Thursday, July 27, 2006

They passed by Rangi again in the living room, reading some Japanese manga cleverly hidden by a humongous news magazine. Peering at them over the edge of the book(s), his sly trademark smirk spread over his face again like a horrible virus. Kentei couldn't take his eyes off her. Such an obvious gesture. The boy still needs to learn the simplest lessons of life. Rangi chuckled to himself, but let the two of them leave on their way around the complex.

The apartment complex was actually many seperate buildings joined together at the oddest angles. The grounds of the complex used to be a large plaza and street of shops, and when the eccentric ol' billionaire had thought about the perfect place to put an apartment complex, of course he had chosen the one place that didn't need to be closed down. Nonetheless, everyone had gone away quite happily with pockets full of cash. Then, he had all of the buildings: all of the restaurants, all of the mom-and-dad coffee shops, all of the random tourist traps; he had them strung together, like popcorn string in one of those old Christmas movies. It resulted in what was one bizarre maze of wood, steel, and glue. (Shh! Don't tell anyone.) But thankfully, the dojo was still actually a dojo.

It was a seperate building, but only two minutes' walk from any of the buildings. And yes, even before the building came into view, Kikan could hear some pretty horrendous screams, all followed with the same sound: the sound of flesh hitting wood.

[Bother, whoever it is sounds like a fun one.] By this point in her life, Kikan was used to her weapon, her blade whispering to her with the tiniest wisps of voice, the softest of sounds translating into language in her mind. She didn't know if "Child's Play" was actually saying these things, but they helped occasionally and she didn't mind. Rarely did they had conversations, but they served their purpose. As strange as it would seem to someone who didn't understand, Kikan would trust "Child's Play" to save her if she was attacked. Even if she was sarcastic and jaded sometimes, and didn't take things quite seriously. Although, Kikan had to agree with that last comment.

Kentei slid open the door for her, acting like he actually had some sense of moral code for once, even though his eyes were rolled. And even before she stepped into the dojo, a voice rang out lightly, "Are you going to try to challenge me?" It was presumably the one who had defeated or otherwise ruthlessly beat into submission all of those other men, and the voice sounded female. Says something about the men around here, I suppose. Her thoughts were interrupted as she walked inside and saw the source of the voice.

She was slim all around, her neck, her arms, her legs. The fingers of her hand were long, but the nails were cut down to the quick. She wore no karate gi, but instead just a simple white blouse and a plaid skirt to her knees. Her day's-old blood red hair was pulled into a feather bun. But everywhere else on her, knives protruded out of pouches and slings like grotesque growths of steel, almost metaphorically encasing herself within them. She pulled one out of its case; a small, but sharp thing with an extra set of blades as a hilt. Holding it with two fingers, almost nonchalantly, as she tilted it to Kikan's direction, who already had her hand on "Child's Play", ready to unsheathe and kill. "Well?"

Her guide stepped up to her, trying to get her to back down from fighting the red/brown head, obviously knowing how strong she was. "Uh, Kikan, that wouldn't be very smart, 'cause Sariyuki here had beat everyone that challenged her, and she's pretty hurtful with the knives; I would know, I've still got a scar on my chest from it-" She cut him off with a curt glare, then turned her head back around and pulled "Child's Play" out of its bandaged sheath. And Kentei noticed, by accident, the barely dark scars that laced her hands as she held her blade before her with one hand. But that wasn't all. What in Japan....? When her weapon glinted in the lights from the dojo ceiling, he could sometimes see-what the hell?-a smear of dark brown with black in its center, a smudge of a line above it. It looked like a blurred eye, and at the angle it was at, it wasn't Kikan's. And it was laughing. Suddenly, it disappeared as quickly as he had saw it.

"Shall I start?"

Sariyuki smiled, not friendly, but threateningly. "Let's."

-SYC
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Sunday, July 23, 2006

Stopping at the top of the stairs, Kikan looked back, seeing if Kentei was still there. He was.

Kentei stood there, back towards her but head turned so he could see her face, and as far as she knew, he was more confused than anything. His eyebrow was arched high up on his forehead, and a corner of his mouth dropping. "What the hell was that for, eh? I haven't even tried anything....yet."

She said the first thing that came to mind. "Don't touch me."

"What?"

"I mean....sorry, force of habit?" He seemed to accept that, at least for the moment even though she could tell that he knew there was more to that strange sentence.

He stepped around her and continued into the second floor. "Slapping or not, I still have to show you around." She merely nodded, and followed.

Stepping around a couple of passed-out otakus on the floor, they gingerly stepped their way around the party, which was still going strong despite half of them had already fallen over from beer. Several times, some boys over in a corner would try to call Kikan's temporary guide over, saying something about the party not being the same without him. Incidentally, they were among the few that weren't stoned. Going up another set of winding wooden stairs, Kentei and Kikan arrived on the third floor, which was nearly as quiet as the first floor.

Going to a door marked "55", he stopped and gave a lazy wave to the door. "This here's your room. You can unpack now or later, I don't care." Kikan rustled the key from her pocket and opened the door.

Room-wise, it was pretty spacious for an apartment. There was a closet and a bathroom, both in blue, on the sides of the room. In the corner, a Japanese futon with a blue cover sat neatly folded. On the desk, there was a small black laptop; probably for her. She simply dumped her pack and left, "Child's Play" still strapped to her curved back. "Why don't you show me around some more?"

"Show you around? Hmmm...." Kentei stratched his head, trying to think of someplace she would find interesting. His dark eyes lit up for a second as he brought his fist into his open palm. "We could visit the dojo; Rangi works as the master instructor there."

Kikan sounded skeptical. "The apartment complex has a dojo?" He shrugged his shoulders.

"It's pretty small, but there's enough room to train. And, seeing as you won't leave that thing," he poked the weapon in question, "in your room, I suppose you'd feel right at home around a bunch of sweating hooligans."

She said nothing again, but indicated that he should lead the way. Why does she have to be so frickin' silent all the time? Makes me nervous.... Nonetheless, he started down the stairs again, bare feet slapping down on the well-polished wood.

-SYC
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Sunday, July 16, 2006

Kentei got up off the sofa, his shirt clinging to his skin. He started off down the wood-planked hall, his feet making quite a bit of noise for bare feet. The quiet girl understood, and followed the boy.

Good Lord, are we going to have to pass the idiots upstairs? It had just occured to Kikan that maybe her room wasn't on the first floor. And sure enough, Mr. Surly went up the flight of stairs next to the kitchen. "Child's Play" glinted in the light from a nearby window, seeming to say that anyone stupid enough to try anything could try the tip of her blade through their kidney.

Halfway up the stairs however, Kentei stopped his little silent tour. Hardly missing a step, Kikan stopped as well. His shaggy-haired head turned around, half-lidded eyes on her.

"....What do you want?" Hands tightened on the hilt of "Child's Play", arms over her head.

He stratched his head slowly, almost as if he forgot what he wanted to ask. Then he stopped suddenly. "Oh yeah." His dark eyes narrowed, almost critisizing her. "Why are you so quiet?"

"Hmmm?"

"You're so...." He twisted his hands around to express his point, "wound-up. Silent. Cautious. WAY TOO MUCH LIKE A FRIGGIN' MUMMY."

Seeing as his accusations were hardly registering with her and that they hardly made sense, Kikan didn't care much. "So what if I am?"

He sighed, closing his eyes and throwing his head back a little. "Man, this is totally messing with my style." Kentei took a step forward, a little too close to Kikan for her liking. One tanned hand went up, and nearly brushed her shoulder. She slapped the hand away due to instinct, instincts that she had learned growing up.

"Whoa, little lady." Rubbing his hand, he looked at her strangely. "Now, what's with that, eh?"

Kikan decided that she'd rather take her chances with the drunks now, and briskly walked past him, up the stairs. As soon as she got beyond him, she allowed her face to heat up. When was the last time that had happened, this....embarassment? Oh yes, when she started screaming that her mother pick her up while they were in the supermarket. Her mother had turned and fixed her three year old daughter with a look that one might have mistaken for screwing up, as she had stuck her tongue out in embarassment. Only when she had picked Kikan up had the little girl realized how tightly tensed her mother's muscles were, as if it toke every iota of strength she had to act cheerful. Her smile: all plastic, no diamonds.

But why did she feel like this?

-SYC
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Friday, July 14, 2006

She took a step inside, vaguely hoping that some drunk otaku wouldn't fall on her feet the second she came in. As it happened to be, luck was with the silent girl and her friend. The first floor was....well, clean. Which wasn't what she didn't expect, based on the tenants upstairs.

Two people were sitting on two of the numerous and huge couches in the receiving hall/room. Whatever retarded business tycoon sponsored and kept this place running treated it very well. Although, why he or she kept this complex open at all was not very clear; at the moment it didn't seem any better than the other apartments in the city except for the fact that no one cared if they were underage or not here. As she padded quietly toward them, head slightly bowed as usual, the much older man noticed her and broke his eyes away from his newspaper.

"Ah...." he said in his gruff voice, looking over her, much like a potential buyer at the cow market. His eyes wandered over to the poster held loosely in her hand, and recognized the logo on top. "So, you'll be wanting a room here, then?" Her head dipped slightly and came back up a little. He smiled and stood up from the deep cushions of the sofa. "I'm Rangi, the apartment manager."

She told his hand in a brief hold, and then slowly pulled out a wad of cash. His slanted eyes widened a bit.

"That's enough for....half a year, roughly. You'll be staying that long then?" His only response was silence and an unbroken stare from her cold eyes.

"Longer, probably." Her voice was surprisingly smooth and silver, for such hardened eyes. Her words rolled off her tongue like they were honeyed, slipping off easily.

He counted the money, then quickly ran to a room and got a key. "Here you go, then. Room and board, kitchen use, you name it." Taking the key from him gently, her eyes moved to the other boy on the sofa.

He was older than her, but not by much. Maybe fourteen, while she herself was thirteen. His shaggy black hair, darker than hers, was thrown around his eyes, which spoke of his laziness and boredom as he listlessly flipped through a magazine. His body was altogether not unexercised, but it was like his skin was thick. He was thin, but the muscles were soft, barely formed. The dark skin just gave him a grumpier feeling. His dark brown eyes looked up and locked with her cold ones, sencing her apparent interest in him all of a sudden.

Rangi noticed this, and being one that likes to whip up some trouble occasionally. "Kentei," he rumbled, "why don't you be her guide for the week? It's summer, and you have nothing to do anyway." His lips naturally curled up in a smirk. "Why don't you introduce yourself, ma'am?"

Silence reigned in the room, until it was effectively cut off by her silvertongue voice. "I am Makashiro ....Kikan."

((Thanks for the comment, Colette. More coming soon.))

-SYC
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Thursday, July 13, 2006

Her parents had never loved her.

She understood that the most when she was outside watching other kids with their own parents, laughing and joking, smiling.

Which brought up another of their characteristics. They had never smiled for her, at her, around her. They never did.

And she understood that as well. She tried many times to make them smile, but nothing ever worked. No funny joke or no silly antic had ever broken their twin masks of cold stone. She had tried, and tried, until eventually, she just gave up. Perhaps that was the reason that she never tried to crack a joke nowadays, even with them long gone. And it would also answer why she never could laugh.

But what she didn't understand was why she was bringing up this particular topic in her mind as she looked up upon her last resort for a home: an apartment complex for 'unique peoples'. It sounded like it had jumped straight off of a n00b's roleplay board, fresh and shiney and full of smilies. Unfortunatly, this was her last resort for a reason: apperantly no one else would shelter a girl with eyes like hers. "Damned devil's eyes, that's what she is!" That had been her uncle that time, if she remembered correctly. Of course, her parents had shushed him, only out of respect for the family name and not in defence of her rock-hard, unfeeling eyes.

Or maybe it was the Nakamaki-esque sword strapped onto her back. Having being granted the name, "Child's Play" by herself, the long-handled, with an even longer blade weapon was and is her only friend, cold to the touch and more responsive than most people when she asked where the subway was. That was what most people noticed when they walked down the streets and saw her sword's handle, promptly dropping their groceries and running away, holding their children to their chest, afraid that just the sight of such a crazy, psychotic, obviously violent girl would damage their innocent brains.

She walked up the steps, soft footsteps almost echoing because of the silent, empty atmosphere around her. Quiet sentinels of the forest, tall trees stood in a random, natural order, split in the middle with the stairs she was climbing at the moment.

She finally made it to the top of the stairs, being as the stairs were tall as some women's shopping carts. She raised a thin eyebrow at the spectacle of the apartment complex, which was evidently some rich man's twisted idea of a joke. Whispering to no one in particular except maybe "Child's Play", she asked quite concisely, "What in the name of....?"

Apparently, the apartment complex had one majority party of people: otakus. Most of them were out on second floor walkway outside the rooms there, having a chugging contest. The phrase 'unique peoples' was a hook for anime and manga fans. Great.

Someone getting drunk on the second floor noticed her quietly standing in front of the complex, and half-shouted, half-drawled, "Hey! Hurry up or all of the-", he hiccuped, "beer, little lady!" He then proceeded to fall unconscious on the outdoor wooden walkway.

Her mind was quickly calculating how badly this could go, just by looking at the place. She winced. Maybe it won't be that bad....

((Continuation coming soon.))

-SYC
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Monday, July 10, 2006

I'm a lazy bum.
Man, I should have done this last week, when the memories were still fresh in my mind. But anyway, AX WAS TEH BLAST!! My only hope is that next year, I pre-register. -_||| The line was a frickin' three-hourer, but it wasn't too bad. We had entertainment, or in other words, checking out the crazy cosplayers. We found several entire Organization XIII's, which scared the frickin' bejeebus out of me. When we actually got out of line, it started to get good. I'm-a definately going again next year, whoo-!
The second day was the best for me, because I found a Naruto gathering! Since I went as teh sexy Haku and my sister was Tenten, it was the best news in a while. The gathering was crazy, the cosplayers were cool (and crazy), and the emcee was the funnest guy I've ever been around (and crazier than a fruit basket). There were we, a whole row of Hakus, with all the Zabuzas in front, when Mr. Emcee with his little smiley-face hitai-ate headband yells, "Dead people, ON THE FLOOR!" We all got down. ^^' The previous Hokages got down too, and a Sasuke and Itachi as well. Since we were supposed to be dead, my eyes were closed, and after a few minutes, I heard hooting so I got up. The Sasuke and Itachi from earlier were doing a YAOI scene for the cameras, OMFG. They knew each other too....anyway, my sister found these two other people to complete her Team Gai, which would be a Neji and Rock Lee, who happened to be a girl. She's so cool and funny, go check her out at www.scarletfire666.deviantart.com. Neji was a martial artist (whoa.), and he actually showed us some moves. They were overall just so nice and cool to us. I hope I run into them next year.

(Next year, you better come Colette. You too, Neko Yugure.
O\ /O
O-(>.<)-O
O/ \O *waving arms* )

-SYC
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Wednesday, June 28, 2006

AX 2006 In 3-4 Days
Whooooooooooooooooo!~ AX is in a couple of days, and I'm just pumped! Going as Haku, and I actually kinda look like him. ^-^ Plus, I found out that a girl in my dance class is going to AX (Anime Expo) with her little brother and older sister. She makes her sister sound like the consummate otaku. She's in Berkeley, makes the best costumes and they all are so frickin' detailed, and she was crazy enough to pay $600 for a Hilton hotel room even though they don't live all that far away. -_||| But, at least I'll have someone to hook up with at the expo.

Speaking of which, anyone going?

Speaking of which 2, WHEN DOES THE EXPO START AND END? Like, times? It doesn't have any times on the website, just registration times. Is it 24/7? (I can see why "Otaku-girl" wanted a hotel room.)

-SYC
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Sunday, June 25, 2006

I'm Back....?
Alright, I'm back from Michigan....not that I told anyone, but OK. It was for my cousin's (or aunt, my mom confused me) wedding, and the rest of the trip was just loafing off. I got to meet up with my cousin, Kenzansu, again. His Xanga: www.xanga.com/kenzansu. He's such a bag o' fun. ^^ And his li'l sister too, but she's a little annoying for a first grader. I had to leave on a flight on MIDNIGHT OF THE DAY SCHOOL LET OUT. Made me all grumpy by the time I actually GOT on the plane. My aunt(Kenzansu's mom) and another aunt picked me and my sibling up, and a good two-hour car trip later, we were at my great-uncle's house. Frickin' huge, or at least the property is. You can stand in the backyard and look in any direction an' that's his backyard. @.@ There was enough roadkill on the trip over to fill several trucks, not to mention most of them were animals I hadn't seen in the wild until then.
And then, two hours after we arrived, we took ANOTHER two-hour trip to drive to the wedding site and hotel. 'Twas by a lake, and hot enough to set ice aflame, literally. We weren't bored, 'cause my cousin had plenty of downloaded games and anime to last us two lifetimes. ^^ I love Air Gear and Black Lagoon now. My cousin (or aunt) was getting married to a....harumph...."Westerner". Crazy relative speak for someone that wasn't Asian. But, he's cool, so yeah. Practice wedding that day, then the real wedding the next day. Hot enough that day to set ice AND fire aflame. >.< Kenzansu, my sib, and I got a hotel room to ourselves, so the two nights we were there, we partied like we were in college and someone was paying for the beer. I watched Comedy Central nonstop while my sib watched Kenzansu play and finish Megaman 6: Falzar. "Git-R-Done!"
The rest of the week was the same thing: watch Kenzansu play a illegal game on his computer or watch anime on his computer. With his help, I am now-a hooked on Air Gear and Black Lagoon. Revy (Black Lagoon) is my Chinese role model~walk loudly and blast anything that twitches with two pistols. Oh, an' don't be forgetting that dead-eye look either. Scares the crap out of anyone that dares looks you in the eye besides your teammates. However, he and his family had to leave the day before we left, so for a day we had nothing to do. I finished a roughly three hundred page book in two hours. -_||| Then the last day was short and we flew back. Rrrr.....

-SYC
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Tuesday, June 13, 2006

It's all good when you get to play a crazy, revenge-seekin' grandma.
I had a similar day to Colette's:
talk show project (which grade I still don't know), science and social science tests and a random day in algebra. First off, the talk show project. Sweet bajeebus, I got to be a crazy, revenge-seekin', loud, emotional grandma. Which rocked 'cause I made the class jump when I walked in Jerry Springer-style and starting yellin' at "Jimmy". 'Tis good to let go once in a while. :D Second, science and history tests: easy. Nothin' else to say. Last, ALGEBRA. It was randomly fun because all of the eighth graders were at Knott's Berry Farm, so our teacher had nothing else for us to do except break some child labor laws and make us drag heavy cardboard boxes of teh algebra fluffiness to her extra car. Then, we went back to the classroom and she gave us Tootsie lollies. *Sucks on hers* And then we played cards, and she left us alone for TWENTY MINUTES and everyone got hyper including me; I was going to bash someone on teh heado with "Teh Giant Toilet Paper Roll of JUSTICE!!" You know, those rolls of cheap paper that every science/language arts/any class with a sink involved has. I guess there's a reason schools are bannin' candy; the sugar makes us dangerous. :D

And Chinese folk dance class was....interesting. (Yes, I do that. I perform.)

-SYC
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Saturday, May 27, 2006

Hello darkness....I'm back.
I had this dance test thingy today, and we were being judged by some lady who could only come practically every five to ten years to the U.S. 'cause she's so busy and in demand. -_||| Sweet muffins, she scared the bejeebus out of all of us. (I think my teacher was scared too.) You'd be dancing, and your lipstick would have already dryed out on your lips, giving you this creepy perpetual smile; she wouldn't even look at you, she'd be too busy pursing her lips AND her eyes at the same time while marking away on some unknown paper. I don't have very good thoughts as to my grades. >.<
And immediately afterward all the usual congratulations, my sister and a classmate starting harping on me about what I did wrong: my feet were in the wrong position, etc.

The sad thing was, I was sweating so hard they couldn't tell I was crying.

I went to the bathroom to change, and no one was around, so I sorta started lettin' it go. I was literally emo by Colette's standards now.
But later, there was this celebration party at BJ's, and everyone was so warm to me, it sorta made up for it. We had pizza, and Pizookies all around, and everyone was hyper|drunk|loud|scaring the crud out of all of the college students around us|reciting random lines from Youtube like Dat Phan.

But now, I don't really think that it totally made up for it, 'cause even still, when I close my eyes, I almost always start to cry silently; where no one can hear, and I couldn't give a da*n if they did.

-SYC
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