big boys now."
- Playing with the big boys, The Prince of Egypt
Ayame glanced at her watch for the thousandth time and threw a worried glance at Tsuyoshi, Kenji, and Shohei.
“Where do you think Usagi is? I hope she didn’t get lost or something.”
Tsuyoshi shook his dark head, the silver eyes growing a bit less grim as he looked down at Ayame. “I doubt it,” he replied in a quiet voice. “She’s probably just running late.”
Just as the words came out of his mouth, they saw Usagi and another girl running across the college quad towards the gym, both their faces red from the exertion. Usagi stopped to catch a breath and looked apologetically at everyone.
“Sorry we’re late. I just met up with an old friend a while ago. This is Akane Takimi, and we knew each other…umm….” Beldaran trailed off looking a little lost and having not yet concocted a story about the identity of her companion.
“We knew each other before she went to America. Our parents were childhood friends,” interjected Polgara smoothly. Beldaran flashed her a smile of thanks.
Shohei stepped forward eagerly and introduced himself. “Hello. My name is Shohei, and I’m co-captain of our judo team here. Now, how did I ever miss seeing you around campus?” He grinned suggestively at Polgara, while the young immortal-in-training inwardly groaned. Men!
“You were probably too busy staring at all the other pretty girls who walked by,” muttered Ayame under her breath.
“Hey…at least I don’t stalk people weasel girl. I’m surprised Tsu-chan here hasn’t fled the country because of your harassment,” Shohei retorted.
“What!!!! Why, you idiot rooster head…” Ayame lunged for Sho, only to be held back by Tsuyoshi while Shohei merely sighed and took a few steps back.
Everyone burst out laughing and Kenji finally spoke up. “Don’t mind those two. Anyways, I’m Kenji Komiyama. The one arguing with Sho over there is Ayame Nakamura, and this is Tsuyoshi Sanjou.”
“Nice to meet you,” replied Polgara laughing. “Sorry we were late but I ran into Usagi a few hours ago and we’ve been catching up on old times.”
“I’ve invited Akane to have dinner with us at the Akabeko, if you don’t mind,” said Beldaran.
“Of course we don’t mind,” assured Ayame enthusiastically. “The more the merrier, right everyone?” All the others nodded in assent.
“Well then what are we waiting for? Let’s get outta here, cuz I’m hungry.” Shohei turned to walk towards the campus entrance when a sudden thought struck him.
He turned to Ayame with a twinkle in his brown eyes. “By the way, Aya, how in the world do you meet such cute friends? You should introduce me to some more pretty girls if you’ve got the time. After all, I can’t spend every day listening to just your screeching and yelling.”
Shohei laughed as he ducked Ayame’s right hook, and he ran the rest of the way towards the Akabeko with Ayame right on his heels. The others followed quickly, the sound of their laughter ringing through the Tokyo streets.
---------------
From the shadows, a pair of golden eyes watched a group of boisterous college students make their way down the street. The golden orbs glittered with an ancient malice as they followed the movements of a certain red-headed young man and his friends.
“Soon,” he murmered quietly. “Enjoy your fun while you can, Himura Battousai. It won’t last for much longer…”