Gatekeepers 21 Fan Fiction ❯ Tokyo Knight ❯ Home ( Chapter 3 )

Before I begin, I'd like to ask you to read the notes at the end before submitting a review asking me something. The notes are there to explain things. All the starry universe shall be revealed unto those who read my notes. At least, the part of the universe the story covers. I'll remind you of this later.

Part III: Home

I woke up Saturday morning with a hideous headache. Dammit! I know I didn't drink anything last night…or eat anything that could cause this. [The thought control system in Scorpio places a great strain on the brain if it is not highly compatible with the system. I had headaches like this when I first wore the armour, even though it was made for me. They subsided after the system adjusted itself to my brain. I'm not sure how much the system can adjust to accommodate you, but the headaches should be less severe after you've used it several times.]

Great, so I just have to live with this as a side-effect of the armour. I swallowed two Advil, which helped, and the headache was gone by noon.

Tategami High School was only five stops down the line from the subway station two blocks down the street. Classes started at eight Monday morning, so I caught a train just after seven. A few minutes into the ride, I heard a familiar high-pitched voice. 'So, if it wasn't an Invader, what was it? Some sort of robot?'

An equally familiar, but less irritating, voice replied, 'The imitation Gate of Perception in my laptop indicated that it was a human wearing some sort of armour. However, something was interfering with the Gate; the image was very blurry. I have his name, though, since he gave us his address….' Another conversation closer to me drowned her out.

When I got to the school, I wandered around for a while to familiarize myself with the layout. The gate opened on a large courtyard with several trees. The building itself consisted of two wings joined at the center by a grand staircase and the main office. I found my classroom, 8-B, around 7:45. To my surprise, Miu and Ayane were sitting on opposite sides of the room. I took the only empty desk and opened theAeneid to await the beginning of class. A few minutes later, a teacher came in, a tall, young, redheaded woman in a light blue suit. 'Class, we have a new student joining us this year,' she announced. 'He just transferred from the US, so I hope you will help him get adjusted to our system.' She beckoned me to join her at the front of the room and introduced me.

The first class was math, my bane. Trigonometry was never my strong point-I kept confusing sine and cosine or writing the ratios upside down. Fortunately, Alex turned out to be great at math, and he explained it to me. The English class that followed was taught by a heavyset middle-aged Japanese man with a full beard. I spent the hour in a half-doze, occasionally jotting down some arcane point of grammar I'd never heard of before. Alex snored in the background. Next came history; the lecture focused on the origins of the Tokugawa Shogunate in the late 1500s and early 1600s. The lecturer looked old enough to know the material first-hand.

I decided to eat lunch in the courtyard under the sun; air conditioning chills my bones for some reason. I sat under a large oak and opened my bag. I'd packed a cold sandwich and some random snacks.

'Mind if we join you?' The speaker was a slim guy about my height who looked like he needed a shave. Standing beside him was a muscular boy half a head shorter than me. I recognized them from class-they sat in the row behind me. 'I'm Kenichii Kobe, and this is Masaharu Sakai….'

I missed the rest because I'd noticed that the girl from Osaka was lounging under a tree on the other side of the courtyard. That lock of hair was unmistakable. Her grey uniform seemed unnatural for some reason; it didn't suit her at all. Masaharu noticed me staring at her.

'So, first day here and you've already got your heart set on someone, eh? That's Satoka Tachigawa. She's a senior, but I've heard that she isn't applying to any colleges. She's not going with anyone now, so why don't you get up and ask her out?' The barely concealed grins on their faces intimated that she reacted badly to such overtures.

'I'm not interested in her; not that way,' I replied defensively. 'She just looks like someone I met once, that's all.'

[Was Hael!] Alex's voice rang out in the ancient toast and I heard the clinking of metal cups. In the next five minutes, Alex and Galahad drank toasts to Launcelot, Arthur, Merlin, Sidonia, the Grail, Alex's wife, Guinevere, and each other's health. I began to feel a bit odd; not bad, but odd…happy wasn't the word for it, either, but it was a good feeling.

<Have I told thee of the time my mother visited Camelot and met Queen Guinevere? My father Launcelot…> Galahad sounded a bit unsteady. When he got to the part about Launcelot jumping nude out of a window, Alex burst out laughing and proposed a toast to madness. Then one to love, and one to fidelity. I must have laughed, as well, since Kenichii asked, 'What's so funny?'

'Oh, nothing. Just an old story that popped into my head. It'd take too long to tell. Where's my sandwich?' The bag lay by my foot, filled with crumbs, but the sandwich had disappeared.

'Uh, you ate it, remember?' Masaharu reminded me.

'Oh, right. Thanks.'

Half an hour later, Galahad and Alex were singing songs I'd never heard in languages I didn't know. Of course, the fact that I didn't recognize the songs meant nothing-those two could have been singing 'Pretty Woman' for all I could tell. They didn't have the best singing voices in the world. Then they stopped and a sweet but infinitely sad melody began to play-it began with a solo flute, but the strings joined in a minute later. Kenichii and Masaharu had been looking at me oddly all through lunch, probably because I'd kept laughing at Galahad and Alex's stories…and now I was swaying in time to the music. Something told me that it should be danced to, not merely heard. I spotted Satoka on the far side of the courtyard. I walked over to her and bowed low.

'May I have this dance, fair lady?' I slurred. Before she could respond, I'd pulled her up and my feet began to carry us in a stately dance I'd never seen. Several minutes later, when the music stopped, I bowed again and left. [Ah, the grace of youth. I've never seen the Selenai danced so well.]

The rest of the day was lost in a haze, except for an incident that occurred as I was leaving. The world was tipping back and forth as I walked out. The principal stopped me and smelled my breath. 'You're barely able to stand up, son!' he exclaimed. 'You should try to get some more sleep at home. There's no need to push yourself so hard this early in the year; you can't pass the exams if you have a breakdown the first week of class.'

I somehow made it home and cooked dinner without hurting myself. I woke up on the couch with a hideous headache feeling like I'd ridden roller coasters all night. My mouth tasted like something had died in there weeks ago. I decided not to risk breakfast after my stomach stopped heaving, but I packed a big lunch. The lights in the hall stabbed my eyes and the conversation in the elevator felt like hammers in my head. What the hell were you two doing yesterday?!

[Not so loud, please. Some of us aren't feeling too good this morning. We were just getting to know each other. Talking can be thirsty work, you know.]

Then why do I have a hangover if you two are just voices in my head?!

[The memory of drink is as good as the substance for spirits. As for you, I suppose the Gate links us in more ways than one.] I sighed; there was nothing I could do about it. At least try to keep the drinking under control while I'm in school.

The noise on the subway was torturous, but at least I was spared Miu's voice. In my condition, that may have been fatal. When I arrived at Tategami High, I saw Satoka approaching the school from the other direction carrying some sort of wrapped sandwich. I went up to her to apologise. 'Morning, Satoka. About yesterday…I don't know what came over me, but I wasn't quite myself. I'm sorry if what I did embarrassed you.'

My sudden greeting surprised her, but she recognized me quickly. 'Don't worry about it. Everyone knows you can't hold someone responsible for what he does while he's drunk. You're actually a pretty good dancer.' Her face hardened. 'But I can hold you responsible for being drunk at school in the first place.' She grabbed my arm and threw me over the courtyard wall. My head hit a tree limb on the way down. Amazingly, the landing cured my headache.

I spent the rest of the week settling into the dull routine of school. I came in later than everyone else, which earned me some odd looks, but most of my classmates overlooked it as just part of my being foreign. Ayane brought me about 304,000 yen ($2533 US, just about), my share of last Friday's bounty, on Wednesday. Friday evening, I went club-hunting by riding the subway a stop or two at a time and then roaming a few blocks. Around ten-thirty, I saw a tall, thin man standing at the far end of an alley as I passed. His short hair shone silver in a streetlight's glare. I had a feeling that I knew him from somewhere, though I'd never met anyone with that hair and height. A column of Invaders appeared in the alley between us, but they focused on him, ignoring me. He thrust out an arm and shook it sharply. A tall staff topped with a vicious broadsword appeared in his hand. I drew my pistol and moved to help, but Alex held me back, saying, [I think this man can take care of himself.] But he can't be under sixty! [I'd say he's closer to thirty-five.]

The man charged the Invaders with his odd weapon spinning beside him. The blade sliced through the creatures as though they were made of jelly. It was all over within a minute. The man stood among the crystals and said quietly and angrily, 'Still not the right world. How much longer must I search?' A glowing oval appeared in the air between us and he stepped through. The portal vanished after his foot entered.

Who was that? You sounded like you knew him.

[That was me. Or rather, one of my counterparts Traveling between the worlds. After my wife's death, I sought her slayer on a hundred worlds…I didn't find him for thirty years, though. I gave up hope long before.] He cut off abruptly and refused to say more.

I ran into Satoka again while I was shopping after lunch Saturday afternoon. I was holding a large bag of groceries in my arms when she almost ran into me. 'Hey! Watch where you're going!'

'Oh, hi,' she said semi-apologetically. 'Sorry about that. By the way, I've been meaning to ask you something.' She pulled out her cellphone and started punching buttons. 'Where are you living now? I called your uncle's place Thursday to see if you wanted to do some sparring, but your aunt said you'd moved out.' I gave her my new address and asked for hers.

She gave it and said, 'I got a great deal on it, too: only 12,500 yen a month [about $1100 US] and it has a wonderful view. Three bedrooms, one bath, great kitchen, all the latest appliances, even its own laundry room.' Seeing my stunned look, she explained, 'I signed the lease before the housing market started heating up. I have to renew next month, though.' Her face said she knew her landlord would be demanding more now.

Her comment about sparring reminded me that I needed to buy some practice weapons, and maybe some real ones, too. I put it off until the next Saturday, though. There was a martial arts supply store a few blocks from my apartment, so I decided to start there before running around half the city. It was a large, modern place, with wide aisles of folded uniforms, weights, and assorted weapons. A glass display at the front contained several swords of various styles, and spears stood in long racks at the back. I bought two pairs of straight wooden swords; one pair was twice the weight of Galahad's sword, the other was the same weight. I also bought a six-foot spear ([Shoddy, but I've used worse] was Alex's comment.). Before I left, I asked the clerk to show me some of their steel swords. I let Galahad feel the weapons while Alex probed them in some incomprehensible way. Their verdict was that the weapons were primarily decorative: <This blade would snap if one used it against an armoured foe, or a foe who blocked thine blow.> [This has to be the worst steel I've ever seen in a weapon. It looks pretty, but it won't hold an edge for five minutes.]

The manager was nice enough to direct me to an antique shop on the other side of town that carried older weapons, ones that may have seen combat. The shop was small, dark, and cramped. Swords hung on the walls beside axes and maces; the glass counter contained dozens of daggers beside earrings and bracelets. Assorted polearms stood in ranks with narrow aisles between. The proprietor and sole employee was a small wizened man with a long white mustache and white hair.

'How's business?' I asked.

He replied in a dry and dusty voice, 'As well as could be expected. Many of the younger generation find these old things irresistible; they think they lend an "atmosphere" to a room. But once they see the price of quality, they go to some new store that sells stamped blades for thrice their worth.' As he talked, I wandered over to the table at the center of the back wall. A five-foot-long box stood on the table. Within lay a sword about four and a half feet long in a plain black scabbard mounted with a little gold. The quillions were angled towards the tip of the blade with rubies mounted on the ends. The hilt was wrapped in brown leather with a round pommel of plain bronze. <This looks familiar…where have I seen this sword before?>

I picked up the sword to examine the blade. It was sharper than a sushi chef's knife, and polished to a mirrored sheen. I turned to ask the price, expecting to be bankrupt when I left. The shopkeeper's eyes were bulging from their sockets and his mouth hung open in shock.

'No charge for you,' he choked out. 'That sword was said to belong to a great knight. Sadly, I've forgotten his name. No one has been able to touch hilt or scabbard in all the time I've had it. The man who sold it to me said that only one of that knight's blood may lay hands on it. If that is so, it is yours by right.' I couldn't persuade him to let me pay him for the sword, so I settled for buying a ten-inch dagger to match it and a second sword. The latter was about the same length, though not as fine, with a straight guard studded with sapphires. I left the store with barely enough in the bank to feed myself until the end of the month when I drew my stipend.

When I arrived at my apartment, I found the hall outside blocked with assorted furniture, stacks of cardboard boxes, and a mattress. Satoka was leaning against my door with her arms folded and an impatient look on her face.

'What are you doing here? Housewarming gifts are nice, but don't you think this is a bit much?'

'It's not for you. This is mine. Some old couple offered my landlord almost triple what I was paying on the condition that they could move in Monday. My parents and I can't match that, so….' She broke off and waved an arm at the boxes.

'I'll help you unpack, but the hall's a bit narrow for that bed. And there's no kitchen or bathroom. But the laundry room is just down that way.' I hoped she would take the hint. I didn't need a roommate who could destroy the apartment. The elevator bell rang, but no one came out.

'Are you acting stupid, or were you born that way? Open the door and help me with the boxes!' She snapped. I sighed. She would force me to do it directly.

'You can't just show up on someone's doorstep and expect him to let you move in. You're not that good-looking.' Her eyes flashed and she moved to draw a weapon before she caught herself. I continued, 'Besides, can't you find another place or move back in with your parents?'

'They live in Osaka. I was visiting them when we met. Transferring schools would be almost impossible now that classes have started. As for finding a new apartment, you know how the market is right now: there aren't any apartments available in my price range, and I don't know anyone else who needs an apartment. And don't try telling me you don't have room. Every apartment in this building has at least two bedrooms.' About midway through this rant, I realized that I would have to either give in or remove her by force. I wasn't sure I'd be able to do that without wrecking half the floor. Besides, even though I didn't know her that well, I just couldn't kick her out on the street. I sighed.

'Fine. You can stay here until you can find a new apartment. You'll have to pay half the rent and utilities, though. The room on the right is yours.' I opened the door and showed her the room. She asked about the speaker by the bathroom door, and I explained that the bathroom was practically soundproof, and that that was the only way to talk with someone in there. She also noticed the small shrine to Athena I'd set up in one corner. I set up a stand for the swords before starting on her stuff. Moving the bed, desk, chairs, and boxes took the rest of the afternoon. After she'd settled in, she decided to examine the swords I'd bought. The ruby-hilted blade threw sparks that burned her hand when she tried to touch it. I laughed as I went into the kitchen to start dinner. I said, 'Be careful around that sword. The others should be fine, though. Oh, and if you don't like my cooking, there's Ramen in that cabinet.'

She seemed to enjoy the pork stew and miso soup I made. As I cleaned up, I said, 'I think we should try to keep this quiet. I don't think the school administration would approve of this.'

She just grunted and turned on the TV. I tried again to start a conversation. 'So what are you planning to do after you graduate?'

'I'll probably become a full-time Invader hunter. There's good money in that here in Tokyo. I might take a part-time job to fall back on if there's a dry spell. What about you? What are your plans?'

'I got a job a few weeks ago. I'm planning to stay with the Company after I graduate. The work should be pretty exciting, with decent pay and a chance for promotions.'

'What kind of job is it?'

'Well, it's sort of an internship thing. I do odd jobs for the Company. Haven't had one yet, but they say they'll call me when they need me.'

'So what does this Company do?'

Company policy was rather strict about letting outsiders learn too much, so I was forced to give a vague answer. 'Car rentals. High-class car rentals. Rolls-Royces, Porches, Ferraris, that sort of thing.' This was true; the Company did provide transportation for clients. Satoka gave a snort at my idea of 'exciting.'

About an hour later, I was soaking in the tub when Alex spoke up. [I'd be careful around that girl. I've met her type before. One of them almost killed me when I walked in on her bathing. Like it was my fault she left the door wide open.]

Go ahead and say it. I directed the thought to Galahad. <Say what?>

That sin and damnation speech everyone feels obliged to give whenever a guy and a girl decide to live under one roof. <Thou art both adults in mind and body, if not by law. If thine lives are chaste, who can gainsay thine decision?>

[I agree with him. It's no one's business but yours. I'd try not to make her angry, though.] I felt a cold draft part the steam from my bath and I turned my head to find out what caused it. Satoka was standing in the open door wearing a bathrobe. She carried a towel in her arms with several bottles of coloured goo on top. 'Get in or get out,' I growled, 'but don't just stand there. You're letting the cold in.'

She blushed and fled. I came out a few minutes later with my towel wrapped around my waist. I pointed to the red sign reading "Occupied" over the door and shouted, 'Can you not see that?!'

'No. And there wasn't much to see inside, either.' She pushed past me into the bathroom before I could make a coherent response.

The next morning, Satoka lounged on the couch in a loose red robe­-and not much underneath-watching some soap opera loosely based on the Three Kingdoms saga while I made onion crepes­-distant relatives of pancakes with many layers that peel apart as one ate them. The doorbell rang, and I asked her to see who it was since the crepes burned easily. She got up and opened the door. Kenichii and Masaharu stood outside, practically drooling when they saw her. She called, 'I think it's for you.'

I turned around and asked them, 'What the hell are you two doing here?!'

They kept staring as Kenichii answered, 'We live on the floor below you. We came up yesterday to do some laundry (our building had laundry facilities every five floors; I lived on the tenth floor) when we heard you two arguing and decided to come back later.' Satoka returned to her room to change while we talked.

'I don't see you two carrying any laundry.'

He replied quickly, 'We did it yesterday after you'd moved the stuff out of the hall. We just came up to say "Hi" this morning.'

Masaharu broke in, 'You lucky dog! You just met her two weeks ago and you've already talked her into living with you. So how is she in the sack?' The inevitable question…why do people immediately assume that? [Because they're filthy-minded perverts, why else?]

'It's not like that between us. She got outbid for her apartment, and she didn't have anywhere to go. She just showed up here with everything she owned. If you two like her so much, why don't you offer her a place to stay?'

'Uh…my parents would kill me if I tried to bring a girl in like that,' confessed Masaharu.

'Mine, too,' Kenichii added.

'I heard what you two said and I just want to say that I'd rather kill myself than live with wimps like you.' Satoka addressed this to Masaharu and Kenichii as she came out of her room in her customary jeans and T-shirt.

'Wimp?! I can bench more than the three of you weigh!' Masaharu shouted.

'Strength isn't everything.' Satoka threw me one of the practice swords and took one for herself. Before we started, though, I asked my friends to move the TV into one of the bedrooms­-replacing it would mean living on Ramen for two weeks.

When they returned, Satoka and I bowed to each other and assumed our fighting stances. I lunged towards her heart, but she dodged to one side and brought her sword around in a sweeping arc at my head. I spun to meet her blade with my own and then disengaged. She charged me, stabbing at my throat. I dodged to my right and caught her behind the knees with my blade. As she went down, she hooked one foot behind my ankles and pulled me to the floor. We rolled a few feet away from each other and stood. She came at me with her sword held high for an overhead blow; I stepped to one side just as she began the swing and drove my knee into her diaphragm. As she gasped for air, I raised my sword for a 'killing' blow. Before it connected, though, she'd hooked her blade behind my knees and thrown me to the ground. I felt the sword point at my throat as she declared, 'I win.'

I smiled wryly and whispered,' Look down.' My sword was nestled just under her ribs­-a punctured lung at the least; not necessarily fatal, but inconvenient.

'Nice workout. Let's eat.' She put the swords back on the stand while I returned to the kitchen. Masaharu and Kenichii stared at her with a mix of admiration and terror.

As I finished the crepes, I asked them, 'Have you eaten yet?' They shook their heads, and I said, 'Since you're here, you might as well stay for breakfast.'

The grabbed plates and set up the kotatsu before the words were out of my mouth, so I assumed they'd accepted the invitation. The crepe I'd been working on when they arrived was burned beyond edibility, and so was the last one (the phone rang while it was cooking­-telemarketer selling life insurance). I gave them to Kenichii and Masaharu. As they left, Satoka told them, 'If people are talking about us living together at school, I'll have your hides for boots.'

'D-D-Don't worry,' Kenichii stammered. 'We won't tell anyone.' Masaharu nodded agreement quickly and the two practically tripped over themselves trying to get out.

'Poker?' Asked Satoka as she pulled a deck from her pocket.

READ MY NOTES BEFORE REVEIWING! THEY MAY ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS.

Notes: I'll only say this once, so pay attention. Italics indicate the narrator's thoughts, <angle brackets> enclose Galahad's thoughts, and [plain brackets] enclose Alex's thoughts. Because the system is so simple and easy to remember, this may be the ONLY indication of who's speaking. So don't forget this…I'll try to mention who says what, but I may just rely on the brackets.

I have no clue what the curriculum in Japanese high schools is, so I'm freehanding something reasonable. By the way, the Tokugawa Shogunate lasted from 1603 to 1867 (you can look this up in Encarta if you want)...gotta love the Internet. James Clavell's novel Shogun is based on this; I can't say how accurate it is, but it's a good book. It's about 1150 pages, though.

I'm following the convention of placing surnames last since I'm rendering speech into English. Iron Chef fans will probably notice that the narrator's new friends' names are drawn from that show (or rather, the pieces of them are). They're just two random guys who attach themselves to him. I'm pretty sure they won't be too important…they probably won't die, either.

I reiterate: the Company the narrator works for is NOT AEGIS! If it were, Reiji Kageyama would have contacted him. And his boss would have mentioned his Gate ability at the meeting, or asked about it…or sent him to get tested for it. So stop asking if he's working for AEGIS! He doesn't…at least, not yet. And if he does, it'll be more of a hobby than a job. The Company's this sort of corporate black ops outfit (well, grey ops; they don't do anything illegal) that's been around for a while.

Fear not, I'm not starting up a GK21 harem fic with all three Gatekeepers under one roof. For one thing, he doesn't have room for four people in that apartment. Besides, Miu's voice would drive at least one of her roommates to the point of homicide. And I'm not into the character killing thing. And for those who want a lemon/lime flavoured chapter, I have two things to say to you: 'Private Archives' and 'Write it yourself.'

Galahad's reaction to these two living together may seem odd for such a devout person, but remember that in his era, people were married by eighteen, sometimes for several years.

K&M are just two typical high school guys (well, typical American high school guys, more or less). I'm sure most of you know the type.

I'm not English, I just write like it. Some of the spellings just look cooler than the American system's. I may slip back and forth, especially on words like 'recognise' and 'realize.'

You may have noticed that I still haven't said the narrator's name. Don't ask what it is; I won't tell you. All will be revealed in the fullness of time.

If you don't like the title of this chapter, suggest a better one. One-word titles only, please. I've got a theme going and I don't want to break it.