CHAPTER 17—Birthday Gifts & The One Who Was Late:
Ivy Rose walked into the cave, feeling a bit nervous. She hoped that the Boss was not there yet. But how long was it when he summoned them there? How much time she wasted?
She walked into the chamber and took a deep breath. There were Raiden looking serious, Aviant grinning, and Pisces calm. They were on one side of the room sitting on rocks. One the opposite side, there was a man sitting, the boss. He had raven hair and silver eyes. He wore a black shirt and a long sleeveless coat. He looked at her with a blank expression. Then he said in a monotone voice, "I thought you forgot."
Ivy didn't move from her spot because her focus was on him. She decided she would move if he told her to. "I was getting my candidates."
"Sit."
"Yes, sir." Ivy Rose quickly moved and sat down next to Aviant. She glared at him because he didn't help her. He noticed that she was glaring at him but it took him five seconds to finally stared at her. He knew what she was thinking and so he shrugged. She became even more infuriated than before. She still felt that it was his fault.
The Boss stood and looked in their direction. "We need to talk."
Meanwhile, in Japan, students were returning back to school. It was about forty degrees outside but Tanaka was wearing a long winter jacket that was a little above her knees. She hated it because most of the girls were wearing the short, cute ones. But her mom had said that jackets wasn't something most people cared about. However, Tanaka preferred blending in with the crowd that sticking out.
Tanaka had just gotten off her bus and she was trying to find Koji. Today was his birthday and she decided it would be best to bake than to buy this time. Especially after the tie-incident. So she had baked him a chocolate cake for him the night before and put it in a gift bag. It was in her hand now, swaying at her side while she walked.
Tanaka found Koji outside with Dimitre, Hana, Makoto, and Usagi. She walked over to them. They all stopped talking and looked at her, their eyes on the gift bag. She walked up to Koji and held her present out to him. "Happy Birthday, Koji."
Koji took the bag from her with a grin and tried weighing the bag. "It seems light . . . Is it boxers?"
Tanaka felt her face turning red and stared at the ground. "No. I baked something this time."
He raised an eyebrow. "Really? Heh, I'll eat it but only because your cooking isn't so bad." He looked at her, wondering if he should add anything more. After careful consideration, he said, "Thanks."
Tanaka looked kind of surprised. She couldn't recall if he had said that word to her before. "Um, you're welcome."
Usagi gave Koji a playful shove. "Oh, did Koji suddenly became less conceited over break?"
"When have I been conceited?"
"Lots of times," Dimitre said.
Hana didn't comment. She was thinking too much to say something. Koji wasn't someone who said 'thank you' or any form often. Usually he would remain sarcastic but this was a change. It seemed that he had been changing lately but not a lot to be noticed. Nowadays, he seemed to actually think about others at rare moments.
Tanaka looked at Dimitre and waved at him. "How was Taiwan?"
"It was . . . alright," he said. "It was mainly business."
"He spent his time there with two girls," Koji added. "While I spent my time with some little girl and her brother. If I had known, I would have went with him."
"It wasn't that bad," Tanaka mumbled.
"You two spent a lot of time together this break?" Makoto asked.
"Some days," Koji muttered, not wanting to go into much details. He didn't think it would be wise to say he slept over her house at one point. They seemed to have wrong ideas already and there was no reason to fuel them. It would only cause rumors and Rini to hate Tanaka more. If that was possible.
"Hey," Hana spoke out, "isn't there some kid on top of that building?"
Koji looked up and squinted his eyes. He could see a little girl standing on top, her hands on her hips. She was standing defiantly in front of the sun. Her dark purple hair sway out behind her. She had a bag on her back and long pants. She also was wearing a big coat."No freakin' way," he whispered.
From on top of the building, the girl yelled, "Happy Birthday, Koji!"
Suddenly a strong gust of wind blew and the skirts started to fly up. Tanaka suddenly liked her jacket very much. It was over her skirt so there was no chance of her underwear being seen. As for the other girls who were standing outside, they weren't as lucky as her.
Dimitre looked away and stared at the ground. He was blushing a bit. Makoto's face had also turned slightly red but he couldn't look away.
Koji had a very different reaction. He just blinked and then blinked again. His mouth had dropped open at first but it suddenly turned into a grin. Nekoro, he thought, you're freakin' awesome. His head tilted a little to get a better view.
The warning bell had rang two minutes ago and all the students had went inside before the late bell could ring. However, Tanaka was standing outside with Dimitre and Koji. They were waiting for Nekoro to come down from the top of the building to meet them. She wondered how they had dragged her into this. She was going to be late for art and receive detention for it.
After a minute, Nekoro was running out from behind the school building while her brother, Taketo, and another girl walked slowly. Nekoro was grinning when she jumped and gave Koji a hug. "Did you like your present?"
Koji smirked. "Yeah. It was nice . . . very nice."
Dimitre looked surprised to see the other girl. However, he snapped out of it and said, "Hey Saiyuri."
The girl grinned. "Hey, Dimitre." She had arrived in Japan several days ago to visit family. She happened to run into Taketo and Nekoro while she was there. Because they knew one another, they had been hanging out since then. That was why she came to the school with them.
Koji looked at the other girl with interest. "You know her?" His eyes examined her closely. It was obvious what he was doing but he didn't care. To him, it was a silent way of commenting.
"I saw her in Taiwan several days ago," Dimitre explained.
"I suppose the other chick that you hung out with is at least as cute as she is?" Koji was asking about Avani.
Dimitre looked the other way, remembering the kiss that she gave him. "I'm not answering that," he muttered. He suppose it was a good thing he hadn't mention it to Koji. If he had, Koji might have bothered him about it.
Nekoro walked over to hug Tanaka. "I'll miss you."
Tanaka smiled. "I can't wait to see you again." She glanced over at Koji and quirked an eyebrow. He was already flirting with the girl named Saiyuri. Taketo and Dimitre were nearby, probably as her body guards incase Koji tried anything.
Nekoro looked up at Tanaka. "Oh, and tell Naoko that I said bye and that I'll see her again, okay?" When she nodded, Nekoro stopped hugging Tanaka and ran over to Taketo. "Okay, Taketo. I'm ready to go."
"Now?" Saiyuri asked, not wanting to leave yet. "The plane doesn't leave for another four hours."
"Um," Tanaka started, glancing at her watch. "Dimitre, Koji and I have less than a minute to get inside before the bell rings and we're late for class. I mean, I'm glad to see you and all but I don't want to be late."
Dimitre wrapped his arm around her shoulders and brought her closer to his body. "You should try being less uptight about things." He grinned when Tanaka started to blush. He heard Koji laughing about it.
Taketo ran a hand through his white hair. "Tanaka's right. We shouldn't be keeping you away from school."
Koji snorted. "Don't listen to Tanaka. She's just saying things." The bell rang and he heard it. He knew Tanaka heard as well because she gasped. "What do you know? We're late. Not like it matters. I hate Physics."
Tanaka broke away from Dimitre and ran toward the building. Suddenly she stopped running and ran back toward them. She forgot to say goodbye to Taketo and felt that she needed to do so. When she reached him, she spent ten seconds trying to find a way to hug him. When that was taking too long, she just shook his hand and said bye. She then turned toward Saiyuri to say goodbye as well and ran off to go inside.
Dimitre sighed. "I guess I should go."
Dimitre walked up to Saiyuri and gave her a hug. Koji, not wanting to be the only one outside, starting saying his goodbyes as well. When they finished, Nekoro, Taketo, and Saiyuri headed toward the gate.
Koji raised an eyebrow when he saw Nekoro's bag opened up and Roxas the teddy bear popped out, waving goodbye to them. Koji's right eye started twitch. "Inanimate objects don't wave at people right?"
Dimitre, who was seeing the same thing, shook his head very slowly. His eyes were still glued to the teddy bear while his face bore an incredulous look.
Koji closed his eyes and started to head to the school. "I didn't really think so."
Back in the cave, Aviant stretched his arms while he listened to the Boss. He could see out of the corner of his eyes how nervous Ivy Rose was. She appeared to have forgotten her anger and was focusing on the silver-eyed man. She was probably seeing if he was going to smile or not. That would tell her whether she was in trouble. He glanced at Raiden and Pisces. Both of them kept passing looks in Ivy's direction. They were waiting for the outcome as well.
The silver-eyed man closed his eyes in thought. Then they opened and looked at his minions. "For now, we'll wait and see how many will survive toward the end of the week. By then, the number of candidates will be at least reduce by half."
"It could take a while, you know," Aviant said cheerfully, his voice clashing with the Boss' monotone. "I mean with all the perfect ones I got, this selection process probably won't be done in a month's time."
The guy stared at him with a blank expression. Although there was no emotion behind his eyes, it freaked Aviant out a little and closed his mouth. "You may all go now," the leader commanded.
Pisces bolted up and headed for the exit to reach an ocean. Raiden follow close behind her. Aviant stayed back for a while to be a gentleman to Ivy Rose, who wasn't amused when he bowed and offered his hand to her. Nonetheless, she got up and started to walk out with him.
Suddenly the Boss smirked. "Hey, Ivy, come back here."Aviant stopped walking with Ivy and looked back. He saw the smile coming on the man's face and felt sort of bad for Ivy. However it wasn't his problem and he didn't want to make it his problem. So he left without her.
Ivy slowly turned around and looked at him. She cautiously approached him. "Yes, sir?"
His smirk now turned into a full-fledged smile. "I came here two days ago and you weren't here. I didn't like that I wasted my time because you decided not to show up." He began to approach her. Soon he was in front of her and tilted her head by the chin with a gloved hand. It was the type of glove where the tips had been cut off.
"Sorry," she said solemnly, her eyes staring into his by force.
The boss suddenly grinned at her and her eyes opened wide. "Sorry doesn't mean anything to me," he said. "But I'll make sure you'll remember so the next time, you won't be late."
A/N: Nekoro's gift was shadowtailmon's idea. Just to let you know. Anyway, thanks to SilveryDarkness and Virage for being my only reviewers this time! Where did the rest of you go? Chapter 18 should be up in a week or so. Also, I finally got a deviantart account! I posted pictures of Tanaka, Koji, Dimitre, Avani, and the Sorcerers. They may not be perfect but they are alright. So if you want to see them, just go to sapphirina. Well that's it for now. Till later.