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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