Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction / X/1999 Fan Fiction / Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Then came an angel ❯ Strange days ( Chapter 7 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Chapter 7

 

By Sapadu

 

Kamui woke in the wee small hours of the morning, feeling exhausted and hollow.

 

It was now three months since Kotori had disappeared. Much had happened between then and now, yet... somehow... it seemed to make the three months all so much shorter.

 

His depressing thoughts were interrupted by a sweet, loud voice outside his window, on the street, singing. Kamui looked to his window to see a still dark sky with rain pouring down from it.

 

Who in their right mind would be out at THIS time in the rain, singing like that?

 

Kamui stretched and sat up, looking out his window to see a figure with long, dark, wavy hair spinning in circles, splashing in the puddles, and dancing in the empty street. Maybe he should open his window and tell her to be quiet? A quick opening test of the window told Kamui it was too cold to keep the window open long enough to shout at her.

 

Kamui swung his legs over the side of the dorm bed and cautiously set a foot on the cold floor, padding his way over to the closet and pulling out a uniform to wear for the day. He didn't mind being up so early: it gave him time to think.

 

Besides, today was his turn to cook breakfast with Yuzuriha, but she had been up all last night studying for a test, so he decided it might be nice to just make breakfast by himself and let the Inugami mistress sleep in today.

 

In about two hours, the rest of the Seals were awake and downstairs except Subaru. Sorata went rambling on about how nobody had such table manners as Arashi, whom was ignoring him rather blatantly. Yuzuriha was silent, but intense, probably trying to remember everything she had studied the night before. Breakfast went all too quickly and just as everyone went to the door, umbrellas in hand, there was a knock. Kamui, who had just been about to open the door, stared at the doorknob, as though it were some foreign object all of a sudden.

 

Finally, Kamui screwed up his courage to take the door handle, twist it, and open the door.

 

Standing on the front step, soaked from head to toe with a big, stupid grin on her face was the same girl Kamui had seen and heard singing earlier that morning.

 

"Clean your dorms?" She asked, cheerfully. Her tone reminded Kamui painfully of Yuzuriha's usually chipper voice. Her eyes opened, looking for a response, and Kamui felt no small amount of alarm when he saw her eyes were purple, just like his.

 

"Sa... padu... chan?" Yuzuriha peered around Kamui, seeing the newcomer, who, in turn, looked around Kamui to see Yuzuriha.

 

Well, I know what I'M good for... Kamui thought to himself.

 

"Yep! It's ME-E!" Samantha said, grinning, "So, clean your dorms, ne?" She asked. Sorata peeked over Kamui's shoulder at the rather short house cleaner.

 

"Are you really here to clean our dorms, little girl?" He asked, not really noticing how Samantha's grin faltered.

 

"Did you say 'little girl'?" She asked, in a voice that suggested she was REALLY hoping, for Sorata's sake, that he hadn't.

 

"It's not a good idea for kids to be wandering around by themselves, you know! And you're MUCH to young to be working! Do you have your parents with you somewhere?" Sorata continued onward, oblivious to Samantha's warping expression (A/N: I know I'm making Sorata a big idiot here, but this IS kind of important for Sorata to mistake Sammy for being a little girl... well, important for some upcoming humor, that is...)

 

"Stupid jerk." Kamui heard Samantha mutter. He glanced at her and her face snapped back to a smile, "Nope, I'm here all by myself!" Sorata blinked.

 

"Oh, that's not right! Maybe you should go talk to head of Campus security; do you know where he lives?" Sorata plowed forward, talking right over Samantha's protests of 'Excuse me, sir...'

 

"You go down the street and..." Sorata pointed out the door, completely ignoring the fact that Samantha had not said she needed directions, until he was very LOUDLY interrupted by an unhappy cleaner.

 

"WOULD YOU SHUT UP?" Samantha shouted. Everyone blinked at her, especially Yuzuriha.

 

"Let me try a different approach: Imonoyama-san hired me to clean the student's dorms. I am here to do my job. I need to know if you want me to clean your dorms or not. What part of this are you having trouble understanding?" Samantha had changed to using a rather clipped tone of voice. Kamui fought the urge to laugh.

 

"Um... mostly the part about YOU cleaning the dorms..." Sorata said. Sammy smacked her head.

 

"Why is it that people complain that woman's place is in the home, yet when she DOES things like cleaning, cooking, and laundry, they don't understand?" Samantha asked nobody in particular, making Sorata facefault.

 

"Putting aside the gender issue, I mean. More... someone your age..." He stammered. That was when Subaru had decided to wake up and come downstairs.

 

"In her case, I don't think age is really a decisive factor, Sorata-kun." Subaru said over the commotion at the doorway, "It may interest you to know that she is perfectly capable of defeating the Kamui of the Dragons of Earth." At THAT comment, Sorata and all the other Seals at the door facefaulted.

 

Sammy smiled. Her vampire fangs had grown back, and thus, the Dragons of Heaven backed away even more.

 

"We-ell... we'll just be going then! Don't want to be late for class, after all..." Sorata said, slithering past Samantha and the rest of the Seals followed suite, except Yuzuriha, who gave Sammy a hug before setting off for the day.

 

"I-i-i-i dunno, Yuzu-chan... she seemed kinda creepy to me..." Sorata mumbled, looking a little queasy from his encounter with Samantha. Arashi looked like she agreed, wholeheartedly.

 

"She isn't... creepy, per se... but something about her... it sets me on edge..." The Ise maiden concurred. Yuzuriha blinked at Arashi, as it was so rare for her to say something like that. Sorata wrapped an arm around Arashi's shoulders.

 

"You needn't worry, missy! I will ALWAYS be there to protect you!" He boasted, earning himself one of Arashi's elbows in his stomach. Yuzuriha giggled at their antics while Kamui could do nothing but blink.

 

"SHI-ROU-KUN!" Keiichi bounced up, umbrella and bookbag in hand, automatically scurrying over to Kamui, who practically jumped out of his skin at his classmate's sudden appearance.

 

"S-segawa-kun..." Kamui stammered, ignoring Yuzuriha's giggling behind his back. Keiichi smiled, apparently also ignoring Yuzuriha laughing at them.

 

"SO-O-O-O! How are you? I heard on the weather that it was supposed to be really nice later today: the rain should stop around lunch time! I was wondering if you wanted to have lunch together!" Keiichi continued to grin.

 

"A-aa... um, lunch sounds... great..." Kamui managed to stutter out. Keiichi smiled at him before bounding away. Kamui raised an eyebrow at Yuzuriha, who was going pink in the face from laughing so much.

 

"You two are so CUTE together!" She finally squealed, causing Kamui to go VERY red, indeed.

 

***********************

 

Samantha idly scrubbed away at the floor. She was still kind of mad at Sorata for calling her a 'little girl'. It was a very personal matter: she had stopped growing when she was fourteen. Stupid Jennifer and her potions...

 

Sammy was twenty-seven, for God's sake! At that age, one DID deserve a little more respect. Samantha sighed and looked out the window. The rain had stopped a while back, but the sky still looked cloudy.

 

Come to think of it, it HAD been rather chilly that morning... Maybe...

 

"May I ask why Imonoyama-san suddenly has a system of maids cleaning the dorms? We've been here for a few weeks, and we have never seen someone coming to clean the dorms." Subaru asked from the kitchen table, watching Samantha scrub the floor. Sammy grinned at him.

 

"We usually come when we can be sure EVERYONE is out of the dorms. Actually, I'm kinda new, so I figured you might be just a LITTLE annoyed if you came back to a clean dorm when you had something set up, or you now can't find things, y'know?" Samantha replied, continuing to wash. Subaru made a noncommittal noise and went back to his tea.

 

Spots of lace began to fall outside the window.

 

"LOOK! IT'S SNOWING! I KNEW IT WOULD SNOW TODAY!" Samantha jumped up and looked out the window, her large, amethyst eyes wide with a smile. Subaru looked up from his tea to see that, yes, it was indeed snowing.

 

"Subaru-kun... here's a riddle for you..." Samantha said, suddenly, "What does the snow become when it melts?"

 

Subaru turned away from his tea to stare incredulously at the girl looking out the window. A riddle? What kind of a riddle was THAT?

 

"It becomes water, of course." He replied, wondering faintly why she was talking when she was supposed to be cleaning...

 

"NOPE!" Samantha said, her lips puckering. Subaru raised an eyebrow in her direction.

 

"The snow melts into spring!" Sammy rocked back and forth on her heels, continuing to smile out the window. Subaru blinked, pondering.... Yes, she did have a point: spring DID come when the snow melted...

 

"Aren't you supposed to be cleaning?" He finally asked. Samantha made a face.

 

"Just thought you'd like a little conversation..." She mumbled, starting to scrub the floors again, eventually moving to the windows and up the stairs to the dorm rooms.

 

*************************

 

Samantha had just finished cleaning the kitchen when Kamui and the other three Seals came back to their dorm, along with Keiichi, who Kamui had invited over to have dinner in return for being invited over to Keiichi's house a few weeks ago.

 

"Na, Sapadu-chan, there are some people outside looking for you..." Yuzuriha said, poking her head through the doorway. Sammy stood up and walked past the inugami mistress to the door, only to find a Yankee, a denpa, and a riceball.

 

"Honda-chan! Arisa-chan! Saki-chan!" Samantha cried, throwing her arms around Tohru, who hugged back.

 

"Na, you DO realize Arisa and Saki are our given names, right?" Uo asked, raising an eyebrow. Samantha blinked and her jaw dropped into a Stupid!Tohru smile.

 

"Oh..." Was all she said. Sorata peered outside at the two newcomers. Uo gave him a peace sign.

 

"'Sup?"

 

"Hey." He returned, noncommittally, as all the other Seals came to see the sight. Hanajima's eyes lit up, literally, at the sight of Kamui.

 

"Konnichi wa, Kamui-kun." She muttered. Kamui blinked in her direction, looking quite afraid, all of a sudden. It was either God out to get him by sending all these beautiful, but scary women to torture him, or today just wasn't Kamui's day.

 

"Well, if you find your dorms satisfactory, then I shall be off!" Samantha spun on her heel and left all five Seals on the doorstep, staring after her as she left amid Tohru, Uo, and Hana. Yuzuriha waved at them cheerfully while the other four decided they had had enough for one day.

 

Oh, and of course, Kamui and Keiichi had still had lunch... just a very COLD lunch.

 

*************

 

"So-o-o-o-o... no hard feelings about last week, na?" Uo asked, shoving her hands into her pockets. Sammy smiled, her cheeks rosy from the cold.

 

"Nah. You guys actually took the fact that I'm dead pretty well in stride. I'm impressed." Samantha shrugged, kicking at a small pile of snow, making it roll up into a ball.

 

"Y'know, this snow's probably going to melt by tomorrow. It's too sunny out." Uo mentioned, letting a pad of snow crunch beneath her feet.

 

"Oh, well... it's pretty now..." Tohru sighed. Hanajima smiled and nodded.

 

Finally reaching their destination, Samantha and Tohru parted ways with Hanajima and Uotani, chatting and smiling as the Yankee and Denpa stared after them.

 

"Two peas in a pod, they are." Uo muttered, while Hana nodded.

 

****************

 

So, the Battle City tournament was going to begin in a week, eh? Well, this much was for sure: if the dreams had been correct, and her feeling pinpoint, much death and despair would come unless there was SOMEONE to chaperone.

 

A young woman walked down the streets of Domino, her long, brown robe-like coat flapping in the wind. It had snowed in Tokyo today, but Domino had temperatures in the 60's. Of course, the reason behind this phenomenon was why the young woman was so intent on entering the Battle City tournament. Maybe she could find some answers.

 

She had brown hair, barely cropped above her shoulders and her clothes were plain, but so strange that everyone else on the street stared at her.

 

The fact that she had a bandage over her eyes, yet she seemed to know where she was going just perfectly was also unnerving. Right behind her, a boy of about twelve with brown hair and gray eyes was walking in a similar fashion, except much more aware of the stares he was getting.

 

The woman entered the game shop where Duel Disks were being distributed and the boy following her leaned against the wall to wait for her outside.

 

"I'm here to register for the Battle City Tournament." She said to the man behind the counter. He smiled at her, in a slightly pleasant, slightly menacing way.

 

"I'll need to see your identification as a Duelist." He informed her. The young woman waved her right hand in a small, but noticeable gesture.

 

"You don't need to see my identification." She said. The man behind the counter blinked, feeling slightly dizzy as the world blurred a little. There was something strange going on: his head almost felt like it had been screwed on backwards. Where was he? Oh, yeah! Registering the woman for Battle City... why DID he need her ID, anyway?

 

"I'm sorry, I must have made a mistake... I don't need to see your identification after all." He said, fiddling with a paper clip.

 

"I can have a Duel Disk and go about my business." The woman said and again returned that feeling of dizziness. The man reached for a box with a Duel Disk and the locater cards in it.

 

"Here's your Duel Disk, ma'am, and you can go about your business." He smiled. The woman smiled back, though only slightly.

 

"Have a nice day." She muttered.

 

"Have a nice day, madam." The man repeated after her as the young woman walked out. The boy who had been following her was waiting and pushed himself off the wall as she breezed past, going back in the direction which they came from.

 

"Mother... you COULD just wear enchanted glasses or sunglasses or something like that..." He mentioned, almost as though he'd had this conversation with her before.

 

"Why?" The woman asked the boy, whom was apparently her son.

 

"Because then people won't stare at you." He replied, as though this was obvious.

 

"Ken, it doesn't matter what people approve of. It's whether something is right or wrong that counts." The mother said, sternly.

 

"But you don't even take those bandages off when you go to bed! And I KNOW that Father is uncomfortable with you wearing those. And Luke... well... Luke is uncomfortable with you, period." Ken argued.

 

"If you don't mind, the farmboy's father was the one who killed me..." Ken's mother said, sharply. Ken kicked at a stray stone on the sidewalk.

 

"Luke's not his father." He muttered, sullenly, but his mother heard, just the same.

 

"Ken, if you keep coming to farmboy's defense like that, I'll think you have a crush on him." Ken's mother returned, a smirk creeping onto her lips. Ken stuck his tongue out at his mother's back.

 

"I saw that."

 

"That's why I did it."

 

"And that's why you still need to finish your training." Ken sighed at his mother's last comment, "Do you think that your training isn't important?" She questioned, still not turning to face her son.

 

"Oh, I know my training's important. It's just not the ONLY thing that's important." Ken muttered, his face darkening, not with anger or hatred, but some sorrowful memory.

 

"However, you're still not ready. That's why you're staying at home while I go on this mission." His mother reminded him.

 

"You don't trust me." Ken said. It was more of stating a fact than a rebellious remark. Ken's mother sighed.

 

"I trust you with being able to take care of the house while I'm gone. Does that count?" She asked. Ken crossed his arms over his chest.

 

"No, because the only reason you're leaving me in charge of the household is because you don't trust Father in the kitchen." Ken returned. His mother chuckled, and they continued to walk, this time in an uncomfortable silence.

 

*************

 

"BA-ku-RA-SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!" Bakura blinked and looked wildly around for who had screamed when a red figure came hurtling at him, grabbing him around the neck and spinning before finally picking him up and spinning HIM around, causing all of Bakura's classmate's to scatter.

 

When Bakura's feet were finally placed back on the ground again, he found himself staring into the face of a very exuberant and energetic Samantha.

 

Samantha was looking at him very strangely. She was frowning and had raised a finger to about level with his right cheek. Oh, yeah... Bakura remembered the large, discoloured bruise on his cheek.

 

"Bakura-san? What happened?" Samantha asked, lightly tapping the bruise on his cheek. Bakura had gotten so many questions, exactly like that all day, so he had an excuse ready on the tip of his tongue.

 

"A book." He said. It had worked all day. Once people heard his response, they decided they didn't want to know, or that Bakura had gone crazy, so they left him alone.

 

"A book?" She asked. Bakura nodded.

 

"Yes: A book." He muttered. Samantha stared at him long and hard.

 

"How?" She finally said. Bakura started to stammer. THIS, he hadn't prepared for.

 

"I... um... uh..." He stumbled, frantically trying to come up with something that wouldn't be a lie, but that wouldn't make her think he was insane.

 

"Did someone THROW a book at you?" Samantha shouted, attracting stares. Bakura's thoughts tripped until he decided that it would be perfectly fine for her to know that yes, someone HAD thrown it at him. She didn't have to know WHO.

 

"Y-yes..." Bakura mumbled. Samantha tapped the bruise again.

 

"This bruise is at least a day old. That means you got it yesterday, most likely at night, when you were at home. Somebody at home threw a book at you? Who?" Sammy asked, while Bakura cursed mentally that she had figured it out.

 

"Er..."

 

"Did your DAD do this to you?" She demanded, grabbing the front of Bakura's shirt and making him look at her. Bakura shook his head. His father was too busy on his trips to digs to even send a letter, let alone be nasty to his son. Honestly, Bakura and his father may very well have been strangers who lived under the same roof once every twelve months and addressed each other as family.

 

"Your MOM?" Samantha was clearly angry, if one was to judge by the way her hair was turning a curly red and her eyes were starting to bug out. She was actually starting to scare Bakura, to be honest.

 

He shook his head.

 

"Do you have a BROTHER who's treating you like that?" Sammy was quite clearly not going to let the matter rest until she had gotten to the bottom of it. Now that Bakura thought about it...

 

"I... I GUESS you could call him that..." Bakura mumbled, praying to God that she would just drop it.

 

"That's TERRIBLE!" Samantha cried, her eyes wide and earnest. Bakura jumped, surprised. It was one thing to be confronted like this, but for Samantha to actually act like she cared... Bakura just wasn't used to it.

 

Thus, he wasn't truly able to respond.

 

"Well, then, I have JUST the thing for the occasion." Samantha reached into a pocket and pulled out a blue stone that was shaped like a human heart, pressing it against the bruise on his cheek. Similarly, Samantha pulled an alabaster bottle from her pocket and yanked the cork off with her teeth.

 

"What's that?" Bakura asked, quite reasonably frightened. Samantha mumbled something between her teeth that sounded like 'red wine'.

 

Before Bakura could think any further, Samantha had spun the bottle over her head and the contents of the bottle were sprayed in a circle around them.

 

"Give me your left hand." Samantha ordered. An order Bakura was too scared to dare disobey.

 

"Faith in the Goddess, great

Might of will

Strength of heart

Let thine life source renew again"

 

Samantha began to pour the remaining contents of the bottle over Bakura's left hand. It didn't look like red wine at all, in fact, it was blue.... though was beginning to take a purple tinge.

 

And was it just Bakura's imagination, or was the rock against his cheek starting to grow warm? Warmer than it normally would, that is...

 

"Sing to soft sleep

The torments of the skin

As doth souls flow

The beating of hearts begin"

 

It WAS warmer. And, if Bakura looked at it just out of the corner of his eye, he could see the stone slowly turning red and pulsing...

 

Like a real heart.

 

And the wine over his hand was now DEFINITELY red!

 

"Let life flow

Let life grow"

 

And Bakura hadn't noticed this before, but the two of them were standing in a void of complete and total blackness. The only way he could see at all was because both Samantha and himself were glowing.

 

And then he found himself back in broad daylight, still outside the school, his hand dry and his face didn't hurt anymore.

 

"Voila! You are healed!" Samantha pulled the stone away- blue again and the bottle in her right hand was empty- as Bakura softly touched his cheek, realizing that, indeed, the bruise was gone. He blinked.

 

"You like? I made that spell up myself!" Samantha said, glowing.

 

"Um..." Bakura stammered. Sammy's eyes bugged out.

 

"Oooh! Are you religious? I'm sorry if I offended you!" She shrieked, her hair standing on end.

 

Bakura shook his head.

 

"No, you're not religious or no, I didn't offend you?" Sammy pushed, leaning in towards Bakura's face even further.

 

"Either. Or both." He muttered. Sammy smiled, relieved, before grabbing Bakura's arm and dragging him in the direction of his house.

 

"All right, now, whoever hurt Bakura-san is going to pay in HELL!" She declared, pulling a rather terrified Bakura along. Terrified, because, not only was Samantha beginning to look scary, but the Spirit of the Millennium Ring wasn't upset, in fact, he was laughing.

 

No good could come of this.

 

*****************

 

Stupid labels. Stupid language. Haven't these crazy people ever heard of LETTERS? Ken thought, staring helplessly at the boxes on the shelves. He couldn't understand one word, if one could call these strange symbols on the packages words.

 

A voice behind him made him turn, finding himself staring at a boy, about eighteen years old with neatly combed brown hair and cerulean blue eyes. He was wearing the uniform for the school that he would be going to tomorrow. And he was talking in the strange language that Ken didn't understand.

 

"No, no... I have no money, I promise!" Ken protested, waving his hands, helplessly. The other boy, who was Kaiba, if you hadn't guessed, frowned and said the same thing.

 

:Luke!: Ken wailed through their link.

 

:Mm?: The older man responded, either trying to remain neutral or distracted by something else. For some reason, whenever people had seen Luke, they'd all done double takes, ever since they'd gotten to this city a week ago.

 

:HELP ME!: Ken wailed. There was a pause until Ken remembered that he hadn't told Luke WHAT to help him with...

 

:There's this guy over here and he's talking directly to me and I don't understand one syllable of what he's saying!:

 

:I'll be over in a minute.: Luke replied, and Ken could swear he heard him laughing.

 

Sure enough, in just a moment, Ken saw Luke just around the corner, carrying the grocery basket. Why, in the name of Yoda, did Ken's mother send THEM to do the grocery shopping?

 

"Luke! I've found bread rolls... at least I think I have..." Ken waved. Kaiba looked over his shoulder and, sure enough, did a double take at seeing Luke. Luke, calm as ever, took a long look at the CEO before speaking in the same language.

 

Ken sighed. GREAT! Even LUKE spoke this weird language.

 

"Ken, those aren't rolls. That's what he was telling you: those are anpan." Luke clarified, pointing to the package Ken held.

 

"Oh. What's anpan?" Ken asked and after hearing what anpan was, Ken still put it in the basket, "Mother needs more variety, anyway." Luke shrugged, and then said something to Kaiba that Ken assumed was along the lines of 'thank you'.

 

Actually, Ken had wandered off in search of butter and was just rounding the corner when he bumped into someone.

 

"Oops! Sorry!" Ken steadied himself on one of the shelves.

 

"It's quite alright." Said the man in accented, but nevertheless, good basic language. Ken blinked, getting a good look at the man. He was dressed from head to toe in white, even his skin and hair. The only thing that kept him from being an albino were his gray eyes. The only clothing he wore that wasn't white or gray were two, red stud earrings. This caused Ken to blink even further.

 

And, though it might have just been Ken's imagination, there seemed like an air of distrust about him. Something in Ken's gut just told him to be running away in the opposite direction, or to at least put his hands over his head and duck.

 

The man brushed past and the feeling disappeared, commingling with the atmosphere of the entire store, and Ken shook it off, going to find the butter and Luke again.

 

The two got out of the store without much fuss and started on their trip back to the apartment they'd been staying in with Ken's parents. The streets were relatively empty, especially given the time of day.

 

"Luke... you won't tell my mother that I asked for help, will you?" Ken asked, uncomfortably. Luke turned a sapphire eye on him.

 

"Whoever said I was going to say anything about that incident at all?" Luke returned. Ken's face broke into a relieved smile.

 

"Luke, I love you!" Ken said, practically crying with relief. The casual observer may not have noticed, but Ken's tone of voice carried many layers of affection. Respect for the older man as a teacher and a mentor; Admiration for Luke as an idol; Caring as a friend; Love as... well... a young boy in love for the first time.

 

Luke, however, was not a casual observer. He shifted one of the grocery bags he was carrying and took hold of Ken's free hand.

 

"I know."

 

***************

 

Tohru blinked at the sight she was observing now, at this moment.

 

Sure, she had thought the movies were great but...

 

To see the actors coming out onto the streets was a bit strange. And moreover, they were dressed like their character...

 

Or at least Luke Skywalker was. Tohru had NO idea who the boy was, nor why they were holding hands. What was even stranger was that they had just left the store she normally went to to do her grocery shopping.

 

She had thought she'd had enough surprises when Sapadu-chan had said she was dead.

 

Tohru had been wrong.

 

A/N: Whoo! Took me a while, but I did it! And it's worth it, this time.

 

Oh, and if anyone's wondering about the Star Wars people... everything shall be explained. I promise... at least, when Sammy meets them. And yes, Ken's mom IS dead and we ARE assuming she's a shinigami, too.

 

For anyone who's kind of put off by that... well... I thought it was funny... *shrugs*