Yuri's feet skid the in wet earth as she came out of the defensive position. Yuki ran up to her quickly, and threw multiple jabs, but Yuri either blocked or dodged. Yuri came up with a sweep kick as the punching had seemed weaker, but Yuki had remained on the ground. Yuri back up and snapped her fingers, only a spiritual weapon didn't show. She tried again, and again, and again, but nothing had happened. As she was trying to get her weapon ready, Yuki had held her weapon's tip to Yuri's throat.
"How many times must I tell you, you have to be double minded. You can't concentrate on simply one thing. You have to give everything you have into making a sword, but also pay attention to what's going on in the fight."
"How can I?" Yuri asked as Yuki's weapon vanished and Yuki started to step back. "Before I have the time to get my weapon ready, your already in front of my face."
Yuki sighed in stress, but then released the last part with understanding.
"I guess we're going have to train you to get out that weapon of yours sooner. If not, you're not going to be any good as a partner."
"What's that suppose to mean?" Yuri asked in defense.
"It means that we've only been in training for two months. I've been pushing you pretty hard, and you're getting a lot better. It's just that your timing on your weapon making is a little too slow. We'll work on that for the next couple of days."
Yuki was right. It was exactly two months since the group had split. And by the end of next month, Yuki and Yuri were going to have to move out, since they weren't going to be students at Sakura's, and wait two weeks for school to start. Everybody had left Yuri to Yuki's care, and the two had been getting along pretty well. In a lot of ways, Yuki was like Kori. They teased each other, talked about future dreams, trained, ate, studied for future classes, and started to see the world in each other's view. The two were growing tighter, and Yuri was now just realizing it.
"Hey," Yuri asked. "How do you think Daisuke's doing?"
"I'm not sure. I haven't talked to him at all since he's left, and the boss hasn't said too much."
"How come I haven't met Hakura?" Yuri asked.
"Oh, you know her name?" Yuki asked.
"Yeah. Am I not suppose to?"
"No. I just didn't realize that you knew her name."
"Daisuke told me."
"Figures." Yuki said with a smile.
"What's that suppose to mean?"
"Daisuke has a big mouth. I'm surprised that he's managed to get in such few fights that he has been in. And even if he does have a big mouth, it's never cocky. Never."
"Yeah, I've noticed that to. He'll blab the wrong thing at the wrong time, but he never boasts about anything."
"And he hardly underestimates. Sure there'll be a couple of times when he does, but that's still a rare thing to see." After a slight pause, Yuri asked: "Do you think we'll ever see him again?"
"I don't know. Maybe if we go to those DHA competition things. But that's even if he decides to go at all. But if you want to know any news on him, you can always ask me to ask Hakura."
"Why can't I meet Hakura?" Yuri asked. "Daisuke got to meet her, you know her… why don't I get to meet her at all?"
"Hakura says that there'll be a time when you get to meet her. Until then, she says her identity is to be kept a secret."
"Why?"
"I don't know. I'm not sure if it's until she can fully trust you not to say anything to anybody at all. But I'm pretty sure that you'll meet her someday soon."
"You think so?"
"Well, she has quite a bit of a surprise for you, so I know that you will. I think it'll be around the time we can actually start talking to Daisuke again."
Yuri wondered who this famed Hakura was, and what exactly the surprise was. Something deep down inside of her told her that it was something worth while waiting for.
"You, what?" Kori's father asked, rising from his comfort chair. Kori stood in front of the desk that laid in her father's library. Her fists were clenched with anxiousness and nervousness.
"You heard me." Kori said in a firm voice the first time she ever had while talking to her father. "I'm not going to take the Sony company, so you might as well find someone else to run the company."
"You mean, you never wanted to run the company?"
"I only did it because you wanted me to."
Her father sat back down in his chair, gasping in amazement. A forced, shocked grin wiped across his face. Kori knew this wasn't good. Her father was never the type to smile. He was always serious, at all costs, he almost could never see any part of emotion.
"This is great!" her father said with happiness in his tone, and the grin was still there, even bigger.
"Pardon me?" Kori asked, confused in what was going on. Didn't he want her to rule over the company?
"I always thought you wanted to take over Sony. I thought that if you wanted to run such a large business, you'd need the grades and learn how to act at work. If you thought I had suddenly become such a grouch over the last couple of years, now you know why."
"So, you mean you've been acting like this because you thought that I wanted Sony?"
"But since you don't, I don't even have to work there. I was planning on working there until you got out of College and you could take over for me. I've always hated that job."
"What about money?"
"We have enough, plus I have my retirement plan to take care of us. Sure, your mom and I may have to skip out on a couple of cruises to make sure you're well fed and get you taxes done, but there's enough for us to live on for the rest of our life."
Kori couldn't believe the good news that she had just heard. Her father was acting serious and strict because of a misunderstanding? As horrid as it was, it was rather ironic. But joy couldn't have filled her anymore as she was. For the first time in seven years, Kori had felt a belonging and joy at home.
It had been a long time since Raine had spoken English. There were so many slang terms that went around since she was in Japan, she had her time to catch up and try and lose her Japanese accent she worked so hard to perfect. But, besides English being a first in a long time, there was also the beach. Since Sakura's was located more towards the northern part of Japan, the weather was almost never warm enough to go swimming. The closet thing that Raine found to a beach there was the hot springs.
She walked around in a cute little yellow an orange bikini that she found in a shop down the street. As she walked around, she realized that her being the queen of the beach was ending. While she was gone, younger girls, just as beautiful as her, had started to catch guys eyes, and used them for their money. Raine had used to be like that. But she now, after hanging out with the group so long, had found it immature and stupid to take advantage on people.
As she saw the crowd of people follow the new queen of the beach, a blond (of course) talking about some big story that was mostly all boasting and probably no truth in it what so ever. The girl was about her age, maybe a couple months younger than her, but she acted big. Even though Raine had acted like that, she couldn't stand people who acted big and weren't. She got that attitude from Yuri that's for sure.
When Raine first got to Sakura's, she acted as big as the girl on the beach. She bragged about everything, especially kendo. When the bragging fell on Yuri's ears, Yuri gave her a challenge. In five seconds, Raine was on the ground with a slight head wound. Yuri walked away, not saying anything at all. That was the day Raine started to become humble. She went back to Yuri and asked her to train her, and Yuri said she'd accept only after Raine become more silent.
Everything about Raine, except that small smoking part of her, had changed over the course of Yuri's kendo training. The whole world seemed to change to Raine. Nothing looked the way it did anymore. Guys and money weren't the most important thing anymore, and grades become a large priority.
Raine watched the crowd and the beach queen walk along, and she passed them. As she walked by, Raine could feel a cold glimpse from the girl, but Raine simply ignored it. Raine went to wade in the warm water, staring out at the speed boats not far from what seemed like the horizon. But after a couple minutes of relaxing, she had heard shouting and laughter. Not the good kind of happy laughter, but bully like. When she turned around, she found a slightly nerdish person on the ground, the buffer guys around the small, weak boy.
"What do you want?" the queen beach asked in a snotty tone.
"I-I just wanted to hang out with you guys?"
"A nerd like you?" with that cue, the guys around him had started kicking sand in his face.
"Hey!" Raine called. "That's enough."
Raine walked up to the group as their eyes followed her. Every single person in the group, around thirty people, had stared at her as she kneeled down to the kid. Now that she noticed it, if the kid didn't have glasses, he would have looked a lot like Daisuke.
"You alright?" Raine asked.
"I-I think so." The boy said, starting to blush. It was obvious that girls hardly ever talked to him. A shame, because the kid could be really attractive one day when he wouldn't need his glasses.
"Hey! Who are you?" the beach queen demanded.
Raine stood up and looked at the girl. Raine closed her eyes and crossed over her arms as she started to walk away. "I don't talk to whores."
"Who are you calling a whore?" the girl asked. Raine turned around to see the girl with her hands in the shape of claws.
"Are you challenging me?"
"That's right. I'm going to wipe the beach with your ugly–"
Raine had gotten a clean hit on the girl, and the girl flew a couple of feet before falling into the ground. The girl didn't get up, and a guy checked the girl.
"She's okay. Just a little light headed."
The crowd looked at Raine who stood there with her arms still crossed over her chest.
"I don't start a fight when a person's done talking, I start when they say their ready."
"Say," one of the guys asked. "Aren't you Raine Mayberry, a former beach queen."
"So?"
"And you're nice to a nerd?"
"They're people too, aren't they? Why should we lower ourselves into categories when we can all just hang out at the beach and have fun?"
"Looks like we have a new beach queen!" a guy in the crowd said, and the rest of the people cheered.
"Wha? Wait, I never asked to be–"
But it was too late. The guys picked her up, and carried her off to the closest ice cream shop. Boy, did she miss Australia.
Deíji stared out the window and watched the people of Osaka walk along the sidewalks. She missed Sakura's, and her friends and the excitement that went on, even if people were upset at each other. Nothing exciding ever happened when she was at home. But, she was in a bookstore, on a date with a guy her parents found for her, and he was talking about some books that she had already read. They were great books, and he was a great guy, but something kept her from listening too much of him. He wasn't too exciting like Daisuke was.
She looked back at the guy, Jin, who had stopped talking and smiled at her. It was a forced smile, like a realization of something.
"What?" Deíji asked.
"You're thinking of something. Or someone, I should say."
"No, I just–"
"It's alright. You never really wanted to come here did you?"
"It's not that you're not a great guy, because you are, it's just that–"
"You're in love with somebody else?"
Deíji didn't say anything, accepting nor rejecting the fact, but rather looked to the ground. Deíji looked at the boy again. She didn't even remember his name. But he had a smile on his face.
"Let me guess," he continued. "Is it that one gay kid from Sakura's?"
"How did you…?"
"Daisuke was his name, wasn't it?"
"How do you know all of this?"
"Your parents know a lot and have told me everything that they thought I would need. Oh, and just one thing: this really isn't a date."
"What are you talking…?"
"They just wanted to know how much you really liked this Daisuke guy."
"So they sent you to see how I felt about Daisuke? Why?"
"Well, they assumed that since you wouldn't tell them, you might just tell everybody else in the world how you felt."
"Do my parents really expect that much from me to tell to a stranger?"
"Not too much, but they thought it was worth a shot. They wanted to know how that idiot was like."
"Sounds like you know him."
"Huh? Oh, yeah. We've ran into each a couple times turning a baseball tournament back in Elementary School. We were talking a while as I stood on first base, and he was the first baseman. Ever since then, we talk every time we see each other. Which isn't too often, since we live about three hours apart."
"So, you've actually known him for a while now."
"I guess you can say that. We don't really talk, especially since he quit baseball this year."
Deíji didn't really pay much attention to anything else that went on. After he said that, she couldn't stop thinking about Daisuke.
Momo stood out in front of the courthouse, holding a paper that she thought she would never hold in her life. As she looked at the old calligraphy letters, she saw her first name with her new family's last name. She was finally adopted. How she never had so much joy in her life.
Momo couldn't wait to tell her friends the great news of her finalized adoption. This was going to throw a huge party if they ever saw each other again.
Momo hated that word. If. It was such a negative word. It was a word of hope for only broken promises, and false hope. She always wanted to be sure of her future. She wanted to know what was going to happen she wanted to know when something was going to happen.
Momo started to walk to her car, staring at the natural blue sky. She stared at the vast blue and wondered how anything else could live out in black when there was so much blue. Even on cloudy days, there was nothing but blue above those clouds. She giggled at herself. It was the first deep thought that she'd had in a while. But once in a while, it was nice to take a break from all the humor and act serious. Just like it was great to do the vice versa.
She missed her friends, now that she thought about it. She missed Raine's ashy smell, Kori's reverse psychology, Deíji book-worminess, and Daisuke running away from an angered Yuri. He even missed Yuki, and she hadn't known Yuki all that well. Everyone. She didn't know why she felt this sudden urge to see everyone. Sure, it had been months since she had seen everyone, but why all of the sudden. Oh well, now wasn't the time to worry about petty little problems like that. She was going to be treated to McDonalds, a place she hadn't been to in ages, and she was going with her family.
"Can you please tell me why we're in America?" Daisuke asked Kyutaka.
"I told you, this is the only place in the world where you can get the proper training with your skills."
"What skills? We're in the middle of nowhere!"
"We're in a place that's filled with trees, dead and alive. We're going to enhance your ability to use your plant element."
The two had been standing in the snow in Yosemite National Park, California. It had snowed pretty hard the last couple of days, and now the two were here and ready to train. But Daisuke still didn't see the point in coming all the way to America just to train with trees. He saw trees all over the place back at Sakura's. What was so special about this place?
The bitter frost and cold of the snow and cold weather was something rather new to Daisuke. Sure, he'd been in the snow before, but nothing this cold. His finger tips hurt when he had simply moved his upper joints in his fingers. His toes were numb and stung anytime he had tried scrunching them for warmth. His nose was sensitive now, and even sneezing sometimes hurt. Although he was in much discomfort, he couldn't help but stare at the huge glacier walls that stood all around him.
But another bad thing about his stay: the place he was staying. There were huge hotels to stay at, or even a small cabin, but he got an upgraded tent. No heater, just a small cabinet with ten material covering it. Talk about freezing. But even though Daisuke had been here for a month now, he still didn't seem to get any more use to the horrifically cold weather. And to top it off, Kyutaka said he couldn't wear gloves for the rest of the time he was there two weeks ago. Daisuke hadn't felt warmth in his hands outside of his shower in a couple of weeks. It was blistering cold, he was uncomfortable, and there were bears roaming around his Camp Curry tent. Plus, Daisuke had just gotten his hair cut. Sure, it may have been on the sides, but it still wasn't him. What else could go wrong?
"So, tell me," Daisuke said. "Why couldn't we find any other forest to practice in? I mean, it would be a lot more convenient, wouldn't it?"
"You know what?" Kyutaka said. "I say that if you can climb up Half Dome before dusk, we'll leave here tomorrow."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I mean, this place has s secret that nobody, not even John Muriel knew about."
"Interesting. So, you'll tell me this secret and then we get to leave?"
"That's the deal."
"How long before dusk?"
"An hour and a half."
"That's no problem." Daisuke said, looking up at this mountain.
And it really wasn't too much of a big deal. Fifty five minutes later, Daisuke stood on top of Half Dome, slightly out of breath, watching the sunset with panting breath. Daisuke saw Kyutaka climb up from the edge of the rounded cliff. As he got up onto his knees, he looked at Daisuke with a panting smile.
"One heck of a climb, old man." Daisuke said.
"Didn't think you'd actually beat me up here."
"Well, let me tell ya, it wasn't easy."
The two had sat next to each other as the sun started to sink over the horizon; a gap in between the two walls of glaciers. There had been a silence that wanted to be broken, Daisuke could tell, so he decided to break the ice.
"So, what was the secret you promised to tell me?"
"Oh, right." Kyutaka said. "Well, Yosemite wasn't always just a national park."
"Well, duh. It hasn't been known by man forever."
"No, I mean, it wasn't just a nation park when man found it. People have known about this place far before anybody from Europe even stepped on America. This place was a place where Demon Hunters, in a formal fashion, grew together and fought with each in a rivalry, not a murder-like state. This land is filled with wise spirits of those Elder Demon Hunters." Kyutaka had paused, something disturbing him , making him not want to continue to speak, but she forced it out of him. "Daisuke, the Elders had written twelve sacred books."
"So?" Daisuke asked. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"These books contained information on how to rule the planet with an iron fist. How you ruled was up to you."
"What's that suppose to mean?"
"The books had special techniques that are forgotten by today's standards. Each one would give you a piece of wisdom the elders had. But if you're heart was hard, and impure, than it simply took over your mind, and eventually your soul, and your entire body would give into the will of the book. You would die a death that made you implode, exploding from the inside out. Not literally, speaking, but things lead to another, that drove you so insane, people had killed themselves to make it end."
"I still don't understand why you're telling me this."
"Kagori has the books." A voice said behind them, and when Daisuke turned around, he saw Hakura, with another cigarette lit and in her mouth. "And he's planning on using test subjects on what not to do when using them."
"Hakura? What are you doing here?"
"Hakura?" Kyutaka asked. "I didn't think you'd be for another couple of minutes."
"Are you complaining that I'm early?"
"Of course not. I just wasn't expecting you, and you simply startled me, that's all."
"Wait, you mean to tell me that you two planned on being here together with me?" Daisuke asked in awe.
"I thought that you might like a little letter that I managed to get." Hakura said with a slight shrug.
"A letter?"
She pulled an envelope from her back pocket, and handed it to Daisuke. It had his name on it, and the address of his house.
"Did my dad see this?"
"Not yet. Don't worry, he will in a couple of days."
Daisuke opened the letter. He was surprised to see that it was a letter from AU High. Shock, surprise and happiness had taken over him so much, he hadn't even read the entire thing, but rather skimmed the sentences. Until he got near the bottom.
…we're proud to say that you, Hiromushu Daisuke, are accepted into AU High. We are excited and can't wait to see you here. Your orientation starts in mid-August, and school starts in early September…
"I'm in?"
"Not just you, but I managed to get your friends in as well."
"What? You got us in? Why?"
"Bribery, I guess."
"Bribery?"
"Daisuke," Kyutaka said. "There's something fishy going on in DHA. I'm not sure what it is, but we may think that it has something to do with Kagori. DHA hasn't sent a single troop after Kagori. Kagori usually shows up and kills as many people necessary. We feel there may be something wrong. I know the president, and I know that he wouldn't let something like this go on with such injustice. He seems more relaxed than he has lately."
"We expect you to live your normal school life. You know, dances, attending all your classes, going to vacations, but once in a while, we may have to pull you out to take you places."
"So, you think that the two may be working together?"
"We're not entirely sure, but we think so. We don't know why, when they started, who exactly knows everything, or what they're planning on doing. But you must try and stop any action that you sense. You may even have to go after Kagori some of the time."
"Are you sure I'm the guy for the job."
"Daisuke, you're the fastest learning Demon Hunter with a great sense of instinct. Try not to forget that when you're out in the world kicking butt."