Fan Fiction ❯ Black Orchid ❯ Sunshine Incarnate, Ninja and Karate ( Chapter 4 )

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"I can't believe you tricked me like that!"

Eriks was in a real upset, and refused to forget it. No matter how many times she scampered from one side of him to the other, Orchid couldn't get him to face her. Apologizing hadn't worked, so she decided to take the offense.

"Geez, you sure are getting worked up for someone who doesn't even believe in it," she said indignantly.

He finally turned to face her looking unusually flustered. "Intertwined destiny or not, the other kids could say all sorts of things!"

"What kind of things?" asked Orchid, her eyes wide with innocent curiosity.

"Things…" muttered Eriks. "Besides, it's not nice to trick people, especially your alleged 'best friend',"

"I didn't trick you," defended Orchid, taking her turn to look away. "'s not like it's my fault you eat whatever's handed to you without thinking."

"It's not my fault I was hungry!"

"And it's not my fault I handed you half a paopu fruit."

"Yes it is!"

"Well anyways," said Orchid, sitting down next to him, hugging her knees and looking to the distance, "it's not like it's a bad thing. It means that we'll always be best friends, right? That if we get separated, we'll always find each other, right?"

"You're such a kid," said Eriks. Orchid turned quickly at the reproach, then relaxed at his smile. "But yeah, that's the idea in a nutshell."

He stood up and picked up his wooden practice sword.

"Doesn't change the fact that I think it's a load of bull. Now come on! We still got another hour or two of light to practice in!"

Orchid smiled and nodded happily, then grabbed her sword and got up.

* * *

Orchid lay in bed, not opening her eyes, but still aware of the bright light beyond them. She felt sore all over. Eriks had really bashed her up good. Though she had given him a few to remember…

She mentally shook herself. What was she thinking? That had been five or six years ago. And now… who had bashed her? Oh, yeah… the guy with the big hand. Why hadn't Cid or Montblanc helped her? Maybe he was a notorious thug, and they had been scared. Maybe he had got them before, and they didn't want to die. Maybe she was dead. Acting on this, she shifted around, only to be met with weak, cushy resistance. Like what she imagined a cloud to feel like. She opened her eyes, expecting to see open sky, shining lights and angels.

"Heyas! She's awake!"

Orchid immediately shut her eyes again. The giant smiling face of eternal sunshine on speed had been too much. She waited with her eyes shut, hoping it would go away.

"Wonder how she feels."

"Did Arc ever beat on you?"

"Nup."

"Then you wouldn't know. I pissed him off once when I stole his money when we first met. I never stole from him again, and not just because we became friends. And that was only a light scuffle. I really feel for this girl. That last punch looked like it hurt."

Upon reflection on this, Orchid was surprised she didn't feel worse.

"Yeah, I guess it did."

There was a pause, and then the voice continued.

"get up get up Get Up Get Up GET UP GET UP GETUPGETUPGETUP!"

That settled it. She wasn't in Heaven. No angel sounded like that. Of course, it could be Hell.

"Maybe she died. Awww."

"Not after my master treatment she would. She's still alive."

So she wasn't dead. She opened her eyes again, and this time the face of energy itself was far enough away to reveal another person who almost blended in with the green room. This was because she was mostly clad in green. She also had a black hair with a forehead protector on, a giant shuriken on her back, and was smiling proudly. The other, despite looking a little older, was a lot more childish acting, and seemed to smile for the sake of smiling and possibly convincing others to try. She had blonde hair, goggles on her forehead, some sort of forearm mounted weapon and was wearing a mostly tan brownish colored top with two blue and white ribbons attached, and some of the skimpiest jean shorts Orchid had ever seen. She thought 'some of' because she wasn't sure were the other one or two inches of it were, as they weren't on this girl.

"So how you feeling?" asked the one in green.

"Okay, I guess…" mumbled Orchid, sitting up.

"Hah! I told you, Rikku! There's nothing that can't be done by the Great Ninja Yuffie!" exclaimed the one in green.

"So what's your name?" asked the other. She hadn't been listening to the one in green. "I'm Rikku and this is Yuffie."

"Weren't you listening?" said Yuffie, cuffing Rikku lightly before Orchid could even answer. "Her name's Orchid. Montablanc already told us that."

"Where is he?" interrupted Orchid.

"Oh, he's in the next room with Arc," said Yuffie, walking towards a door. Orchid quickly got up and followed Rikku and Yuffie through into a room of red. Inside, in the sea of crimson, sat two people. One was Montblanc; the other was the man with the big hand. The big stone hand. The big, hard stone hand. The big, hard stone hand that really hurt to be hit with. She could have gone on into further detail, but that train of thought was derailed suddenly.

"Orchid! You're okay, kupo!" exclaimed Montblanc, jumping off his chair to scurry over to her, his antenna ball bouncing frantically.

"As he finishes conversing with my assaulter," said Orchid sarcastically.

"Oh, Arky!" said Rikku cheerfully, poking at the man's hunched over form. He was wearing a knee length white trench coat, and loose tan pants. As he straightened up, he revealed a black shirt, yellow tinted sunglasses that sat just below his eyes, and shoulder length dirty blonde hair that was all combed straight back and down, except for one lock which hung loosely to one side of his handsome face. His eyes were deep blue, and he stared hard at Orchid. His right fist, which was huge and made of some sort of stone with four raised knuckles at the tops of the big, thick fingers and took up almost his whole forearm ending in a large ring covered partially by his sleeve, clenched momentarily, and there was the sound of grinding stone. He got up and brushed his left hand back through his hair, though the loose lock merely fell back into place by his eyes.

"Name's Arc," he said, still staring at Orchid. She held his gaze, not backing down. He pushed up his shades with his left hand and stared at her through tinted eyes, the lenses painted opaque by the reflection of light. "I believe this is yours, little bud."

He held out Bramblebite between his right thumb and two fingers, the blade pointing horizontally between him and Orchid, making her suddenly aware it that it wasn't in her grip. She held out her right hand, much as she had with Sora, but this time more commanding. The blade shimmered in Arc's mighty hand, then faded out to reappear in Orchid's grip.

"So you really are the Keyblade Master," said Arc, letting his yellow shades slide down again. He sat back down, just as another man came in, followed by Sora and Cid, who was now wearing a combination of his normal clothes and various armored pads, gauntlets and a breast plate, his judge sword hanging from his side; both Sora and Cid were looking much better. The new comer was someone around Sora's age or a little older, in his late teens, with medium length blonde hair that all went back to a point, except for a few tufts at the front above his forehead which shot straight up. He had an intricate black tattoo on the left side of his face which ran from fore head to the level of his mouth and also branched off under his crystal blue eyes, and wore a black T-shirt, a red vest, baggy blue shorts, tennis shoes, and some padded and armored fighting gloves.

"'Sup, all?" he said, waving at them. Rikku and Yuffie enthusiastically returned the waves, while Arc just nodded in his direction. Montblanc turned to face the newcomers, while Orchid just stood there, unsure of what to do.

"Yuffie!" exclaimed Sora, jumping over one of the sofas to greet her. She turned away from him, her arms crossed.

"Hmph," was all Sora got.

"What's with her?" asked Sora, talking to Rikku and scratching his head.

"She says you're now categorized under 'handsome' and no longer can be considered 'cute'," replied Rikku. "Or something like that."

"Really? I'm handsome?"

"I don't know about that, but you certainly aren't the cute little boy she described to me."

Sora looked around the room as everyone got settled.

"Where's Leon and Aerith?" he asked Yuffie.

She didn't respond.

"Squall was taken," said Arc quietly.