〄Hᴀʟғ-Bʟᴏᴏᴅs' Lᴇɢᴀᴄʏ〄 [Ch. 4 Up!]

[scmarshtacky]

I'm glad you think so. It's fun to write too.

[Muse.]

Yaaaaaaaay. ^^ Love the fun in this chapter.

[scmarshtacky]

Thank you. Next chapter will be awesome too. *hint hint*

[Muse.]

Oooh can't wait, then. ^^

[scmarshtacky]

Wow you guys. I had today off, and I wrote all day long, at least six hours worth, and got through 15 pages - 2 chapters. It doesn't really seem like much to read, but for me, it's a lot to write. XD It's kind of sad though because I've now written past the half-way point. *sigh

[Muse.]

I wish you good luck in getting more chapters done.<3

[Pichufudge]

yay for more chapters

[scmarshtacky]

I'm sorry everyone. Please don't hate me. I completely forgot that today was Friday. >.< Breaks from school really mess with my days. I'm working on the new chapter now!

[scmarshtacky]

Chapter 21 – Thunderstorm Saga

It was right after dinner that Ayako announced they should go down to the play room in the basement and have a ping pong competition, and this is how Kaito found himself drug into a seemingly unending competition with Ayako. Mika and Kana hadn’t played horribly, but it hadn’t taken the both of them long to lose out to Kaito and Ayako, and so, the planned competition had become more of a duel.

Mika’s eyes flashed to and fro as the little ball was hit rapidly back and forth between the two players. She watched as Ayako hit a low ball, and in an attempt to hit it, Kaito hit upwards and it flew over the table top on Ayako’s side.

“My point!” she shouted gleefully as she went to retrieve a ball.

Kaito hissed in annoyance.

“If the ball does not bounce once, and flies over the table top, the point goes to the receiver,” Kana stated.

Kaito rolled his eyes. “Yes, thank you.It would’ve been so much more helpful if you had briefed me on the rules of the game before we had started all of this.”

“Then you would’ve had way too much of an advantage,” Ayako stated matter-of-factly.

He sighed overdramatically. “I’m already at a disadvantage. Do you have any idea how hard it is to control my strength enough not to smash this little ball through the table?! I think I rather dislike ping pong. I would much rather play tennis or volleyball.”

“Well there is no tennis court here, and it’s too dark to go out and play volleyball.”

“Obviously...” he muttered, as the game started again.

As Ayako served she called, “Nine, eight.”

Kaito braced himself, and the game started once more. They were both were trying their hardest to win the final points. Kaito was up one on Ayako, but she was fighting fiercely, and no one had any idea who was going to win this competition.

As Ayako hit one off to the side of the table, Kaito instinctively lunged for it, and it hit back across, at this point Kana remarked, “Kaito, if you had let that go, you would’ve gotten the point.”

“Gee, thanks.”

But the next ball Ayako hit too softly due to the angle, and it double bounced on Kaito’s side giving him the point anyway.

“When the ball double bounces on the receiver’s side, the receiver wins the point,” Kana chirped.

“Why are you telling me that?!” Ayako barked. “I know the rules.”

Kana shrugged. “Why not?”

Ayako opened her mouth to reply, but Kaito threw the ball back to her, which she had to turn to catch, and in the process forgot what it was she was going to say. “Ten, eight. Match point,” she grumbled instead. The game started again, but this time, Kaito lost the point, for once again, hitting too hard.

“Nine, ten. Match Point,” he stated as he served. But this time, due to his attempt to control his strength, he hit it too softly and it double bounced. He growled. “I really detest this game.”

As he got the ball back to serve he turned to Ayako. “Shall we just say that whoever gets the next point wins? If we go two up, this game could potentially go on forever.”

“Fine by me, you’re going to lose however we do it, might as well be sooner than later,” she smirked.

He shrugged. “Whatever, I was getting bored anyway.” He turned his attention back to the ball. “Ten, ten. Assumed match point.” This round was by far the longest one yet, with each player hitting the ball precisely at the corners so that the receiver would have to lunge to get it. On one of Kaito’s lunges, he hit the ball too much to the left and it bounced once and flew just slightly off to the side of the table.

It took Ayako’s brain a second to process the point, but when she had, she broke out into a happy dance. “I beat Kaito! I beat Kaito!” she shouted in a sing song voice.

Kaito ran one hand through his raven hair in slight irritation, but was amused by Ayako’s excitement nonetheless.

After several minutes of watching her, and seeing that she showed no intention of stopping her happy dance, he spotted a couple of darts lying on the side of a pool table that was against the back wall. He grabbed one, and called out Ayako’s name. As she turned around to look at him, he threw it swiftly, and it whizzed just past her right ear and hit the bull’s-eye on the dart board on the wall.

“Would you like to take up a competition of darts?”

Ayako was frozen in place for several long moments, but when she turned around to look at the dart board, and saw that he landed it exactly in the middle, she immediately exclaimed, “No way! I’m not pushing my luck today. I’d be a fool to take up a competition that is impossible to win.”

“Since when did you enact this rule?” he questioned raising an eyebrow. “Exactly how many times have you challenged me to some sort of competition in gym?”

“That’s because...” she paused to think. “That was before I knew what you were!”

“Aww... did little Ayako-sama get cold feet because she’s afraid to lose to a demon?” he taunted with a smirk covering his face.

Her face instantly grew tomato red. “Don’t you dare –”

“Kaito,” Kana interrupted Ayako’s ranting. “If you do not mind a change in opponents, I will play you.”

He turned around, surprised, but his expression quickly fell back into a light smirk. “Alright, give it a go then.”

Kana nodded, and began to collect the five remaining darts. “Are you familiar with the American Cricket game?” she asked turning to him.

Kaito shook his head. “But you can brief me, as long as you include all the rules in the first go-around.”

Kana only nodded once and turned to the other two. “We need a score-keeper.”

Mika and Ayako looked at each other.

“You can do it, Ayako,” Mika said. “Don’t you know more about darts?”

“I only know the 501 and 301 games. You’re better at math so you should do it.”

After a brief moment of going back and forth, Mika finally resigned and agreed to be the score-keeper as long as Kana talked her through how to do it.

Kana then turned to Kaito. “Contrary to what some might think, American Cricket is a strategy game. Your goal is to ‘close out’ the numbers twenty through fifteen and the bull’s-eye before I can. To close out the number, you have to hit it three times. If you hit in the double section, it counts as two, if you hit it in the triple it counts as three. Once you have closed out the number, you can score points on it, but I cannot. I can only hit it to close it out. The player with the most points after both players have closed out, is the winner. Do you understand?”

For a moment, Kaito did nothing. He was staring at the dart board with his eyes slightly narrowed in concentration. After several moments he replied, “Yeah, I think I got it.”

She nodded. “Good, to determine who will go first, we attempt to hit the bull’s-eye. Obviously, the closest goes first.”

“Okay.” He gestured for her to go first.

Kana only nodded once, and stepped up to the line made by the tiles on the floor. She spun the dart in her palm once, and then held it up. She took a deep breath and then threw it. There was a soft thump as it hit the single five section very close to the first bull’s-eye ring.

Kaito let out a low whistle. “Well, you may be more of a dart player than I thought.” He stepped up to the line, and without much hesitation, threw the dart. It landed on the outer bull’s-eye ring. “So I go first then I suppose.” He retrieved the two darts and gave one back to Kana.

He stepped up to the line again. After studying the dart board for a moment, he aimed and hit a double twenty.

“Okay Mika,” Kana began, “to show that you’ve closed out a number, you write an X and then put a circle around it.” She walked up to Mika. “So when you hit one twenty, you make one slash of the X, and when you hit a double, or score two singles, you make the complete X.” She drew an X on the score board.

“And when you hit another you put a circle around it?” Mika asked.

Kana nodded and then went back to stand behind Kaito. “Go ahead and throw again,” she prompted him.

He nodded. This time he hit the triple eighteen, and Mika drew the X with the circle. After a moment of contemplation, he threw his last dart and hit the double eighteen.

“So after you close out a number, you then start adding the points together right?” Mika asked.

“Yes, so he now has thirty-six points.”

Kaito retrieved his three darts, and Kana threw hers. She hit two single twenties and then one triple, and Mika wrote down forty. In the next round, Kaito closed his twenty, hit a triple nineteen, and then a single nineteen, while Kana hit two single nineteens, and a triple eighteen.

Then, Kaito hit a single nineteen, a double seventeen, and the outer bull’s-eye ring. Kana finished out her nineteen, hit a double and a triple seventeen.

In the next couple of rounds, the only numbers left open were the bull’s-eye on both sides, and the fifteen on Kana’s side. Kaito was sitting at eighty-nine points while Kana was at ninety.

Kaito stepped forward once more, however, this time when he tried to hit the bull’s-eye, he hit the corner of the single three section. He mentally cursed himself and tried again, this time hitting the bull’s-eye directly, closing it out, and he hit it a second time scoring fifty points. Kana closed her remaining fifteen and the bull’s-eye, but with nowhere else to score, she lost.

“That was a good game Kana,” Kaito said, the amazement evident in his tone.

“Perhaps, however, I still lost.”

“But you kept up much better than I thought you would, and you could not even begin to imagine how many times I’ve been drilled over and over again on throwing daggers at targets over the past three centuries.”

“What’s your estimate?” she asked quietly.

“I couldn’t even tell you. I’m not even sure I’d want to know. It might make me feel like I’ve wasted my life on meaningless things.”

She laughed softly. “Well I suppose it was not a bad game. It has been a while since I have messed with darts, and I enjoyed it, so thank you.”

She held out her hand, and Kaito shook it gently with a soft smile.

“That was awesome, Kana!” Ayako exclaimed running up to her. “Where exactly did you learn to play darts?”

“My father and I used to play together often when I was younger,” she answered. “He was incredible. I believe that when he was younger, he was a very good dart player and would travel around to different areas to play, and becoming a doctor only improved his accuracy and precision. It would be very interesting to see how he would measure up against you,” she said turning to Kaito.

He smirked lightly. “Well give us some darts and a board and we will just have to see, won’t we?”

“So what’s the plan now?” Mika asked.

“Well...” Ayako paused as she thought for a moment. “It’s still pretty early in the night, so do you want to watch a movie or something?”

“Sure that sounds good,” Mika replied, and Kana simply replied with an enthusiastic nod.

So they headed back upstairs into the living room, and Ayako opened a cabinet on the wall to reveal a very large flat screened television.

“Wow, Ayako, how large is that TV exactly?” Mika asked when she saw it.

She contemplated the question for a moment and then answered. “I think it’s 140 centimeters, or somewhere close to that. So what is it you want to watch?" She opened another cabinet under the TV where there were six shelves of movies, three on either side of the cabinet. Kana and Mika walked over and looked through the rows of various movies.

“What about the Seven Samurai?” Kana asked as she pulled out the movie.

“Isn’t that kind of sad though?” Mika asked.

“It is a bit I suppose. Only near the end.”

“Hey, what about this?” Ayako asked as she pulled out Spirited Away.

Kana shook her head. “I don’t particularly like animated movies.”

While Ayako went on a rant about how good Spirited Away was, another movie caught Mika’s attention. She wasn’t sure if it was the bright red background, or if it was the confident expression of the girl in the red jumpsuit, but she felt automatically drawn to this movie.

“What is Gokusen?” she asked. “I mean I know it’s an old manga but –”

“Mika!!” Ayako shouted so suddenly that she jumped. “You’ve never seen Gokusen?!!”

Mika shook her head slowly and somewhat hesitantly.

“It is a very good movie,” Kana agreed.

“Okay, it’s settled, we’re watching this one.”

“But Ayako! You haven’t even told me what it’s about yet!”

“Oh don’t worry,” she said as she turned on the TV and placed the DVD into the player. “You’ll love it, I promise, and the male leading character, Ryu, is so cool! What’s the actors name again?” She turned to look at Kana.

“It’s Kamenashi Kazuya. He’s in a band to you know, Kat-tun I think it is.”

“I’ve heard of Kat-tun!” Mika exclaimed. “I have only listened to a couple of their songs though. They were pretty good if I’m thinking of the right ones.”

“I’ll have to look at it at some point too,” Ayako said.

“Guys!” Kaito finally spoke up. “I want to watch it too so hush. I can’t hear.”

Ayako rolled her eyes and muttered, “The guy that could hear a leaf rustle a kilometer away can’t hear the TV that’s three meters away from him.”

He shot Ayako a glare and she finally shut up and turned to watch the movie, just as the main female character came into view inside the plane. They watched as the young lady faced the hijackers in the plane, making them surrender, and were incredibly into the movie until the student teacher, Odagiri Ryu came into the building and Yankumi – Mika learned this was the female lead’s name – greeted him very cheerfully.

“Wait, how does Yankumi know him already?” Mika asked.

“They took a lot of the characters from the other three seasons of Gokusen. He was one of her students in the second one,” Ayako explained briefly.

Mika nodded and continued to watch as Yankumi greeted her class of delinquents. She laughed as Yankumi dodged a ball thrown at her for a cigarette bud that she saw on the ground and her repeated use of yakuza terms, she loved how Yankumi faced a notorious bike gang to rescue her student, and was moved by the amount of dedication that Yankumi showed to her students, even facing armed men to defend them.

When the ending credits finally came on, Mika sat back and after a moment said, “I really enjoyed that! I’m glad we watched it.”

“See! I told you it was good! And isn’t Ryu awesome like I said?”

Mika nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, you’re right. He is pretty cool.”

“Hey, hey,” Kaito spoke up from the end of the couch. “I’ve rescued you too, doesn’t that make me cool as well?”

“Of course not,” Ayako said matter-of-factly. “Ryu’s just a regular person, and he’s compassionate and observant –”

“Ayako, I hate to break this to you, but this is a movie. The guy isn’t really like that in real life,” he reasoned.

“How do you know?! I bet Kamenashi-san is incredibly caring.”

Kaito sighed and rolled his eyes slightly. There is absolutely no reasoning with her when she is like this.

“Well, everyone,” Kana said, breaking through the argument, “I believe that I will retire for the night. Oyasuminasai mina (Good night everyone).” And with that, she left them to go upstairs.

Ayako yawned and looked at the clock. “Wow, I can’t believe it’s almost eleven thirty already.” She yawned again. “Normally I could stay up a lot later than this,” she said to no one in particular, “but I think with all the traveling I’m a lot tireder than I usually would be.”

“Ha, and she thinks she’s tired,” Kaito muttered under his breath so that just Mika, could hear.

“I think it’s about time we all should go to bed,” Mika said. Since they had been watching the movie, the house had gotten darker, and the lights that were on in the kitchen and in the dining room at the beginning of the movie had long since gone out.

“I agree,” Kaito said as he stood up and stretched.

Kaito left, but Mika took the extra minute and put the DVD back in its spot on the shelf while Ayako turned off the TV. They walked up the stairs together in silence, and said good night to each other before going into their separate bedrooms.

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

Mika was just beginning to drift off to sleep, when she heard the noise in the distance. Even though it was so far away, she knew immediately what it was, and shot up in the bed clutching onto the comforter. She stared into the darkness, and held her breath until she heard it again to confirm that she wasn’t just making things up.

Oh Kami-sama(God), please just let it stay in the distance. Please let it go around us. Please!

She reached over and flicked on the light, then went over to the window to close the blinds and curtains. Mika sat back down in the bed clutching the pillow to her chest, and for a seemingly endless time, there was no noise at all.

Is it... gone? At that exact moment, and large flash illuminated the curtains, and a larger boom sounded outside. Mika curled up, and gripped the pillow so hard that her knuckles turned white. I don’t want to stay in this room all alone! She screamed in her mind. But there’s nowhere else to go. Ayako and Kana are definitely already asleep and I don’t want to bother them. Especially since Kana warned me of Ayako’s bad temper when she is woken up. I know Kana probably wouldn’t mind but...

You know where else you could go. Another voice in the back of her mind said. You know he isn’t asleep. There’s no way he is with the thunder.

But I don’t want to bother him either! However, as another loud boom of thunder sounded, Mika jumped and had to shove her fist in her mouth to keep herself from yelping. As it sounded, a flash of a memory resounded in her mind. Of the pouring rain, the cracking thunder, broken glass everywhere, and several pools of blood that were being washed away by the rain.

Mika shook her head viciously trying to clear her mind, but it was this that ultimately got her out of the bed. She still had her pillow clutched tightly to her chest as she walked as quietly as she could down the short stretch of hallway. She paused in front of Kaito’s door, and took a deep breath before using the knuckle of her index finger to tap lightly on the door. She held her breath hoping that he would hear it, but for a long moment, nothing happened.

She was just about to turn around and go back to her room when she heard the lamp click on, and light flood out of the small crack under the door. Crap, I woke him up. I thought for sure that he would be –

The door opened with only a small creak, and Mika immediately went into a deep bow.

“I’m so sorry for waking you up,” she whispered as loudly as she felt she could.

“Mika –”

“I thought you might have been awake with the thunder and all.”

“Mika –”

“I’m really sorry. I guess I’ll go back –”

“Mika!” Kaito cut her off, and putting his hand under her chin, he lifted her head up. “It’s fine. You were right, I wasn’t asleep. I just had the light off.” He could smell her fear rolling off of her in waves, and he couldn’t help but be alarmed by it, wondering what in the world had caused her to be so terrified.

Kaito moved to the side and allowed her to pass through the door. She did so slightly hesitantly, and then lifted her eyes just enough to observe the interior of the room. She was immediately disappointed when she noticed there was no chair in the room. Her room had a recliner, and she also distinctly remembered that Kana’s room had one as well. She had assumed that this room also had one, but she couldn’t remember exactly.

That’s what you get for being so greedy, she chided herself. She took a couple of steps over to the corner, and then said, “I’ll just sit over there. I’ve already disturbed you enou –” She was cut off as the thunder cracked extremely loudly across the sky. Mika dropped to her knees, and buried her head into the pillow.

Kaito walked slowly up to the girl, and knelt down beside her. He touched her lightly with his finger tips. He could feel her entire body quivering.

“I’m f-f-fine,” she said, as she felt his fingers brush her shoulder. But her voice shook horribly, and her teeth clattered together ever so slightly.

Kaito’s eyes softened as he watched her, and slowly ran his arm under her knees and other behind her back. He picked her up easily, and walked to the left side of the bed and laid her down. She hadn’t moved from her fetal position, and still had her head buried in the pillow.

Kaito walked back around the bed and propped up a pillow against the backboard of the bed before sitting down.

“I’m sorry...” he heard a muffled whisper.

“Don’t be.” He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him. She didn’t fight him, and allowed him to move her until he had her comfortably pressed against him.

Without thinking, Mika changed her body position so that her head was lying on his stomach. Almost as soon as she had done this, her head shot up and her eyes widened. She met his calm blue eyes and began stuttering, “I’m sorry- I didn’t mean- Without thinking I just –”

“Mika,” his voice was soft and soothing. “When will you learn I don’t care?”

She opened her mouth, but it took several moments for words to form. “I’m sor –”

“Stop,” he said, his voice stern. “I’ve had enough of that phrase for one night.”

Mika drew a breath, but closed her mouth, and simply nodded.

“Good, now just relax. You’re safe here.”

Very slowly, Mika laid her head back down where it was before, and even more slowly, the tension began to leave her body, and the trembling lessened. The storm didn’t stop, but whenever she was around him, fear was nonexistent. It’s so ironic. The place that feels the safest is right beside a demon.

She closed her eyes, and couldn’t help but think about the strong muscles that she could feel under Kaito’s loose, blue-gray shirt. They were hard, but not uncomfortably so. She could feel the grooves of his abs, and she couldn’t help but wonder how much strength he truly had. She knew that she had never seen him use his full strength, and probably never would.

Mika shook the thoughts away, and focused on breathing slowly, trying to relax her mind. She closed her eyes right as another crack of thunder sounded. Startled by it, she jumped, and her body tensed once more. “My parents,” she said suddenly.

“What?” he turned to look at her with a slight cock to his head.

Mika took a deep breath and started again. “The reason I have such a phobia of storms... is because it was a night like this when my parents died.”

Kaito waited unsure of whether she was going to go on, but unwilling to prompt her to say more.

“It was my sixth birthday,” she continued. “We were coming home from my grandmother’s house, and it was late. I think it was around nine or ten, but it felt a lot later at the time because of the storm clouds covering the sky, and it was winter too, so it was cold and miserable.

“The rain had just started and it was pouring. A complete whiteout. We were on a smaller country road, so there wasn’t much traffic, and it was very dark. We were entering an intersection, and our light was green, but this crazy driver, I’m pretty sure he was drunk, didn’t see that his light was red. Either that or he ignored it, and he flew into the intersection so suddenly that my dad couldn’t avoid it.

“The front right corner of his car, hit door of the driver’s side directly, and one of the pieces of glass cut through my father’s neck. He died instantly. Actually, he was the lucky one. My mother hit her head so hard on the glass of the window that it cracked her skull, and the airbag broke a couple of her ribs. She had a lot of deep cuts from the broken glass, but nothing that was immediately life threatening.

“I remember her shriek when she saw my father, but she didn’t cry. She managed to get her door open, and then walked around the car to my side, and after a moment, was able to get the bent door open. I remember her wrapping her arms around me and carrying me out of the intersection and calling the police.

“She was stuttering very badly, and her hands were shaking so hard she could barely hold the phone, but the police managed to make sense of what she was saying, and it didn’t take them or the ambulance long to arrive. As soon as it did, my mother immediately passed out. They took her away first, and then the fire truck had to be called to get my father out.

“There was so much blood... I didn’t know a body could bleed that much, and it was mixing with the rain and running all over the road...” Mika stopped and took a couple deep and slightly shaky breaths.

“The police immediately started to question me, but I was so shaken. I couldn’t make sense of what had happened and the sirens and flashing lights were scaring me to death. I started screaming and wouldn’t stop, so the medics finally drug me away and began treating the couple of shallow cuts that I had. While they were doing that, I heard a couple of the police saying that the man had disappeared. There was no blood, nothing but an incredibly beat up car.

“Anyway, the medics finally got me to calm down and allowed me to ride in the middle seat up front. I think they didn’t want me to see my mom, and they wanted a bit of privacy to do whatever it was they were doing to her.

“We got to the hospital very quickly, and one of the medics escorted me to a room while my mother went immediately into surgery. Waiting there, in that small white room that smelled of sickness and death, was the worst thing they possibly could’ve done to me. But after about an hour of my screaming and crying, one of the nurses came in and played with me some. And it worked for a while, but I was so worried about my mother, that the nurse finally led me to the waiting area outside the surgery room.

“By early morning, I had fallen asleep, but was woken up by a doctor that told me my mother was still alive and that she was in a room. My mom was asleep for the majority of that day, but I didn’t leave her side. I curled up in the small recliner that they had in the room and went to sleep.

“I refused to eat or drink anything until she woke up that next day. I was so happy to see her wake up, and she soothed me and told me that everything would be fine. My foolish six-year-old self believed her completely, but later my grandmother told me that she had severe brain swelling, and had lost a lot of blood.

“And the first think I remember asking her is ‘Where’s daddy?’ She immediately started crying and told me that my father was watching over me, and loved me, but I wouldn’t be able to see him for a long while.

“The rest of the day passed fairly uneventfully, and my mother was in and out of consciousness all day long. After three days, she didn’t seem any better, actually, she seemed to be getting worse, but every time she woke up she would tell me that everything was fine that ‘mommy was just a bit tired after everything’.

“It was four days after the accident, when I was out walking through the garden with a nurse, that my mother died. I distinctly remember the nurse dragging me to a spare room while I was kicking, and screaming, demanding to see my mother.

“I had four days, four very long days to tell my mother that I loved her before she died. But I didn’t,” Mika’s body shook with a sob, and she wiped her eyes before continuing. “My mother told me every time, right before she went back to sleep, that she loved me, because she knew that she was likely to die, and she wanted her last words to be, ‘I love you Mika, and I always will.’

"And I didn’t get the chance to- I didn’t get the chance to say it back. Three measly little words and I didn’t say them!”

“Shh, Mika, shh.” Kaito had her in a full embrace now, and she was crying into his chest. “You didn’t have to say the words. The fact that you were there for her, that she saw you first every time she woke up, and you were the last thing she saw before she slept, was enough. You never had to say the words; your actions displayed your love for her even more than your words could have.”

“Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you so much.” She couldn’t begin to express how happy his words made her feel. Every time she had thought of her parents over the past ten years, she had only felt a consuming guilt over the fact that she had never properly been able to tell either of her parents goodbye, but now, she felt relieved. That maybe she had been a good daughter to them, that she had expressed the love for her parents as much as any six-year-old could have in that situation.

“I’ve never told anyone the story of my parents’ death before. When asked, I would just say they died in a car accident. I actually feel a lot better now,” she smiled up at him, and although her eyes were puffy and her face tear-streaked, it was a genuine and heartfelt smile.

“Well, I’m glad I could make you feel better,” Kaito said, and the corners of his mouth lifted in a small smile. He settled back into his original position against the pillow which he had come out of when Mika had started crying, and she also settled back down against his chest. And with his arm wrapped around her, she finally relaxed completely, and fell into a deep sleep as the storm finally drifted away.


A/N~ Okay, regardless on what I've said on any of the other chapters, this one is my absolute favorite. I got to learn a bit about ping pong and darts, and I got to include a movie with Kamenashi in it. I Love Kat-tun, and Gokusen is an awesome movie, so if you get the chance, look it up on the internet and watch it. It's epic and hilarious! Anyway, back to the chapter. It's really the first emotional thing I've written. I feel like I pulled it off pretty well, what do you think?

Also, because of popular demand, translations of Japanese words and phrases will be included in the text. If I have more to say about something in particular, I'll still add a footnote at the bottom.

<==Chapter 20

Chapter 22==>

[~Erratic~]

Okay, regardless on what I've said on any of the other chapters, this one is my absolute favorite.

Now,arint you glad I drug you out of the shadows to post your story? You wouldnt have been able to post your fav ;) Keep it goin :D